MLIS 7420Fall 2009

Mary Helen Copeland

Tall Tales

Group Presented To: 8 & 9 year oldsTarget Age: 7 – 10 / 2nd – 4th grade

Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People’s Ears

A West African Tale

By Verna AardemaPictures by Leo and Diana Dillion

The Dial Press,New York 1975

The children knew I was going to tell them a story. To get them settled and in their place, I held the scarf up to cover

my face. Every time, when they saw that curtain, they quieted and waited to hear the tale.

One morning . . .

Then he stuck two sticks in his ears and went off, mek, mek, mek, through the reeds.

“I’m afraid he is plotting some mischiefagainst me!”

He flew into the forest crying kaa, kaa, kaa!

It broke an fell on an owl’s nest, killing oneof the owlets.

Now it was Mother Owl who woke the sun . . .

They came and sat down, pem, pem, pem,around the council fire.

That big bird came flapping up.

The King nodded his head and said tothe council:

“Oh King,” said the rabbit, “it waspython’s fault.”

All the animals laughed . . .

King Lion pulled out the sticks, purup, purup.

“Punish the mosquito! Punish the mosquito!”

KPOA!

The moral of this tale is; Don’t tell tales and always get the whole story before you get angry with your friends.

Materials

Brown Paper SackBrown PaperScissorsTapeMarkersStringImaginationCreativity

Working hard on our puppets.

The boys cut stick shapes out of the brown construction paper and taped these onto the back of the brown bag.

Cutting, Taping & Coloring

They tied string to the sticks coming out of the ears.Then they frayed the end of the string to represent the mosquito buzzing.

Adding a few final touches.

They used only blue, green, yellow and orange markers to draw patterns on the brown bag for the iguana skin.

Ready for the puppet show!

Reflections• I practiced with many different age groups. I’m

really glad I did. • 7-10 year olds were the most successful age

group.• The Kindergartener were too sad about the

owlet dying, but the First thru Third Graders were fine and enjoyed the tale.

• I hot glued two paint sticks into the scarf to help create the illusion of the sticks in the iguana’s ears, the snakes head, the monkey’s tail, the rabbit ears and they really helped with the crow’s flapping wings.

• Each time I practiced this story with the prop, I got more confident about getting into the animal characters.

Special Thanks To:

• Kevin Mitchell who took pictures.

• All the Teachers who let me drop in and practice.

• My Scouts: Ethan, Sammy, Turner, Max, Ian, Jeremy, Ted

• My kids for listening to the story many times.

• Mrs. Gardner, the school librarian, for letting me keep book for many weeks