Stor e Telling August September 2015: Workshops

The Pearl of the Elephant
by
Edmund Dulac, 1920

I have been remiss in continuing to share my Stor  e Telling articles from 2015. Since the conference proposal season is upon us it seems timely to post these resources from the August September 2015 issue of Storytelling Magazine.

The theme for this issue of Storytelling Magazine issue was workshops and I selected some articles, tutorials and icebreakers to help make your next workshop truly work!

If you have the time or the inclination, I would love it if you would leave a comment and let me know if this information is useful for your work. I read and respond to every comment and love hearing from you!

10 Steps To Plan a Workshop – Tips to help you design your workshop, craft an agenda, select a venue, and more.

http://workshops.350.org/toolkit/planning/

A Workbook On Designing Successful Workshops – A forty-three page booklet with detailed instructions, including work pages, to plan and conduct a successful workshops.
http://www.mcgill.ca/medicinefacdev/files/medicinefacdev/DesigningWorkshopsWorkbook.pdf

Community Toolbox: Conducting a Workshop – Helpful steps and information organize and present your workshop. There are other sections that cover organizing conferences, retreats and teleconferences.

http://ctb.ku.edu/en/table-of-contents/structure/training-and-technical-assistance/workshops/main

How To Run a Good Workshop – Very useful tips in a short article by bestselling author and speaker Scott Berkun.
http://scottberkun.com/2013/run-a-good-workshop/

Planning A Workshop: Organizing and Running a Successful Event
https://www.mindtools.com/pages/article/PlanningAWorkshop.htm

Interested in using Skype to conduct your workshops? Below are three tutorials to help you quickly climb the learning ladder.

4 Things to Help Novice Users of Virtual Meeting Tools: Making Skype Meetings Run Smoothly

https://blog.piirus.ac.uk/2015/04/17/4-things-for-skype-meetings/

Skype Tutorial – Four separate, short tutorials that will help you learn how to use Skype from beginning to end.

http://www.top-windows-tutorials.com/install-skype/

And if you prefer a video tutorial, follow this link.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NMAeAeyh7zM

Some sites offering icebreakers and activities to add conviviality to your workshops.

40 Icebreakers for Small Groups

http://insight.typepad.co.uk/40_icebreakers_for_small_groups.pdf

100 Ways to Energize Groups: Games to Use in Workshops, Meetings and the Community
http://www.aidsalliance.org/assets/000/001/052/ene0502_Energiser_guide_eng_original.pdf?1413808298

Partners for Your Empowerment: Workshop Activities/Icebreakers – A twenty-three page booklet chockfull of exercises.
http://pyeglobal.org/workshop-activities-icebreakers/

September 22 is Elephant Appreciation Day. Here are some stories to celebrate these gentle giants.

And Elephants Did Fly - Southern Orissa, India

http://tinyurl.com/ns7s8bl

The Blind Man and the Elephant - India

http://tinyurl.com/3hf2d

The Elephant and the Dog – Bhutan

http://tinyurl.com/njh9yoy

The Elephant and the Mahout – Magadha/Ancient India

http://tinyurl.com/pjsh6t2

Elephant and Tortoise – South Africa

http://tinyurl.com/nrk9sd6

Fearing the Wind - India

http://spiritoftrees.org/fearing-the-wind

How the Elephant Got His Tusks - Africa

http://tinyurl.com/o4eq88a

The Tortoise and the Elephant - Nigeria

http://tinyurl.com/p252edy

The Tortoise Captures the Elephant - Africa

http://tinyurl.com/k7ax99r

The Elephants Nose – India

http://tinyurl.com/p6y62ly

Story-lovers.com – More elephant information than you can shake your trunk at!

http://tinyurl.com/p78s93e

Curriculum for the classroom to complement Elephant Appreciation Day.

The Blind Man and the Elephant
https://www.peacecorps.gov/educators/resources/blind-men-and-elephant/

The Elephant Sanctuary – Two units focusing on the study of elephants offering teaching and learning activities for children grades K-8 consisting of  72 pages of instruction, background information, charts and graphs, activities, etc.
http://www.elephants.com/curriculum.php

September 7 is Labor Day in the United States. In this blog post I offer you some multicultural folktales about workers around the world to add to your repertoire. You will also find crafts, curriculum resources, and some history of the holiday.

Labor Day: A Tribute to the American Worker

http://tinyurl.com/nmp5dsa

Something Extra

The link below was not part of the original Storytelling Magazine article. However, since then I have written a new blog, Putting Your Proposal Pieces Together; I think it will be a useful complement to the above resources.
http://karenchace.blogspot.com/2016/05/putting-your-proposal-pieces-together.html

Please note, websites change at a rapid pace and weblinks may change or break without notice. I cannot be responsible for redirected or broken links.  At the time of this posting all links were in working order. Thank you for understanding.

Karen Chace 2016 ©

This blog post was researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you wish to link to my blog via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I greatly appreciate your support and personal integrity.

Gentle Giants Among Us - Elephants in Legend and Lore




The Pearl of the Elephant
by Edmund Dulac c. 1920

While researching upcoming holidays I found out that September 22 is Elephant Appreciation Day. The Ashanti of Ghana relate that an elephant is a human chief from the past. When they find a dead elephant in the forest, they give him a proper chief's burial.

The founder of this celebration is Wayne Hepburn, of Mission Media. It began when he received a paperweight of elephants on parade from his daughter as a gift. To learn more about his mission visit his website . You will find information, crafts, lesson plans and more!

My friend's son Jadiel adores elephants and is a frequent visitor at the Buttonwood Park Zoo to visit Emily the Elephant. Recently, I bought him a pink elephant watering can for his small raised garden at my sister's house. When I gave it to him he hugged it close and said, "I love elephants!"

So here is my new blog post for the week, in honor of  sweet, kind and caring Jadiel, and his love for these magnificent creatures. 

  

• The elephant is the largest land mammal in the world.
• Both males and females have tusks, but the males tend to be larger.
• The gestation period for a female elephant is 22 months!
• Other females in the herd are protective toward all newborn elephants.
• Baby elephants are always in the middle of the herd for protection.
• The cool themselves down elephants will pump more blood to its ears and flap them around.
• They have children up to fifty years old.
• The elephant's trunk has over 100,000 muscles units.
• They can live up to 70 years old or more.
 

The above information was found at the following website:

http://elephant.elehost.com/About_Elephants/about_elephants.htm http://www.travelbutlers.com/safari/wildlife-guide/elephant.asp

STORIES

And Elephants Did Fly - Southern Orissa, India

http://www.pitara.com/talespin/folktales/online.asp?story=28

The Blind Man and the Elephant - India

http://www.noogenesis.com/pineapple/blind_men_elephant.html

The Elephant and the Dog – Bhutan

http://www.culturalindia.net/indian-folktales/jataka-tales/elephant-and-dog.html

The Elephant and the Mahout – Magadha/Ancient India

http://www.4to40.com/folktales/index.asp?p=The_Elephant_and_the_Mahout

Elephant and Tortoise – South Africa

http://www.sacred-texts.com/afr/saft/sft31.htm

Fearing the Wind - Indiahttp://spiritoftrees.org/fearing-the-wind
How the Elephant Got His Tusks - Africa

http://www.travelbutlers.com/safari/wildlife-guide/folklore-tusks.asp

The Tortoise and the Elephant - Nigeria

http://allfolktales.com/wafrica/tortoise_and_elephant.php

The Tortoise Captures the Elephant - Africa

http://allfolktales.com/wafrica/tortoise_captures_eleph.php

The Elephants Nose – India

http://www.pitara.com/talespin/folktales/online.asp?story=68

Story-lovers.com – More elephant information than you can shake your trunk at!

http://www.story-lovers.com/listselephantstories.html

BOOKS

The Best Kid’s Booksite – A list of books suitable for children, all featuring elephants.

http://www.thebestkidsbooksite.com/storydetails.cfm?TopicID=67

CURRICULUM

 

The Blind Man and the Elephant
(story above)
http://www.peacecorps.gov/wws/lesson-plans/blind-men-and-elephant/

The Elephant Sanctuary – Two units focusing on the study of elephants offering teaching and learning activities for children grades K-8 consisting of  72 pages of instruction, background information, charts and graphs, activities, etc. http://www.elephants.com/curriculum.php

KidsParkZ – Story starters, elephant shapes and more for young children. http://www.kidsparkz.com/elephants.html

Shape Book from ABC Can Teach

http://www.abcteach.com/free/members/15411.pdf

CRAFTS

Danielle’s Place of Crafts and Activities – Lots of fun, easy to make elephant crafts.

http://daniellesplace.com/html/ElephantCrafts.html

Elephant Puppet – For ages 3 and up. Easy craft.
http://familycrafts.about.com/cs/zoowildanimals/a/blelecraft2.htm

READER’S THEATER 

The White Elephant – A play for acting out the Indian folktale along with curriculum information.

http://www.teachingsolutions.com.au/samplepages/1sp_White_El.pdf.pdf

 

RHYMES, SONGS AND FINGERPLAYS

Animal Rhymes

http://www.preschoolrainbow.org/animal-rhymes.htm

Perpetual Preschool – Elephant Songs

http://www.perpetualpreschool.com/preschool_themes/elephants/elephant_songs.htm

Animal Hokey Pokey – Featuring the elephant and animals galore!

http://www.songsforteaching.com/jackhartmann/animalhokeypokey.htm

POEM

Storyteller Susi Wolf generously shared this poem with me; I share it here with her permission.

THE BLIND ELEPHANT
by Susi Wolf 

There once was a female elephant 
Who was strong and clever. 
But one day 
She became quite ill and even though 
She recovered she was now blind. 
Being a survivor, 
She learned to walk slowly 
Using her trunk as a guide for every step. 
She taught herself how to eat, 
How to cross rivers 
How to be independent 
Within her own world of darkness. 
The other elephants noticed that 
All the young elephants stopped following 
Their own mothers and were now following 
The blind female. 
The herd grumbled among itself 
About why the foolish youngsters would 
Follow a blind creature 
Until an old male spoke, 
“Have you not noticed 
How she moves 
Through the forest with 
Confidence and strength? 
She walks with dignity and determination. 
Who would not follow such a leader?” 
And the other elephants were silent, 
Letting their youngsters go. 

Copyright, © February 2007, Susi Wolf 

Karen Chace 2011 ©

This blog post was researched and compiled by Karen Chace. Permission for private use is granted. Distribution, either electronically or on paper is prohibited without my expressed written permission. For permission please contact me at storybug@aol.com. Of course, if you wish to link to my blog via your website, blog, newsletter, Facebook page or Twitter please feel free to do so; I greatly appreciate your support and personal integrity.