A Rose By Any Other Name...Celebrating Red Rose Day

It Was the Time of Roses

David Murray, 1914

"But he who dares not grasp the thorn, should never crave the rose.” -  Anne Brontë

June 12 Red Rose Day so below is a bit of history and some stories to share. You will also find stories from England, Romania, Italy, Portugal and other countries, easy crafts to share with the children, and curriculum to make your classrooms bloom with delight!

A BRIEF HISTORY OF ROSES

• Roses are a symbol of love, beauty, war and politics.
• According to fossil evidence, roses are 35 million years old.
• There are 150 species of roses throughout the Northern Hemisphere.
• Cultivation of roses began in China 5000 years ago.
• During the Roman period roses were grown extensively in the Middle East.
• Nero dumped tons of rose petals on his dinner guests.
• Cleopatra had her living quarters filled with the petals of roses so that when Marc Antony met her, he would long remember her every time he smelt a rose.
• Rose hips have been found in Europe and petrified rose wreaths have been unearthed from ancient Egyptian tombs.
• The first known paintings of a rose are actually frescoes. The earliest example was discovered in Crete around 1600 B.C.

Above information found at:

http://urbanext.illinois.edu/roses/history.cfm http://www.theflowerexpert.com/content/miscellaneous/flowersandhistory/history-of-roses

STORIES

The Blue Rose – China

http://www.civprod.com/storylady/stories/TheBlueRose.htm

The Daughter of the Rose – Romania

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/rft/rft06.htm

The Elf of the Rose – Hans Christian Andersen

http://hca.gilead.org.il/elf_rose.html

Legend of the Cherokee Rose – Native American
http://www.firstpeople.us/FP-Html-Legends/LegendOfTheCherokeeRose-Cherokee.html 

The Legend of the Christmas Rose - Italy

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=steedman&book=italy&story=rose

Little Wild-Rose – Romania
http://www.worldoftales.com/European_folktales/Romanian_folktale_9.html

The Maiden with the Rose on Her Forehead - Portugal

http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/books/portugual/pedroso/maidenwithrose.html

The Nightingale and the Rose – Oscar Wilde

http://www.artpassions.net/wilde/nightingale.html

The Rose - Grimm

http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm203.html

The Rose Beauty – Turkey

http://www.sacred-texts.com/asia/ftft/ftft07.htm

The Rose Tree – England

http://www.worldoftales.com/European_folktales/English_folktale_3.html

The Snail and the Rose Tree – Hans Christian Andersen

http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=rhead&book=andersen&story=snail

The Three Roses – Czechoslovakia

http://www.sacred-texts.com/neu/kog/kog13.htm

CRAFTS

Enchanted Learning – This site offers a wide variety of flower crafts along with word searches and printable classroom activities.

http://www.enchantedlearning.com/crafts/flowers/

Rose Tissue Paper Flowers

http://www.littlemisscraft.com/Rose_Tissue_Paper_Flower-10_1

CURRICULUM

Teacher’s Guide – Lessons plans, printouts, white board activities, coloring books and more. Your classroom will be blooming in no time at all!

http://www.theteachersguide.com/plantsflowers.htm

ADDITIONAL RESOURCE

Birds, Bees and Butterflies - Since flowers attract our winged friends, here is a previous blog post, filled with fun songs and fingerplays for the wee ones.

http://www.theteachersguide.com/plantsflowers.htm

Karen Chace 2014 ©

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.

Storytelling: Putting the 'Fun' in the Fundamentals!



Ring Around the Rosie
by Edward Henry Potthast,1910-1915

Since 2011 I have taught a storytelling residency at a private school in Massachusetts. The staff and students understand the value of storytelling and always make me feel welcome, respected and appreciated, but this year it didn’t end with the student’s final performance.

Last week I was delighted to find an envelope in my mailbox filled with thoughtful and creative thank you cards from all 30 students. I thought I would share some of the beautiful artwork, illustrating their stories, along with their impressions of the time we spent together.





Some comments from the student's thank you cards:

• “I became less nervous and more confident in myself.”
• “Thank you for helping me get over my stage fright.”
•  “Thank you for teaching me how to interact with the audience.”
• “You taught me a lot. This will help me in life.”
• “I like how your ‘I wonder if’s’ were never demanding and always  kind.
• “Thank you for helping me with voice and gestures. I became so much better at performing.”
• “You helped me connect with my story and learn more about it.”
• “I really enjoyed the experience!”
• “I loved the bouncing ball game. It helped me focus on my story.”
• “Storytelling was my favorite unit and you are my favorite teacher!”
• “Storytelling was the best part of my year.”
• “I really liked how you used games to help us with the performance.”
•  “I wish we could have storytelling every year!”
• “I had so much fun at storytelling!”
•  “If I had three wishes I would wish you would come back to school.”

As part of my residency we learn the fundamentals of presentation, eye contact, body language, gestures, vocal intonation, etc. However, I also believe that learning a story is a whole body experience and children need to move! I use a mix of written and interactive activities to help them fully connect with their stories and characters, and I end every class with a storytelling game. Finish with fun and they will always come back for more!

Every storyteller knows that our work complements the Common Core Standards in many areas, including oral presentation, writing, and reading, but it does so much more. Storytelling creates confidence, camaraderie and a willingness to play, things that can’t be measured on standardized tests; it puts the fun in the fundamentals!

And here's some fun for you! If you can guess the titles of three of the four stories pictured in the above student artwork I will send you a copy of my new book, Story by Story: Creating a Student Storytelling Troupe and Making the Common Core Exciting , which offers twelve original storytelling activities. The first one to comment on the blog with three correct answers wins! Hint: One of the titles is embedded in one of the student's comments above.

IMPORTANT: Please note, your comment won’t be posted on the blog until I approve it for publication; this cuts down on spam. However, I will know who responds with the correct answer first by the notification in my email.

Karen Chace 2014 ©

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.