Great news for everyone! After an exhausting search for the perfect place to hold Building Stories, Kiskadee Coffee Company (18 Main St, Downtown Plymouth) has agreed to sponsor this program! Alot of friends expressed interest in the Children’s Workshop “Building Stories” that I am hosting this summer. Just a reminder – you must register to be part of the workshop, and NO – you do NOT have to be a Plymouth resident to partake in “Building Stories”:

Summer Events 2008:

Big Ryan’s Tall Tales Presents: Building Stories Workshops

“Building stories” are exciting, brand new workshops designed by Big Ryan to nurture and showcase your child’s natural ability to tell stories. Great for children who have a wild imagination – even better for children who have difficulties using their imagination – Big Ryan’s workshop exercises their brains and lets them have fun in the process! Taking place 4 Saturdays over the summer, each week we will develop better skills as storytellers and then the children will have the opportunity to showcase their storytelling abilities for families and friends in a “Story-fest” the following Sunday.

Two age groups are available:

August Session

( 11:00am-12:00pm, Ages 5-7)

(1:00pm-2:00pm, Ages 8-11)

August 2^nd

August 9^th

August 16^th

August 23^rd

Story-fest: August 24^th

To ensure that each child gets the personal attention he/she needs: Each session will enroll only 12 children each!

Enrollment in the four-week session is $45.00. The children will gather for one hour each week par-taking in some storytelling exercises. Then, Big Ryan will spend time with each child individually crafting their very own tale which they will have the opportunity to showcase at the Story-fest!

Thanks for everyone who has asked questions and showed interest. If you have any questions or would like to register please feel free to call me at 508 641 5336 or email me at ryanstalltales@hotmail.com I look forward to hearing from everyone! This will be so much fun!

I love doing family reading nights.  Especially when the families that come are as enthusiastic as the groups  was tonight.  I was able to tell a few stories, sing a few of my favorite songs – like the Fishing Song – but the best, for me, is getting to introduce my favorite books to them.  I chose to read “Shortcut” by Donald Crews.  You might remember it from the very FIRST book of the month on this very website 🙂

This is me reading Shortcut – but I had major Red Eye and tried to fix it – but I think it looks freakier because I have no pupils now…

 

As I was organizing a game of kickball with the after-schoolers today one of the boys, Nate, fell pretty hard.  He got up and held his finger.  He held in crying but instead said “Big Ryan, I think I broke my finger!” 

I asked back “Can you bend it?”

He replied “Yeah…”

“Well, then it’s not broken.”

Yeah, but it’s bleeding!” he said.

I stared at his finger and saw that it was not bleeding.  “Nate your finger’s not bleeding…”

To this, Nate began to squeeze his finger even harder trying to force a drop of blood out and said “Hold on a minute…”

I started out today in Norton where a great group of children from the Head Start program and a bunch of others came and enjoyed “Get Dressed George” and “George and the Ants”.  I thik the Norton Library is one of the prettiest library’s around.  It’s always a pleasure to visit and I will be back again in August!  See you then!

I must tell you that I own three copies of this book.  A hardcover from its very first printing, a paperback that I read from my childhood, and even a copy that has a record of the story being read that I bought at a Library Book Sale.  I love this book for a few reasons but mainly because it is the Caldecott Award Winner from 1976 – the year I was born.  I love the story and even told a version of it at the Bridgewater Library one year.  In my version instead of the mosquito telling lies he tells terrible jokes – and instead of killing the owl with the branch it just gives the owl a good lump.  Rediscover this story tonight!  Go borrow it from your local library – or even buy a copy at the local bookstore!

After you see Iron Man that is!  Man, I can’t wait to see this movie!

 

I have this song called “The Fishing Song” – and it’s all about teaching kids to recycle.  Well, during the song I ask the kids what we should do with all of the trash that we find.  One of the items is a bottle.  A regular old water bottle.  I asked what we should do with that bottle to which one little girl replied:

“Bring it to the machine and they turn it into a nickel!”

This little girl thought that when you put the bottle into the recycling machine – the machine, in turn, turns the bottle into a nickel and then gives it back to you.  How great would a machine like that be?

 

What a great time I had on Saturday!  Two great shows in the morning had two great audiences.  I pulled out all the stops for these shows and had almost every puppet I had with me there to tell a story!

 Nothing was better than the laughs that came out of the families there - cracking up over the fun things that were going on.  The best groups so far in my many years of doing shows for PACE and I thank them for inviting me to be part of the celebration again!

 

I was in Groton Friday with a enthusiastic crowd of little ones.  As the pictures show – even though it was pretty early in the morning – all of the kids were excited and energetic.  They were treated to hearing my favorite Bill Harley tune “Sitting Down to Eat” and then “George and the Ants”.  I also brought out Alligator and Charlie and Edgar made an appearance as well!  The morning was full of surprises and fun!

Congratulations to the Librarian (who couldn’t be there) for the new addition to her family! 

Rabbits and Raindrops is a really great story about a family of rabbits and what they do when the sky opens up and releases rain upon us!  The art is really fun and a great art project that can go along with this book is:  Take a Rabbit shape cut out of cardboard, a white crayon, white paper and blue water color.  Have the children trace the rabbit shape on the white paper with a white crayon.  Then have the children lightly water color the blue paint over it.  Since the crayon is waxy the water color will roll right off!  The Rabbit will appear as if by magic!  Really, try it! 

 

Great news for everyone!  After an exhausting search for the perfect place to hold Building Stories, Kiskadee Coffee Company (18 Main St, Downtown Plymouth) has agreed to sponsor this program!  Alot of friends expressed interest in the Children’s Workshop “Building Stories” that I am hosting this summer.  Just a reminder – you must register to be part of the workshop, and NO – you do NOT have to be a Plymouth resident to partake in “Building Stories”:

Summer Events 2008:

Big Ryan’s Tall Tales Presents: Building Stories Workshops

“Building stories” are exciting, brand new workshops designed by Big Ryan to nurture and showcase your child’s natural ability to tell stories. Great for children who have a wild imagination – even better for children who have difficulties using their imagination – Big Ryan’s workshop exercises their brains and lets them have fun in the process! Taking place 4 Saturdays over the summer, each week we will develop better skills as storytellers and then the children will have the opportunity to showcase their storytelling abilities for families and friends in a “Story-fest” the following Sunday.

Two age groups are available:

August Session

 ( 11:00am-12:00pm, Ages 5-7)

 (1:00pm-2:00pm, Ages 8-11)

August 2^nd

August 9^th

August 16^th

August 23^rd

Story-fest: August 24^th

To ensure that each child gets the personal attention he/she needs: Each session will enroll only 12 children each!

Enrollment in the four-week session is $45.00. The children will gather for one hour each week par-taking in some storytelling exercises. Then, Big Ryan will spend time with each child individually crafting their very own tale which they will have the opportunity to showcase at the Story-fest!

Thanks for everyone who has asked questions and showed interest. If you have any questions or would like to register please feel free to call me at 508 641 5336 or email me at ryanstalltales@hotmail.com I look forward to hearing from everyone! This will be so much fun!