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Traveling to Fayetteville, Eastern North Carolina Residency, January 12-16, 2009  For the fourteenth year, Doreyl and I have traveled to Fayetteville, N.C. to conduct workshops and performances within the school system. Funded by the Arts Council of Fayetteville/Cumberland County and the schools, over the years the week-long residencies have included most all grades, with storytelling and spontaneous artwork preformances that played to student body audiences. During a January 2009 residency at Montclair Elementary School in Fayetteville, NC, Doreyl and I had the opportunity to work with some great children in the 4th grade and some excellent teachers. 95 students--four 4th grade classes--were involved. As one of the learning projects, each group wrote a class "story." This was accomplished by choosing a storyline, and then working together orally, brainstorming and writing down the story as we went, covering the basis of a beginning, a middle, a conflict, a climax, and an ending. The whole process, entitled "A Twist of a Tale," began early in the residency, so that by the end of our time together, we brought all the students together to perform their stories for all 4th graders, plus some parents. What a great experience for all of us. The following includes the stories written by and performed by the 4th graders at Montclair Elementary School! “Angel and the Mummy” By Breanna Murray and Mr. Carr’s 4th Grade Class One dry summer day in Egypt I was walking by the pyramids. All of a sudden I heard a moaning sound. I followed the moaning sound three flights below the entrance. First, I came upon a crypt. I lifted the lid. I found a mummy. The mummy was wrapped in old linen. He said, “Please help me!” I asked him what his name was. He said in an old bellowy voice, “King Tut!” Next, I got closer to him and he tried to grab me, but I dodged. I said, “What are you doing?” Then, he said, “Im cursed and I need someone to grab so they can have the curse.” So, I called Angel and he popped out of the sky and came flying down till he got to the pyramid. He said, “What’s the problem?” I said, “The King has a curse.” So, Angel brought King Tut back to the past and he saw what he had done. He saw the people he tortured...He felt pain like the measles. Afterward, King Tut apologized and gave them jewelry. They were happy, and Cleopathra gave King Tut a love potion. I hope they’ll be happy, but I never want to go to Egypt. “The Cure For What Ails You” by Jamie Smith’s 4th Grade Class Golden Eye is the best spy in LA. Golden Eye is like a super spy. The thing about Golden Eye is his name is not just a code name. He has a real golden eye that allows him to hack computers and any other electronic devise to his advantage. Golden Eye is 7.5 feet tall and 33 years old. The government decided to assign a mission to Golden Eye. “Hello, Golden Eye. The president of the US has cancer and needs a cure. The cure is with an African scientist name Dr. JR. He’s a mean, mad, scientist. He won’t give up the cure. You will be going in a week to LA.” Golden Eye sighed and thought to himself, “Just like always, crime never takes time off.” A few hours later Golden Eye spotted Dr. JR at the bus station. So Dr. JR tried to camouflage the formula with a bunch of people. He divided it into parts and gave it to other people to make it harder for the agents to find. Dr. JR then slipped away from Golden Eye. He later attended a scientific conference at a big LA hotel. Dr. JR had the main part of the formula with him in a compartment of his shoe at a conference. Meanwhile, the president of the US put out a poster saying, “I’ve got cancer. If anyone has something to cure it , call me at (180) 624-2641 or (180) 403-6624.” His aides had strongly advised him not to let the news of his cancer out. Two hours later the president got a call from the president of Africa and he said, “I heard about your problem and I have the cure for it. It will only cost you two hundred billion dollars HA! HA! HA!” The president politely declined, saying, “I’ve got a plan B, because your plan stinks!” Golden Eye had been doing some super spying and heard Dr. JR has the formula in the shoes. So to get in there he decides he had to dress up like a waitress and knock Dr. JR out for 30 minutes so he could grab the antidote and leave. To no one’s surprise Golden Eye’s plan worked perfectly. He took his hoes off and saw a door and letters on the bottom of the shoe that said “Code here” and he opened it, and with his Golden Eye was able to get the most important part of the formula to cure the president’s cancer from the mini computer. While Dr. JR was knocked out he mumbled the name of the man who had the other part of the formula. Thinking fast ,Golden Eye quickly found out that the man has to have REALLY clean shoes and got his shoes shined once every hour when attending conferences. Golden Eye pretends to be a shoe shiner and as he shines the man’s shoes, he quickly opens the hidden compartment and takes the formula out. He continues to shine the man’s shoes. The man is unaware of what happened and continued on to the conference. Three days later, he realized what happened, but it’s too late. Meanwhile, Golden Eye put the formula together and gave it to scientists who were astonished. They made tons and tons of the cure and cancer was no more. As an added benefit of being cured, the president had the energy to help American’s homeless to become self-sufficient. The president of Africa was left with nothing, no money and no formula. “Calvin the Class Crocodile” By Ms Graham’s 4th Grade Class The wind blew and the rain lashed against the palm trees in the heaviest tropical storm the Everglades had seen in years. As the waters rose, rivers merged to make new lakes and once dry land was submerged, not to be seen until a long time coming. Calvin was confused, not only had his river spilled its banks but the rest of his fellow crocodiles had seemed to disappear, swept away with the flood water. He moved his extremely heavy body through the roaring waters and went in search of a calmer place to rest. Mrs. Graham’s class was also resting. Their field trip to the Florida zoo had been an exciting adventure already. Not only had they seen spectacular creatures and learnt amazing facts, but the unexpected storm had changed the whole landscape. Their picnic area, on the green shores of a once deep blue lake was now a muddy path that overlooked murky waters. Strangely enough the class was not too concerned. for it still gave them a chance to run around, play ball and explore in a much more “cool” place. Calvin wasn’t so happy. The waters of this new lake were pleasant enough but he had two big problems. The first was a group of school children playing around on the furthest shore of his lake and the second was a raging toothache! It had been his own fault; he just hadn’t been looking where he was going when he had been swimming along with the current. With a sudden thud, Calvin had swam straight into a great floating redwood tree washed up against the river bank. “Ow!!” he yelled as the hardwood trunk smashed against his green scaly head with such a force that his mouth went numb and stars swam in front of his eyes. His front tooth was now cracked and hanging by a thread! A large roar sounded out across the water startling the children and a huge shoal of fish in the lake. The fish, who were unaccustomed to such an enormous creature sharing their waters, were understandably scared and with a dardevil-like jump, they leapt out of the water with a great splash. The next few minutes were complete chaos, not an usual event in Ms Graham’s class, but the cause of this mayhem was nothing like they had seen before. Everything happened at once. Calvin roared and thrashed about, his tail whipping against the water, his gold eyes sparkling and his large cavernous mouth open for the world to see. The frightened fish were in a flap, leaping around and swimming for their lives. With all this commotion Ms Graham and her class ran quickly to the waters edge, unsure of what to do and what was happening, but knowing something very peculiar was going on. On the side of the muddy lake shore, the largest crocodile they had ever seen was floundering along in the shallow waters. Although a little scared, the children approached the crocodile, curious to see a crocodile at close range. The girls pushed forward trying to get the best position whilst the boys hung around at the back trying look cool about the whole situation. Meagan leaned closer in and gazed at the huge mouth that was in front of her. Wow! she thought, I’m glad I don’t have to brush all those sharp teeth! “Oh, his breath smells,” whispered someone not too loud as to offend the crocodile “Gosh, look at the size of his teeth,” screeched someone else. Meagan peered in closer still. “Oh, he has a loose and broken tooth,” she exclaimed. “He must be in real pain. No wonder he was making such a racket!” By now the children were is awe of such a wonderful creature and wanted to help, when out of the bushes bounded a rugged-looking man, dressed in leather and wearing a cowboy hat. Indiana Jones he wasn’t, but he raced into the clearing demanding that the crocodile be given to him! He was Ned Brooks, the local bounty hunter. But the children knew instinctively, despite him looking like a storybook hero, that something wasn’t quite right. The children all crowded around the crocodile, encircling him and formed a barrier between Ned and the creature. Ned lurched forward in a desperate attempt to gain what he thought was rightfully his. “Oh no, you don’t,” the class yelled at the top of their ever loud voices. Ned, who wasn’t accustomed to being shouted at by 20 screaming children, was a little taken aback. “But why,” he demanded, “it’s a fierce creature.” “Oh no,” cried Angel, “he’s hurt!” “He has a toothache,” echoed Ashley. “He needs help,” added Winona. Ned knew that he wasn’t going to win this argument. Life was never that simple. But he’d rather have a quiet life than be badgered by 20 marauding children. They were standing in front of him, yelling like an army of banshees. Ned reached inside his jacket to a holster, his fingers brushing metal. A gasp rippled throughout the group of children. “Don’t shoot him,” they cried. But Ned drew out this silver grey...cell phone...and began to dial. The local zoo personnel were a little curious to the scene that unfolded in front of their eyes, as 20 children, one teacher, Ned Brooks and an enormous crocodile headed towards their veterinarian clinic! But the wondering did not stop there. Many strange glances are now taken at the gates of Montclair Elementary School, for where once before stood the school symbol of a mustang, now stands a large mural of a great green crocodile...with a toothless, lopsided grin! “A Fishy Tail” By Mrs. Wilson’s 4th Grade Class The lights dimmed for the night at Cross Creek Mall in Fayetteville, North Carolina. Everything seemed normal in the toy store. All of the toy animals sat neatly on the shelve. Suddenly, the beautiful black toy mustang fell from the top shelf and crashed on the floor. The fall caused the mustang to come to life. He stood up in the toy store and stated racing around the room. He was fast and furious, and he was having so much fun that he started snorting and galloping up and down the aisles yelling that he was the fastest animal in the toy shop. No other animal could run as fast as he could. In a few seconds, all of the other animals in the shop came to life, and they stood looking at the mustang zoom around the room. “My name is Mike the Mustang, and I am ready to challenge anyone to a race!” All of the animals looked puzzled, but they finally agreed that a race might be a great idea. After all,they were getting a little tired of Mike the Mustang bragging about his super speed. The animals sprinted right out of the store and gathered at the Food Court for the race. One the starting line stood the elephant ready to be a referee for the animal race around the mall. The animals agreed that the elephant would make sure that everyone would follow the rules. All of the animal agreed that the contestants should circle the mall three times. The cheetah, snake, turtle, lion, two goldfish, chimpanzee, chipmunk, rabbit, giraffe, and monkey gave Mike the Mustang a peculiar look as he approached the starting line. He immediately started bragging about winning the race. The contestants started talking among themselves about Mike’s bad attitude, and they decided that he did not deserve to win. He was a bit too confident about winning. The decided that the two smallest animals, the goldfish, really needed to win the race. Now, how could two small goldfish defeat the swift mustang? The animals put their heads together and thought of a plan to help the goldfish win the race. The elephant yelled, ‘Ready? Are you set? Go!” Mike the Mustang shot out of the Food Court like a bullet, leaving all of the other animals in his dust. Suddenly, his hooves started sliding on the heavily waxed floors in the mall. Believe it or not, his legs slipped and he went “Kerplop” on the floor! He tried and tried to get up, but he kept sliding on the waxy floors. Running on the carpeted toy store floors was quite different from the slippery mall floors. As he slipped all over, the animals started to pass him while he lay helpless on the floor. The animals had secretly placed an hydraulic engine on the goldfish’s’ bowl and really super charged that small engine. Why, that engine could accelerate at 140 g’s! Before you could say 1, 2, 3 the super charged goldfish bowl had circled the mall area three times and won the race. Tears streamed down Mike the Mustang’s face when he realized that he had lost. At the finish line,all of the animals were celebrating the goldfish’s victory in the race. The goldfish did a flip and a flop to celebrate their victory. The mustang just sat quietly and watched the celebration with a guilty look on his face. The cheetah came over to him and said, “You’re an okay friend, but you need to learn not to brag so much!” The mustang nodded his head, and all of the other animals came over to Mike and helped him back to the toy store. As the animals entered the store, Mike the Mustang told all of them that he would never brag again. As the animals settled themselves back on the shelves, they agreed to have another race. Mike the Mustang yelled that he wanted some rubber horseshoes for the race. All of the animals laughed as they settled down for the rest of the night. |
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