My sister, Robbie, was in town visiting, so she came to the class and brought her dog Casey, a small, terrier mix. The kids listened attentively as she told them he is a “service” dog and that she has only 2% of her hearing. He helps her by barking when someone comes to the door, or the phone rings and she does not hear it.
Casey is also a “therapy” dog and she takes him to the hospital every week to be with patients. Robbie told a story about a young, macho man who at first, didn’t think he wanted to have a “therapy” dog come around. Just as they were about to leave, he said, “Well…maybe.” Casey jumped up on the bed and snuggled with him, and his whole attitude changed!
Then the kids told. Davin had a wonderful story that he made up, using character names from a video game. The story was his, though, about a grand ruler and how the stars were made. Sara told about a young girl who went to Disneyland, saw Mickey Mouse and stole Mickey’s drink!
The assignment from last week was to choose one of the Seven Dwarves and show us the character through body, movement, gesture and sound, but no words. The kids all did well, showing us different (but similar) versions of Sleepy, Grumpy, Sneezey, Dopey, Grumpy and Bashful. As each person did theirs, Nan and I helped them expand on how much more they could do to enhance their characterization. Zoey (our star) did ALL seven of them!
Since we were focusing on showing without words, to illustrate how one could use strange or “nonsense” words in a story and still have meaning, I told The Jabberwocky. One of the kids explained exactly what the story/poem was about!
As Robbie was there, and Sara’s story was about Disneyland, I told my story of
Winnie the Pooh and Nana. Forty years ago, my four and five year-old nephews (Robbie’s kids) came to see me in Disney on Parade, a stage show with large costumed characters. I told them they would see Winnie the Pooh, but Uncle Mark would be “..inside Winnie the Pooh.” Two weeks later, when their Nana (my mother) was reading Winnie the Pooh to them, she pointed to Pooh and asked, “Who is that?” Kevin responded, “That’s Uncle Mark.” Nana corrected him and made it clear that it was Winnie the Pooh. Kevin thought for a moment and then clarified for her, “You’re right, Nana, that’s Winnie the Pooh, but Uncle Mark is inside!”
©Mark Goldman 2012
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