Day #4 of The October Playbook Challenge is to ‘Tear and Tell a Tale‘. Honestly, I’m not much a storyteller and was doubtful if I can pull this off but gosh, we had a fun giggly night!

We started late at about 8pm, after dinner. I dug out the last few pieces of coloured origami paper from my stationery chest, laid them on the table and told Dana she’s gonna be a storyteller tonight. The criteria was: she had to tell a story with paper shapes she tore. Having just attended her kindy’s Children’s Day Celebration this morning, she promptly declared she’s going to tell a story of a party and she would need to create a paper banner. ‘Not a bad idea’, I thought, ‘Let’s start tearing some triangles’. So I took out a ball of yarn, guided her on folding the triangles, she did the tearing and attached the triangles to the yarn string with sticky tape. She also created two small trees with the triangle shapes and added some grass with random shapes. Within few minutes, our party banner bunting is done!


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The cast comprising of The Prince, Snow White, The Wizard and The Elf…(I think she meant dwarf). |
With the props done, we were about to start the storytelling when Dana asked for a theatre stage. This time, it’s clever Daddy to the rescue! He gave Dana the backdrop she asked for by turning her little Ikea Mammut Table on its sides (how clever!)…With a change in perspective, the stage is all set for our story-teller’s debut! For good measure, we invited few of our cuddly friends to sit in as the audience for the show. Everyone was eager to listen to the tale that will be weaved tonight.
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Our audience for the night! |
So here goes…lights off, Daddy shone the torchlight to give the dramatic effect…
Dana the Emcee enters with a toy microphone in hand and announces: “Ladies and Gentlemen, Boys and Girls, Welcome to the United Square’s Puppet Theatre! Please switch off your handphones or switch it to silent. No photography is allowed. Please enjoy the show!”
After that short announcement, Dana the Author (that’s what she wants to be known), hurriedly crawled behind the stage, knelt down and readied herself to flash the right puppets as the story unfolds…
‘Once upon a time, there was a Wizard…He wanted to throw a party…so he invited his friend, the Elf…When the Elf arrived, he saw the place was nicely decorated with a banner…He said, ‘Wow great! Let’s play a game together. They sang ‘Row Row Row your boat, gently down the stream…merrily merrily merrily merrily, life is but a dream…’. After the song, the Wizard wanted more friends to attend his party so he rang Snow White up…Ring Ring (Phone ringing sounds), Hello, is that Snow White? Come to my ball please? Ok, Snow White replied. The Wizard asked the Elf if he wants to invite other friends to come. The Elf rang the Prince…(Ring Ring)…The Prince came, Snow White came and said, ‘Come! Let’s play!’ They started singing, ‘Ring around the posy, a pocketful of posy…achoo achoo, we all fall down’. And then, there was an ENORMOUS storm! Boom! Boom! Bang! (Sound of the thunders)…Snow White was scared and they all went home but they will come to the ball again next time. THE END’.
P.S The story was actually longer than this but these were all the juicy bits that Mommy could remember after putting the Author to bed…
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Our 1st Readers’ Theater, right at home! |
Dana enjoyed the storytelling so much that we went through it twice (breaking for a short an ice-cream treat intermission in between). She was so enthusiastic that she even added in a ‘surprise segment’ for us at the end where she explained to the ‘audience’ (Daddy, Mommy and the cuddly toys) how the stage, the banner and the puppets were constructed. She came forward to interact with the audience by letting us touch the puppets and allowing us to take photos with the ‘cast’. Talk about showmanship! She has also requested that we leave the props in its original place so she can conduct another round of storytelling for her friends in the estate on Children’s Day tomorrow!
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Look at the sparkle in her eyes! |
Who would have thought that an otherwise mundane Thursday evening can be livened up with few pieces of scrap paper, huge dose of imagination and sporting parent-child participation. We did not set out to create a Readers’ Theater (merely wanted to try out this ‘Tear and Tell a Tale’ activity) but were extremely pleased that the experiment turned into a runaway success! If not for this October Playbook challenge, we would never have seen what a creative child and how animated a storyteller our daughter is.
Once again, this goes to prove that it doesn’t have to cost (or take) much for kids to have fun. Sarah from The Playful Parents have suggested more ideas how to carry out this ‘Tear and Tell a Tale’. Why don’t you join us and capture some giggles too this October?


I love her story! Brilliant imagination. LOL at her pre-story announcement!!!