From: "Philip Snow Gang" <pgang@ties-edu.org>
To: <johnseed@ozemail.com.au>
Subject: Council of All Beings
Date: Saturday, 12 May 2001
John,
When we did our COAB in early March one of the participants was
Pauline Matsis, a Montessori teacher. She was also enroled in a
Story-telling course at Teachers College. She reported to us that it
was quite a "packaged" experience. To break the mold she asked her
children to go outside and sit quiet for 30 minutes "observing"
something that caught their attention. They repeated this for several
days.
Then she asked them to "become" what they observed and tell its
story. The following represents seven phenomenal one paragraph
stories of 5 and 6 year olds.
Be well,
Phil
I am a leaf
Once upon a time I was a little leaf on a tree.
When the wind blows, I crackle.The wind blows me and
blows me.
It blew even stronger and then it blew me off the branch ~
was living on.
I glided to the ground and fell into a stream.
The stream was cold.
I floated down the stream for a while.
Gradually I sank to the bottom ofthe stream.
I saw some fish, I saw some eels as well.
They saw me.
They ate me.
I was their food.
Then a person caught me because I was inside the eel.
They ate the eels meat.
I was part of the eels meat, because the eel had eaten me.
I was now a human being.
I was part of a girl.
Her name was Jazz. Jazz could run.
She was able to run because she ate the eel.
The eel had eaten the leaf.
I had given Jazz energy to run.
Story told by...........
Tayla Fielding - Jones
5 years and 9 months
onTuesday 20th March 2001
I am a Pear
Once upon a time I was a teeny weeny pear-about that
sma21.
Before that I was a blossom on a branch.
It rained and rained for three days, then 1 grew into a pear.
I liked the rain on me because it felt nice and juicy.
The water drops fell off the bottom ofme- right here.
I started to feel like I was big enough to fall.
I felt scared.
I was high up , too high.
When the wind started blowing I fell.
I felt like I was going fast through space.
The wind blew me sideways when I was falling, and blew
me into someones hand.
I was a pear in someones hand.
He ate me.
He found seeds in the middle of me.
He took them out of me and grew another pear tree.
Then the same thing happened all over again.
Story told by...
Louis Julian
6 years and 10 months
Told on Tuesday 20th 2001
I am a Cloud
I started off being the ocean.
I evaporated and turned into a small tiny cloud.
It felt very fun to be a cloud, because I could do anything I
wanted.
I got bigger and bigger because other clouds joined onto
me.
The wind blew me around until little bits of cloud drifted
off me.
I change shapes.
Sometimes I look like a dog, sometimes I look like a
dinosaur.
Sometimes I look like a didgemon.
I rain on some things for days.
I rain on plants and maybe on pear trees.
Maybe I rained on Louis.
Maybe I rained on Louis when he was a pear!
Story told by....
Timmy McKay
5 years and 4 months
Told on March the 20th 200~
I am the Sky
I am the sky.
No-one can touch me because I am too high.
High animals can touch me though.
Little animals can’t reach me.
Some animals can’t see me, like moles.
Everyone likes me because I am blue.
Sometimes I am black.
I am blue at day and I am black at night.
I am black at night because everything is dark because the
sun has gone down in the day the sun is up and I am
sometimes blue again.
I go all around the earth.
Once there was no sky or earth.
I don’t think that I started in the ocean.
I think I might have started on the land
When amphibians came.
There were plants on the land.
The plants made oxygen.
Animals could live in places with oxygen.
The oxygen helped to make me!
Story told by Alex Tardi Zuch
6 years and 10 months
I am a Pine Needle Leaf
I am a leaf.
I am a little leaf.
I live on a pine tree.
I am a pine needle leaf.
The rain watered me and the water went up to me from
inside the tree.
I grew.
I am still growing.
The sun shines on me .
I feel hot.
I shine in the sun,
Story told by....
Erasmus Baxter
5 years and 2 months
March 20th 2001
I am a Tree
Once I was a seed.
I grew because someone gave me water.
My roots popped up and then I grew leaves.
Somebody watered me again, and I grew and grew some
more .
When I was big I reached the sky.
A bird made a nest in me.
He stayed for a while and then he flew away.
Story told by.....
Emily Lye
6 years and 2 months
Told on 20th March 2001
I am Bamboo
I am bamboo.
I look kind of yellowish.
I am a soft bamboo leaf.
I move around when the wind blows.
I make a swishing sound.
A soft swishing sound.
I‘m smooth.
I smell like the leaves on other bushes.
The chifdren at school play in me.
When they play hide and go seek they can hide in me.
I like it when the children play in me because it feels warm.
They make noisy happy sounds.
I go swish all around them.
Story told by....
Alex Chapman
5years and 5 months.
Told on March 21st 2001