Activity time: 5 minutes

Materials for Activity

• The story theater

Preparation for Activity

• Set the story theater on a low table, away from where the large group is working.
• Set two child-sized chairs in front of the theater.
• Make sure that the sand is spread smoothly again and that the clay "rock" has been smoothed over so that the writing is not visible.

Description of Activity

While the group works on an arts and crafts project, such as Alternate Activity 3, Making Story Theaters to Take Home, invite children, two at a time, to use the story theater to reenact the story.

Invite each child to manipulate one of the clay figures as they become one of the two characters. Guide, but leave the children to retell the story in their own words, cementing the sequence of events and making a deeper personal connection to the story. In this relaxed form of retelling, children are likely to improvise, further exploring the story and the feelings and choices involved. Although you may hear children make significant changes to the story as they re-enact it, by doing this activity they will retain more of the story and its messages.

Including All Participants

Some children may require modifications to allow them to manipulate the materials in the story theater.

Make sure the large group activity will engage most of the children for enough time so that every individual can have a turn at using the story theater with a partner.