Story Vine:
Story Vine is an activity described in my Textbook “Sometimes Reading is Hard” by Robin Bright. This activity can be found on page 92 of the text. A Story Vine is an art project that teaches students how to retell a story.
“According to Marlene, story vines are based on an old African tradition of
storytelling and can be used to develop language and support reading and writ-
ing across the curriculum. Story vines involve both planning and performance
but are rooted in what students are reading.” (Bright, page 92)
Story Vine is an activity that has been adapted and used across the country by educators! The CBC published an article on teachers creating story vines titled: Winnipeg teachers learn how to weave colourful fabric into stories. The photo below is taken from this article.
My Story Vine:
I created a story vine based on the activity in “Sometimes Reading is Hard” by Robin Bright. My Story Vine was created on the book “The Paper BAg Princess” by Robert Munsch and Michael Martchenko. This is how I would teach a story vine in my class.
Step 1: Chose A Story: To create a story vine you are going to need to pick a book with strong images. You may want to teach the students about symbolism prior to this activity.
Step 2: Read the Story: Read the Story aloud to the class. Make sure to go slow and pause throughout the story so students remain engaged. Take the time to carefully look at all the photos. This may be a great time to do a photo analysis prior to beginning the read. To do this print out copies of pictures from the book and have students predict what they think is happening.
Step 3: Retell the Story As a Class: On a White Board summarize the main points of the story as a class.
Step 4: Model a Story Vine to the Class- Decide on pictures/figurines/drawings to represent the story.
Step 5: Model the Story Vine to the Class-Weave the yarn into a braid. As you go braid the artifacts into the story vine in the order they appear in the story.
Step 6: Model the Story Vine to the Class- Retell the Story using your story vine. Make sure to be expressive and enthusiastic when you demonstrate to your students.
Step 7: Have Students create their own Story Vine! First they will pick out their artifacts, then braid their yarn while adding in the artifacts, finally they will retell the story using their story vine! It is important to first demonstrate the activity so students understand what is being asked of them. I found it can be hard to image what the story vine should look like from verbal or written instructions alone.
What I Learned:
- Take it slow! This does not need to be an activity done in one afternoon. On day one you could do a mini lesson on symbolism so students understand how they can use artifacts to represent a story. Day two you can read the story, do predictions, look at the pictures and summarize the beginning, middle and end. Day 3 you can model the story vine as a class and then Day 4/5 you can give students time to work on their own story Vine. Day 6 you can perform the story vines with retelling!
- Make sure you have lots of materials! I created my story vine using tissue paper wrapped around the artifacts because I did not have any yarn. It is important to preplan to make sure you have everything the students could need. Maybe ask students to bring artifacts from home, do this after reading the story and modelling a story vine but before they create their own. Otherwise start gathering materials early, use other teachers as resources!
- Have fun! This activity is creative and hands on. It is a great activity to do with a buddy class so students can work together.
What Students are learning: BC Curriculum Links
*** These links are connected to the grade 4 curriculum but could be adapted to fit younger or older grades
Collaboration: Have students work in small groups or with a buddy class. Students will learn to work together to create a shared story
Content:
- processes, materials, technologies, tools and techniques to support arts activities (Arts Education) Student can practice using a variety of materials to get the desired results
- symbolism and metaphor create and represent meaning (Arts Education)
- literary elements (ELA) Students will explore the characters, setting, plot, conflict and purpose (beginning, middle, end in younger grades)
Curricular Competencies:
- Create artistic works collaboratively and as an individual using ideas inspired by imagination, inquiry, experimentation, and purposeful play (Arts Education)
- Interpret and communicate ideas using symbolism to express meaning through the arts (Arts Education)
- Use oral storytelling processes (ELA) Students will retell the story
Big Ideas:
Texts can be understood from different perspectives (ELA) Students will all retell the same story. Since all students are unique each retelling will be unique as well.
The Paper Bag Princess:
The paper bag Princess was a great story to use for this activity because it followed a clear sequence of events. The story is easy to follow, has beautiful images in the book to use to inspire students and has a lovely message.
The message: I like that the book defies the expected gender norms for the time it was written. It shows the importance of mental strength when physically outmatched and it teaches children that what is inside your heart is what matters.