Читать книгу Making Room for Everyone - Bill Gordh - Страница 9

chapter 1

SETTING UP CHAPEL

Where Shall We Gather?

Keep it simple! The space we use for chapel is a carpeted room in the basement of the school. At one end are a simple altar, a piano, an easel with felt board, and a few stools for musicians and a song leader. Behind the altar is a large woven wall hanging created years ago by school parents that has simple images from Bible stories. There are no chairs in the room. Everyone sits on the carpet facing the altar. Of course we have folding chairs nearby for someone (an elderly person or pregnant mom) who needs a chair. The back half of the room’s walls house books on shelves for the library. Our school is in New York City and though many parents are on their way to work, they happily join the others in their work clothes (generally business suits) with children in their laps sitting together on the rug. The room is simple and handled simply, and it serves us well.

Some schools use the sanctuary of the church. Others use an auditorium, a gymnasium, or a classroom. Each situation creates its own benefits and challenges. Wherever you gather, the size of the space and the size of the children should be taken into consideration. What might at first glance look perfect to an adult may not be the right circumstance for a young child. For example, sitting in pews can make children feel isolated from the others in their class. Many schools solve this by having everyone gather in the chancel, or by having the children gather in the chancel while parents sit in the pews. Some schools use the sanctuary without considering whether another available space in the building might actually serve their purposes better. What at first might seem like a terrible choice (like a carpeted room in a basement) might actually offer just what you need—a simple space to gather with children.

Choosing a setting with few visual or sound distractions (or smells for that matter) will help the children stay focused on the story, the songs, and being together. When there are fewer potential distractions, there will be less need for rules to control behavior. The children become engaged in the story and “follow the rules” without being told. A simple setting is a good place to start.

Who Will Attend?

The immediate answer to this question is simple: children. Of course the chapels are for children and therefore children will attend, but how many and when? How about parents? If the school has a pre-school, kindergarten, and lower grades, do all the students attend together? The answer to all these questions is: It depends. It depends on your particular circumstances.

Our school is devoted to early childhood with over two hundred preschoolers attending. The youngest begin at two-plus and the oldest are five when they leave. We have decided that our chapels will not include our youngest children. The behavioral expectations would not be fair and the stories are too complex. This is not to say that there are no stories in this book appropriate for such young children. Some are and can be shared with the youngest children—with care and a very small group. At our school the children begin chapel in the fall when they are three. We have morning and afternoon sessions, so there are chapels for both. We have three classes of three-year-olds and three classes of four-year-olds in each session, so there is a discreet chapel for each. On Wednesday, we have chapel for fours and on Thursday for threes. The children get to share the experience with two other classes of children as well as their parents. This provides them a larger group experience and makes them more aware of being part of the whole school. Thursday chapel is for the younger group because it gives the children several days in school each week before the chapel gathering with a large group. Additionally, we have told the story already for the Wednesday fours’ group so the story can more easily be tailored for the younger listeners.

The size of many early childhood (including kindergarten) schools make one chapel for the whole group the right choice. In a school with Pre-K through elementary, you probably will want to group the Pre-K and kindergarten (and possibly first grade) together, with a separate chapel program for second through fifth grades. For special occasions, if you have the space, it’s nice to have the whole school gather together.

INVOLVING PARENTS

We invite the parents to bring their children and stay for chapel each week. In fact, it is assumed (and expected) that at least one parent will attend every chapel. This is our community time together and by the end of the year, the parents have spent the majority of their time at school attending chapel with their children. Many parents remark that at first they were not keen on coming to chapel but soon grew to enjoy it. When their children have moved onto another school, numerous parents let us know how they miss the weekly gatherings. The fact that the parents attend chapel dictates when they are held—at the beginning of the session (in our case 8:30 a.m. and 12:30 p.m.). The parents sit with their children on the floor in the chapel. On occasion a parent is unable to attend. When this happens, a grandparent, relative, adult family friend, or caregiver is welcomed.

At many gatherings with children and parents present, I have seen the children sitting together at the front with the parents gathered in the back. The reasoning behind this is that the event is really for children and this seating arrangement makes them the focus. Additionally, it keeps the seated grown-ups from blocking the sight lines for the children. These seem like very good reasons. However, what often happens is this: because the parents are gathered in the back with the focus on the children, they forget that they are still in the same space and often talk with each other. With the added noise from the back, the children are less attentive. However, the most important reason for seating parents with their children is so that parent and child are sharing the chapel experience. Watching your child listening to a story is very different from listening to the story with your child. I have come to believe that each gains from the other’s presence. The parent is able to hear the story through their child and gain an understanding of the story with the child; the child receives support in understanding the story and the spiritual experience itself thorough the parent. It is profound. Singing together and hearing a story that can later be discussed is a shared experience very, very different from one where the children and grown-ups are seated separately (especially in early childhood).

Some parents bring a younger sibling with the child who is attending chapel. The younger child is welcomed as long as the chapel remains relatively peaceful. On occasion, a parent might leave the room with a crying baby. We wait patiently when this occurs. Sometimes the parent chooses to leave the younger one home with a caregiver. The youngest siblings are generally engaged by these stories and the warmth of sitting with family. They look forward to the time when they will attend our school and each can say “my” chapel.

Many childhood chapel programs do not include the parents. Clearly it is not imperative, but it is central to our gatherings. If your chapels do not include the parents, before revamping your whole program or rejecting the entire idea, consider trying out family chapels on several occasions during the year. At the end of the year, you will have a clearer idea what direction you wish to follow.

At chapel we have chapel. We don’t talk about the “What do I do if . . . ” situations. We don’t discuss cell phones. The time is exclusively for singing and stories—experiencing and thinking about them. So how do parents know what to do? To us, it seems like second nature, but that is not how it is. Often parents feel that if their children are engaged, it doesn’t matter what they are doing. They forget that they are being a model for their children. It is not unusual to see a parent lean over and chat with a friend and then tell their own child to stop talking with one of their friends. I consult with a number of congregations about family gatherings/services, and the talking parent is one of the more common problems to tackle. So what do you do? At the beginning of the school year our school holds parent orientations about the upcoming year. As part of this gathering, I have been invited to directly address the parents about chapel and this is a very helpful way to address this issue.

I feel it is very important not to let this opportunity turn into offering a laundry list of do’s and don’ts. That might be the simplest but it does a disfavor to the chapel, the parents, and the children; the behavior asked for is not just about following rules. We know from many years of leading chapels that if parent and child are sitting together, singing, and listening, a profound experience occurs. It is felt in hearts and minds, and parents will want to help enable this to happen. Their modeling behavior for their children makes the shared experience even more personal. This powerful experience is a cumulative one and so is not generally noticed at any one chapel gathering. Guests to our chapel are consistently amazed that such young children are attentive for the entire half hour, but it is not really surprising when you acknowledge the depth of children’s hearts and provide a circumstance for them to feel it too.

During this relative brief chat, I speak of why we sing together, how the songbook is organized, how the parent can support the child by singing themselves, and joining in on any of the gestures that accompany the songs. I point out how the songbook is organized for the non-reading children so that they can choose their songs and the parents can read the words; even with the songbook we are concerned with early literacy and supporting its growth in their child. Then I speak of the stories that we will share and how they have been selected and retold in a way that honors the minds and spirits of the children. These are not simplistic stories because children are more than that; the stories are told simply, using long held early childhood/childhood pedagogy of rhymes, rhythm, and repetition. I talk about some of the Bible stories being repeated each year and how the child hearing a story again (often a year later) helps them realize that they have grown in size and understanding. They may pick up on a different aspect of the story than the year before. I talk about the inclusion of folktales to point out to everyone that we learn from many cultures and that we acknowledge and celebrate these cultures by including stories in our chapel. Using the folktales also implicitly welcomes the children in your midst who are from a variety of places in the world. I also mention that with so many Bible stories featuring men, it is nice to have a lot of stories as well that present a woman (or female) as the lead character. I mention to the parents why I tell stories instead of reading them and how I adjust the telling of the tales according to the age and attention of the listeners.

When the parents become aware of how much goes into each chapel, they more fully understand their own place in its success. They want to help make the experience as engaging as possible for their children. At this point, they are ready to hear and to implement:

 Sit with your child.

 Sing! If they see you singing, they will sing too.

 Join in on the song gestures. They help the children (and adults) remember the sequence of the song.

 Refrain from talking to adult friends during chapel time—if you do, what is your child going to do?

 Before entering the chapel space, make a point of turning off your cell phone in front of your child. This says to them, “This is important time and it’s time just for us.” Your child will hold that feeling close.

 If your child is being disruptive, escort them out of the chapel until they are ready to settle down. You are welcome back.

I am now accustomed to, but still moved by, parents with tears in their eyes on the closing chapel of the year when their child will be going off to the next school. They realize what they have been part of. I have had parents tell me that they changed business meetings in order not to miss chapel with their child. I had a parent who often took an all-night flight, picked up his son, and came to chapel to sing and listen to the stories, but most of all to be part of his child’s spiritual community.

I believe that it is a privilege to lead these chapels and they deserve to be as meaningful as we can make them.

How Often Should We Have Chapel?

We have chapel once a week for the school year. This seems just right as the children grow accustomed to and excited about the weekly gathering. The children come to chapel with their parents at the beginning of the session. In this way it is similar to the child’s experience of the other days, that is, entering school with a parent but with a bonus. The parent gets to stay for a half hour with the child. Following chapel the parent walks the child to the classroom and says “goodbye” at the classroom door like the other days.

HOW LONG?

We have found that a half hour program is perfect. Our time is divided between singing together and listening to a story. Generally we sing for ten or fifteen minutes at the beginning of the chapel. The vast majority arrive for the first sing-along song but this setup allows for children with a parent to arrive during the singing and join right in. At the close of the sing-along, there is a song we sing each time that says “Now it’s time for our story.” We then tell the story. Depending on the story, this segment lasts from five to fifteen minutes, though most of the stories presented in this book can be told in about eight to twelve minutes. You will note there are a number of shorter stories. Sometimes it is fun to share two stories (companion tales) in one session that explore one idea in a couple of ways. We close with a theme-related sing-along. Half an hour is a good length of time for chapel through second grade.

HOW WILL CHILDREN COME AND GO?

At many schools where the parents are not a part of the equation, the children come to chapel with their classes, sit with their group, and leave with their teachers. This allows for the chapel to be held at a convenient time for all the classes.

Having parents at chapel has many benefits, but with young children, saying goodbye is a bit more of a challenge. These children have gotten used to saying goodbye to their parents at the classroom door and getting on with their school day. For a child to have a parent sit and sing and listen to a story at school with them is very special, so separating after chapel can be difficult. At our school, for years the parents said “goodbye” to the children in the chapel space and the young children gathered with their teachers to return to the classroom. This often resulted in at least one crying child while another is still clinging to a parent’s leg. This will happen on occasion no matter what you do. However we have found that by having the parents walk with their children to the classroom following chapel, the children fall into a known routine—saying goodbye at the classroom door. It has made a huge difference. Many of the discoveries we have made seem obvious once they are in place, but not until then. So we continue to observe the children and discuss any problems to see if we can adjust to make the experience more meaningful.

Our Chapel Format

EARLY CHILDHOOD

Our chapels consist of singing and sharing a story. Each chapel we begin by singing songs from our chapel songbook. Following a period of singing (around ten minutes), the school’s director joins us and we announce, “Page one!” Page one provides the lyrics to the song (“Chapel Story Time” found on page 233) we sing at every chapel before the story. The director then welcomes everyone, makes a brief comment about the day’s story, and acknowledges the group that made the artwork that will accompany the story.

The story is then told. Following the story, the director reflects on how it relates to life at school. Then she announces the name and page number of the thematically selected sing-along song. After the entire group sings the song, the director directs the families to accompany their children to their classrooms.

ELEMENTARY

The format offered above is excellent for very young children. This basic outline can be expanded upon for older children (first through fifth grades). Singing together is welcome with any age group; with older children you can sing more verses of songs as well as ones with more complicated music. Often a class will prepare a special song to open or close a chapel. You can expand the story by including the students as singers or actors (or narrators). The refrains are in good keys for young singers. Some schools also have students read a passage from the Bible to accompany the story. At Saint Mark’s School in Altadena, California, students light and extinguish the candles on the altar followed by a moment of silence to appreciate the flame (or smoke). Often the chapel in elementary grades is also a time for announcements. Trinity School in New York City uses chapel as an opportunity to share anecdotes of when students helped someone. Actively involving the children in the chapel gatherings should be a focus of elementary chapels.

The Stories

Stories are the centerpiece of our chapel program. There are many excellent stories that can be used for a chapel gathering. Picture books, folktales, personal stories, and Bible stories can all contribute to a vibrant program. Picture books for young children offer a story they can revisit on their own or with others. Folktales demonstrate to children that we learn from many cultures. Personal stories remind children that everyone has experiences in common and that we learn from events in others’ lives. Bible stories offer a wealth and depth of story that is central to our culture. In Building a Children’s Chapel, the vast majority of stories are Bible stories; for this volume folktales from around the world have been selected and retold especially for chapel gatherings. Refrains have been created for many of the stories; the pacing and intent have been attended to with care for the young listener. As with the Bible stories in the previous volume, the stories have been crafted to be meaningful for quite young, while still exciting for older children. Likewise, the stories chosen are deep and significant and not dumbed down for younger children, but rather told in a way they can be engaged.

PRONOUNS AND CHARACTER NAMES

Pay attention to pronouns in animal stories. There is a tendency in all of us to assign pronouns according to our sense of a particular animal. For instance, without even thinking, a bear or lion will become a “he” and a kitty or bunny will be a “she.” With the story game “Going on a Bear Hunt,” I specifically call the bear a “she” throughout. Sometimes after the story I will lead a storytelling follow-up so the children can express their ideas. I say, “Well after the bear’s picnic, some of the children went home; some went to the movies; some went to the ice cream shop. What do you think the bear did?” Most of the time, even with having said “she” for the bear multiple times, the children will suggest, “He went back to his cave” or “He went to get pizza.” You will note in this volume that sometimes I have assigned “she” to many animals to try and balance the book with important male and female characters. I have also used “it” for animals at times, but find when they are main characters, it is easier for the children to relate to either a “he” or a “she” than an “it.”^* You do not need to try and remember which character is a “he” or “she”; it is more just being aware of how you are using your pronouns. This is part of our goal for Making Room for Everyone—using he/she/it and they and being aware that the Bible stories are heavily weighted toward male main characters.

You will also note that often the main character in a story has a specific name. When I found these stories, sometimes the characters had names and sometimes they were just “the young girl” or “the little boy.” With our focus on and openness to different cultures, it seems like a nice chance to normalize what might at first seem like unusual names. By having these names used in stories, children listening will come to like the names and if some of the listeners know the name, it will reassure them of their special place in our community.

WHY TELL STORIES?

The stories in this book were told many times before they were written down. They were told in many different ways and in a variety of languages. The fact that they have been written down does not mean that they are now in a definitive form. You are reading the stories the way that I tell them. I have often added songs or repeated phrases that were not found in the source material. I like to think that telling these stories aloud releases them back into the oral tradition. This allows them to stay alive and for you to let them grow with your own tellings in ways that suit your style and the young listeners. As a matter of fact you are reading the stories as I wrote them based on my own tellings. Still they are not fixed. When I tell them again they may change, because I discover something else I like and add it in, or a child asks a question that makes me realize I can make the tale clearer. That is even true of the Bible stories and why doing chapel year after year continues to be a learning experience about the stories and how best to tell them.

Once you know them, allow them to change. You will change how you tell them because of the listeners. You will tell the stories differently to a small group than you will for a full congregation. Some groups need to hear a phrase repeated—you can see that in their eyes or in their restlessness. Some groups of children require a more energetic telling, while others like a quieter delivery. It is true that you can be responsive to your listeners when you are reading, but it is easier for you and more meaningful to them if the story is told—everyone listening can feel the presence of the story being told. It exists in the space shared by you and your listeners.

I have tried to write these stories in a “spoken” way, where you can almost hear my voice. I have offered many places of repeated phrases that I know from many years that the children will join in with you. When they join in, they become even more engaged as they are now helping you tell the story. It is in the moment of the telling that you can keep active the interface of teller/listener in most meaningful ways. This is not something that will happen immediately, but will accumulate over many sessions. To further this growth, storytelling tips are offered at the end of each story. They are specific to the tale and often can apply to many of the other stories as well. Together, the storytelling tips become a mini-course on storytelling.

This does not mean that you should wait to tell the stories until you have read and practiced the whole book—not at all. The ideas and storytelling techniques will accumulate and you will become more comfortable and better at it as you go. The children and families will be your biggest fans and will grow along with you. The children sense your presence and will be attentive to it. As you become comfortable you will notice more ways of adjusting your stories to your listeners. To summarize and clarify:

What Telling a Story Offers

 The story exists in the space shared with teller and listener without a book as intermediary.

 Telling the story allows you to be extremely responsive to the children and provides the opportunity to alter the way you’re telling it as you go. Except for the repeated refrains, there is no call to use the same words each time you tell the story. This keeps it fresh and in the moment. Memorizing a story word for word is very time consuming and tends to make you focus on trying to remember the story rather than enjoying telling it. You will find the “Story Skeletons” at the end of each story helpful for retelling rather than memorizing.

 Children sense the “magic” of a story being told and give it attention that they don’t when they know they can pick up the book later and look at it.

 It is hard to deviate from the text of a written story even if you sense that something should be altered. Telling a story is specific to the moment it is told.

GETTING COMFORTABLE TELLING STORIES

Having read the section above, you may agree with the importance of telling the stories but may still feel uncomfortable trying it. Here are some ideas to guide you. When telling stories, use your everyday vocabulary and as you tell more tales you will develop your own personal style. This will let the children listeners feel at home and they will be more attentive because it is you personally telling them the stories. Start slowly!

 Select a story according to the theme you wish to explore/present in your chapel. Read through the story. Read it over a few times. Do not try and memorize it, but rather begin to remember how the story moves, that is, the plot. If there are certain phrases in the story that you really love, read them a few times so they become yours.

 Story Skeletons: Retell the story using the story skeleton offered at the end of the chapter. Are there too many cues? Mark through them. Are there phrases or ideas that you like in the original story not listed in the skeleton? Add them. Are there ideas you think might make your telling more exciting? Add them to your skeleton. By crafting the skeleton, you are making the story yours; by using your own words and expressions, the children will be more responsive. You will note that often the story skeletons are written as phrases rather than complete sentences. This is so that you can use them for quick reference as you are telling with your own words. If you do use the skeleton when you retell the story in chapel, don’t hide it. Place it in front of you where the listeners know that you are using it. If later a child asks you, you can simply say that it helps you remember the story. This in turn shows them that one develops strategies to accomplish something s/he wishes to do.

 Picture Skeletons: The story skeletons in this book are word based. Some tellers find drawings to be more effective. Simple line drawings in a bulleted sequence work very well for some. The artwork described for each story and placed in sequence on a surface near your felt board can also act as a story skeleton. Some storytellers just remember the story as a series of pictures and use their own words each time to recount the story. There is really no right way, just the way you find is helpful to you. The creation and writing down (or drawing) of the skeleton will also help you fix in your mind the sequence of events in the story and what is important in the tale. Save the skeletons. Even if you don’t use them while telling, they will come in handy for quick reference or as a refresher that keeps you from having to re-read the whole story.

 For Elementary: Use the skeleton to devise a “staged” version of a story. The skeleton becomes the base for which the children create dialog. Again as with telling the story, the dialog does not need to be memorized; instead, children should know the idea of what is being said. This keeps the young actors alert and present to the story that they are helping to tell. Their attention then is on the story itself rather than on memorizing lines.

Music and Chapel

Music is central to the chapel program. We begin each chapel singing songs together that we all know or are learning. The music continues its support by providing an underscore for the stories and in the many refrains that are included within the tales. Each gathering closes with a final song in support of the theme of the particular chapel.

When the child and parent walk into chapel, a teacher offers them a songbook. Then they find a place on the carpet to sit. The “band” is sitting up front ready to sing. Sometimes we will sing a song as the families enter. Other times we wait for the first request. The children look through the songbook to find a song they want to sing. They hold up their books to show us what they have chosen. We select one of the songs, give everyone time to find it (fun for the children and helpful for the parents), and we all sing together. When one song has been sung, we look around again at the upraised books and select another song. We choose a number of children each session and try for a range of songs as well. By the end of the school year, everyone who wants to will have suggested a song. Thus our sing-along is led by the children’s choices of songs. In order for the children to become familiar with all the songs in the book, we also select and announce the less familiar songs during the sing-along time.

Secondly, music is used as an integral part of the storytelling. There are simple refrains that occur within many of the stories that help support its theme and make it a more memorable event for the listeners. The refrains also act as structural support for the tale that help the children stay with the story. At our chapels we are fortunate to have a group of musicians accompanying the stories. This adds excitement to the event. Many different instruments can be used to enhance a story, from wood blocks to cello. You can build your chapel’s story-sound with the instruments that you and your colleagues can play. Often there are parent musicians who will happily be part of your program. We have had parents sing and play cello, saxophone, flute, viola, guitar, snare drum, accordion, piano, electric guitar, and harmonica. These were great additions to the chapel and provided extra fun for the children.

How We Organized Our Songbook

Our songbook is divided into five sections that reflect the themes of our chapels: “Bible Story Songs,” “Sharing and Caring,” “Working and Working,” “You and Me,” and “Holiday Songs.” Each section is printed on a different color paper to help the children (non-readers) notice the different sections and to entice them to look through the whole book when searching for a song to suggest. Since these children are pre-readers, there are simple illustrations accompanying each song so they recognize the song and their parents have the lyrics to join in on the singing. There is only one song on each page so it is clear which song has been chosen. Each page is numbered three ways: The numeral (1, 2, 3), the word (one, two, three), and simple repeated symbols (x, xx, xxx) corresponding with the number. All these elements make the book more meaningful to the children and support the development of early literacy. We sometimes say, “Choose a color and then look in that section. Find the picture you like and we’ll sing the song.”

Choosing Songs for Your Songbook

Part Seven offers original songs (lyrics and musical notation) that support the themes of the chapel stories and suggestions for other songs that are generally well known and simple to track down. The contents of your songbook should evolve to reflect the families that make up your school (or church) as well as the larger community. If there are songs that are already popular at your school, include them. These already-favorite songs become an immediate invitation to the children to be part of the singing at chapel. For instance, the song “She’ll Be Coming Round the Mountain” is not a likely choice for a chapel songbook. However, if it’s a song the children all love singing, then it’s worth considering. For that matter, the song celebrates a family getting together and when it’s sung at chapel it will bring out this meaning. The songs presented in this book will not be familiar; you will want to mix them in with a group of songs the children and families already know. These new songs were inspired by ideas and themes important to our communities and once you know them you will see how well they go with your chapel. Over time, you can incorporate more of them. The chapel songbook is an ongoing process.

 The Sing-Along: Singing together is central to the school-as-community experience. Singing songs that celebrate the shared hopes and dreams for world fellowship make the children part of the process. By singing songs together they feel the strength of this community. Singing with family at chapel further enriches this experience for a young child.

 Leading the Sing-Along: Having children help choose the songs makes the chapel communal and moves them toward joining the singing. If you play an instrument to accompany the singing, have someone up front with you to hold up the songbook to show everyone which song to sing.You or another singer up front should use specific gestures with the songs whenever possible. Gestures provide children with a physical relationship to the music and help them remember the sequence of the song. In traditional Bible songs like “Arkie, Arkie,” you can demonstrate the building of the ark by tapping your fists like a hammer and showing rain with wiggly fingers. Create physical accompaniment to other songs with simple hand movements.

 How long should the songs be? A song like “Arkie, Arkie” has six verses. This is a long song for young singers but because of its story and added gestures, the children remember it. With more complicated songs, you may want to sing one verse and the chorus, perhaps beginning with the chorus so that you sing it twice. For elementary-age children, you can sing full songs. Sometimes you will want to sing longer songs because of the content even if the children cannot sing along for the whole tune. By the end of the year, they will probably know them as well.

 Musical range of songs: For young children (3–5 years), it is best to sing songs that are within their range (Middle C–A) though it is good for them to listen to songs with greater ranges. The songs in the song section are written in keys to make them best for young singers. It should be noted that some children have a much wider range at a very young age and others less.

THE MUSICIANS FOR CHAPEL

We are very fortunate at our school to have several musicians who regularly participate in chapel. They accompany the sing-along before and after the story as well as play along as the tale is told. We have banjo (or guitar), another guitar, violin, and a drum (djembe). Additionally, each week there are two classroom teachers who join “the band” for chapel. The teachers take turns throughout the year. One classroom teacher joins us as a singer who holds up the songbook page to show what song we will sing and leads the gestures that accompany the songs. Another teacher adds to the band’s sound as a percussionist. We discuss the possible percussion choices from a variety of instruments (such as claves, ratchet, eggs, castanets) to go along with our story. If there are specific cues, we get together a few minutes early and go over them. Everyone has fun being in the band and it’s great for the children to see their teachers up front being part of the chapel gathering.

Simple accompaniment can be very effective. The “shaky-eggs” that are egg-shaped rattles with tiny beads inside give a wonderful sound to accompany singing or special places in a story. Rhythm sticks, small bells, and tambourines are all easy-to-play and exciting additions to the sounds in chapel. The teacher’s playing is something the young children will watch and hear and be eager to try in the classroom.

All these musicians are not necessary to assure an exhilarating musical experience for the children, but it adds to the community feeling. The willingness of “non-musician musicians” to be part of the process is the first and major ingredient. The music will grow as the musicians play more and more together.

ACCOMPANYING STORIES WITH INSTRUMENTS

Most of the stories in our chapel program are accompanied by music. I play the banjo and set up a bed of music on which to tell the story. This generally means using a picking style that repeats with one or two chords in the rhythm that I am going to tell the story. The other musicians (guitar and djembe) solidify this musical bed and help it move along. We have found that if the music stops at dramatic points, everyone’s attention is drawn to the silence and they listen intently. We also stop the music when one of the characters speaks. It is good to change the rhythm and style of play as the story progresses so that the music continually activates the story rather than becoming a drone. The guest musician can add fun rhythmical touches to the story with the percussion instruments chosen before chapel. Often the “band” joins in singing the refrain in the story. This process may seem daunting for people who do not consider themselves musicians, but start simply and as you get more comfortable add to the elements of the accompaniment.

Children’s Art and Chapel

Many children are visual learners and offering them visual support to the story is important. There are commercial felt board story sets available for just such a purpose. We have found something simpler and, I believe, more meaningful. For all our chapels, children create the artwork. In our school there are six classes that attend chapel and so we present art created by one of the classes to accompany each story. The classes take turns; the first chapel art assignment goes to the oldest class, the second to the next oldest, and so on. We give a sheet with a list of our art needs and a brief retelling of the story to help guide the art-making process. You will find a list of “Art Needs” following each story in this volume. These lists are handed out in advance so that the classroom teacher has time to fit the art-making into the classroom schedule. (Note: the artwork you see in this book was created in this way.)

When the teacher gets the list, she (or he) decides how and when to proceed. Some teachers share a brief telling of the story before the class makes the artwork. Other classes find it fun to make the artwork and let the children find out what will happen with the characters at chapel. As the children in the classes are different ages and have a range of skills, the teachers offer guidance accordingly. Using artwork from the children of various classes provides an opportunity to have an active interface with the classroom, a regular time when we are all working toward the same event. You will notice in the art list that there are (optional) pieces named. The reason for this is to make the creation of the art a flexible situation for the teachers. Sometimes the children are very excited and everyone wants to do something. At other times, the teacher is involved with a number of other projects in the classroom and so fulfilling the minimum needs works better. By including the optional on the list, you are acknowledging the realities of the classroom, something the teachers appreciate.

As the year progresses, the teacher can discuss the artwork with the students and its use with the story. For instance, if children make a very tiny animal for a story, the teacher can ask how it will be seen from the back of the chapel space. The students themselves will become more active determining what kind of art will be most successful for supporting the stories.

Children look forward to the chapel that will feature their artwork. They are more attentive. They tell their parents and point out their contributions. As you get used to telling the tales you can use the specifics of the children’s artwork to accentuate an aspect of the story. In this way, the children become storytellers with you because of the art they made.

Different chapel circumstances provide a chance for creative thinking about the visual arts contribution to the story. I worked with St. Paul’s Episcopal Day School in Kansas City and as we planned a chapel, we knew that with the chapel for Pre-K through fifth grades, artwork on a board was not going to be seen. So for the Creation story, the Pre-K made separate works of art for each of the seven days of creation and mounted them on dowels. As I introduced each day in the story, a Pre-K child held the art up high as they walked down the aisle of the chapel and stood in front. By the time we got to the third day, everyone was turning to see what the art for the next day would look like. By the end of the story, we had seven Pre-K children standing in front of the whole school proudly holding up their art helping to tell the story of Creation. That was a meaningful and memorable event for everyone present.

PRACTICING WITH THE ARTWORK

You will want to have the artwork ahead of time. We use a felt board and the art has rounds of masking tape on the back ready to be placed. Once you have the artwork, go through the story to decide on when and where you want to place the art. Placing the artwork will also help you remember the sequence of the story. If there is a lot of art, you will want to see if it can all be on the board at the same time. If it cannot all fit, you need to figure out what is important to stay in place and which can be moved off the board. Some stories call for the art to be moved to different locations on the board during the story. Some stories will guide you to take the art off and then bring it back. For some stories you may want to have some of the artwork already in place. For instance, if the story has a large house in it, you might have that on the board when everyone enters chapel. That might lead you to begin the story mentioning the house and then adding the other characters.

I often acknowledge the art within the storytelling. “This is a story about a boy named Arjun. Here’s Arjun (the figure of Arjun is put up on the board) and he lived with his mother. Here’s his mother (Arjun’s mother is put up on board).” The stories you find in this book are not written in that style but sometimes it is an excellent way to begin and introduce the art. This is another example of an opportunity for you to discover what works well for you and your gathering. You can use the way you tell the story to highlight the children’s contribution.

You may find putting up the artwork yourself enhances your telling of the story. I play banjo while telling stories, so our director puts up the artwork. Another possibility is to ask a teacher who guided the creation of the art to be your assistant. There are many effective ways to incorporate the children’s work into the story presentation. The children’s wonderful art will make almost any choice turn out all right.

In addition to presetting and adding and taking away artwork, an approach that works well for many tales is to introduce a character and keep it up on the board for the whole story. Each new character is introduced and kept on the board as well, so by the end of the story the board ends up illustrating all that occurred. There’s not a correct way of doing this. In fact you may find that for different stories you approach presenting the art differently, but most likely you will find one or two techniques that support the way you tell stories. You will find what works to accompany the tone of your chapel and your particular style of storytelling. As the presentation of the art becomes the norm for the whole group, the teachers and artwork will also support the evolution of the chapel program.

DISPLAYING ART AFTER THE STORY

We have bulletin boards throughout the school and have begun displaying the chapel art on them following the chapels. We place the artwork on boards near the children’s classrooms so they can stop by, show their families, enjoy their work, and remember the story they helped tell.

* A note about pronouns: as we are teaching and storytelling with young children, some families may be especially sensitive to gender verbiage so we need to keep this in mind as we share with our particular audience.