School-Age: Rhythmic Folklore

I wanted to bring a little rhythm for our last full week of Summer Reading, so we learned about rhythmic folklore.


1. Reading
Our book this week was "Bring the Rain to Kapiti Plain" by Verna Aardema. It has a great rhythm to it and is a cumulative folktale, so we learned about both aspects of the story during our discussion.

2. Discussion
We defined folklore, especially the oral storytelling aspect, since "Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain" was initially an oral folktale that had been passed down. 

We then discussed that the book was a cumulative folktale - or a story that builds on top of itself. I brought up examples like the song "The Green Grass Grows All Around" as well as popular book series like "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie."

The next part I discussed with them was about how the book had rhythm to it. We talked about how that means that the book has a beat to it and they shared different ideas of books they have read that have a rhythm.

To add some excitement, I shared a video of Ludacris rapping "Llama Llama Red Pajama" by Anna Dewdney.

I challenged the parents to bring some rhythm to bedtime storytime after that!


3. Craft
Since we read "Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain", I decided that we should make rain sticks. Plus, they make a great rhythm if the kids wanted to use them for that instead. I found many similar crafts online but I used the rainstick craft I found on Gift of Curiosity as inspiration.

I had my teens help with different stations since we had a ton of kids at our programs this week. It definitely helped to have extra hands to help with the craft! I handed out paper towel tubes that had already been sealed with paper on one end. I gave the kids aluminum foil and showed them how to roll it up to stick it in their tubes.

At one station a teen put a tablespoon of rice in the tubes. At the second station we had teens seal up the other end with tape and paper. At the last station, the teens helped wrap the paper towel rolls with a colorful piece of paper. The kids walked to each station and then were able to decorate their rain sticks at the very end.

Here's my very un-decorated example:

Notes: I had a great time at this program as well! The video of Ludacris rapping "Llama Llama Red Pajama" was a big hit! It was a great last full week of Summer Reading programs! Only a few more days left!