Sleepytime Storytelling

In this guided look at storytelling, kids can create their own tales to help them fall asleep. In a fun journey with storyteller A. LaFaye, kids can learn how to settle into bed and turn a tale of their after a splashing fun tale told. This example may inspire them to create wonderful tales that take them straight to dreamland and fuel their imagination for the next day.

Transcript

Hello,

This is Alexandria LaFay of Silvanocity.

Are you getting ready to settle into bed?

Do you have the dance about wiggles and maybe a little trouble falling asleep?

Maybe I could help.

Do you have a good imagination?

Or maybe your imagination needs a little bit of stretching out.

To see how well it works,

Let's give it a try.

But first,

We have got to get ready for bed.

Do you have your pjs on?

Are they comfy and cozy?

I hope they are.

So,

To start off with,

Take a great big breath.

Are you ready?

Is your breath bigger than mine?

Let's give it a try.

Deep breath in.

Slow breath out.

Deep slow breath in.

Slow breath out.

Tell the truth.

Whose breath was bigger?

Mine or yours?

Huh.

Are you sure?

Alright.

So,

We got our cozy pj's.

We've taken good deep breaths.

Now we gotta kinda make our own little spot in the bed.

You know,

Nestle in,

Fluff up the pillow,

Put the blankets just where we need them.

Do you happen to have a friend who joins you in bed?

Maybe someone a little fluffy?

Maybe they have ears or paws?

You better find them and tuck them in well because we've got some stories coming.

Maybe you have stories read to you at night and you say,

Please,

Just one more?

Well,

Who says that story has to be read to you?

Couldn't you make up one of your own?

Oh,

Come on.

I know you can do it.

How do I know that?

I do it all the time.

Seriously,

I do.

Go ahead.

Look me up.

I've written a few stories,

Told even more.

So,

How exactly are you supposed to tell a story anytime,

Anywhere,

With just three words?

That's something I can do.

Can you?

Oh,

Come on.

You competed with me for the biggest breath.

You can compete with me for good storytelling.

I bet you can do it.

All right.

So,

Number one,

To tell a good story,

You really only need three things.

One,

A character.

Two,

A problem.

Three,

Your imagination.

And if you want,

You could add three little words.

Those words could be anything.

Button,

Mushroom,

Tree.

Four,

Tree,

For example.

So,

If we're going to do something with this button,

A mushroom,

And a tree,

Then we need something else.

What was that that we needed again?

Oh,

Right.

A character.

So,

Should our character be tall or short or skinny or plump?

Human or animal or magical creature?

Not really sure.

Let me think about that a minute.

What if it's a short little fellow with a longish pointyish sort of hat that's a little slumped over and hangs down in front of one of his eyes?

And he's got sloppy little boots because they're not really his boots.

He lost his boots when he went rock skipping in the creek about a week ago.

So,

He's stuck in his brother's old boots,

Which pretty much means they're worn out and have a hole in the bottom.

Yeah.

So,

What's this little fellow's name again with the long kind of crushed hat that folds over in front of his eye?

Um,

Jerome.

Yeah,

His name is Jerome.

And what does Jerome need again?

Oh,

It's the character.

Oh,

I know.

A problem.

Well,

We already know he's got the problem with his boots,

But that seems like kind of a small problem.

So,

Maybe he needs a bigger one.

What if his mother told him never to go to the creek by himself again?

Because last week he went there and lost his shoes.

So,

He was supposed to bring his big brother.

And you know,

He could have done that.

But his big brother was reading a book underneath the mushroom again.

Dude does it all the time.

Huh.

Well,

Jerome would rather be skipping rocks at the river or maybe trying to catch a fish with his bare hands.

I'm not going to tell you to try it.

It's kind of fun and funny.

The fish are slick and slippery and really hard to catch.

And you've got to be careful because if you try that and you use your boots,

Well,

They could fall off and flow down the creek.

And then you got to tell your mother what happened.

And you don't want to tell her you're trying to catch a fish because you're not supposed to do that.

So,

You tell her that you lost your shoes because you took them off so they wouldn't get wet and left them on the side of the creek so you could skip rocks.

Oops.

Jerome just confessed to telling a fib to his mother.

Hmm.

That'll certainly get you into trouble.

I don't recommend it.

Just like I don't recommend going to the creek all alone when your mother told you not to.

And if you do it,

Whatever you do,

Don't lose your brother's old boots because then you'll be stuck in your bare feet.

Even worse,

Don't go trying to catch fish with your bare hands because if you do,

You could slip and fall and land flat on your nose.

Yep,

Yep,

Yep.

Whatever you do,

Don't do that because you know what?

That's exactly what Jerome did.

So,

There he was in the creek,

Sopping wet,

Including his hat,

Which was now way too heavy for his head.

He lost his brother's boots and his nose hurt like you wouldn't believe.

So,

He rolled out his hat,

Stuffed it in his back pocket,

And tried to think of a way to find his brother's boots.

Hmm.

Hey,

Well,

You know what?

If you're in a stream and your boots fall off,

They always float downstream.

So,

What he had to do was go faster than the water downstream,

Which,

You know,

Seems like a good idea until you actually try it and realize just how hard it is to run faster than water when you've got no boots.

You jump,

You hit rocks and sticks and something squishy that could have been a mushroom or a frog or some other thing you really don't want to look at.

So,

You just keep running because after all,

You can't go home without boots again.

And the other thing is,

Is if,

You know,

You run far enough,

Maybe you'll dry off a little so your mother doesn't realize that you fell into the creek while trying to catch fish when she told you not to go there in the first place.

So,

Jerome kept running and running and running and tripping and falling and getting a bit too muddy.

But he went up a hill,

Down a hill,

Up a hill,

Down a hill,

Up another hill,

Down another hill,

And discovered,

Holy cow,

You know what is at the base of that creek?

A pond.

And you know what is in that pond?

A beaver dam.

That's right,

A dam built by beavers.

And,

Um,

You know what happens with beaver dams?

Well,

Stuff that comes down the creek kind of gets piled up against that beaver dam.

And did you know beavers are strong enough to are strong enough to bzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz Very angry beaver.

Again,

Jerome didn't think.

He just ran right on it.

And you know what?

I can't say something because I don't know about you,

But I don't want to face off with no tree chewing beaver.

How about you?

He ran so fast and so hard,

He didn't even think until he was panting and huffing and all red in the face with churned up bloody feet from smashing on rocks and smashing on twigs and running away from angry beavers.

Right up to his very own mother who wanted to know what?

Where are your boots?

And what has you running cross country like you've got a bear on your tail?

Well,

It's a bee animal,

But not really a bear.

That's when his brother found out that he was running away from a beaver and his brother stuck out his teeth.

Oh,

Baby.

So for the next three weeks,

He got teased about being a beaver baby and not having any boots.

So Jerome said to his big brother,

Oh yeah?

Well,

How are you going to get the boots if you're so big and brave?

You see,

His older brother had been doing some breeding and he had read a story about a kid who threw a ball over the fence into his neighbor's yard and the neighbor had a big bow bow bow bow barking dog,

But he still wanted to get his ball back.

It was one of those cool soccer balls that was all leathery and stitched and everything.

And he'd saved all his allowance to be able to get that ball that went over that fence.

And so he needed a way to get that ball back without dealing with that bow bow bow bow barking dog.

And you know what he used?

A fishing pole.

That's right.

He cast that pole over that net,

Caught that ball with a hook and shpook,

Yanked that ball back.

And so you know what those two boot missing brothers did?

They went down to that beaver dam with their fishing poles and they fished for boots.

Caught all four of them.

They went back home wearing their very own boots with a damn flapping beaver dashing its teeth at them.

But they didn't care because they had their boots,

Their fishing poles.

And you know what?

On the way home they even stopped off to fish from the pier.

And they may not have used their hands,

But they caught themselves some fish for dinner.

And that's how you tell a story with just three words.

Now you may not believe me.

Or maybe you do.

I made that story up in the moment as I was sitting here talking to you.

I swear I didn't know even one word of that story before I started talking to you.

All I did was I had a character,

I made up a problem,

I chose three words,

And I set off on an adventure with my character.

What do you think?

Can you do it?

I bet you can.

Let's start.

Come up with a character.

They could be a unicorn.

They could be a plucky little puppy.

They could be a person.

They could be small or big.

I'll give you a moment to come up with your character.

Don't forget a few cool details.

Maybe it's the color of their eyes.

Maybe it's something fun or fluffy or funny that they wear.

Maybe it's something they eat or hate to eat.

Something they love.

Something they're afraid of.

It's the details that make people interesting,

Don't you think?

For instance,

I once had 22 tree frogs and 7 salamanders.

That'd be kind of cool,

Wouldn't it?

So,

Think up your character.

Who are they?

What's their name?

Ooh,

I like it.

Alright,

So now,

What problem does your character face?

Do they have to fall asleep when something exciting is happening tomorrow?

Is it their birthday and no one remembered?

Did they lose something that belonged to a friend?

Did they tell a lie?

Uh-oh,

That's never a good idea.

Do they have a test tomorrow and they forgot to study?

Did they get stuck inside their favorite storybook?

Ooh,

I'll give you a minute to think about it.

What problem did you come up with?

Oh,

That's a good one.

Yeah,

I like it.

Okay,

So we've got our character and our problem.

Now,

Can you come up with three words?

Molasses,

Mud puddles,

And magpies.

Magpies are really cool because they learn the songs of all the other birds so they can sound like any bird they want to.

They're kind of like a songbird parrot.

So,

That's three possible words.

Can you come up with three words?

Sometimes it can be tough.

Ooh,

Yeah,

I like them.

So,

We've got a character,

We've got a problem,

We've got three words.

And you know what?

If you forget any of these things,

It's okay.

Just make it up as you go along.

Because that's the fun part of making up a story as you're trying to fall asleep.

You just make it up as you go along.

And maybe sometimes you might even get too tired to finish the story.

But that's okay.

Whether you tell the story or you just snuggle in and drift off to sleep,

You've learned that you can tell stories just as well as anybody else.

Because you can replay this story again on another night and try again and again until you get as good at telling stories as A.

LeFay of Silvanocity.

I hope you've enjoyed this little adventure with me.

Be well.

Until next time,

Nighty night.