for educators, parents, or family groups:
- Stories to Play With: PLAY your way into storytelling.
- Beginners of all ages how toys, games, and props can illustrate the story, fascinate their listeners, and divert attention from a nervous novice. Japanese educator/storyteller Hiroko Fujita and Oklahoma storyteller Fran Stallings will demonstrate traditional folk stories and games from Japan and other cultures. Join in the stories, learn songs & games, and try out the puppets, dolls, and pictures. Then make your own toys and props, using simple and recycled materials.
- Toys from Trash: making traditional toys from nontraditional materials.
- Fujita-san grew up with homemade bamboo, wood and straw toys. Now she makes them from milk cartons, plastic straws, and other recycled materials. Learn to make and use them in traditional games, puppet plays, and juggling skills.
- Stories and Games for Bi-lingual and Foreign Language Education
- The games and stories of young children provide painless language exercise in which new vocabulary can be introduced memorably, in a playful but meaningful context. Experience this yourself with an unfamiliar language (Japanese!), then learn to adapt these activities to the language you teach.
- Traditional Japanese Children's Songs: How to Make and Play the "Fuji-Flute"
- Learn to sing simple warabe-uta (traditional children's songs, like our Mother Goose). Then learn how to make and play Mrs. Fujita's invention, a tiny 5 note flute, from a film canister!
- Why You Should Be Passing Your Childhood Traditions Along
- Face-to-face telling of old tales and the sharing of games between generations bonds family members together. Furthermore, the verbal interaction is a priceless "pre-literacy" exercise, getting youngsters eager and ready to learn to read. [Fujita-san lectures on this subject to parent and grandparent groups throughout Japan.]
Other topics are available. Inquire about custom designed workshops.
