"It's a roaring reading party Pass out the sparkly beads, put on the catchy Mardi Gras tunes, and let the kids CHOMP CHOMP and STOMP STOMP to the infectious beat of Dinosaur Mardi Gras. A perfect read-aloud " -John Schumacher, librarian, founder of MrSchuReads.com, a 2011 Library Journal Mover & Shaker When carnival time rolls around, these big beasts begin to party. Notoceratops swings and swoons, while Spinosaurus taps his blue suede shoes and Brachiosaurus tosses colorful beads to the crowd below. From Lee Circle to Canal Street, follow these crazy creatures as they boogie down the parade route. Clever rhymes and repetition allow children to sing along to that mambo beat. A glossary, along with instructions for creating a shoebox Mardi Gras float, complete this vibrantly-illustrated book of festive fun.

Written by a popular performer and well-known storyteller, this entertaining compendium reveals the secrets for suspenseful storytelling and features 25 spooky stories for audiences of all ages. Experienced performer and artist Dianne de Las Casas coaches students and adults in the art of telling scary stories. The book details de Las Casas's process for becoming a master storyteller and offers ways you can establish trust with audiences, provides tips for telling spooky tales, and shares methods for managing audience participation. Each of the 25 included stories is accompanied by one of various identifying icons, with selections ranging from suspenseful to comical to thrilling-foregoing those stories that contain gore or the grotesque. A brief section explains the benefits of scary stories, such as providing a safe way to exercise and develop our fear system, strengthening our coping skills by desensitizing us to unpleasant things, and building caution for actual frightening situations. Each tale is illustrated with a "scare-o-meter," an icon that rates how frightening the story is and identifies the most appropriate audiences for its telling. Explains the tangible benefits of scary stories to young audiences Includes source notes for story adaptations Provides a list of both print and web story resources Offers stories ranging from suspenseful to comical to thrilling Rates how scary each story is and for which audience it is intended

This unique learning tool lets students read and listen to a popular folktale, analyze the structure through story mapping, and create a board game based on their analysis. Ever-popular, board games can be an ideal teaching tool. In Stories on Board!: Creating Board Games from Favorite Tales, award-winning storyteller Dianne de Las Casas shows how it's done, allowing students to create their own board games with a unique method that integrates learning and fun. With Stories on Board!, students read and listen to popular folktales, analyze the structure of the story through story mapping, and then create a board game based on their analysis, engaging their aural, visual, and tactile skills. The lesson culminates in a Game Day in which the students play each other's games. The technique is a great way to introduce a unit on folktales, covering language arts and social studies. Includes drawings of the various types of board games Provides a glossary of board game terms and a bibliography of folktales

Award-winning storyteller Dianne de Las Casas offers a primer on how to tell a spooky story, with 25 tales organized by age appropriateness and tips on how to effectively tell each tale. In Scared Silly: 25 Tales to Tickle and Thrill, Diane de Las Casas shares the methods and processes she uses in her own performances, workshops, and artist residencies, including how to effectively encourage audience participation. A brief section explains the benefits of sharing scary stories and offers expert opinions on the subject. The 25 stories included here, many of them storytellers' classics, can be used by elementary teachers, librarians, storytellers, and camp counselors. The tales are adapted from around the world and range from suspenseful to comical to thrilling. Each story is annotated with suggestions on how to tell the tale, and each is rated by a "Spook-O-Meter" that illustrates how scary the story is for what audience it's intended. Grades 1-5. Includes 25 stories appropriate for children in grades 1-5 A "Spook-O-Meter" illustrates how scary each story is for what audience it's intended

Targeted for elementary teachers, drama teachers, and teaching artists, "Tangram Tales" contains adapted tales from around the world appropriate for grades 2 through 6. Teachers can tell the stories in the classroom as part of a math unit, or have the students use the scripts provided here to perform the stories using tangrams. In the author's tangram story theater process, students are given roles as storytellers, tangram artists, and chorus members to create grade-level story presentations. Other tangram methods, such as individual student tangram tales and student-created tangram tales, are shared as well. The ways in which tangram tales connect language arts and math is demonstrated. The book includes simple black-and-white spot illustrations for each story, showing the tangram figures that depict the story. A reproducible tangram pattern is provided.

Grades 2-6

De Las Casas has adapted 25 folktales from across Asia for whole classroom use, borrowing a Japanese method of storytelling through pictures. The book offers tips on rehearsing and detailed discussion and background of the Kamishibai processes, and it describes how to coordinate grade-level story presentations. Reproducible tales can be distributed to each member of the class to aide in creating illustrations. The stories in Kamishibai Story Theater will delight children in grades 2-6, enticing them to participate in their own story fest. De Las Casas has adapted 25 folktales from across Asia for whole classroom use, borrowing a Japanese method of storytelling through pictures. Kamishibai theater harkens back to itinerant storytellers (Kamishibai Men) who conveyed their tales by means of illustrated cards slid into slots in wooden stages built on the back of their bicycles. This book includes an introductory chapter describing in detail the methods to use in coaching students in the art of Kamishibai Story Theater. It offers tips on rehearsing, and detailed discussion and background of the Kamishibai processes, and it describes how to coordinate grade-level story presentations. Reproducible tales can be distributed to each member of the class to aide in creating illustrations. Spot illustrations for each tale give students an idea of the flavor of their drawings for that story. The stories in Kamishibai Story Theater will delight children in grades 2-6, enticing them to participate in their own story fest.

Contains 25 story theater scripts appropriate for Grades 2-6. The scripts are designed to accommodate whole-classroom participation. The book also includes a description of the process for working with students to create a school Story Fest. Grades 2-6.

Children love seeing ordinary objects such as paper and string transformed into extraordinary things. This book provides a collection of fun make-and-take tales that enable educators and librarians to take storytelling to a higher level. Can something as simple as a handkerchief, rubber band, paper plate, or piece of rope be used to captivate children during a storytelling? An expansion of the original, best-selling Handmade Tales book, author and storyteller Dianne de Las Casas provides 25 more clever handmade tales appropriate for pre-kindergarten to third grade. By following her clear instructions on incorporating inexpensive props comprised of everyday items into these fun make-and-take stories, educators and librarians can exponentially expand the appeal of their storytime efforts. Including different types of make-and-take stories like string stories, draw and tell, paper tales, and stories that use other simple props, the handmade tales in this book are ideal for preschool and elementary school teachers and librarians of all experience levels. Storytellers, scout leaders, camp counselors, and others who work with groups of young children will also find these make-and-take stories and instructions invaluable.

Using a can't-miss formula, these 26 original stories and accompanying illustrations connect kids' love of animals and drawing with early literacy skills. Award-winning author Dianne de Las Casas has found, through personal experience in sharing handmade tales with teachers and librarians in workshops around the world, that they absolutely love "draw and tell tales." A is for Alligator: Draw and Tell Tales from A-Z puts that knowledge to work to facilitate the teaching of early literacy skills by connecting learning with kids' love of animals and drawing. De Las Casas's innovative tales are accompanied by illustrator Marita Gentry's animal pictures, cleverly incorporating the alphabet to create simple draw and tell tales. A-Z chapters use the entire alphabet as a foundation for drawing animals. Offering a sure way to both entertain and educate, the book is perfect for elementary teachers, librarians, and drama teachers of all levels of expertise, but can also be used by storytellers, scout leaders, camp counselors, and others who work with groups of children. 26 easy, step-by-step stories and simple illustrations 8-12 illustrations per story A glossary that explains all the animals Stories appropriate for grades PreK-3

This book makes the perfect addition to teachers' and librarians' story time selections, containing 25 educational and entertaining tales from around the world as well as proven storytelling techniques. Storytelling predates reading. Storytelling is a vibrant tradition in nearly every culture on earth. And of course, storytelling serves as a perfect medium for educating young children and early readers. Specifically intended for elementary school and public librarians, teachers, storytellers, and camp counselors, Tell Along Tales!: Playing with Participation Stories contains 25 adapted tales from Czechoslovakia, Germany, Ireland, Korea, Norway, Spain, and West Africa that are appropriate for kindergarten through sixth grade students. These stories are linked to standards and are full of fun audience participation, making them perfect for the library, classroom, camp, or home. The book will illuminate the best methods for telling a tale, describe various types of audience participation and how to encourage it, identify elements in a story that provide opportunity for participation, explain when to include audience participation, and share the author's proven audience management techniques. Provides suggestions on storytelling techniques specific to each tale Includes spot drawings that enliven each of the stories A bibliography provides all the details for the story sources

Beginning with wonderful tips and advice about the art and presentation of storytelling, this is a complete resource about how to build a storytelling career. Storytellers come to their careers centered on the stories they love and soon realize that in order to make a living at what they love, they must build a business. This in-depth book tells them just how and what to do in every detail from choosing a sound system to building a Web site to using podcasts and setting up an office. There is even a chapter on how to plan for retirement. Each chapter is a story in itself, beginning and ending with different traditional folktale openings and closings.

This dynamite book merges the yin and yang of storytelling and business. Beginning with wonderful tips and advice about the art and presentation of storytelling, it is a complete resource about how to build a storytelling career. Storytellers come to their careers centered on the stories they love and soon realize that in order to make a living at what they love, they must build a business. This in-depth book tells them just how and what to do in every detail from choosing a sound system to building a Web site to using podcasts and setting up an office. There is even a chapter on how to plan for retirement. Each chapter is a story in itself, beginning and ending with different traditional folktale openings and closings. Resource lists and tried and true ideas abound as the author shares her marketing and business success story throughout.

Targeted at primary school teachers, librarians and drama teachers, Handmade Tales contains 27 stories appropriate for students aged up to 9 years. The book contains original stories and tales from around the world that use hands as an active way to tell the stories. The tales are grouped into five types: String Stories; Draw and Tell; Cut and Tell; Paper Tales (fold and tell, roll books, paper fortune teller tales); Hand Stories and Fingerplays; and Other Handy Tales.This book will appeal to educators and librarians, who will love the projects that they can take and implement in their work with children. Through personal experience in sharing handmade tales with teachers and librarians in workshops, the author will shares innovative tales that incorporate the use of the hands. Easily reproducible, step-by-step instructions accompany simple illustrations and photographs. Teachers and librarians will be able to use this book to reinforce the skills of sequencing and listening to and following directions with their students.