Love Grows Here: The Art of Storytelling Centering Belonging andInclusion in Waldorf Early Childhood

Little Shell-a story adapted from Little House by Leslie Wetzonis Woolverton

Once on a sandy beach next to a tranquil and beautiful ocean lay the most beautiful shell emerging at the water’s edge. The shell would gently dance back and forth along the shore.

When the multicolored shell finally rolled back out of the ocean the last time, it snugly rested in the wet sand. The shell now was safe. Soon after, a little rainbow colored sea turtle happily glided by the shell, always curious and thinking about the world. She saw the shell, safe just outside of the water’s edge and it looked as good as an underwater palace. She wanted to move in to make it her home. She began to softly sing to see if anyone was already living there...

“Little shell, little shell who lives in this little shell?

No one lived inside so she moved in and made herself at home...”

Georgia O'keefe Pink Shell with Seaweed, 1937

Seaweed, 1937

A glimpse into a beautiful summer tale as life is told through story. How do we connect stories to our lives and share these stories in the Waldorf Early Childhood setting? Thinking about this story’s introduction of a little shell, community can be built when we add on from one to another. The value of belonging in a community of care is woven into this tale and can nourish the heart, mind and imagination of the young child bringing to life images of goodness, beauty and safety that permeate life, from young to old. And this tale also gives us a window into what it might be like when sometimes we need to be in our own little shell protected from the outside world and other

times we need to expand out of our shell and be in the world to invite others in.

Summer is the best time for story visioning. As we bring the school year to a close and relish in the outbreath of summer, vision with us, the possibilities of creating new stories to enliven the sense of belonging in your class and community. This work of artistic exploration feeds us when we bathe in beautiful language, warming our hearts and providing a window into a world where everyone finds themselves and is at home.

In this class series, we will bring new insights and offer wisdom that honors and embraces diversity into stories for young children. Together we will navigate through the landscape of storytelling and help you develop the capacity to be a confident, passionate storyteller.

We will meet over three days for two and a half hour sessions and work with these concepts together:

Reflection/Research/Values: How do we select stories to share with children ages birth to seven?

Creation/Imagination: Create a seasonal story binder to organize your stories for the four seasons in the year.

This class will work with the Summer and Early Fall Story Library.

Memory/Gesture/Embodiment of Story and living into the story What are the essentials for bringing a sacred story alive where the children are carried by the story bath and are nourished.

We are both very excited to offer this storytelling Lifeway’s workshop and look forward to working with the healing arts of storytelling together soon. We invite you to begin to think about a story that you are holding and want to bring to life. We look forward to offering a Fall and Winter Biography and Storytelling, and a Puppetry series in the Fall as a building upon the learnings

from this course.