Grades:  K-6

Length of Program: 

• 60 minutes

• Full day includes one performance plus four 30-minute workshops

Minimum number of students per program:  None

Maximum number of students per program: No maximum on performance size; workshops are for 1 or 2 classrooms only

Equipment needed:  Two large tables and lavalier microphone (or hookup to your sound system)

Set up and take down time:  One hour for each 

Description:

Master storyteller, Lonna Pierce, comes in costume and brings period artifacts of the late 1800s.  She re-tells stories from the Little House on the Prairie series, tying in history, geography, cooking, dance, and music. Students will discover what it was to be a child 100 years ago!  Workshops can be a one-room schoolhouse simulation or in-depth discovery of artifacts, animal pelts, and the historical context of the pioneer era with New York State connections.  

Performer provides a comprehensive historical information/activities packet for students' and teachers' pre and post connections

Common Core Learning Standards: English Language Arts:

• Responding to literature

• Presentation of knowledge of ideas

• Vocabulary acquisition and use

Learning Standards for Social Studies:

• History of the US and NY

• Geography

Learning Standards for the Arts:

• Performing

• Responding

• Connecting

Categories:  Author, English Language Arts, Museums/Exhibits, Storytelling

Cost:                             

• One performance only - $1,000

• Full day (1 performance plus 4 workshops) - $1,400

• Full day (1 performances plus 4 workshops) - $1,200 per day if scheduling more than one day in one school

Grades: K-5

Length of program:

• 45 minutes per performance

• Full day includes 1 performance plus up to 4 30-minute classroom workshops or two performances plus 2 workshops

Minimum number of students per program:  None

Maximum number of students per program: Best arrangement is one K – 2 performance and one 3 – 5 performance

Equipment needed: Small table & microphone/sound system

Set up and take down time: 30 minutes for each

Description: 

Understanding the diversity of cultural heritages, Mrs. Pierce tells tales of Eastern Europe with ethnic costume, props, and song.  Babushka means grandmother, and these stories are folktales with the universal appeal of hearing tales on your grandma’s lap.  Workshops teach storytelling and oral expression.

Common Core Learning Standards: English Language Arts:

• Responding to literature

• Research to build and present knowledge

• Comprehension and collaboration

• Presentation of knowledge of ideas

• Vocabulary acquisition and use

Learning Standards for Social Studies:

• Geography

• World history

Learning Standards for the Arts:

• Creating

• Performing

• Responding

• Connecting

Categories:  English Language Arts, History, Multicultural, Storytelling

Cost:                             

• One performance - $600

• Full day - $800

Grades: K-5

Length of program:

• 45 minutes per performance

• Full day includes 1 performance plus up to 4 storytelling workshops or two performances plus 2 workshops

Minimum number of students per program:  None

Maximum number of students per program: Best arrangement is one K – 2 performance and one 3 – 5 performance

Equipment needed:  microphone/sound system

Set up and take down time:  20 minutes for each

Description:

Character education using stories is teaching without preaching.  World fables and folktales are ageless sources of wisdom that have fascinated folks of all ages forever.

Common Core Learning Standards: English Language Arts:

• Responding to literature

• Comprehension and collaboration

• Presentation of knowledge of ideas

• Vocabulary acquisition and use

Learning Standards for Social Studies:

• Geography

• World history

• Civics, citizenship, and government

Learning Standards for the Arts:

• Creating

• Performing

• Responding

• Connecting 

Categories:  English Language Arts, Multicultural, Storytelling, Wellness/Life Skills/Bully Prevention/Character Education

Cost:                             

• One performance - $600

• Full day - $800 

Grades: K-6

Length of Program: 

• 45 minutes

• Full day includes one performance plus four 30-minute workshops or two performances plus two workshops

Minimum number of students per program: One classroom

Maximum number of students per program: Best arrangement is one K – 2 performance and one 3 – 5 performance

Equipment needed: Small table and one microphone 

Set up and take down time:  20 minutes for each

Description:

The program includes both humorous and thoughtful tales from around the globe, many of which are participatory.  A storytelling workshop is also available.  Children will learn to be more expressive with their voices in oral presentation.

Common Core Learning Standards: English Language Arts:

• Responding to literature

• Comprehension and collaboration

• Presentation of knowledge of ideas

• Vocabulary acquisition and use

Learning Standards for Social Studies:

• Geography

Learning Standards for the Arts:

• Creating

• Performing

• Responding

• Connecting

Categories:  English Language Arts, History, Multicultural, Storytelling

Cost:                             

• One performance only - $600

• Full day - $800

Grades: 4 and up

Length of program:

• 45 minutes per performance

• Full day includes 1 performance plus up to 4 workshops or two performances and 2 workshops

Minimum number of students per program:  None

Maximum number of students per program: Not to exceed 200 per performance and 1-2 classrooms per workshop

Equipment needed:  Small table and microphone/sound system

Set up and take down time:  30 minutes for each

Description:

This interactive program is ideal for schools, conferences, groups, clubs, and libraries.  Many techniques are given for gathering and sharing family stories that reveal Aha!  Moments about who we are and what our family gifts and curses are.  Using family photos, artifacts, and songs as memory prompts, many workshop participants experience epiphanies and connect with their families and communities in a new and enriched way.  They also will realize the power in their personal stories.

Common Core Learning Standards: English Language Arts:

• Responding to literature

• Research to build and present knowledge

• Comprehension and collaboration

• Presentation of knowledge of ideas

• Vocabulary acquisition and use

Learning Standards for Social Studies:

• Geography

• World history

• Civics, citizenship, and government

• History of the US and NY

Learning Standards for the Arts:

• Creating

• Performing

• Responding

• Connecting

Categories: English Language Arts, History, Multicultural, Museums/Exhibits, Storytelling, Wellness/Life Skills/Bully Prevention/Character Education

Cost:                             

• One performance - $600

• Full day - $800

Grades: 2-6

Length of Program: 

• 45 minutes per performance

• Full day includes 1 performance plus up to 4 30-minute classroom workshops or two performances plus 2 workshops

Minimum number of students per program:  One classroom

Maximum number of students per program: Workshops: 1-2 classrooms

Equipment needed:  Help in with trunk and microphone/sound system

Set up and take down time:  30 minutes for each

Description:

This one-woman show uses artifacts from Mrs. Pierce’s grandmother, as she re-tells her immigrant journey all alone, through Ellis Island, to Binghamton, NY, in 1907.  This makes the ordeal understandable, powerful, and personal.  The storyteller draws each items from the trunk, including photographs, costumes, and small treasures from the Russian and Armenian cultures.  The trunk is the very same used by Mr. Pierce’s grandmother, who escaped the Armenian Genocide in the early 1900’s.

Common Core Learning Standards: English Language Arts:

• Responding to literature

• Research to build and present knowledge

• Comprehension and collaboration

• Presentation of knowledge of ideas

• Vocabulary acquisition and use

Learning Standards for Social Studies:

• Geography

• History of the US and NY

• Civics, citizenship, and government

• World history

Learning Standards for the Arts:

• Responding

• Connecting

Categories:  English Language Arts, History, Multicultural, Museums/Exhibits, Storytelling

Cost:                             

• One performance  - $800

• Full day - $1000

Description:

During a multi-day residency, students are prepared through the process of choosing, learning, and performing stories for an audience or School Storytelling Festival.  Lonna will provide copies of short stories for all from which to choose, and further information for teachers.  Storytelling empowers students to gain confidence as well as improve their communication skills.

Cost:

• $2,000 – 3 days or $850 per day in a multi-day residency

A Visit with Laura Ingalls Wilder Workshop

• Upon request, a 20-page booklet of period historic class activities is provided.  In the half-hour classroom workshop, designed for 1-2 classes at most, students will get closer to the animal furs and 19th century authentic artifacts.  They can ask questions about these, about the 1800s, or Laura Ingall Wilder’s life.  Lonna also has many photographs and books, color postcards from each of the homes of the Ingalls and Wilders, as well as schoolbooks from the period.  She usually tells another story from the books during this time. 

Or, if desired, she can stimulate a one-room school house for the 30 minutes, teaching reading, arithmetic, elocution, handwriting, and recitation with her school bell and period texts.

For grade 3-5 workshops, teachers or the PTA are requested to provide 58-60 inch piece of white butcher string per child.  Lonna will teach students a string game based on cat’s cradle from the era, called “The Cross-Cut Saw.”  In this way, students get to take home a souvenir of the era to encourage them to ask their own parents and relatives, “What was it like when you were a kid?” to obtain family stories.

Storytelling Workshop

• Using the prior performance of either “Folktales Around the World” or “The Character Education Stories”, Lonna and the students analyze together what makes the stories come alive.  Students then will earn how to use their face, body, and voice to effectively speak and tell stories. They will practice this art using interactive stories, poems, and chants. 

Equipment Needed:  chart paper or white board

Anna Marlak:  A Trunk Show on Immigration Workshop

• This workshop discusses in further detail the experiences of immigrants coming to America, and in particular to the southern tier of NY and PA.  Using VTS (Visual Thinking Strategies), students will examine period photographs and analyze them in partners and whole group for information.  Special attention will be given to garner photos, artifacts, recipes, and memories from the teachers’ and students’ own family of stories of immigration.

Baboushka Tales Workshop

• More interactive stories are told in this K-2 participatory workshop.  Students will use movement, collaborate with others, and learn how to be more expressive in their communication.

“The Power of Personal Story” Workshop

• Using artifacts, photographs, and recipes as memory prompts, Lonna will lead everyone to discover their family histories and realize the power and revelation in their personal stories.  Using questions as starters, participants will record their responses and also be given methods to use in collecting family stories.  Modeling a few vignettes of her own childhood, participants will then be invited to share some of their own.  They will be encouraged to realize they are first-person witnesses to their own stories, and as such, have authority as primary sources in history. Connections will surface not only to American history, but also patterns and epiphanies often reveal themselves in our shared experiences.

Workshops are intended to follow a performance. They are included in the full-day cost, but if a school wants less than a full day of performances/workshops, then workshops cost $100 each.