The Snow Maiden
Teaching Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics
Fran Stallings, a storyteller based in Oklahoma, works on a weekly basis with a local 2nd grade class (7- to 8-year-old children). Their classteacher, Mr C, uses the story she tells as the basis for an amazing amount of his teaching, in particular in the STEM subjects.
Fran has posted some details of this work on the Storytell listserv. She has generously given permission for me to publish some of them here – until such time as she creates pages on her own website.
Below are some of them.
The Snow Maiden
A story to help focus Mr C’s second graders on the physical changes of state of matter (that’s the curriculum mandate term), in this case of water. We decided to do a version of the Russian Snow Maiden story.
I started by describing the childless elder couple sadly watching other people’s grandchildren play in the snow, and remembering their own childhood snow games. (Class suggestions, discussion.)
Rousing themselves from sadness, the couple decided they weren’t too old to play in snow themselves! and after doing some of the suggested activities, they built a snow man and got the idea of decorating it like a Snow Girl: carved long white hair, long white coat, grey pebbles for eyes, and the man tied his own red scarf (knitted by the women) around its neck.
Tired, they went in to warm up as the early sun was setting and a knock came at the door. It was the Snow Girl (traditionally called snegurochka), come to live with them and be their longed-for child.
I used scenes in the cottage to emphasize that she had to avoid heat.
Hot soup? No thanks, prefer cold leftovers.
No seat by the fire, prefer the far wall.
Blankets on the bed? We talked about the way blankets (coats etc) keep heat from passing through, thus kept the room’s warmth away from her as they keep your own body heat in.
She helped around the house (but did not help cook, or wash dishes) and played for hours with neighborhood children. The elder couple were delighted to have a granddaughter at last!
But as spring approached, icicles and snow melting, she became listless and droopy.
I told the students that I had found several endings:
One day she just vanished, never to come again.
One day she joined the other girls in the forest, and tried to jump over the fire the way they did; vanished in mist.
Either way, she vanished but came again next winter.
Or, I suggested, she came again in the form of a snowdrop flower and I had brought two, picked in my front garden. These used to appear in January (now as early as end of November!), heedless of snow; in fact, when picked and brought indoors, they rapidly fade like Snegurochka.
I let the students pass the flowers around to get a close look.
After some discussion, I told the students that still another ending was used when the story was made into a ballet, which of course required romance and pas de duex. Snegurochka became a young woman who wanted to experience love even though she was warned that the warmth would doom her. Yep, the 2nd graders thought this was gross. But Mr C, who had examined the flowers closely, pointed out that the inner petals have little green hearts on them. That was nice.
A student asked how her hair was arranged: long loose? braided? We discussed the fact that each listener makes their own pictures.
Another student said he has a picture book of the story at home, cover showing the girl with the adults; if he brings that, and if Mr C finds illustrations on line, they’ll have many different images to compare.
I left the flowers with the class, to observe how fast they fade indoors. Everybody hopes we’ll get some of that Kansas City snow over the weekend. And I’ll see what follow-up activities Mr C invents!
Below are some more of Fran’s posts
They are in no particular order, but serve to show what is possible.
Visit Fran’s website
to find more about her wide range of work.
In particular, explore the Earth Teller Tales, where she shares many articles about teaching natural science through storytelling.
Fran’s article The Web of Silence: Storytelling’s Power to Hypnotize is a deep exploration of many aspects of the storytelling experience, including the storytelling trance. It also offers great insight into the whole art itself.
Fran can be contacted here.
Further resources relating to storytelling in schools
- Science teaching: Hawthorn Press
- Generally using storytelling in schools: Storytelling schools
Grow your own snowdrops
Jenn Stark, an editor at Happy DIY Home, discovered this page and kindly sent me their comprehensive guide on how to grow snowdrops in your garden.
Go here for a list of all tales included on this site
Go here to receive an e-mail notification when new tales are added
Permission to tell outlines my views on copyright
For those who are teachers: Telling stories in the classroom: basing language teaching on storytelling