Tom Stamp: News

Front Porch Art: Deep River Blues
Front Porch Art was such a success, Tom is wading a little deeper with Deep River Blues. He creates the same party atmosphere as he sings songs and tells stories from all over the United States and around the globe. Just add water. And with Tom's bag of tricks you can expect plenty of surprises. It's more fun than a rope swing, a swimmin' hole and a summer day! Recommended audience: All age groups.

Front Porch Art: Handmade Songs and Stories.

Once upon a time in America, before TV, before computers, and before ipods, entertainment was homemade. We sang songs on the front porch and swapped tales over the back fence. We connected with families and the people in our neighborhoods. We created our own amusements and it felt like a party.
This summer for the first time, two of Vermont's most creative performers will join together to take you on a sweeping tour of front-porch Americana. Picking out tunes on the banjo and guitar and trading tales from across this grand country, Rik Palieri and Tom Stamp will have you laughing, singing, clapping, swinging, and having a grand time, just like the good old days. Of course, you'll have to leave the jug at home.
Rik Palieri plays original tunes and traditional folk songs on the guitar and banjo and ballads from the mountains of Poland on exotic Polish bagpipes. His music has been praised by folk legends Pete Seeger, Utah Phillips, and Jimmy Driftwood. Drawing from his tours through Europe, South America, and all across the United States, Rik can take you on a musical jaunt around the world in a single evening.
Tom Stamp has been telling stories and playing music for 40 years. His creative influences include storytellers Donald Davis and Bill Harley, musicians Tom Paxton and Hank Williams, and every silly camp song ever belted out over a campfire.
Front Porch Art is recommended for family audiences school age to adult.

Penelope Peabottom is Missing!
Penelope Peabottom (P.P. for short) has been kidnapped,
but . . . who stole the baby? Was it Kenny "the Kid" Kincaid? How about Not-So-Nice Nick Nicely? Or was it Butterscotch Taffy?
Sift through clues with Private Interior Redecorator and International Pivate Eye Thorn Ripley to unravel the mystery. One-half detective story, one-half mystery game, one-half crime-lab investigation, this highly interactive, hands-on program adds up to a whole lot of fun.
The Game's Afoot!

Recommended for ages 8 and up.

Whether it's encounters with ghosts or “Spiders in the Hairdo” these modern myths will make your skin crawl.
(A favorite of middle-school audiences)

Kids start school eager to learn and the first thing they want to tackle is reading. So, I was shocked when many of my seventh-grade English students announced to me that they hated to read and there was nothing I could do to change their minds. And it wasn’t that they just disliked reading; they hated it. Even some of my brightest students told me they never read for pleasure. So, I began to rethink the way I was teaching and started looking for ways to bring storytelling into my classroom.

Since 1994, I’ve been working with teachers, principals, librarians, and counselors in schools and colleges throughout the Northeast. Our goal has been to increase the self-confidence of our students and improve their reading, writing, and oral language skills. We’ve shared ideas and tried them out together. And we found that we can get our students to read, write, and show us what they’ve learned while keeping the fun in the fundamentals.

I’ve use stories in my own classroom to teach sequencing, story elements, character development, and theme. Sharing stories is a great way to strengthen the imagination, motivate reluctant readers, and build classroom community. Try it yourself in your own school or library. In just seven minutes -- the time it takes to tell a story -- you can teach values and provide encouragement, hope, laughter. Now, that’s not a bad day’s work.

LESSON PLAN #1

A WHALE OF A TALE
TOM STAMP
SUBJECT: LANGUAGE ARTS
TOPIC: STORYTELLING

OBJECTIVES:
Students will use a story told by the teacher to identify story elements.
Students will use a story told by the teacher to practice sequencing.
Students will create images to illustrate a story told by the teacher.
Students will create a story mural and use it to retell a folk tale.

RESOURCES:
A folk tale that can be told, not read, by the teacher
Art supplies -- construction paper, drawing paper, scissors, pencils, markers, etc.

BACKGROUND:
One thing that language arts teachers want to develop in students is the ability to form mental images. We want students to draw pictures in their brains as they read and to create strong images in their own writing. Using storytelling in the classroom is a natural and fun way to help them. When students hear a story, they work together with the storyteller to make images, to see the story in their imaginations. I’m always amazed at the details students remember from a story I’ve told and by their own touches they add to the stories.

INSTRUCTIONS TO BE GIVEN STUDENTS:
I let the students know that I’m going to tell them a story. We talk about all the things a good story has to have: characters, setting (time and place), a problem or crisis, an attempt by the main character to solve the problem, a solution to the problem, and an ending. Then, I tell them the story. A simple folk tale with lots of repetition works best. Find a story you like and tell it in your own words. Don’t worry about being too polished. I’ve used A Whale of a Tale from Margaret Read McDonald’s book Twenty Tellable Tales, published by H.W. Wilson Company. 1986. It’s structure is so simple and it has plenty of repetition. You can listen to my telling here on my web site, or you can find a copy of Ms. McDonald's book at your local library. It’s filled with wonderful stories and helpful advice for new storytellers.
After you tell your story, ask the students to tell you about the main story elements: who is the main character, where does the story take place, what does the character want, what happens first, next, after that?
When you’re satisfied that the students have a good grasp of the story, let them work in pairs or small groups to create pictures from the story.
Tell them that they are going to make a mural that will tell the story they just heard. You might want to invite an art teacher or a parent volunteer if you feel your own art credentials aren’t what they need to be. At any rate, make the art fit your needs and time constraints.
Decide who is going to tell the beginning of the story, the first event, the next, and the one after that. When all the parts of the story are assigned to artists, let them go to work drawing, cutting, pasting, etc.
When the artwork is complete, let the students retell the part of the story that goes with the section of the mural they’ve created. When the whole story has been told, let all the students take a bow.

FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES:
Ask students to retell the story without the mural.
Let them read the printed version of your story and see how it is the same or different from the version you told.
Ask beginning writers to choose their favorite words from the story to add to a personal dictionary and use them in their own writing.

EVALUATION:
If your students remembered the important elements of the story, could retell the story in sequence, created some nifty artwork and had a good time doing it, I’d say you were pretty successful. And if you are motivated to learn another story, I think that’s a great thing.