Yavneh Academy was the setting for a fun-filled Storytelling Festival of Fables on May 4-5, as the fourth grade students shared their stories with students in grades one through five, and then with their proud parents in two evening performances.

The festival is a cooperative effort of the fourth grade teachers, Yavneh’s storyteller-in-residence Ms. Julie Della Torre and the Yavneh library. The students studied about folklore—including legends, folktales, myths, pourquoi stories and trickster tales—and participated in five workshops wherein they learned about characters, setting, story mapping and presentation. Children chose their own fables, a story usually about animals which highlights some aspect of human behavior and has a moral or lesson attached to it.

In our fast-paced media-driven world, there is still plenty of room for the spoken story which engages the imagination in young and old alike. The Yavneh fourth graders proved this to their fellow students, parents, teachers and administrators as they presented their fables with excitement and animation. All the participants truly enjoyed.