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 Spring-Ford Intermediate School students in teacher JoAnn Sibley’s class recently developed writing, communication and storytelling skills through a project in which they learned about kamishibai, or “paper theater.”
Kamishibai is a Japanese art form that was initially used by monks to teach Buddhist doctrine to lay audiences. It was later popularized in the 1920s and 1930s by storytellers on bicycles who would ride to various towns and perform secular stories for villagers.
The storytellers would sell candy, giving front-row seats to anyone who purchased sweets, and then tell a story using boards which had pictures on the front and a story on the back.
Sibley learned about kamishibai through the Internet and decided to use it in her classroom, where students were learning about myths. Because most myths include an aspect of nature, Sibley asked her fifth-graders to select an aspect of nature and create a myth to explain its existence.
The students wrote their myth on one side of a piece of construction paper, and on the other, drew a colorful picture to illustrate the story.
Some of the students made up stories about how clouds came to be, while others used their myths to describe how deer got their antlers and how cows got their spots.
After the students had created their storyboards, they sat in a circle to share their stories. Through the exercise, students learned that storytelling is a bit different than simply reading a story and spent some time discussing kamishibai.
“They were very excited about the project and are constantly asking, ‘Can we do it again,’” Sibley remarked.
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