Beauty, Simplicity, and the Grass Doll

How to Tell Stories to Children

From grass, we weave the doll. From the doll, we weave the story. What we’re doing is rooting our story in the physical earth. We touch it. We play with it. We create imaginative worlds. This is the power of story, and it creates a very rich experience.

In this episode, we explore the theme of self-worth and beauty through the lens of a common blade of grass, who begins to compare herself to the tulip. We will also teach you how to make a simple grass doll (on our website).

A human figure - whether of sticks, plastic, or yarn - is an essential ingredient of play. As a parent, making one for your child out of everyday objects from the earth can be very rewarding. And it only takes five minutes.

The story takes your character even further. You and your child witness the grass becoming a person, and the person becoming a story. Soon we’re building homes out of stones, gardens out of leaves, and super-highways for our imaginations.

We call this the Storytelling Loop. It is a journey we take with our kids. We start with something real (like grass), then tell a creative story about it. When we finish, the grass takes on new meaning. Nothing has changed, but everything has changed. Play is often a final component, as a child will commonly repeat or act out the story with a favorite doll - in this case the one you just made!

In This Episode

• Explore the theme of self-worth and beauty
• Learn how to make a grass doll
• Watch the video to see an example
• Listen to the story of Simplicity, or tell your own
• Explore how storytelling changes your child’s relationship to the grass under her feet. Can you see other characters and stories ready to come alive in your backyard?