Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette Hampton Middle School seventh-graders Caitlyn Schieneman, right, and Libby Smith use a puppet show to tell their African fable of "How the Giraffe Got a Long Neck" to first graders in Marissa Grano's class at Central Elementary School. Students in Cathy Close's seventh-grade English class created the African fables and a way to tell them to the first-grade classes. Click photo for larger image.

While covering the material for her classes' lessons on Africa, Catherine Close took the opportunity to push her seventh-graders beyond simply memorizing every country on the continent and discussing the traditions of the griots of West Africa, storytellers and musicians who usually recounted the oral history of families and villages. She asked them to take part in the tradition themselves, writing their own fables and taking on the role of the storytellers.

Of course, every storyteller needs an audience. In many West African traditions, the stories and fables are passed down from generation to generation, from the elders in the community to the young ones. But who can a seventh-grader pass down a story to?

A first-grader, of course.

After assigning the fables, "we were trying to think of a way so that they would have an audience for it," said the Hampton Middle School instructor.

"We thought: 'Well, what better way than [going to] the first-graders and telling them the stories.' It teaches them something about Africa at the same time as it gives the [seventh-graders] an audience to present to."

She took her idea to Amy Eby, a first-grade teacher at Central Elementary School, who embraced the project. "I knew that they would enjoy it." Eby said.

On the day of the presentations, the first-graders literally looked up to their storytellers, some six years their senior, with wide-eyed admiration and rapt attention. Apart from their size, the youngsters, both little and not-so-little, mirrored each other -- from the Gap jeans right down to their yellow and pink Lance Armstrong Livestrong bracelets.

"We need five volunteers," said seventh-grader and storyteller Sarah Newby, as her group readied for their story. Every hand in the classroom went up.

Newby's group picked five children to become actors. A girl in pigtails donned a mask to become a zebra. A boy took on a role as a lion. The remaining audience members became part of a chorus, "woo-oooing" dramatically at each mention of a spirit, and "roooaaaring" gruffly when the lion made his appearance.

The groups, making presentations to five first-grade classes at the school, worked to inject some authentic tradition into the storytelling. They opened the stories as did many griots.

"A fable! A fable!" the storytellers announced.

"Bring it! Bring it!" their audience shouted back.

	Bob Donaldson, Post-Gazette Central Elementary School first- graders Smantha Chantz, left, and Alexander Gust don zebra and lion costumes for their performances in the African fable "Cil and the Animal Pride." Click photo for larger image.

"When we were writing the story, I was trying to think if I would have liked it as a first-grader," said Joze Welsh, who worked in Newby's group along with Niki Tumminello.

Their story, which covers why the lion has a mane and how the zebra was given stripes, began with a softly drumming melody from "The Lion King" musical playing in the background while the girls helped the little ones into their masks.

"It turned out even better than we thought," Tumminello said.

Other groups used puppets instead of masks, or told stories about how the elephant got its trunk. The story of how the giraffe got its neck was a popular tale.

"They wrote them, they performed them, they came up with all the audience participation and classroom ideas," said Close of her seventh- graders.

"They had to come up with a way to present it for the first grade so that it would be understandable, but also entertaining."

"They were so excited that the seventh-graders were coming," said Kathy Tishey, a substitute teacher for the first grade. "They're loving it."

"We just learned about fables in library class, so this was a great tie-in for them," Eby added. "They love having guests in and they really look up to older kids."

"This is really the one opportunity that we've gotten to have other schools come down and visit with us,"

It took the seventh-graders about three weeks to put the event together, Close said. Each group wrote the stories in class, but created their costumes, puppet stages and props on their own time, at home.

Each group of storytellers performed for the classes on a rotating basis, working its way up and down the first-grade hall, setting up the productions, taking them down and moving on again and again. They spent almost the entire morning at the school, but they were excited about the project and energy levels were high. Even as they packed to leave, some of the seventh-graders wondered whether they really had been able to perform for each class.

"There were only five?" one asked, amazed.