Mesa County Spellbinders
Mesa County Spellbinders Newsletter
Once Upon a Time.....                                      
In This Issue
Profiles in Storytelling
Bits and Pieces
Workshop & Stories
Newsletter Needs New Editor
Quick Links
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Documents
Laying Foundation for Success

Mesa County Spellbinders Board of Directors Roster

One Grain of Rice Calculations

ARCHIVES

Archives: Past Issues

February Story Links 


Sue LeBeau website - February Holidays


This is a great website that includes activities and stories for ALL January & February holidays and special dates.

Chinese New Year - February 3, 2011


Chinese New Year Stories

History of St. Valentine's Day


March Story Links 

Sue LeBeau website:March Holidays

Dr. Seuss' Birthday March 2nd!

Celtic Fairy Tales for St. Patrick's Day

St. Patrick's Day Stories

History of St. Patrick's Day

Irish Stories and More!



Great Gifts!
CDWe still have CD's available!  There are two different CD's for sale that were professionally recorded and feature some of our best Mesa County Spellbinders telling some delightful tales! 

1 for $10 or 2 for $15

It's not to soon to start your holiday shopping, so if you'd like to purchase one or both of them just contact Claudine Bogart!


Valentines Heart and flowers
Happy Valentine's Day



Chinese New Year of the Rabbit
Happy Chinese New Year


Meeting Schedule

Mesa County Spellbinders meets monthly on the second Thursday of each month at the main library (lower level.) 

The meeting begins at 9:15 a.m. and ends at 11:15 a.m. 

Our next workshop will be held on Thursday, February 10th.  See you there!!

Vol 3  Issue 2
February 2011
Greetings! Top

Happy New Year!

A little bit about us:  The Spellbinders organization is dedicated to restoring the art of oral storytelling in order to connect elders to youth, weaving together the wisdom of diverse cultures throughout time.

This newsletter is sent to you by the Mesa County Spellbinders and is published once a month.  Be sure to explore the links included in each issue.  If you place your cursor over text that is underlined and in bold type it will take you to a website for further information or launch your email program to send an email.  Explore and enjoy!

Profiles in Storytelling - Bob Spears
 

Bob SpearsBob was born in Atlanta, GA in 1927 and he lived there until 1989 when he left to begin a staged retirement.  He spent 42 years practicing law in private practice.  He loves storytelling and over the years has enjoyed horse packing, tennis, woodworking, skeet and trap shooting and bowling.  He has been a Spellbinder since August of 2002.  He was introduced to Spellbinders when his wife saw a notice in Friends of the Library for a meeting to discuss organizing a group to tell stories in local schools.  A group of interested people met and Mesa County Spellbinders was born! 

 

Bob usually tells stories that do not require many gestures or loud voices.  He's got a wonderfully soothing voice and tells stories like White Wave with such intensity that commands your attention right from the start.  He currently tells stories to 3rd, 4th and 5th grade students. 

 

Bob also keeps all of the statistical records for our chapter so keep sending him your story sheets!  It's awesome how each storyteller's hours of volunteer time adds to quite an impressive contribution to our local schools. 

 

The wisdom he shares with his fellow Spellbinders is short and to the point; ENJOY!


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Bits and Pieces
*You might be interested in the website Awesome Stories.  This is an incredible resource for historical stories, biographies, sports, and many more.  The resources provided are primary source-source information.  Membership to the site is free and gives you access to all of the resources available at this site.  You can also subscribe to a monthly newsletter.  Check it out!

*If you have received an email requesting that you answer some questions for our Profiles in Storytelling section please follow the directions and send your information and photos to Karen as soon as you can.  Thanks!

Some reminders:

*Be sure to regularly send Bob Spears your story sheets reporting your storytelling activity for our records!  If you need an electronic form to submit to Bob, or want to work out another reporting method email Bob Spears today.

*If you have any bits and pieces of Mesa County Spellbinders history please submit them to Ingrid de Leland, who has agreed to serve as our historian.  Things you might pass along: photos, news articles, magazine articles and anything else you think might be nice to have for our records.
 

*Our storyteller coordinator, Anne Saunders is winding up her commitment to do the coordinating for two years. Due to some extenuating circumstances that Anne is experiencing, we would like to identify someone to take on the overall coordination as soon as possible.  Please consider helping with this vital position.  Please contact Anne Saunders for details on the position.  She has worked to make this position a much more manageable one, so don't be intimidated! 

 
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Workshop & Stories
 Show and Tell
 
We had a great time at our January workshop!

Chuck Kornman told the delightful story The Three Cabritos by Eric Kimmel.  This is a great re-telling of the classic Three Billy Goats Gruff with a Mexican twist.  The monster under the bridge is the legendary creature Chupacabra.  Chuck's telling of this story was fun to hear!

Janice Shepherd told One Grain of Rice by Demi.  This is a "mathematical" folktale set in India and deals with the concept of exponential growth.  There is also a similar tale A Grain of Rice by Helena Clare-Pittman that takes place in China.  There is a website with the text of the story as well as a resource for an excel spreadsheet that you can use to calculate the number of grains received each day.  I've taken the liberty of putting the formulas in and a pdf of the calculations can be found to the left in the documents section.  If you would like the actual excel spreadsheet file just email me and I'll be happy to send it along.  Finally, I'd like to remind you of the Free Rice website.  This site has all sorts of quizzes:  vocabulary, math, etc. and for every correct answer the organization donates 10 grains of rice through the World Food Programme.  You can take a fun quiz AND help beat world hunger at the same time!

Diana Landes shared a very humorous song titled Ghost Chickens in the Sky.  It was very entertaining....we got to sing the chorus!  The link will take you to a website with the words to the song.  You can also listen to the song at this site.  Enjoy!
 
 

 
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Newsletter Needs New Editor
Want to help with the newsletter?

Please consider helping!  I will be giving up my position next year!

Writing in JournalI will be continuing to edit and publish our enewsletter through May 2011.  Between now and then I would like to ask you to consider helping us continue to publish and improve our newsletter.  I will be looking for someone to take over the editor role, but also looking for folks who might want to do one part of the newsletter.  The tasks for you to consider are:

*Spellbinder Profiles Section: includes getting information via a questionnaire and typing up the summary for the newsletter as well as obtaining digital photo(s) of the individual Spellbinder for the article

*Seasonal/topical links section:  includes doing some "research" on the internet to come up with some links for stories, etc. 

*Workshop Activities and Stories Shared:  includes summarizing workshop activities, including links to sources that may have been shared & providing stories told and links to sources for each story.

*Quotes from Kids: includes finding short "funny" or touching things said by students during storytelling.

If you would like to take on a piece of the newsletter email me and let me know.  We can then set up training for use of the website where our newsletter is published!

Thanks for considering contributing to this great resource! 

We hope you find this newsletter useful.  Please let us know what you would like to see in future issues by clicking Newsletter Feedback in the Quick Links section.  You can also use this to report any links that may not be working in this issue. 

Thank you for your contributions and support to our organization.  If you know someone who might enjoy this newsletter please forward via the link below.


Sincerely,


              Karen Hurst
Mesa County Spellbinders                      zorro

 Happy Valentine's Day
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Copyright (c) 2011 Mesa County Spellbinders.  All rights reserved, but feel free to copy it, post it, quote it, think about it and forward on to others.  Just tell them where you got it.  Thanks!

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