Hi, my friends! Welcome to Storytime with The Met. My name is Josefa and I'm
so happy to see all of you! Please be sure to watch us each week
on Thursday for a different storytime and activity.
Now let's get started! Let's start with our welcome song, just like what we do at
the museum. For those of you that don't know, it goes the tune of "This
Old Man." Can you count to three with me? One...
two... three... Welcome, friends! Get ready, get set for storytime
at The Met! Where we love to read and sing, and look
at works of art and picture books. We'll use our eyes to look and see.
We'll use our ears to hear stories. Now let's take
a seat and give a shh!
Let's begin with our first book! Round of applause, my friends! Great job
singing! Our book for today is called "Raven: A Trickster Tale
From The Pacific Northwest" by Gerald McDermott.
Have you ever seen a raven before?
Let's read about this tale.
Raven came all the world was in darkness. The sky
above was in darkness, the waters below were in darkness. Men
and women lived in a dark and cold world. Raven was sad for them.
He said, "I will search for light." Can you imagine it being dark all the
time? During the daytime too, just not only the night?
Raven flew across the valleys and across mountains. He flew along rivers, over
lakes there was darkness all around. Then
he saw a bit of light far away. Can you find the light with me?
I see it back over there by the horizon. He flew and he flew! Can you flap your wings?
And came closer to the light. The light was at the edge of the water.
The light came from the house of the sky chief
and it was shining. Raven perched high in a pine tree on the shore
and raven watched.
What do you think's gonna happen?
He saw a beautiful young girl emerge from the shining house
and go to the edge of the water. She was the sky chief's daughter. She
knelt and drank some water from a woven basket.
Can you all pretend to slurp water with me?
Raven changed himself into a pine needle. have you ever smelt pine before? It
smells really good! He fell down from the tree and floated
on the water. When the girl drank again, she swallowed
the pine needle. Hmm... what is this raven up to?
Let's find out!
After a time the girl gave birth to a child.
The child was small and dark with shiny black hair and tiny black
eyes. Who do you think the child was?
It was raven! Raven had been reborn as a child.
Do you see his jet black hair and even his beak of a nose?
The sky chief was delighted with his daughter's child.
He called him "grandchild." He played with the boy
and carved toys for him. He invited the elders to come and see
the curious wonderful child.
The elders gathered in the shining house with the sky chief and his daughter.
They watched the raven child crawl around the floor
of the lodge. He pretended to be playing but all the time he was trying to find
where the light was hidden. He saw a box in the corner of the lodge.
Do you see the box? Can you find it? I see it right over here!
The box was large. It was carved and painted with many
colors. The box was bright, it glowed
and the raven child said "gaga!" Like a lot of babies do, can you all say
"Gaga?" "What do you want?" asked his mother. All
raven child said was "Gaga" and then he began to cry.
"What does the child want?" asked the elders. Raven child said "Gaga" he cried, and he
cried again. "My grandchild wants the box." said the sky
chief.
The young woman placed the box in front of the raven child
but he continued to cry. She took off the lid of the box and
inside was a smaller box. She took the lid off that
box and inside was an even smaller box.
What do you think is inside?
His mother took the lid off that box and the light
poured out. Light flooded the room and inside the box was a shining ball
blazing with light.
What do you think the ball was? Any ideas? It was the sun. " Give him the ball."
said sky chief.
His mother gave raven child the ball. Raven child
stopped crying.
He began to play with it. He rolled it around the floor of the
of the lodge.
Does the raven child look happier now? Then he changed into a bird.
Could we flap our wings like a bird? And then he became
raven once again. Sky chief, his daughter, and the elders
looked in amazement. Raven plucked up the ball of light
into his beak and flew through the smoke hole of the lodge and
disappeared into the dark sky.
What do you think he's going to do with it?
Raven flew over the valleys in the mountains.
He flew along the rivers and across the lakes.
Raven threw the sun high in the sky and it stayed there. This is how
raven stole the sun and gave it to all the people.
And why do people always feed raven? To thank him for bringing them light.
Round of applause, my friends! Well done listening to the story.
Now we're going to take a look at an art object from The Met collection. Can
you all take a closer look with me? What kind of designs do you see
on the object? Can you try to look at all the different
sides of the object?
What kind of animals do you see?
So the object is actually painted as a raven
and the object is actually a rattle! Can you try to picture maybe what the
raven rattle would sound like?
All right, my friends. Well I really enjoyed
reading the story with you and looking at an artwork from The Met collection.
Before we say goodbye, we do have a fun art activity.
I actually also made a raven rattle!
All you need is a toilet paper roll, some paper, crayons, or markers.
And then I taped the front and the back of the toilet paper rol.l
You can use aluminum foil. You can use paper. You can also use saran wrap or
tape. And inside before you close it up, you
can use beads like from artwork but if you
don't have that, you can also use rice or some beans. Remember not to fill it up
too much otherwise you can't really hear the
rattle like this.
I also gave my rattle some wings just like the raven
and I used inspiration from the raven. From the story and from
the object. You can use lots of different designs,
different shapes, and different figures to create your own
rattle. All right, my friends. Well thank you so
much for joining us! Be sure to tune in next week, for a different storytime and
and activity. Goodbye, my friends!