Three dozen fourth graders traveled across the hall to grade 1 classrooms as part of a traveling storyteller project for English teacher Colin Goodwin’s class.

“The project is based on traditional Japanese storytelling – kamishibai,” said Goodwin. “Before TV took over, there were kamishibai storytellers in Japan who would show up at a park, gather some children around them and tell the kids folk tales. To make the tales more interesting, the kamishibai tellers used poster boards to illustrate scenes from the stories. When they were done telling the stories, they would sell the kids Japanese sweets,” he added.

The student kamishibai told folk tales like “Momotaro (Peach Boy),” “Urashima,” “The Fisher Lad” and “The Tongue-Cut Sparrow.” “They all prepared kamishibai posters and, instead of selling the first graders candy, they gave them Japanese mocha,” said Goodwin.