Storytelling Festival May 3-6

Homemade posters promote kids' performance

Third graders at Cedar Springs Elementary School in Jefferson County created homemade posters to hype the upcoming 26th annual St. Louis Storytelling Festival. The artwork targeted especially kids' storytelling efforts.

The 26th annual festival runs from Wednesday, May 3, through Saturday, May 6. The storytelling is at several venues around the St. Louis area. Noted national storytellers along with many professional local storytellers will appear.

On Saturday, May 6, local kids from 5th through 12th grade will tell stories. They perform at COCA, at 524 Trinity Ave., in University City. The kids' storytelling begins at 10 a.m.

All storytelling performances are free. (For complete festival information, visit www.umsl.edu/storytelling.)

Melanie Robinson is a teacher at Cedar Springs Elementary in the Northwest R-1 School District. She supervised the poster making by her 3rd grade class. The finished posters will be mounted at the entrance of the Gateway Arch museum in downtown St. Louis.

The kid artists could use their imagination but had to make sure the posters related to storytelling. If people or animals were used, one had to have his or her mouth open as if telling others about the storytelling.

Here is a sampling of the 3rd graders' poster efforts:

Poster by Haley Cotton

Poster by Ralph Hall

Poster by Danielle Bushey

Poster by Madeline Burgess

Poster by Taylor Melugin

Poster by Kayla Bailey

Poster by Tiffany Vonderahe