Telling A Tale Of Learning And Fun

By JESSICA PETERSON

The Progress

Eager young learners arrived at the Old Logandale School on Thursday morning, June 2 for some summer fun. As part of the 2022 Summer Reading Challenge, the Moapa Valley Library branch brought “Talewise” to the community as a free event for local children of all ages.

Talewise is a nation-wide program which teaches children core subject matter through storytelling. At this event, local kids were taught science lessons as Talewise entrepreneur Robert Scott told a story about two pirates out at sea.

More than 100 people arrived at the Old Logandale School to participate in Talewise. The Moapa Valley Library sponsored this activity to offer kids a chance to get out of the house and learn with their peers.
“I just love that the library puts on events to do in the summer,” local mom Danni May commented. “The kids enjoy it. I am a big supporter of events like these!”

This event was only Scott’s third performance with Talewise. However, he is not new to the limelight. He has previously been a stage performer in Las Vegas as well as a children’s dance instructor.
“I’ve never done anything like this,” Scott said. “I am an entertainer and I’m good with people. I just found out later in my life that I just love working with kids. I really do.”

Scott’s performance captivated kids and adults alike. His story was interactive and visual and he kept the kids involved and interested. He chose volunteers several times throughout the story. Scott told his audience that the best way to be chosen as a volunteer was for them to sit up straight, raise their hands as high as they could, and make an excited humming noise. Each time he asked for a volunteer, the kids did just that.

Scott was a very enthusiastic storyteller. He ran back and forth across the floor, jumped and waved his arms about, and even theatrically collapsed on the gym floor at one point. He kept his young audience engaged and entertained. He taught them to talk like a pirate and to do “the wave.”
“We definitely have fun [at these events],” local mom Angela Provost said. “The kids have fun and it’s all about the kids!”

As Scott told his pirate story, he paused frequently to explain concepts occurring within the story. In one such instance, he demonstrated how air pressure can trap water molecules using a mason jar with a screen lid and water.

Scott and his eager volunteer put a card over the screen on the mason jar and flipped it upside down. When they removed the card, the water stayed in the jar. Scott explained that the air bubbles were keeping the water from going through the holes in the screen.

“[Timewise] is a really neat program to immerse kids to actually loosen up while learning something,” Scott said. “It’s something I really believe in.”

In another instance, Scott paused his story to conduct an experiment called “cloud in a bottle.” He poured rubbing alcohol into a bottle to show how water behaves in the atmosphere. Then he and his volunteers used a bike pump to build air pressure within the bottle. Once the bottle was pressurized, Scott released the valve and the bottle produced a foggy “water” vapor.

The vaporization caused an excited uproar from the young crowd. One of the volunteers even began jumping at the front of the room as Scott walked the bottle of fog around for all to see.