Read Across America finale: Fun classic performed for preschoolers

SALISBURY — “Goldilocks and the Three Bears,” a classic children’s story, was performed for the 3-5 year olds at St. John’s Child Development Center on March 7, serving as the center’s Read Across America finale.

Kristy King, program coordinator at the center, said they had various volunteers come in during the week and read to the children.

On Monday, parents came to volunteer and on Wednesday, the grandparents took their turn. Thursday was community helpers day, which included “any parents who were firefighters, police officers, teachers, anything of that nature,” King said. And then Friday was the finale with the play being performed for the preschool classrooms.

King served as the narrator for the play with a cast of four coming to perform the four other roles which included Jessie Dietzel as Goldilocks, Rod Oden with Lee Street theatre as Papa Bear, Erin Dougherty with Catawba College as Mama Bear and Kevin Dietzel with Piedmont Players as Baby Bear.

Adapted by Kevin Dietzel for this special occasion, the group told the familiar story of how Goldilocks went to the bears’ home and tried out their chairs, porridge and beds and in the end runs away when they discover her there.

The children’s laughter at various points during the play was evidence that they were enjoying it, and when asked at the conclusion if they liked the play, they answered with a loud “yes.”

As the play drew to a close, the room filled with lots of laughter from the children and clapping from children and adults.

Encouraged by King to tell the group thank you for reading, the children promptly did so and then excitedly answered questions that the cast asked them.

The first was “have you heard this story before,” which was met with lots of “I have, I have.”

The performers took the opportunity to spend some time with the children and asked them additional questions about pretending when they play as they had just seen in the skit, along with what do bears say, who likes porridge, what is your favorite story and do you enjoy having someone read to you, which was met with a resounding yes.

It was likewise a fun special time for the foursome to visit and share the story with the children.

Dougherty said that the children get very excited, and “I think that they like to see bigger people being silly with them as well and it encourages them to use their imagination.”

Kevin Dietzel said that for many children, “things like this are their first experience with theater and it can help spark a lifetime of love for the arts and get them outside of what their everyday experience is to really open their minds to something more than that,” adding that he had often seen the same at the Norvell Children’s Theater.

Echoing the words of Dougherty and Dietzel, Oden added that “the most important thing of course is we’re in a generation that has a hard time understanding creativity, unplugging from the electronic culture and so this allows them to use their mind’s eye and get a chance to see what fun the theater can be.”

Jessie Dietzel, who has spent time in early childhood education and has taught several theater camps, said that “the theater is the most underserved occupational therapy that a child can have.”

She also said that being able to experience this and introduce the children to this fun play, especially for Literacy Week, is fun and is something that can also be done with a book or script.

“So being able to participate in any kind of literacy week or any kind of creative plays is a really great thing to be able to do especially with the little, little ones,” Jessie Dietzel said.

Having this group and the other readers come in from the community meant a lot to the school.

“The kids really, really enjoy that part of it, and it bridges young children with older people out in the community as well,” King said.

She also spoke about how when the volunteers visit the center, ”it’s phenomenal because when they leave, they are like ‘can we come and do this again. It doesn’t even have to be on a special occasion, we’ll sign up.’”

And they do this because they just love kids, King said.

Written by Karen Kistler for The Salisbury Post