The apple star

The best way to tell a Waldorf story is to read it yourself first and familiarize yourself with it. Once you have the basic concept of the story, get the supplies you have to make the story come to life. I have a beautiful basket of ladies scarves I collect from thrift stores and yard sales. They come alive in all sorts of ways. The blue ones become waterfalls, the green ones become lush valleys of grass and the sometimes they are tied on the backs of chairs to celebrate special occasions. 

Once you've got your supplies ready, set the scene. Invite them to the "play." Act out the story from memory. It's okay if you forget parts, you will have memorized the basics. The acting out is what makes it so magical. Every time I tell a story it changes slightly. Once you've told the story, let the kids play with the pieces and tell stories of their own. Once you've told the story a couple times , ask them to tell the story. You be the audience for their best performance. 

There are many variations of this story but this one is my favorite. 

There once was a little apple seedling who sat lonely in a field, as night fell upon her she looked at the sky twinkling above her. The apple tree became very sad , for she wanted a star all of her own. Then much to her surprise the night fairy came down from the sky above and asked her "why are you so sad?" The little tree explained how "she just wanted one star to keep to herself", so the fairy granted her wish and told her, "when you become a large, mighty tree, I will bring you are a star... As the months progressed the young tree matured into a sapling. Shortly after, King Winter came to visit and blew his tremendous winds throughout the land, knocking the poor sapling around and breaking off her branches, but she recovered. The young apple tree grew stronger and bigger throughout the years and was visited many more times by King Winter and every time broken down a little more. The apple tree was still sad and lonely and still wished she had a star of her own until one day she had awoken on a beautiful spring day and looked out at her branches and much to her surprise, saw beautiful pink flowers. The apple tree was finally happy and so excited that she had her own beautiful flowers that she forgot all about the stars.. Throughout the spring her blossoms turned to baby apples and she was overjoyed with excitement to be a mother. Soon into summer the apples became larger and started turning hints of yellows and pinks when the Night Fairy appeared. The apple tree had forgotten all about her star wish and explained to the fairy that "I no longer need a star, for I have never been so happy before." But, the fairy still gave her what she wanted and went and kissed every apple, turning them red and ripe. The fairy told the apple tree that inside every apple baby of hers is a beautiful star. To this day, every time you open an apple, you will behold the apple trees star.

(im unsure who the original author of this tradition waldorf story )

While telling this story, we used these storytelling items.
: a small handful of clear plastic jewels (The Dolllar Store, craft section)
: a small handful of small gold bells (season item only The Dollar Store, christmas section)
: one earthy toned scarve
: King Storm gnome
: Night Fairy
: Wooden tree
: Acorn

We layed the scarf out and planted the apple seed (acorn)
Every time we mentioned the stars I would slowly pour the jewels and bells from one hand to the other above the scarf, so they glistened with the light and the sound was entrancing

Once the tree was large and mighty, we put the wood tree in our story.

After our story the kids played with the jewels and bells, exploring the texture and sounds. They used wooden bowels and little metal cups to separate and explore. They also were given scoops and tongs.

We cut up an apple after to study the star.....