The journey toward completing the third installment in The Cabbage Patch’s children’s book series focused on cooperation. Participants in Baxter’s Corner’s Young Storytellers Camp learned that working together to achieve a common goal is not always easy, but it is very rewarding.
The concept for the book, ‘Babies and Bananas,’ created opportunities for the children to explore their capacity for collaboration! In the book, the characters found themselves transformed into babies and were therefore limited as to what they could achieve on their own. For instance, a powerful dragon suddenly found his wings too small to fly.
Young Storytellers reading from ‘Babies and Bananas’ in character.
To prepare the children to fully understand how to give up control and cooperate as a group, camp leaders directed them in an artistic exercise. Each child was given a piece of paper and a set of crayons, and they were asked to create a drawing. Each child began a picture, but then they had to pass it off to the person next to them, who would add to the image. Then it would be passed to the next person. While each picture took a different direction than the original artist intended, everyone agreed that the final works of art were beyond anything they could have dreamed individually.
Collaborative drawings decorate the walls of Holladay Hall.
The children kept these fantastic works of art in mind when fitting the pieces of the book together. Some ideas were embraced and some ended up on the cutting room floor, but ultimately the children created an amazing story that is truly a product of cooperation. The project fit into the Baxter’s corner values of Respect and Cooperation, and their values blend well with Cabbage Patch values, so it was a collaboration effort all around! We are thankful to Baxter’s Corner for not only teaching children the art of storytelling, but also the art of teamwork!
You can own the first book by The Cabbage Patch Young Storytellers! The exciting ‘Going Bananas in Space’ is available on Amazon. Make sure to shop through Smile.Amazon.com and select The Cabbage Patch as the charity to benefit from your purchases! Look for the next book from The Cabbage Patch Young Storytellers to be available soon.