Arts Bridge: Second Visit! (September 22nd)

This week I wanted to really build on the ideas of storytelling I left my first graders with last time. This time, I wanted to get them moving creatively and encountering real-life examples of dialogue. Carolyn, the teacher I’m working with, said that this week the students were going to be learning about what dialogue was, so I thought this would be a fun way to teach it to them while still learning drama principles

I failed again in getting through all of my material. I’m not sure if it’s because I don’t consider how long it takes first graders to do things as opposed to older children, or if its because I’m just taking too much time for the activities. I’m still actively considering how I can be better at getting through all of my material.

Regardless of the material I didn’t get through, I thought the things I was able to do with them worked GREAT! Kids have such vivid imaginations and as I talked to them about their wolf suits and asked what they were made of and what colors they were I got so many varied responses Some were gray, some were like pajamas, some were made of real fur, some had claws, etc. I’m continually impressed with how the students are able to actively engage their imaginative side with little-to-no prompting.

This week was a win!

Where the Wild things Are

Adapted from a lesson plan by Julia Ashworth

Objective:

Children will demonstrate their understanding of dialogue by engaging with the dialogue throughout and creating their own dialogue for the end of “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sandek.

Utah Drama Core Standards:

·      Standard 1.T.CR.1: Develop imagination to create artistic ideas and work.

·      Standard 1.T.CR.5: Create character through imagination, physical movement, gesture, sound, and/or speech and facial expression.

·      Standard 1.T.P.2: Demonstrate the ability to work effectively alone and cooperatively, with a partner or in an ensemble.

·      Standard 1.T.R.1: Demonstrate audience skills of observing attentively and responding appropriately.

Materials Needed:

·      “Where the Wild Things Are” by Maurice Sandek

·      A drum or other instruments to create rhythms/beats

o   Drum, triangle, chimes, etc.

·      Crayons

·      Paper

·      Space for students to move in. Each student needs their own personal space.

Opening Discussion: (3 minutes)

·      Help students remember what we talked about regarding good audiences last week.

o   What do good audience members do? (Sit still, pay attention, mouths closed, etc).

o   We read “A Fire truck named Red” last week. Who were the storytellers?

·      Share that today we’re going to be creating another story, and this time they will get to tell most of the story themselves.

o   Remind them of the rules of participation:

§  Keep hands to yourself

§  Listen when the teacher is talking

§  Follow teacher’s instructions

Step One: Where the Wild Things Are (7 minutes)

·      NOTE: At any point dialogue occurs in the story, point it out to the students. Engage them with it by asking them to say the words in the tone the character might have said it. Explain that these words are called dialogue. Dialogue is something that a character or person says out loud.

·      Gather the students around to hear a new story. Read the first few pages of Where the Wild Things Are. Ask students to make observations of what they think the story is about based on the cover page, etc.

·      Ask the students to make a picture in their minds of what Max’s house might look like. Then have the students stand up and pretend that Max’s house is in the classroom. Remind them to quietly explore and not to touch each other. Ask questions such as:

o   Is Max’s house big or small?

o   What does his bedroom look like? Is his bedroom upstairs or downstairs?

o   Is there any food in the kitchen that might be for supper? What does it smell like?

·      Next, explain that hidden somewhere in the house is their very own wolf suit. Tell them to look for it in their imaginary house and see if they can find it. Say you’ll know they’ve found their wolf suit when they’re standing still in their own space holding the suit above their heads.

·      When they’ve all found their suits, ask them to put their suits on. Ask a few students questions about their suit:

o   What color is it?

o   What’s it made of?

o   What does it look like?

Step Two: Mischief: (5 minutes)

·      Share that because they have their wolf suits now that they can get ready to make mischief just like Max did. Show them your instrument and explain that they should use the sound of the instrument to make mischief. Share that if the instrument stops, their mischief needs to stop. Practice with them for a moment.

·      Have the students make mischief in the classroom to the rhythm of your instrument. Stop and start again, but this time ask them to make mischief in slow motion.

Step Three: Max’s Mom (5 minutes)

·      Stop them again and explain that you have a special visitor coming that they can talk to. Tell them in a moment Max’s mom is going to come and talk with them. Ask the students what question they might want to ask Max’s mom.

·      Become Max’s mom. This could be done by just turning around or you could add an apron or feminine hat. Allow the students to ask you questions about you and Max. Emphasize how difficult it’s been to deal with him lately and you love him but you just don’t know what to do. Finally, excuse yourself and come back as yourself.

·      Ask the students what they noticed about Max’s mom?

o   How did she seem to be feeling?

o   What was she having a hard time with?

o   What could you say to her to make her feel better?

Step Four: The Wild Things (10 minutes)

·      Proceed to keep reading in the book until the Wild Things appear. As you read, ask the students to pretend to be the Wild Things. Ask them to roar their terrible roars, gnash their terrible teeth, roll their terrible eyes, etc.

·      Next, share that you need a few students to be Max and a few students to help create some sound with their bodies or instruments.

·      Have the Wild things line up in two lines facing each other. Have the students being Max walk in between the two lines while the Wild Things make a rumpus to the rhythm created by students with instruments. Ask the Max’s to look at all of the Wild things in the eye just like Max did. Then have the Max’s shout “be still!”

·      Continue to read the story. Have the students perform the rumpus and other parts of the story in a similar way to what you have done so far.

Step Five: Reflection (15 minutes)

·      After Max sends the Wild Things to bed without supper, ask the students how they think Max is feeling right now? Does he miss his mom? Is he hungry? Tired? Lonely? Do you think he liked sending the Wild Things to Bed without supper? Ask the students to imagine they are Max again and he wants to write a letter to his Mom. What would they say in their letter?

·      Finish the story. Ask the students to draw a picture of what it might look like when Max saw his mom next. Then ask the students to think about what Max would be saying to his mom in the picture, what his “dialogue” would be. Ask a few students to share their picture and what Max is saying in it.

Arts Bridge: First visit! (September 15th)

For my first lesson with my first graders, I decided to ease into storytelling with them. Carolyn, the teacher I’m working with, had told me that the class was learning about “community helpers” that week, so naturally I wanted to try to incorporate elements of that into the story. The result was a lesson that went very well, considering it was my first time working with first graders. They responded really well to the story, they were engaged physically and intellectually, and they enjoyed being able to help tell the story.

One thing that I had a hard time with was timing. I have 45 minutes with the kids, and in that 45 minutes I wasn’t quite able to get through all of the material I had planned in the lesson. Having too much is of course better than having too little, but the ending is the most important part because it it gives the students a chance to apply the things they’re learning. If I were to do it again I would spend less time on the first part of the activity in order to give the students a chance to reflect and apply the lesson at the end.

Here’s to hoping I do better with timing on my next visit!

The Storyteller and his Audience:

Objective:

Children will demonstrate how to be a good audience and storyteller by listening to and creating their own stories.

Utah Drama Core Standards:

·      Standard 1.T.CR.1 Develop imagination to create artistic ideas and work.

·      Standard 1.T.R.1: Demonstrate audience skills of observing attentively and responding appropriately.

·      Standard 1.T.CO.1: Identify similarities between story elements and personal experiences in dramatic play or guided drama experiences.

Materials Needed:

·      A Fire Truck Named Red by Randall De Seve

·      Crayons

·      Paper

Opening Discussion:

·      Introduce Drama (The act of creating or telling a story. It can mean playing games, pretending to take a journey, or acting in a play. Sometimes, we do drama just to learn rather than to put on a play.)

Step One: Introduction

·      Ask students about what they’ve learned about community helpers. How do community helpers help people?

·      Have a short discussion with the students regarding the last time they helped somebody.  Ask them to shut their eyes and make a picture in their mind of what helping that person looked like. Give them help by reminding them of various things they might have helped with, (did you help clean your room? Did you comfort someone who was upset? Did you help your brother or sister learn something?). Ask students to share with you their memory.

·      Choose a few students and listen to their stories. Draw students out, asking for details, being delighted that they will share with you. Thank each student for telling you his or her story. Use and emphasize the words story and storyteller.

·      Tell the students you liked their stories so much you might go share their stories with someone you know. (“At dinner tonight I might say to my wife that there was this child in class today, and he had felt so good when he helped his dad rake the lawn,” etc.) Honor the fact that the students shared with you. Demonstrate that you were a good listener. Repeat specific details of the stories as you speak, so that the students will notice how closely you paid attention.

·      Tell the students that you feel as if you received a gift, a present, today, when they told you their stories. Tell them you are going to pass the present along when you share their story with someone else. (“A story is like a present. You give someone a gift when you share a story.”)

Step Two: Storytelling

·      Invite students to listen to a grandpa’s story about him and his fire truck. Explain that just like the children’s stories are a gift, this story is a gift as well. Ask the students how they can show appreciation for this gift while you tell the story. Ideas might include listening quietly unless asked to participate, not interrupting, sitting still, etc. Explain that these are all good ideas, and that that you might sometimes even ask them to participate in the story as an audience.

·      Present A Fire Truck Named Red by Randall De Seve.

o   Have the students participate actively. Ask them to make the sounds of a fire truck siren, to splash like an elephant, etc. Make sure you also help them follow their rules of a good audience even when participating.

·      Help the children discover all the storytellers involved. Discuss the fact that Rowan’s grandpa shared a story with him. Also, a man named Randall De Seve made up the story. Then point out that you (the teacher) were a storyteller also, because you told (in this case, read aloud) the story to your students.

·      Share that in the next few lessons we’re going to learn about stories and how to share them with other people.

·      Discuss the following concept in light of the story you just read. Refer to illustrations as examples.

o   The Storyteller’s job is to make the story interesting. (“How did Rowan’s Grandpa make the story interesting?” “Do you think that his Grandpa was actually called by the circus, or was that just something to make the story more interesting?”)

Step Three: Application

·      Ask students to draw a picture of how they helped someone recently. However, they must have an open mind, and extend their thinking and add some fun exciting new fictional details to their picture. Perhaps if they helped their mom fold laundry, they might add that a robot also came and helped, or maybe they folded the laundry with their feet instead of their hands.

·      Have the students tell their stories to classmates. Classmates may guess what is “real” and what is fictional. Remind the students to be a good audience for the person sharing the story.

·      Praise the students for their work. Discuss how they did their job as an audience. Thank them for their help in making your job easier as a storyteller as well as being willing to become the storyteller. Say again how much you loved their stories; they were wonderful presents. (“A story is like a present. You give someone a gift when you share a story.”)