May 6th - Set construction

Our main goal for this time was busting out the construction paper and starting to build the worlds of our plays.

The students had our iPads for reference images and they were creating some amazing work:

Layers of Grass  - Cut strip by strip!

Lots of patience and smiles!

Planning the curves in the path

Here comes the sun! 

Getting creative! Making rocks out of plastic tubs and paper

Making 3-D paper flowers for their backdrop! 

Fluffy white clouds waiting to be attached to the blue sky

Students used computers to research the environment their story takes place in, and created authentic scenery!!

Look at the amazing work on this green parrot!! 

And this yellow boa constrictor is looking great!

Jungle Vines Everywhere!

This Palm tree is off to a great start! 

I am so impressed with the detail on these! Sloth and baby, flowers, and hand drawn and cut Fire Ants!!

I am so impressed with the students work, and how very excited they were to jump in and create the world of their play - The teachers did a great job guiding the students - giving them great suggestions and helping them brainstorm - and we worked together to remind the students that their sets need to be easy to move, quick to set up, and really help to tell their story. I think that this could be a great exercise to help with reading any book/ story- as well as in science, geography, social studies. The idea of knowing/ learning about a place (real or made up) and then having to research it, dream about it, and re-create it engages the students to think critically about the material.

Theater is not just about acting - there are so many elements to be explored and utilized in the classroom!

The world of the play - Sets

Last week I did a quick presentation for the students about simple DIY backdrops, and the difference between set pieces, props, and a backdrop.  The students were then put into their groups for the plays. We sent out a note ahead of time to find out which students would be able to attend Arts Night, and which would not. Those who cannot attend do not have speaking roles, but are instead in charge of documenting what is needed for sets, props, the backdrop and helping to put it all together - they are the designers.  Once in their groups in the different classrooms, the designers listened to the actors read the play aloud, all the while marking down the clues they heard in the script that would let them know what would be needed to make the play come to life.  I believe this is a great way for the students to have to think deeply about the world of the play, and read carefully looking for context clues.

All made with construction paper - 3-D Straw and everything! A great example of how to do a lot with simple materials. 

The sheets that they recorded all of this information on will be utilized this week when be begin to work on the backdrops and sets, as well as the first foray's into costume design.

The students were doing a great job of dreaming big, and then getting creative with problem solving when they realized - for example- Gigantic fish tanks filled with fish may look awesome on stage - but would be pretty much impossible for our quick productions (however, I made sure to let this particular student know - in theater in the professional world that could happen! - I have seen plays in a theater where they make it actually rain!)



The one thing about this process that I keep thinking about is the problem of  a "finished production." There is pressure for these to be quick, clean and neat mini plays with little to no chance of failure. I think to make this a truly enriching experience, it would be great to allow the students to be COMPLETELY in charge of their production (with the caveat they could only use materials provided in the classroom - that every student had the same things to work from). Let them perform, film them, and let them receive feedback from their fellow students, and also to watch themselves, and then give them time to revise and try again.

Art without the ability to risk and fail and risk again doesn't truly teach us that it is ok to be vulnerable, to be brave and put forth your ideas, use your imagination and be bold.  There is no right way to do a play - especially a piece written and interpreted by kids.


 

Books Vs. Scripts - theatrical elements and how to translate a story into a script.

For our next lesson, we wanted to get moving on the students creating their fairy tale scripts for the Arts Night at the Mabel.  We went back to an old class format of presenting a short power point presentation to lay out elements visually before moving forward.
Before we got to the Power point, I did spend some time with the students looking at the difference between how a story book is written, and how a play is written.

The students caught on to this quickly - the idea that in a story book, "He said" or "She said" is important for us to know who is talking -but completely unnecessary in a script - the same with describing actions (except in stage directions) In a story we tell what is happening, in a play we show what is happening.

We then went on to review all of the different elements that have to come together for a play to work - both on stage and off:
Script
Director
Stage Manager
Lighting
Costumes
Set Design
Sound Design
Actors
etc...

Students were then put into groups of three and given their playwright hats, and got to work with a book and readers theater version of the story - they could fracture the story if they wanted, but they had to create a script that their classmates could use to perform the play.

This was fairly challenging for most groups - there were plenty of ideas, but less willingness to compromise at first. However, as the teachers and I made our way around to each group, we were able to get most groups rolling on their first few lines... Many of the students were doing a great job of keeping elements like lighting, sound, and costumes in mind as they were writing - which was really wonderful to see!  

Playwrights in their writing berets!

Fractured Fairy Tales - The Inside Scoop! April 6/7

Moving along with our fairy tale theme, and preparing the students to write their own fairy tales, we set the stage with a big pink castle, with an incongruous Big Bad Wolf sign on the front. The teachers and I were dressed up as reporters to get the "real story" on who was living in the castle and why, and to interview the students to see if they knew anything about the rumors going around that the Big Bad Wolf was actually "the good guy".

This format worked extremely well! We had a lot energy, and when we asked the students questions about the story, we put the (blow up) microphones up to their faces, and treated them like live witnesses at the scene - they really got into it!  

We then grabbed the book "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" and treated it like a breaking update - we all gathered around our story telling area to hear the "True Story". The teachers and I once again passed the book back and forth working on great story telling techniques.

After getting the "real story" we talked about the elements of a fairy tale, and how looking at a different perspective, and changing expectation (fuzzy kitten can be evil and ugly troll can be good) can make for a fun fractured fairy tale.

The students then drew fairy tale elements from the cauldrons. They all had the same setting -the big pink castle, but then they drew two characters (they decided which was good and which was bad) , a magical object, and a problem.

And then used those elements to fill in a basic story boarding sheet:

Red = Characters

Orange=Magic Item

Purple = Problem

The students, with a bit of guidance started creating some really wild and fun stories, and most of them were very excited to share them!

 The students wanted to try the reporter coats on - so we had a lot of fun with that - I think a few old trench coats and microphones could go a long way for students to "investigate" or "report" on all kinds of things in many different subjects. 

Book Reporters, perhaps??!!  These ladies are on the job!!!

It was so much fun seeing the teachers really embrace the reporter role - I really think this was one of our most successful lessons: Simple, with clear connections, theatrical and fun without being overwhelming or intimidating - everything just fit. 

Fairy Tales - Setting! 3/31/16

For our next lesson in Fairy Tales, we wanted to review the elements of a Fairy Tale, and then focus in on one element in particular - the setting.  In order to create a Fairy Tale setting in the classroom, the teachers and I wore old fashioned aprons to become like the classic Mother figure in most stories - and the best thing was - when the students walked into the classroom this is what they saw:

As soon as the kids walked in they were exclaiming " Whoa!! Whats that?? It's a Bean Stalk!! Look at the footprints!!!" It automatically put them in an excited and anticipatory mood for our lesson! 

Next the teacher and I talked about how worried we were that little Jack had gone missing - having left nothing behind but some beautiful golden eggs. We asked the students if they had any idea what could have happened to Jack, and they started pointing towards the ceiling and talking about the giants in the sky! 

So we decided the best way to figure out what had happened was to read the story - so we headed to the story telling spot in front of the fire, and the teacher and I swapped back and forth telling the story (it is considerably longer than the ones we read last week - and switching back and forth helps me model different story telling techniques and allows the teacher to jump right in and try them out.) 

After reading the story, the students were asked to identify the elements that make up a fairy tale that they noticed within the story - they did a great job, not only with the obvious characters and setting, but remembering the special features, like magic, and the number 3. 

Once back in their seats we lead them through a mad libs like work sheet. We told them that we were going to change one of the most important parts of the story of Jack and the beanstalk - The Beanstalk!!! They had to choose something else that was magic that was given to them - and when it is buried, they had to pick what it would transform into - one of my examples was that I received magical Jell-O beans, and it turned into a huge Jell-O stalk that I had to figure out how to climb! 

This is the worksheet of one of the students: 

Ethan received magical candy that grew into a gigantic Marshmallow Plant!! The next step in our day was creating a "Set" that showed our new magical part of Jack's Story:

Ethan beginning work on his Marshmallow Plant to the sky!

Almost finished - Note the magic candy at the base and the puffy marshmallows all over the plant!

Getting creative with materials in Mrs. Meyer's class! 

One thing we wanted to do was to challenge the students to go further with their "sets". Instead just using a puff of cloud and a single pipe cleaner, we wanted them to try and create a mini world - I am excited to post updates of these little sets next week - when the students have had  a bit more time to complete them. 

Due to an all school meeting we were unable to get to 'set building' in Mrs. Schuster's class, and Mrs. Paulson's class will have this lesson the next week on Tuesday.  I am looking forward to having a bit of time to talk with the teachers about what they thought of this lesson and how we will move forward from here. 

Filling out the worksheet was easier for some students than others, but the technique of walking through it together, I believe, made it more successful than if we just would have handed them out and had them work on it individually. They also had to address the challenges that arose in the story from the kind of "Beanstalk" they chose - how do you get up and down? How does that change the story? Can in be chopped down? What happens when the giant tries to climb down it?

I think this could also be used as a good transition for the students to work in groups to create a life size set for their stories.


**Edit: A few more fun pictures!

Fairy Tale Elements - the right ingredients to brew a story! 3/10/16

I was so excited to get into the classroom this week! I wore a "Storytelling cloak" and encouraged the teachers to do the same! I brought in a bag with all of the fairy tale "ingredients" (colored scarves in various jars) and the teachers had made a little fire for the cauldron to sit on!

 I asked the students about the kinds of stories they had been learning about : Myth, Legend, Tall Tale, Fable - and let them know we were moving on to Fairy tales - and that we had to but the right elements together to make a fairy tale work - I called up the students and had them "pour" in the ingredients one at a time - each colored scarf had a corresponding element of the fairy tale inside the cauldron on a small poster with the same color as the scarf - as we added each one, I stirred it in the cauldron and pulled out the poster - we then discussed the element - talked about examples, and then moved on to the next.

Getting Witchy with Fairy Tale Story Ingredients!!

 I believe the teachers really liked this as a way of introducing story elements, as opposed to using a chart on it's own. The students bought in - which is tricky as they are getting to the end of third grade...

We then used the same storytelling idea from last week of gathering around the "hearth" to tell the stories - This was so much fun, and very much solidified the idea of creating a special space for reading aloud that added that extra touch of theatricality that made reading the fairy tales aloud that much more special. Each teacher also wore a story telling cape - this was a thought I had about continuing the idea of simple costuming to make things more fun - not just for the student, but for the teacher. Mrs. Mayer brought in a lovely blanket that her great-grandmother had made for her, and that she used to snuggle in while hearing family stories. She told the students about the blanket - the kids loved it and really connected to the special "ness" of the blanket.

Each of the third grade teachers have done such an amazing job with each new thing we try - we each told a story around the fire - and I was so impressed with their outgoing, energetic and extremely effective story telling. Inflection, animation and a "storytellers voice" had the kids enthralled.

It was also AWESOME to see how easily they picked out the elements of the stories that we had read - they were going deeper than just the obvious and pointed out many elements that I had not thought to bring up!

I believe this was a very effective way to introduce elements of a story - we also thought about how the cauldron with the scarves could also be a really cool way to talk to kids about color theory as well!