Final Performance!

I'm going to be honest, I was a bit nervous for our final performance because Mrs. Larsen got sick with the flu and had to get a sub, so it was all up to me to make sure the performance went smoothly! It was a big job, but I was very excited it turned out as well as it did!

Thankfully, the substitute was wonderfully enthusiastic about our performance and was able to help get all our costumes and props ready for the performance. We headed down 15 minutes early and even got a chance to do a quick run-through for each of the plays so the kids could get a quick refresher on their blocking! 

They did a wonderful job. The parents and the four second-grade classes who came were absolutely thrilled by the kids' performances. Here are a few pictures from our Anansi performance:

And here's a few from the Twelve Dancing Princesses:

One of my second-graders wanted to introduce the show at the last minute. How cute!

And here are the videos of the two final performances!





Thanks to Mrs. Larsen and all her wonderful students. I had so much fun and learned so much!

Props and Final Blocking

Today I introduced "Props" to the second graders and I showed them the props I made for our shows. I didn't spend a lot of time on them because props are pretty straightforward and we needed lots of time to review the two shows we've been working on.

It has been since before Christmas since we've had a chance to run through the shows, so we needed a good long refresher today. Plus we got to actually perform them for the rest of the class on the stage!

We cleared up our blocking (since the space is MUCH larger on the stage than in the classroom) and made sure everyone remembered their lines.

Here's a few pictures from the Anansi group today:

And here are a few pictures from The Twelve Dancing Princesses:

I was actually REALLY impressed with how the two performances went today. The kids were very attentive and I'm always impressed with how much of the story they remember! They even reminded me that I forgot to say one part of the story!

I think it really helped that they knew their peers were watching their performance. It helped them focus and not talk when it wasn't their part. My theory worked! Performing really helps them focus!

Week 8--Storytelling

This week I decided wanted to implement some of the feedback I got from Doug Allen when he came and observed me last week. So I started by moving the desks in the room out of the center of the room so we would have more space to work in. I also thought this would help the kids by changing up our regular routine with something a bit different.

Once we had the desks moved, I separated the class into their two different groups. On opposite sides of the classroom I had 2 posters waiting where I instructed the children (before we separated) that we were going to write/draw the story from the following week on the poster.

I had the kids raise their hand and say what came next, and if it was right, they got to come write it on the poster (but they only had 10 seconds to do it). The rest of the group and I would count down from 10 so the kids had something to do while waiting.

Here's what they came up with:

 Mrs Larsen's group had to have 2 different posters because they drew so big.

After we got the whole story on the poster, we started acting out the story and I wrote down the people who were in charge of narrating the different parts of the story. We almost got through the whole story before our shortened time today was up.

I was very lucky to have Becky there with me today to observe and she helped me recognize that I need to be more authoritative when I'm working with the kids. Some of the kids in my group seemed to be testing me to see how much they could get away with and I needed to be more strict with them.

I learned today that I'm a bit too nice sometimes and I need to make sure that the students know that I'm in charge and they are expected to behave.

Becky also brought up the point that part of the problem is that the room is so noisy in trying to work with two different groups. I'm going to talk to Mrs. Larsen and see if we can find a different space for the kids to work in during this time. It's hard for the kids to concentrate when the other group is making noise too. Sometimes it's even hard for me to think! So I'll see what we can do for next time.

We didn't get to the "Talking Sticks" this week. Stay tuned for next week when I'll bring those out!

Week 7--Body Movement and First Final Performance Rehearsal

I'm really understanding what it takes to be a teacher and it requires a LOT of planning. And not the kind of planning I thought planning was, it is inTENSE planning. Like anticipating how students may act up and how to combat it. Or figuring out how to rehearse a short play where if some of the students aren't in on the action all the time, finding a way to keep them engaged 100% of the time.

It's a big job.

I'll admit today was one of the toughest days in Mrs. Larsen's class. I think the kids had a lot of extra energy because of all the "inside days" so it was good we started off with some movement exercises.

The first was a warm up. I went through all the different areas of the body (feet, legs, hips, arms, shoulders, neck, face, etc) and moved them in different ways. Then we did a levels activity where I counted from 1-10 and depending on how fast/slow I did it, they had to get from laying down on the ground to standing straight up.

Their favorite part was the second time through when I mixed it up and counted really fast at first and then slowed down or vice versa. Kids love it when you try to trick them.

The next activity I was supposed to do (but in my rush of worrying about if we would have enough time for our last activity, I didn't look down at my notecard and I accidentally jumped to the next activity) was called "Talk With Your Body." The kids spread out around the room and use different positions movement, and levels to portray different ideas like:

• I'm tired
• It's freezing in here!
• I'm so excited for Christmas!
• I'm scared

while reminding them to think about what happens to your eyebrows/mouth/eyes/legs/arms etc. when you feel all these different things. Then you pause them and have them look around the room (with their eyes only) to see the unique ways other kids are portraying the same thing.

Then we played "Character Sculpt" where I drew 2 names out of the class jar and one student is the "clay" and the other is the sculptor. The sculptor draws out an emotion (like last week's activity) and they have to shape the "clay" in a way that the class can tell what the person's feeling just by looking at the position of their body. I was impressed with all the different ways the kids came up with portraying the emotion. The kids loved it and wanted to do it longer. Looking back, next time I would probably split the whole class up in pairs and have them all pair up and do the activity.

Then the last part of the lesson, I had Mrs. Larsen split up the class into 2 groups and we started rehearsing for our final performance! Here are the two stories we'll be performing:

I just LOVE this story and it lends itself VERY well to a performance!

This is the best one I could find, although our version is going to be closer to the original Grimm brother's tale.

We assigned parts, acted out the basic storyline, and had the kids use their bodies to tell the story. This was the hardest part of the lesson because a few of the kids in my group weren't able to sit still without being disruptive and loud. I tried a few different tactics that worked for a little while (pulling the main trouble-maker aside, using our "tick-tock" phrase and even stopping and having a little chat with them.

One of the greatest things about this program is getting feedback from people who have been teaching a lot longer than I have. I sure appreciate Doug Allen coming to the class today and giving me lots of good tips on how to make this last activity better. Here were a few of the suggestions he made:

• Always have a "surprise" up your sleeve so-to-speak so the kids wonder what's next. Whether this is cue cards, visual aids, hats, or whatever it might be, to have a physical something to make them wonder what's going on.
• It might be helpful if from the start we push the desks off to one side of the room so the kids know it's time for drama and we aren't stuck in one corner of the room.
• Involve the audience somehow in this performance. Maybe have cards for the audience to clap or something so the kids will be more involved that way.

I also talked to Becky and she gave me the idea of keeping my one trouble-maker always busy somehow, whether that's helping out with a related project or whatever it might be or something else. But I just need to always have something that the kids who are not on stage can be doing something.

Week 5--Folk tales From Around the World

Lately I have noticed this class as a whole has had some problems listening when either me or Mrs. Larsen is speaking and I wanted to find a more imaginative way to help the kids know they need to listen so they can get instructions.

I found some great ideas in a book called "Creating Meaning Through Literature and the Arts; An Integration Resource for Classroom Teachers." It gave the idea to have students listen to grass grow or to the clock tick. It also suggested having a call-and-response phrase. The kids already know the "[Teacher] 1-2-3, eyes on me. [Students] 1-2, eyes on you" call and response and I needed something quicker, so I came up with "[Teacher] Tick! [students] Tock!"

That worked very well, and we'll see if it stuck next week. 

We then located ourselves and on a map and I showed the class the places on the map where the next two stories were from (China and the Philippines). I split the class into two groups (the classic 1-2-1-2 way) and then I had Mrs. Larsen choose two narrators, one from each group (to ensure that they would be able to read the story).

Each group got a story from another country. One was "The Empty Pot" by Demi.

And the other was "A Crocodile's Tale" by Jose and Ariane Aruego.

We had the students read the stories and then create a short performance for the class. Originally my idea was to have them perform it so the class would be able to hear two different stories from different parts of the world, but I underestimated the time that it really took. 

However, I am always amazed at how creative these kids are. They have incredible imaginations!

Having those big groups made it very hard to act out the story when coordinating so many kids in such a short amount of time. I also found that having the student narrators were tricky because they were unsure of when to keep telling the story and when to stop to let me work with the kids.

I was also very grateful to have Becky Wallin there to observe what I did and give me pointers afterwards. She pointed out that my overall objective needed to be more clear and present in the whole lesson. Part of my objective was to have them work on their own fairytales that they are writing (although we didn't actually have time in the end to do it) and that weakened the overall objective. I needed to focus more on the theme (folk tales from different countries) for my objective and let the kids write their stories during their writer's workshop time.

I'm also going to incorporate more theatre core concepts into the curriculum. It's a tough balance to get the core curriculum in there AND weave them together with drama concepts.

I'm starting to really understand the life of a teacher. Woof.

Week 4--Poetry and Fairytales

Today the goal was to introduce some poetry and get the kids started on their individual fairy tales! They need to get writing them so we can start rehearsing them!

First we started by comparing the story of Sleeping Beauty (I used the Disney version)

to a poetry version by Ken Nesbitt:

Sleeping Beauty pricked her thumb,
started feeling overcome.
Probably she would have died
as the witch had prophesied,
but the fairies had her blessed
so she just got beauty rest.
For a hundred fifty years
she missed balls and film premieres,
till Prince Charming came along
singing out a cheerful song.
Kneeling down he kissed her cheek
hoping that she'd wake and speak.
Sleeping Beauty raised an arm
reaching for the snooze alarm
and her waking words were these:
"Just need five more minutes please."

We did a dramatic reading of the poem where I had kids choose words to make them sound more interesting in the poem and then I recorded them doing it (a curriculum requirement).

[I'll upload it once I have permission slips back]

Then, to introduce the fact that they are going to be writing their own fairy tales, I had a few students roll these dice and we made up a story about the characters, place, and problem that came up.

Then we played a game I wish I could take credit for (my friend, Alicia came up with it) called FairyTale Telephone. Each student writes down one thing for each category, folds down the paper, and then passes it to the next student. He/she then writes something down for the next category and then passes it to the next person, etc. By the end, they should have a variety of things written down that make for a very interesting story! Here's a few that they came up with:

And by "snack," the 2nd Grader meant "Snake"

From here, the kids then kept the one they ended on and they will be able to use it in their story writing. They are free to change whatever they want about the paper they ended up with, but this gives them a starting point in case they don't have anything to start with.

Overall, I think this activity turned out pretty well. I am always amazed at what kids come up with in dramatic readings. They always choose the hardest words like "prophesied," but then the come up with a way of saying it or an action to go with it that makes it pretty darn creative!

The Fairytale Telephone activity didn't go quite as smoothly as I had planned, but it did work. I think I needed to instruct them better and maybe it would've been a bit smoother. The last part (the "Problem") was definitely the hardest, but I knew that was coming. So Mrs. Larsen read a few of the problems I already came up with and most of the kids picked a problem from there.

If nothing else, it helped the kids understand the elements of a fairytale more so they will be more successful in writing one. I'm really excited to see what they come up with. I really think they are going to surprise me with their creativity!

Week 3--What is a fable?

Today the goal was to review with the kids what fairy tales and folk tales were and contrast them with fables (which we were going to learn about today). I was pleasantly surprised to find that they remembered almost everything we had talked about the previous 3 weeks!

We then did a game I called "Fairy Freeze." This was an exercise where I would call out animal movements like "waddle like a penguin," "soar like an eagle," "scurry like a mouse" or "sleep like a lion!" They loved it and all of them got so into it by making noises and everything!

I wanted to get them moving with this activity and also give them an intro into talking about the animals in our story, a lion and a mouse. I also told them that the people who participated well in this activity would get to help me tell a story later on, and that made them all a LOT more willing to do what they should!

From here, we came back to the rug and I pulled out my lion and mouse puppets. One student got to be the mouse and the other got to be the lion. I then passed out some string for 5 students to be the "hunters" in the story. I told the story and helped the kids with the puppets tell the story by telling them to make the noises at the right time, and make the puppets do what they need to in the story, etc.

The kids loved being "the hunters" and tying the lion up. I actually had to tell them to sit back down after they were done putting their piece of yarn on the lion because they were loving tangling him all up!

When I asked boy who was playing the lion to "roar" like the lion, he did a VERY impressive lion noise, and moved the mouse so well that the rest of the class giggled in delight (I may or may not have giggled right along with them)!

We then talked about the elements of fables and I asked them what the moral of the story of the lion and the mouse was.

From here, I split them into 3 groups by having them do a toe-to-toe exercise and I gave them each a poster where I explained to them that they were going to write everything they knew about fairy tales/folk tales/fables (depending on which poster they got). They could write or draw anything to do about the genre they got.

I loved the pictures that the kids chose to draw. They all had to do with the genre and it really showed me just how creative these kids are.

Once they were done with that, they were to come up with a story that fit in their genre to perform for the class. This was a pre-assessment for me to see how well they performed in front of their peers.

I feel like this activity went really well, especially since Mrs. Larsen and I went between the 3 groups and made sure they were doing well. The fairy tale group had a hard time working together as a group at first and the narrators got so involved in the story, they forgot to narrate it. But it was a great version of Jack and the Beanstalk!

We also had a great rendition of "The Three Little Pigs" where they used their desks as their three houses and "The Lion and the Mouse" with the greatest casting of the mouse ever (see the girl in blonde below). Also, the boy in the blue striped shirt was a great narrator.

Next time, I would end with a more solid wrap-up where we talk more about the differences between the genres and what we saw in each performance. I learned that I need to have a better follow up to wrap the lesson all together.

I just LOVED seeing these kids interact with the stories today and create their very own performances. It was extremely rewarding for me. Kids are so creative!