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!

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 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!

Week 2--What is a Folk Tale?

The first three weeks I have set up so that each week we learn about each of the kinds of stories we'll be dealing with in this unit: fairy tales, folk tales, and then fables. So this week I needed to introduce the wonderful world of folk tales and I decided to do it through the story of the Three Little Pigs. (*note: the line between folk and fairy tales is VERY blurred. I realize that this story can be classified as a fairy tale, but for our purposes today, we're treating it as a folk tale.)

So today I started the kids out with a game called "Ice Wizard." It is similar to the activity we did last week in that I use my magic wand although this time  when you say they all turn into something, then they melt onto the ground and turn into something else (i.e. animals, dancers, basketball players, soliders, robots, aliens, mermaids, kings, etc.). The kids LOVED "melting" on to the ground. It was a great warm-up!

I then had the kids all come back to the rug and I assigned them all a part in the story of "The Three Little Pigs." I didn't worry about having only one person play each part, I just let however many kids wanted to play the part play it together and they were totally content with that (I think the warm-up game really helped them see how they could all be something together, like pigs, princesses or whatever).

Then once everyone had a part, I started telling the story of the pigs going out to seek their fortune and told each group of "pigs" (Pig 1, 2, and 3) to go to different corners of the room. Then I told the story of how the wolf visited each pig (after they all built their straw, stick, and brick houses...respectively) and the wolves visited each pig until the very last house where they fell into a boiling pot of water. They had so much fun, they wanted to do it again!

I can't tell you how delightful it was to see all the "pigs" huddled in the corner of the classroom giggling as they waited for the "wolves" to come to the last brick house and fall into the boiling pot of water!

After we had our fun acting out the story of The Three Little Pigs, we came back to the rug and read "The TRUE Story of the Three Little Pigs"

After which, we talked about the HUGE differences between this story and the one we acted out. I also asked the kids to help me identify the following things in each story:

• The problem and solution 
• The sequence of events 
• and the central message.

Then, I reminded the kids of the telephone activity we did last week where the object was changed the more times we told it and related that to folk tales. Folk tales were originally told by word of mouth, so that's why there are so many different versions out there. And we read a second version of our folk tale:

This is a great book because it takes a huge spin on the original story because the "big, bad pig" uses things like sledgehammers and dynamite to knock down the wolves' houses. Not to mention the plot twist in the end when the wolves befriend the pig. The kids got quite a kick out of this version and comparing it to the other two versions!

For the final part of this lesson, I had them do a mini assessment where they each got to create their title for their own version of "The Three Little Pigs" story. Once they had an idea of how they would change the story, they wrote it down on a piece of paper that they handed into Mrs. Larsen.

It was sure fun to see their creativity and what they thought would be fun to write about. Some stayed true to the pigs and wolves theme, but there were other pretty creative titles that would make a great story. My favorite? "The Three Little Ninjas and the Big, Bad, Samurai." Now wouldn't that make a great children's book?

Overall, I think the lesson went great and I was impressed on how well the kids understood the concept of folk tales and them being fluid and able to be changed. I think it's a great way to instill some critical thinking skills in kids--comparing the three stories really made them think!