A Resource Guide for Teachers and Parents

Transcription

1 SHOWTIMES JANUARY 28 FEBRUARY 13 SATURDAYS: 1:00 PM & 4:00 PM SUNDAYS 1:00 PM (NO SHOW J AN 30) SCHOOL PERFORMANCES: TUES, WED, THURS 9:15 AM & 11:15 AM INSIDE THE GUIDE Introducing the play 2 Bringing the play into the classroom... 3 About the Theatre.. 4 Extending the learning. 5 About the Library. 6 ABOUT THE STORY AND THE PLAY: It s nearly midnight. All is dark and still in the kitchen. All except Herr Von Cuckoo, that is! He s wide awake, inside his cuckoo clock, getting ready to call out the time. But then, without any warning, he loses his voice! Suddenly the kitchen comes to life, as Salt and Pepper try to find a way to help poor Herr Von Cuckoo before The Big Ones (the people who live in the house) find out that he can t cuckoo, and throw him in the dustbin. They discover a new companion, a freshly baked Gingerbread Man, and give him eyes and a mouth. The Gingerbread Man is thrilled to be alive and vows to help his new friends. He decides to be brave and go to the top shelf, where the honey is kept. Once he s up there, though, he meets the mean old bag (the teabag who lives in the teapot on the top shelf), who is not too pleased to meet him. He starts to win her over, and learns that she knows all about herbs. The Old Bag goes back into her teapot house, and the Gingerbread Man takes a bit of honey from the pot, even though he knows the Old Bag will be angry. Once he s back on the bottom shelf, the friends put the honey on a plate, but then encounter Sleek the Mouse, who has come in from a hole in the dresser where the plate had been. He s hungry, and thinks gingerbread is just the thing to fill his empty stomach! A huge chase ensues, and even the Old Bag (afraid of the mouse) decides to help. The Big Ones hear noise and see the mouse! They put poison down for him and leave. Some of the poison gets on the honey, but Herr Von Cuckoo, who has been inside the Cuckoo Clock, doesn t know. When he tastes the honey, he gets very sick. The Gingerbread Man begs the Old Bag to help, and she finally agrees, telling everyone about all the remedies her herbs can cure. The Old Bag realizes that it s good to have friends, and they all thank the Gingerbread Man for helping them. In the end, Herr Von Cuckoo gets better, and the Big Ones decide to keep the Gingerbread Man on the top shelf, where he ll live near his new friends. The play was written in the UK and uses some words that might not be familiar to American children. The original play takes place on an old Welsh Dresser a piece of furniture with shelves that lives in the kitchen. In MainStreet s production, instead of a dresser, the kitchen shelves and countertop look like they could be in your kitchen! (Although much larger, of course). The dustbin is an English world for a garbage can. As you and your students watch the play, what other words do you notice that mean the same thing but are said in different ways? 1

2 ACT I MORE INTRODUCTIONS ABOUT THE P LAY ABOUT THE AUTHOR: DAVID WOOD is called the national children s dramatist (The London Times). His plays are performed worldwide, and include THE GINGERBREAD MAN, THE PLOTTERS OF CABBAGE PATCH CORNER, SAVE THE HUMAN and THE IDEAL GNOME EXPEDITION. Among his adaptations are six Roald Dahl stories (including THE BFG, THE TWITS and THE WITCHES), Eric Hill s SPOT'S BIRTHDAY PARTY, HRH the Prince of Wales THE OLD MAN OF LOCHNAGAR and the award winning TOM S MIDNIGHT GARDEN (from Philippa Pearce s novel). For the Queen s 80 th birthday, he wrote THE QUEEN S HANDBAG, broadcast live from Buckingham Palace Gardens to 8,000,000 BBC1 viewers. David was awarded the OBE (order of the British Empire) in the Queen s Birthday Honours, David visited Rancho Cucamonga in 2008 as the Lewis Family Playhouse s first Artist in Residence during the run of the MainStreet Theatre Company s production of his adaptation of JAMES AND THE GIANT PEACH. He participated in Questions and Answers with our audiences, visited the library and a local school, and gave a talk about children s theatre on stage at the Lewis Family Playhouse. He continues to write plays and keeps in touch with us from London! CHARACTERS IN THE PLAY SALT: A salt shaker with a nautical theme. He speaks in naval expressions, and is good at tying knots. PEPPER: A pepper mill the kind you grind peppercorns in. She tends to get frustrated with Salt, and makes people sneeze THE OLD BAG the last teabag in the box. She lives on the top shelf, forgotten by the Big Ones and distrusted by the other inhabitants of the kitchen. Of course, she doesn t trust them either. SLEEK THE MOUSE he is a gangster with a tendency to mix up his words. He s hungry, so he s a threat to the Old Bag and to the Gingerbread Man HERR VON CUCKOO The Cuckoo who lives in the clock. The clock was made in Switzerland, so Herr Von Cuckoo s first language is German. Newly baked this morning. Everything is new to him, so he has to learn about the world. He teaches the others some new things, too. David Wood s Gingerbread Man has been entertaining young people around the world for many years. It is an entirely original story, about a newly baked gingerbread man. It was first produced in England in 1976, and since then has been seen in many countries and has been translated in many languages. Stories of Gingerbread men have been told for over a hundred years. The most familiar is about a Gingerbread Man that escapes and can t be caught (except in the end by a wily fox). That story was published in 1890 as part of a collection of English Fairy Tales, and included the famous line: Run, run, run, as fast as you can. You can t catch me, I m the Gingerbread Man! In our version, the freshly baked Gingerbread Man also tends to speak in rhyme, but never says those famous words! There have been two storybook versions of David Wood s The Gingerbread Man, as well as a cassette version, narrated by Bernard Cribbins. In addition, thirteen episodes of a model animation series based on the play have been seen on television and home video in the U.K. 2

3 ACT II BRINGING THE P LAY I NTO THE C LASSROOM DISCUSSION QUESTIONS The Gingerbread Man is new therefore everything is new to him. How does it feel to be the newest person in a group? Are there new children in school or in your class? How are they welcomed by the other children? The characters on the dresser are wary of the Old Bag on the top shelf. Discuss the attitudes toward the Old Bag at the beginning of the story and how and why they change. Talk about what it means to be prejudiced against someone, or to judge them before getting to know them. The kitchen characters eventually work together to capture Sleek the Mouse and save Herr Von Cuckoo. Discuss ways in which the students might need each other to get something accomplished. MAKING A PAPER PLATE CLOCK You ll need: A Paper Plate, Construction Paper, Metal Fastener (brad), a marker to write with, and scissors. 1. Write the numbers of a clock around the outside of the paper plate. 2. Draw two arrows on the construction paper, making one arrow longer than the other, and cut them out. 3. Make a hole near the end of each arrow and in the center of the plate. 4. Attach the arrows to the middle of the paper plate with the metal fastener. 5. Move the hands around the clock and practice telling the time! Some reminders when coming to the theatre: Please stay in your seats after the show until our ushers escort your class back to the busses. No food or drink inside the theatre at any time Please don t talk to your neighbors during the performance remember that the actors on stage can hear you! Please do show your appreciation by applauding at the end! Write to us and let us know what you thought! AFTER THE SHOW ACTIVITIES The Gingerbread Man was baked in a kitchen in England. Use appropriate kitchen tools to measure various ingredients such as flour, water and sugar, using both metric and US units. (See gingerbread recipe on following page to help!) (Math: Measurement and Geometry 1.0) Herr Von Cuckoo s job is to cuckoo the time every hour. Have students make their own clocks, using paper plates and construction paper. Have students use their clocks to identify time of everyday events such as dinnertime, time for school to start, etc. See instructions on this page! (Math: Measurement and Geometry 1.4) Mr. Salt thinks he is a sailor, and his language is peppered with nautical terms, but he has never actually seen the sea. Have students write a short story imagining Mr. Salt on an adventure on a real ship. (English/Language Arts: Writing) Sleek the Mouse tries to speak like a gangster from an old movie, but he gets his words mixed up. Have students come up with their own mixed up language, using familiar phrases from nursery rhymes or books they are studying in class. (English and Language Arts: Decoding and Word Recognition) The Old Bag uses herbs to make Herr Von Cuckoo feel better. Gather jars filled with common kitchen herbs, and have the class identify them by smell, and by color. Make a chart pointing out the various characteristics of each one. Which one smells the best? The worst? (Science: Investigation and Experimentation) A Kitchen is the setting for the play, and all of the action takes place in it. Have students draw a picture of their own kitchens at home. What types of objects are on the shelves? What colors are they? Older students may want to make a model or a sculpture instead of a drawing. (Visual Arts: Creative Expression 2.3). 3

4 ABOUT THE THEATRE DID YOU KNOW? Here s a traditional English recipe for making your very own gingerbread man! (the ingredients are shown in metric measurements, and their equivalent in the U.S. Discussion about the different way we measure things can make a wonderful classroom activity in itself!) 300 g plain flour (approx 2 ¾ cups) 1 level teaspoon baking soda 2 level teaspoons ground ginger 100 g butter (approx 7 tablespoons) 150g soft brown sugar (¾ cup) 4 tablespoons golden syrup (look for it in specialty shops it looks like a light molasses) 1 egg and some currents or raisins 1. Grease baking sheets. If you don t have a gingerbread man cutter, cut a shape from wax paper or parchment as a pattern 2. Mix flour, baking soda and ginger, and sift into a bowl 3. With a knife, cut the butter and using the knife or your hands, rub into the dry ingredients, until the mixture looks like breadcrumbs 4. Mix in the sugar 5. Warm the syrup in double boiler or pan over hot water. Beat in the egg. Add to the bowl, mixing to a pliable dough 6. Knead lightly on a floured surface 7. Roll out to.5 cm (aprox 1/4 inch thick). Lift men on to baking sheets with a spatula, keeping them well apart. 8. Use currents to make eyes, nose and mouth. 9. Bake at 350 for minutes, until pale golden brown 10. Cool slightly, then move to wire rack CREATIVE EXPRESSION in THEATRE Every character in the play has a very distinctive way of acting and speaking. SALT thinks he s a sailor, and speaks in nautical language. SLEEK THE MOUSE tries to speak like a mean gangster out of a movie, but gets his words mixed up. This is a great jumping off point for a class improvisation! Here s a fun theatre game based on saying hello. Have the students walk around the room, eventually getting in two lines facing each other. While they re walking, ask them all to greet each other by shaking hands. Greet one person and move on, greet another and so on. This continues for a while. Once they are in their lines, have them endow each of the greetings with an element. For example, greet each other like you are meeting for the first time (Like the Gingerbread Man). You can continue to endow the greetings with elements from the show like: greet each other like you ve just woken up, or greet someone like you don t like them (like the Old Bag), or greet someone like you are afraid of them, or like you are angry, or sad, or happy. Have fun with it, and keep the greetings short! Here s one that uses memory and listening skills. The play takes place in a kitchen. Have students sit in a circle and name objects that belong in a kitchen. You can have them start with objects that begin with A until they can t think of any more, then move on to B, or have each child name an object with the next one repeating his/her object and adding to the list. See how many they can remember! Write a review of the play, describing the scenery, lighting, sound and costumes. How did the costumes help to define the different inhabitants of the kitchen dresser? Who was your favorite character and why? 4

5 ACT III EXTENDING THE L EARNING FROM THE STAGE TO THE THE RANCHO CUCAMONGA LIBRARIES Books serve as inspiration for our imagination, hearts, and for this theater performance! The library is great place for families to continue their theater experience. Families can choose from all kinds of materials including: books, audio books, CDs, DVDs, magazines, and other materials. The Rancho Cucamonga Libraries also offer a full calendar of entertaining, enriching and informative programs for the whole family. Contact the Ranch Cucamonga Libraries for more information about materials, family programs, and services. DID YOU KNOW? There are three amazing libraries in Rancho Cucamonga. The Paul A. Biane Library, The Archibald Library, and the library Kidsmobile. PROGRAMS AND FAMILY THE RANCHO CUCAMONGA LIBRARIES PAUL A. BIANE LIBRARY Cultural Arts Nights These after-hours programs feature music, dance, storytelling, crafts, games, and speakers on selected topics. Keep an eye out for The Paul A. Biane Library at Victoria Gardens has over 1000 books and media in the Performing Arts collections for Adults and Children. The Library offers online resources to bring technology into the classroom. Check out these helpful resources: Kids Infobits, Infotrac Junior K-12 edition, and our free live homework help through Tutor.com. Super Sports-tacular Friday, January 28, p.m. to 9 p.m. The library offers a wide range of story times with entertaining stories, songs, crafts, games, and activities. Pajama Storytime Tuesday evening at 6:30 p.m. and 7:15 p.m. Family Saturdays Every Saturday family fun at 2 p.m. and 3 p.m. ARCHIBALD LIBRARY Family Storytime Every Saturday at 11 a.m. 5

6 H ELPFUL H INTS F ROM THE L IBRARY! TIPS FOR TEACHERS Kathy Schrock's Guide for Educators is a great resource for new ideas on incorporating arts into the classroom. PBS has a standards based resource list that makes integrating the arts in the classroom easy! LIBRARY TOUR INFORMATION As part of your class visit to the Lewis Family Playhouse, why not take a tour of the Victoria Gardens Cultural Center Library? Show your students about the wonderful, free resources they have access too and exciting library programming. The Paul A. Biane Library facility has over 100,000 volumes housed in a beautiful, 23,000 square foot facility. Among the facility s unique features: a story theater with a star ceiling made of fiber optic lights, 20 seat technology center, teen study area, and a special performing arts collection. THE LIBRARY If you liked The Gingerbread Man, Try out some of these fun food titles Gingerbread Mouse Shelved under EASY Braughton Gingerbread Friends Shelved under EASY Brett The Cajun Cornbread Boy Shelved under EASY Delacasas Stega Nona Shelved under EASY DePaola The Library Gingerbread Man Shelved under EASY Enderle Gingerbread Girl Shelved under EASY Ernst The Gingerbread Boy Shelved under EASY Galdone Magic Porridge Pot Shelved under EASY Galdone Ginger Bear Shelved under EASY Grey The Little Cookie Shelved under EASY Hillert Pre- and post- show tours last approximately 15 minutes and are scheduled on a first come, first served basis. To arrange a tour, please call Lorena Paz, Library Assistant at (909) ext This Curriculum guide was prepared by the staff of the Lewis Family Playhouse. Library information compiled by Library staff. For questions, comments, or suggestions, please contact Mireya Murry Hepner at (909) ext Gingerbread Cowboy Shelved under EASY Squires Heckedy Peg Shelved under EASY Wood If you have any questions about finding these books or about the library, please call the reference desk at (909)