Study Guide The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Stories
Contents ATTENDING A PERFORMANCE AT TILLES CENTER... 3-4 YOUR ROLE AS AN AUDIENCE MEMBER... 5 ABOUT THE COMPANY...6-7 ERIC CARLE...8 ABOUT THE PRODUCTION...9 THE STORIES...10-11 ACTIVITIES......12-15 RESOURCES......16 ABOUT TILLES CENTER...17 2
ATTENDING A PERFORMANCE The concert hall at Tilles Center seats 2,242 people. Krasnoff Theater seats 508 people. When you attend a performance at Tilles Center, there are a few things you should remember: ARRIVAL Plan to arrive approximately 30 minutes prior to the show. Performances cannot be held for late buses. LIU Post Public Safety will direct buses to parking areas. Remain seated on the bus until instructed to unload. Please stagger chaperones throughout the group to help keep students in line and moving quickly to the seating area. Groups are directed into the theater in the order that they arrive. BEING SEATED (IMPORTANT!) Upon entering the theater, ushers will direct students and teachers to sit row by row. Students will be seated in the order which they enter the building. Groups from your school may be seated separately from one another throughout the theatre. We ask that at least one chaperone is assigned to every 15 students for grades Pre-K- 5, and one chaperone to every 30 students for grades 5-12. We recommend that a teacher or chaperone sit at the end of each row of students in the theatre. With adequate adult supervision, students which may be seated in different sections of the theatre will have enough chaperones to ensure safety. We ask for your full cooperation with this procedure in order to start the show on time! Please allow ushers to seat your group in its entirety before making adjustments within the row. This allows us to continue seating groups that arrive after you. Once the entire group is seated you may rearrange students in new seats and use the restrooms. Schools are not allowed to change their seats. All students must be supervised by a teacher at all times including when going to the restroom - high school students are no exception. 3
DURING THE SHOW There is no food or drink permitted in the theater or lobby areas. Photography and audio/video recording are not permitted during the performance. Please turn off (or leave behind) all electronic devices, including cell phones, portable games, cameras, and recording equipment. Keep them off for the entire performance. The devices may interfere with the theater s sound system as well as being disruptive to both the audience and the actors. And please no texting or checking messages during the show! Please do not disturb the performers and other members of the audience by talking. If something in the show is meant to be funny, laughter is encouraged! Please do not leave and re-enter the theater during the performance. There is no intermission; visit the restroom prior to the start of the show. Performances generally run 50-60 minutes. EMERGENCY CANCELLATIONS If schools throughout the area are closed due to inclement weather, Tilles Center performances will be cancelled. If, on the day prior to a performance, it appears that inclement weather may cause a performance to be cancelled, all schools will be called by our staff to alert them to this possibility. School representatives should periodically check the Tilles Center website (tillescenter.org) when winter weather advisories and warnings are in effect. Updates will be posted regularly on the home page. On the morning of the performance a message will be posted on the website no later than 6:30 AM indicating if the performance has been cancelled. If a performance is cancelled, Tilles Center will attempt to reschedule performances on a date mutually agreeable to the artists and the majority of ticket buyers. 4
YOUR ROLE AS AN AUDIENCE MEMBER TO THE TEACHER: An essential component needed to create a live performance is the audience. Please talk with your students about what it means to be an audience member and how a live performance is different from TV and movies. Please share the following information with your students prior to your visit to Tilles Center. Some performances may involve audience participation so students should behave appropriately, given the nature of the performance and the requests of the artists on the stage. By discussing appropriate audience behavior, as a class ahead of time, the students will be better prepared to express their enthusiasm in acceptable ways during the performance. BEING AN AUDIENCE MEMBER: Audience members play an important role until an audience shows up, the performers are only rehearsing! When there is a great house (an outstanding audience) it makes the show even better, because the artists feel a live connection with everyone who is watching them. When the house lights (the lights in the part of the theater where the audience is sitting) go down, everyone feels a thrill of anticipation. Focus all your attention on the stage and watch and listen carefully to the performance. The most important quality of a good audience member is the ability to respond appropriately to what s happening on stage sometimes it s important to be quiet, but other times, it s acceptable to laugh, clap, or make noise! If the audience watches in a concentrated, quiet way, this supports the performers and they can do their best work. They can feel that you are with them! The theater is a very live space. This means that sound carries very well, usually all over the auditorium. Theaters are designed in this way so that the voices of singers and actors can be heard. It also means that any sounds in the audience - whispering, rustling papers, or speaking - can be heard by other audience members and by the performers. This can destroy everyone s concentration and spoil a performance. Do not make any unnecessary noise that would distract the people sitting around you. Be respectful! Applause is the best way for an audience in a theater to share its enthusiasm and to appreciate the performers, so feel free to applaud at the end of the performance. At the end of the performance, it is customary to continue clapping until the curtain drops or the lights on stage go dark. During the curtain call, the performers bow to show their appreciation to the audience. If you really enjoyed the performance, you might even thank the artists with a standing ovation! 5
MERMAID THEATER OF NOVA SCOTIA Eric Carle s books have created a las ng impression on children all over the world. Whether wri ng about a brown bear, a quiet cricket, or a hungry caterpillar, his stories ins ll happiness in people of all ages. The company s unique adapta ons of children s literature have served to introduce more than four million youngsters on four con nents to the magic of live theatre. Using three of Eric Carle s beloved stories, The Mermaid Theatre creates an experience like no other. In this produc on, students will be enthralled as Li le Cloud floats across the stage, the Mixed Up Chameleon goes on an adventure to the zoo, and The Very Hungry Caterpillar nibbles through the scenes. Audience members will feel like the pages of the books have come to life onstage. We know children and adults alike will giggle with delight at this spectacular visual produc on. Founded in 1972 in Wolfville, Nova Sco a, Mermaid Theatre of Nova Sco a is currently celebra ng their 40th season of con nuous opera on. In 1987 they moved to the neighboring town of Windsor and helped to revitalize the historic town s downtown business core. Their extensive headquarters encompass produc on studios, administra ve offices, rehearsal quarters, a versa le studio, and an elegant 400 seat performance facility known as The Mermaid Imperial Performing Arts Centre (MIPAC). The universally enthusias c response to their innova ve family audiences programming has enabled them to establish unparalleled touring circuits. Each year Mermaid presents more than 400 performances for 200,000 spectators many of them new to the theatre experience. Their contribu ons to the local economy as well as the role they play as cultural ambassadors for Nova Sco a and for Canada have merited Export Excellence awards from both the Governments of Canada and of Nova Sco a. 6
MERMAID THEATER OF NOVA SCOTIA Mermaid Theater regularly crosses Canada and the United States, and has represented Canada in Japan (nine mes), Singapore (six mes), South Korea (four mes), Mexico (three mes), Australia, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales, Holland, Hong Kong, Macau, Vietnam and Taiwan. Taped narra on featuring outstanding interna onal ar sts facilitates performances in English, Spanish, Korean, Japanese, French, Cantonese and Mandarin. Simultaneous tours in 2011/12 enabled the company to appear in Canada, the United States and the United Kingdom on the dame day! Mermaid Theatre con nues to make theatre history both in Nova Sco a and in Canada! Still images from several Mermaid shows. (Clockwise from top left: Leo Lionni s Swimmy ; Margaret Wise Brown s The Runaway Bunny ; Eric Carle s Very Hungry Caterpillar, and Anita Jeram s I Love My Little Storybook 7
ERIC CARLE AND HIS STORIES Eric Carle is acclaimed and beloved as the creator of brilliantly illustrated and innova vely designed picture books for very young children. His best known work, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has eaten its way into the hearts of millions of children all over the world and has been translated into more than 47 languages and sold over 29 million copies. Since the Caterpillar was published in 1969, Eric Carle has illustrated more than seventy books, many best sellers, most of which he also wrote, and more than 88 million copies of his books have sold around the world. The secret of Eric Carle s books appeal lies in his intui ve understanding of and respect for children, who sense in him ins nc vely someone who shares their most cherished thoughts and emo ons. The themes of his stories are usually drawn from his extensive knowledge and love of nature an interest shared by most small children. Besides being beau ful and entertaining, his books always offer the child the opportunity to learn something about the world around them. It is his concern for children, for their feelings and their inquisi veness, for their crea vity and their intellectual growth that, in addi on to his beau ful artwork, makes the reading of his books such a s mula ng and las ng experience. ERIC CARLE TELLS HOW HE CREATES HIS PICTURES: My picture are collages. I didn t invent the collage. Ar sts like Picasso and Ma sse and Leo Leonni and Ezra Jack Keats made collages. Many children have done collages at home or in their classrooms. In fact, some children used to say to me, Oh, I can do that. I consider that the highest compliment. I begin with plain ssue paper and paint it with different colors, using acrylics. Some mes I paint with a wide brush, some mes with a narrow brush. Some mes my strokes are straight, and some mes they're wavy. Some mes I paint with my fingers. Or I paint on a piece of carpet, sponge, or burlap and then use that like a stamp on my ssue papers to create different textures. These papers are my pale e and a er they have dried I store them in color coded drawers. Let s say I want to create a caterpillar: I cut out a circle for the head form a red ssue paper and many ovals for the body from green ssue papers; then I paste them with wallpaper glue onto an illustra on board to make the picture. 8
ABOUT THE PRODUCTION The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Eric Carle Favorites used a variety of styles of PUPPETRY including rod and hand puppets to tell the three stories. Amazingly, all of the puppets and scenic elements are manipulated by just two puppeteers! Part of the visual magic of Mermaid Theatre s produc on comes from the use of BLACK LIGHT, which allows only certain elements onstage to be seen by the audience. The puppets and scenery are painted with fluorescent paint, which glows in the dark under ultraviolet light (also called black light). Under black light, anything black become invisible. During the show, the puppeteers will be on stage as they work with the puppets. They wear black clothing and black masks and perform in front of a black wall. This makes them almost invisible to the audience and allows them toe execute all kinds of visual illusions with the puppets. The show also employ pre recorded narra on of Eric Carle s text to the three stories, and original music composed especially for this produc on. DID YOU KNOW: Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia s The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Favorites Eric Carle Stories has been touring continuously since 1999. To accommodate demand, the company has had to construct duplicate versions of the puppets and props so that the show can be performed simultaneously in different places across the globe. The show has been performed in Dutch, English, Spanish, Japanese and Korean! 9
THE STORIES The Very Hungry Caterpillar A er popping out of an egg on Sunday, the very hungry caterpillar eats his way through the week with a variety of foods, beginning with one apple on Monday and with 10 different foods on Saturday (chocolate cake, ice cream, a pickle, Swiss cheese, salami, a lollipop, cherry pie, sausage, a cupcake, and watermelon). Not surprisingly, the very hungry caterpillar ends up with a stomach ache. Fortunately, a serving of one green leaf helps. The now very fat caterpillar builds a cocoon. A er staying in it for two weeks, he nibbles a hole in the cocoon and emerges a beau ful bu erfly. Eric Carle says: Many of you ask, why the bu erfly in The Very Hungry Caterpillar comes from a cocoon, not a chrysalis? That s a good ques on. Here s the scien fic explana on: In most cases a bu erfly does come from a chrysalis, but not all. There s a rare genus called Parnassian, that pupates in a cocoon. These bu erflies live in the Pacific Northwest, in Siberia, and as far away as North Korea and the northern islands of Japan. And here s my unscien fic explana on: My caterpillar is very unusual. As you know caterpillars don t eat lollipops and ice cream, so you won t find my caterpillar in any field guides. But also, when I was a small boy, my father would say, Eric, come out of your cocoon. He meant I should open up and be recep ve to the world around me. For me, it would not sound right to say,. Come out of your chrysalis. And so poetry won over science! h p://www.eric carle.com/q cocoon.html 10
The Mixed Up Chameleon A small green chameleon sits on a shiny green leaf. He moves onto a brown tree and turns brown. He sits on a red flower and turns red. When he moves across yellow sand, he turns yellow. The chameleon turns grey when he is cold and hungry, but he turns green again when he catches and eats a fly. One day the chameleon visits a zoo. He wishes to be as big and beau ful as some of the animals he sees. When he becomes white like a polar bear, handsome like a flamingo, smart as a fox, when he swims like a fish, runs like a deer, sees far away things like a giraffe, hides like a turtle, becomes strong as an elephant, and becomes funny as a seal, he becomes very mixed up. Because he is a li le of this and a lit tle of that, he is no longer able to catch the fly when he gets hungry. The unhappy chame leon wishes to be himself again. His dream comes true and he catches the fly. The chameleon learns the importance of being true to oneself. Li le Cloud Li le Cloud dri s behind bigger clouds. As the bigger clouds push upward and away, Li le Cloud pushes downward to touch the tops of houses and trees. Li le Cloud changes into a giant cloud, a sheep, an airplane, a shark, two trees, a rabbit, a hat, and a clown. The other clouds dri back and huddle together with Li le Cloud. All the clouds change into one big cloud and rain on the houses and trees below. 11
CATERPILLAR ACTIVITES From The Caterpillar Exchange 1. Life Cycles of the Bu erfly: Egg: Have children hold their ankles. bend down, and round their body like the shape of an egg. Larva: Squirm like a worm. Pupa: Crawl into a sleeping bag (large pillowcases, leap frog bags) with colorful kerchiefs inside. Bu erfly: Children pop out of the bag swaying their colorful kerchiefs behind them. Submi ed by Mush11301994@aol.com 2. Make Your Own Collage: Glue pieces of fabric, string, ssue paper, construc on paper, and clips from magazines to create a bu erfly. Mount on solid piece of construc on paper. Submi ed by R. Hoon 3. A er I read the story, we make caterpillars out of cardboard egg cartons. We paint them green and then add eyes and pipe cleaner antennae. Then the next day we use toilet paper rolls to make cocoons. I have the students paint them and we let them dry. The next day, I give them pre cut paper bu erflies and have the children decorate them and glue them to a popsicle s ck. A er the bu erflies have dried, we insert our them into our cocoons. Then we pull them out and witness their changes! Submi ed by Darlene Jarosz More great ac vi es!: h p://www.squidoo.com/the very hungry caterpillar lesson ideas#module109632981 12
http://www.earlylearninghq.org.uk/numeracy-resources/counting-games/the-very-hungry-caterpillar-addingsheet/ 13
From The Caterpillar Exchange CLOUD ACTIVITES 1. A er reading Li le Cloud to my first graders, we went outside to look at the clouds. The children brought out paper and wrote what they thought the clouds looked like. When we came back inside, the children chose their favorite shape for a cloud and designed it out of co onballs. They glued their cloud design on light blue construc on paper and wrote the name of their cloud picture on the bo om with white crayon. The students really loved this ac vity! Submi ed by Lisa Johnson 2. A er reading Li le Cloud to my first grade students, we imagined the adventures Li le Cloud would have visi ng our classroom. We brainstormed a list of the things he would turn into because he saw them in our room, just as he had changed shapes in the book. The children dictated a con nuing class story as I took notes. The cummula ve story was published on my website. The children had fun! Thanks to Mr. Carle for giving us inspira on. Submi ed by Diane Cook 3. During our weather week in kindergarten, we read Li le Cloud in one of our small groups. A er reading the book, we imagine what else Li le Cloud could turn into. I give each child a sheet of ssue paper (using colors such as turquoise and blue works best), and then I have them paint the ssue with white paint. We use the wrong end of the brush (just as Eric Carle does in the Picture Writer video) to make swirls and lines in our white paint. While our white cloud pain ngs are drying, we go outside and look at the clouds in the sky and imagine what our cloud will look like. When the ssue paper is dry, the children cut out their cloud shape and glue it onto a blue piece of construc on paper. I then give out blue crayons so that they can add some details to their clouds. Submi ed by Jen Ware 14
From The Caterpillar Exchange CHAMELEON ACTIVITES 1. A er our class read The Mixed Up Chameleon, we drew pictures of anything we liked to change into and then I mounted the student s school photo on the body of the animal or thing that they wanted to change into. The students also wrote a sentence under their drawing. Ex. I would change into...because... Finally, we made a big book called the The Mixed Up Class. Submi ed by Rosemary C. Simmons Brown 2. Make a transparency of the chameleon. The students had to cut out their chameleon and we stapled it onto a popsicle s ck. We talked about how chameleons camouflage themselves etc... The class then had their chameleons blend in with many different backgrounds. They used their chameleons on their clothes, the wall, books, desks, shoes, hair, puzzles etc... They loved it!!! Submi edby Ginny Snyder THINK ABOUT IT! What are Chameleons like? Why are they special? Why do they change color? What kinds of animals might we see in a zoo? What animals did the chameleon want to be like? What part of that animal did the chameleon take on? Who did the chameleon decide he wanted to be in the end? Why? Act like a chameleon together, catching a fly with your tongue and moving your eyes from side to side. Iden fy colors together as you read the story Point out how silly the chameleon starts to look with all those extra animal parts! Ask the children to draw a self portrait to emphasize his/her uniqueness. Source: h p://media.wix.com/ugd/43406c_c037108a5df8327411be7b4f6d53161b.pdf 15
RESOURCES The Official Eric Carle Website: h p://www.eric carle.com/ Mermaid Theatre of Nova Sco a: h p://mermaidtheatre.ca/ The Caterpillar Exchange: h p://www.eric carle.com/catexchange.html The Eric Carle Museum of Picture Book Art: h p://www.carlemuseum.org/ The Children s Bu erfly Site: h p://www.kidsbu erfly.org Weather Wiz Kids: h p://www.weatherwizkids.com/ Informa on about all types of weather. Sec on on clouds includes FAQs, pictures and decrip ons of cloud types, and links to ac vi es. Environmental Protec on Agency: h p://www.epa.gov/ogwdw000/kids/kids_k 3.html EPA site for students about water and the water cycle. Links to a water cycle diagram, an animated water cycle representa on, and direc ons for crea ng your own water cycle demonstra on in the classroom. Na onal Geographic Kids: h p://magma.na onalgeographic.com/ngexplorer/0210/ ar cles/mainar cle.html Carle, Eric. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. New York: Philomel Books, c1994. Carle, Eric. Li le Cloud. New York: Philomel, c1998. Educa onal Materials in this teacher guide provided, in part, by the Official Eric Carle website: www.eric carle.com and Tennessee Performing Arts Center Source: Civic Center of Greater Des Moines: h p://www.civiccenter.org 16
Tilles Center for the Performing Arts, at LIU Post in Brookville, is Long Island s premier concert hall. Tilles Center for the Performing Arts at LIU Post in Brookville, is Long Island s premier concert hall. For 38 years, Tilles Center has been host to more than 70 performances each season by worldrenowned artists in music, theater and dance. Tilles Center was the first to bring the New York Philharmonic to Long Island and Bruce Springsteen s legendary Santa Claus is Comin to Town was recorded onsite. Tilles Center s Concert Hall seats 2,242 and features orchestral performances, fully-staged operas, ballets and modern dance, along with Broadway shows, and all forms of music, dance and theater from around the world. Thanks to the generous support of Eric and Sandra Krasnoff, the Krasnoff Theater, formerly Hillwood Recital Hall, has been refurbished and expanded to include new cushioned seats, a regraded floor for better views and an improved overall layout. Tilles Center s Education Programs are made possible, in part, with funds from the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of Governor Andrew M. Cuomo and the New York State Legislature. Arts Education programs are made possible, in part, by the Gilbert and Rose Tilles Endowment for Arts Education. School Partnership Program An intensive part of Tilles Center s Arts Education program is the School Partnership program, modeled on the highly acclaimed aesthetic education program that has evolved over a 35-year period at Lincoln Center. The Partnership is a comprehensive approach to teaching and learning about the arts, applicable to all grade levels and academic disciplines. The Partnership inspires students and teachers to approach the arts with an open mind and to gain insights into the creative process. Attendance at professional performances at Tilles Center is combined with experiential in-school workshops. Led by teaching artists and teachers, students explore their own artistic capabilities while strengthening essential skills abstract thinking, teamwork, critical judgment, and problem solving. Guided to a deeper level of understanding, students learn what to look for, and listen to, in a performance or work of art. The School Partnership works with students in Pre-K through high school and provides professional development for teachers. For information about the School Partnership Program and other performances, visit tillescenter.org or call (516) 299-2752. 2018-19 School Partner Districts Carle Place Freeport East Williston East Meadow Great Neck Glen Cove Roosevelt The Portledge School (Independent) 17