Study Guide: Grades K-4 RiverCenter for the Performing Arts 900 Broadway, Columbus, GA 31901 Phone: (706) 256-3612 Resources collected and edited by Jan Hyatt and Connie Ussery, Columbus Jazz Society December 18 and 19, 2017
A Brief Synopsis Charlie Brown just can t seem to find the holiday spirit. With all of the hustle and bustle, the focus on getting instead of giving, and the demands of his family and friends- Charlie Brown is sick of a commercialized Christmas! Join the Peanuts gang in beating their holiday blues by bringing to life the beloved 1965 Charles M. Schulz classic. The 50 th anniversary of the animated television special reminds us that Christmas isn t just about presents, trees, and letters to Santa; it s about celebrating traditions with the ones you love. Vocabulary Grades k 1, 2 piano a musical instrument that is played by pressing keys on a keyboard. Each key is a lever that makes a hammer inside the piano hit a string, producing a sound. Each string has a different length and so produces a different pitch. orchestra is a group of musicians playing instruments together. jazz-- a music genre that includes improvisation and originated in African-American communities of New Orleans, United States, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. It developed from roots in blues and ragtime. score music in a film, presentation or show lyrics words to a song Vocabulary Grades 3, 4 trio three musicians playing and/or singing together acoustic sounds made from an instrument that is not electric percussion the first musical instrument following the human voice. A musical instrument that is sounded by being struck, plucked, shaken or scraped. contra bass the largest bowed-string instrument
Concepts Jazz trio Acoustic piano, bass and drums Jazz as expression and celebration originally from our African-American heritage Meaning of Christmas and connected spirituality The Christmas Story Pre-Show questions 1. A Charlie Brown Christmas is a made for TV special that some families have a tradition of watching every holiday season. What are some traditions you have with your family? Can you think of a new tradition to try this year? 2. Charlie Brown can't seem to catch the holiday spirit. What do you do to get you in the holiday mood? 3. Charlie Brown doesn't think the true meaning of Christmas can be bought at a store. What do you think is the true meaning of Christmas? 4. Charlie Brown is feeling down and out, and his friends try to cheer him up. How do you help cheer up friends when they are feeling blue? Create a Comic Strip Art/Language Arts Activity A comic strip is a form of storytelling using a sequence of pictures, and sometimes captions. Charles Schulz used speech and though bubbles along with his drawings to tell a short story each week. He slowly developed well-loved charters over the course of many years. Take a look at one of his strips below. As a class, make some observations about what you notice. Then, using the template below, have each student create their own comic strip, either using Peanuts characters or a completely new idea. Encourage at least 3 thought or speech bubbles to help tell the story. More inspiration and Peanut strips can be found here: http://www.peanuts.com/comics/
Now you create your story in the panels below:
POST-SHOW QUESTIONS 1. At the beginning of the show, Charlie Brown says he doesn t understand Christmas. Do you think he understands it better at the end of the show? How would you explain Christmas to someone like Charlie Brown? 2. Commercialization means to exploit or manage something to make a profit. What other holidays are commercialized? What is lost when people commercialize things? 3. Linus says that the tree Charlie Brown got just needed a little love. What have you made better by giving a little love? What other things that don t cost money can you give during the holiday season, and the rest of the year? 4. All the kids work together at the end to give Charlie Brown a Christmas gift. When have you worked together with others? How is working as a team different than doing something by yourself? How does cooperation and teamwork make you feel? Free Resources Interactive Websites for k-3 Public Broadcasting Service http://pbskids.org/chuck/index.html#/jazz Outline of resources on this website: History of Jazz as well as Jazz concepts and qualities Grades K, 1 and 2 Typical instruments and how they sound Jazz Sounds (Click the piano, saxophone, trumpet, etc.) http://pbskids.org/chuck/jazz_sounds.html Grades 3 and 4 Lyrics and composition How a performance is managed (Main Gig) YouTube videos for preview Charlie Brown Christmas Dance (tap your feet or free movement) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s1luxqwzcno
Articles: Jazz in the classroom: The Younger the Better, Teaching Music, https://nafme.org/jazz-inthe-classroom/ Biographies Charles Schultz https://srcity.org/1367/about-schulz Early Interest Charles M. Schulz was born in 1922 and was raised in St. Paul, Minnesota. Nicknamed "Sparky" after the early 1900s comic strip horse, "Sparkplug," Schulz's fascination with comic strips started early. Sunday comics from four different newspapers were read with his father each week. "My ambition from earliest memory was to produce a daily comic strip," said Charles Schulz. Schulz attended Central High School in St. Paul and then enrolled in a cartooning correspondence course at what is known today as the Art Instruction School in Minneapolis. Following three years in Europe as an infantryman in WW II, Schulz returned to this school as an instructor where he worked with Charlie Brown, Linus and Frieda, who later lent their names to the Peanuts comic strip. Peanuts In 1950, after many mailbox rejections, Schulz boarded a train from St. Paul to New York with a handful of drawings for a meeting with United Feature Syndicate. On October 2 of that year, Peanuts, named by the syndicate, debuted in seven newspapers with Charlie Brown, and it now appears in over 2,600 newspapers worldwide. "It seems beyond comprehension of people that someone can be born to draw comic strips, but I think I was," said Charles M. Schulz, creator of Peanuts. And that was exactly what Schulz did everyday since Peanuts debuted on October 2, 1950 until he passed away on February 12, 2000, only hours before his last original strip was to appear in Sunday papers. Vince Guaraldi Composer of A Charlie Brown Christmas https://www.biography.com/people/vince-guaraldi-110615 Jazz pianist Vince Guaraldi is best known for his soundtrack work in the classic 'Peanuts' cartoons. Vince Guaraldi was born into a musical family in 1928. He began to learn the piano at an early age, and by the mid-1950s was an accomplished jazz musician. In 1965 Guaraldi s musical themes were recorded for the animated holiday special A Charlie Brown Christmas, airing in December of that year. Featuring the now instantly recognizable Linus and Lucy, Christmas Time Is Here, Skating and other Guaraldi compositions, the special was an instant hit, spawning a long string of Peanuts projects that would all feature Guaraldi s unforgettable music.
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