Drama-Pantomime

Although I am primarily a musician, I try my best to integrate all art forms into my curriculum. Returning from Christmas break, I always teach a lesson on drama to most of my grade levels (2nd-5th). We explore pantomime. This is a great follow-up for our Nutcracker unit because ballet dancers must use pantomime to communicate on stage when they are not dancing.

When I introduce pantomime, I first perform a scene by myself from a familiar story--Snow White.  My students must watch for clues and guess the story

I enter a cottage, am shocked at the filth, and start cleaning. Then I yawn and take a nap. I wake up to greet the 7 dwarves. I stand tall and bend over to shake their hands. There is a knock at the door. I greet the guest, accept the apple, take a bite, and die.

We discuss what actions and facial expressions were good clues and what other stories they may have thought were a possibility. Then, I divide the class into groups of 5-6 to pantomime a story together. I have created story cards with familiar fairytales and nursery rhymes. Each group draws 3 cards and then selects one to act out.

They usually have about 15-20 minutes to rehearse together. I ask that their performance be 2 minutes or less. During the last 5-10 minutes, I allow them to choose props that are essential to telling the story. Scarves are very versatile and become costumes or scenery. Other common props include: chairs, stuffed animals, and random objects around the room.

I save the last 15 minutes of class for the group performances and discussions. I encourage good audience behavior while each group is performing. I created a rubric to assess the performance.

This lesson is a great success with students of all ages. Students love the opportunity to explore their dramatic and creative sides. The 17 page Powerpoint, 24 story cards, lesson plan, and performance rubric are available for download on Teachers Pay Teachers.  I'm certain your students will enjoy this lesson as well!

Download Here

Nutcracker Resources

I have been teaching the Nutcracker for many years and my resources continue to grow!

The Story

My favorite book to share is a pop-up book that I got on sale one year in February for $3.99. Unfortunately, it is currently out of print. If you happen to see it in a used bookstore, snatch it up! Here is the full information:

The Nutcracker: A Magical Pop-up Adventure

Denchfield, Nick

Published by Macmillan Children's Books 2003-10-17, 2003

ISBN 10: 033396134X / ISBN 13: 9780333961346

The students are in awe of this pop-up, especially the spinning sugarplum fairy at the end!

Lesson Ideas

During my first years teaching the Nutcracker, we did little more than read the book and then dramatize the story with a few props and music selections. A couple years ago, I purchased a new resource book to create lessons with more music connections.

Nutcracker Suite
Active Listening Strategies for the Music Classrooom
By Wesley Ball
Book and CD ($19.99 at westmusic.com)

.It includes many lesson ideas with a variety of activities. There are listening maps, printable worksheets, and a music cd. My favorite activity suggested by the book uses music from the March. When the students hear the trumpets, they are locomotor and march around the room. When they hear the strings, they are nonlocomotor and wave a scarf in the air. During the B section, when they hear flutes, they crawl on the floor and pretend to be mice. Many of the lessons encourage active listening and suggest activities to get the students engaged.

The Ballet

I always show portions of the full-ballet on video, skipping through the longer dance numbers due to time constraints. I was recently introduced to blubbr.tv and decided to use that site to create an interactive quiz. (To learn more about Blubbr follow this link.) I created 2 quizzes, one for each Act. The questions cover some basic music terms such as melody, harmony, dynamics, tempo, and instrument families. It introduces some basic ballet terms--pointe, plié, pirouette, and passé; and some basic theatre elements--costume, prop, scenery, and special effects. The video clips were taken from a YouTube video from a 2008 performance by the Royal Ballet. Follow the links below to find the quizzes.

Nutcracker Ballet Act 1

Nutcracker Ballet Act 2

Art

I also teach visual art once a week and stumbled across a few Nutcracker art projects on Pinterest. The students could be working on these projects while watching the ballet or listening to the music.

Grades 2 through 5 have had fun learning about symmetry making this project. We discuss how the ballerina has linear symmetry and the snowflakes have radial symmetry. Follow the link to the original post on krokotak.com for some printable templates and easy tutorial pictures.



Older students can practice symmetry by drawing Nutcrackers. This would take quite a bit of time to finish and would require more teacher guidance. I have not attempted this with students yet. I haven't had the time to invest in this project. If you have an art teacher at your school, perhaps you can suggest a collaborative unit. More sample pictures are featured on the original blog post at "A Faithful Attempt".

The younger students enjoy making these finger puppets. The free printables can be found on the website of the Birmingham Royal Ballet. To save paper, before copying I eliminated the instruction on each page to fit all 3 finger puppets on one page.  You can see this layout in the top picture of this post.

When searching for the original source for these finger puppets, I noticed they also have a new pair of finger puppets available and a project for a miniature theatre!

Coda

My students are always excited to see my Nutcracker sitting on the edge of my desk, but I think I may be more excited than them. I love the magic of the Nutcracker and look forward to teaching it every year!  Do you teach the Nutcracker? What are your favorite activities?

My 4 year old daughter is now in ballet class. Next year, we will start a tradition of seeing the Nutcracker live on stage. I can't wait!

Once Upon a Musical Pair

As we are approaching the end of the summer, I thought some of you may be examining your wishlists and ordering new materials for your classroom. I thought I would share some recommendations.

I absolutely love these 2 books:

"Once Upon a Folk Tale" and "Once Upon a Mountain Tale" by Linda Rockwell High and Carol Kindt. 

They are each $14.50 at westmusic.com. They are each $15.95 at amazon.com but eligible for FREE Super Saver Shipping. I suggest you visit Amazon to take a sneak-peak inside  "Once Upon a Mountain Tale" to view a few pages and see if you like it. Both books are formatted the same way.

Each book has 8 stories set to music. 

"Once Upon a Folk Tale" includes:

Chicken Little 

3 Billy Goats Gruff  

How the Camel Got His Hump

The Boy Who Cried Wolf

The Fox Who Lost His Dinner 

The Gingerbread Boy

The Old Woman and Her Pig 

Silly Jack

"Once Upon a Mountain Tale" includes 6 Jack tales and 2 Grandfather tales set to melodies from Appalachian folk songs and fiddle tunes. (I teach in Kentucky so this book was an awesome addition to my resource library!) 

Orff Arrangements

When it is time to insert a song, the reader will see a treble clef appear in the story. Although you could sing the melodies with an accompaniment, the songs include very simple Orff arrangements. Due to time constraints, sometimes I teach only the bass part. You could adapt the arrangement to meet your need by omitting or adapting some of the instrument parts. You could also play some of the parts on the piano to accompany the singing. If you are a string player, you would definitely want to bring your instrument to accompany the Appalachian folk tunes!

Sound Effects

 The characters in each story have specified sound effects with a variety of percussion instruments. The selection of includes: claves, cowbell, finger cymbals, guiro, hand drum, maracas, tambourine, temple blocks, vibraslap, wood block, cabasa, chime tree, gong, log drum, metal shaker, piccolo blocks, ratchet, recorder, sleigh bells, snare drum, suspended cymbal, timpani, triangle, wind chime, bass drum, conga, slapstick. If you don't have some of these instruments, you could make some substitutions. The characters that have sound effects appear in bold in the story to signal to the reader to pause to hear the sound effect.

Visual Aids Included!

The appendix of each book includes visuals for each character you can copy, color, and laminate to serve as visual aids during the lesson. I always glue mine onto cardstock and laminate them so they will last from year to year. I lay the visual on the carpet in front of each instrument group to remind them which character they are representing. I store them in ziploc bags and use a binder clip to keep them with the book.

Drama Integration!

The stories are short and simple and could very easily lead to dramatic performance in the classroom or for a public audience. Elaborate costumes and props are not needed, just an active imagination! I have never performed this for parents, but have often invited classroom teachers to come to a few minutes early to see a special performance. Unfortunately, I have never recorded any of these performances on video. If I ever record one, I will share it with you.

Substitute Teacher Plans!

The instructions are very simple. I have the "Chicken Little" story on stand-by as emergency sub plans. The substitute could very easily incorporate the percussion sound effects but would most likely omit the Orff melodies. I have recorded my voice singing each of the melodies so they can listen and play them for the students, since the sub most likely won't be able to read music. 

If you order one or both of these, I'm sure you'll be happy with your purchase!