Art Form: Theatre

Supplies Needed

-All Are Welcome book
-Paper and pencil

Vocabulary

Character - a person in a story or play, or
an animal or object that has human qualities

Monologue - a long speech by a single character

First-Person - a narrative ‘voice’ in which
the person or character telling the story is talking about their own experience

Dialogue - a conversation between two or more persons

Instructions

1. Choose one of the students that you see on the cover or the first page of the story. You can choose one that you identify with, or one that is different from you. Imagine a name for that character.

2. Read the story. As you read through the book track your character. Most of the students appear on most of the pages.

3. Make notes about at least five activities, emotions, or situations that your character is shown doing, expressing, or being involved in (for example, “sharing a pretzel with a friend” or “swinging on a swing”).

4. Write a short monologue for your character about their day. Use first-person writing – don’t write about the character, but write as the character. For example, the character could say, “I was so excited to show everyone what we learned about bugs!”. Describe what the character has done and also how they feel about it.

5. Practice and then perform your monologue for a friend or family member. You could perform without telling them which character you chose, and then see if they can find the character in the book based on your monologue.

Extensions

Choose one of the activities from your monologue where your character is talking to another child or adult. Write a short dialogue of what they might say each other.

Talk with a family member or friend about what makes you feel welcome in your school or community. How could you help others feel welcome?

Art Form: Theatre

Supplies Needed

-Thank You, Omu book

Vocabulary

Character - a person in a story or play, or an
animal or object that has human qualities

Vocal Expression - the way an actor uses their
voice to portray a character or to convey feelings, often involving choices about pitch or volume

Pitch - how high or low/deep an actor’s voice is
to portray a character

Volume - how loud or soft/quiet an actor’s voice
is to portray a character

Posture - how an actor stands or positions their
body to portray a character

Instructions

1. Read the book, Thank You, Omu. Look at Omu and the three characters that first come to Omu’s door – the boy with the red car, the police officer, and the hot dog vendor.

2. With a family member or friend, decide who will be Omu and who will be the boy with the red car. Each actor should think about how to change their voice and what posture to adopt to become their character.

3. Reread the page where the boy comes to Omu’s door. Reread what they say to each other. The actor playing the boy can go to a doorway and knock. Then, act out the scene, using your vocal expression and posture choices to be the characters.

4. Repeat the process for the pages with the police officer and the hot dog vendor. You can switch roles so that each actor gets to play both Omu and a visitor.

5. Find simple costume pieces or props (a shawl for Omu, a toy car for the boy, a cap for the police officer, an apron for the hot dog vendor) to use to add to the scene.

Extensions

Choose three more characters from the page with all the other people that came and enact scenes when they came to Omu’s door. Try to make each character’s voice and posture different. Do they talk fast or slow? Do they have an accent or a particular way of talking?

Choose a character and think about how they know Omu. Act out when they met. What would they say to each other? What would they say to each other if they met somewhere else?