Living with Something Unusual

Living With Something Unusual

LIVING WITH SOMETHING UNUSUAL

Learning Description

Students will explore two stories about an unusual creature becoming part of a family, and then create and enact their own stories on the same theme.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 2
CONTENT FOCUS: THEATRE & ELA
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can identify similarities and differences in two stories on a similar theme.
  • I can use my body and voice to act out animal characters.
  • I can work with a group to create a new story based on a theme from picture books.

Essential Questions

  • How do we compare two stories on a similar theme?
  • How do we create an original story based on a theme from picture books?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 2:

ELAGSE2RL6 Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.ELAGSE2RL7 Use information gained from the illustrations and words in a print or digital text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.ELAGSE2RL9 Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.ELAGSE2W3 Write narratives in which they recount a well-elaborated event or short sequence of events, include details to describe actions, thoughts, and feelings, use temporal words to signal event order, and provide a sense of closure.

Arts Standards

Grade 2:

TAES2.2 Developing scripts through improvisation and other theatrical methods.

TAES2.3 Acting by developing, communicating, and sustaining roles within a variety of situations and environments.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 2:

2.Rl.5 Determine meaning and develop logical interpretations by making predictions, inferring, drawing conclusions, analyzing, synthesizing, providing evidence, and investigating multipleinterpretations.

2.RL.8 Analyze characters, settings, events, and ideas as they develop and interact within a particular context.

Arts Standards

Grade 2:

Anchor Standard 1: I can create scenes and write scripts using story elements and structure.

Anchor Standard 3: I can act in improvised scenes and written scripts.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

Character - A person or animal in a story who takes part in the action.

Setting - The time and place of a story (when and where).

Plot - The series of related events that together form a story.

Illustration - A drawing, painting, photograph, or other image that is created to depict a story, poem, or newspaper article.

Theme - A central idea or topic in a story.

Arts Vocabulary

Act - To pretend to be or do something imaginary.

Voice - An actor’s tool, which we shape and change to portray the way a character speaks or sounds.

Body - An actor’s tool, which we shape and change to portray the way a character looks, walks, or moves.

 

Materials

Aaaarrgghh Spider!!! by Lydia Monks. and How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?, by Jane Yolen, illustrated by Mark Teague; or two texts that have the same theme of living with an unusual animal character

Paper

Pencil

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Character Movements:
Have students shift their bodies to become the animals in the stories: First, a spider . . . walking, climbing, dancing, spinning a web, jumping; then, dinosaurs . . . different types (from the text) walking, flying, running, eating, digging, settling down to sleep.

 

Work Session

Process

  • Read two quick texts for the students that share the theme of living with an unusual animal character, such as Aaaarrgghh, Spider!!!, and How Do Dinosaurs Say Good Night?.
  • Discuss similarities and differences between the two texts. Identify the theme – living with an unusual animal.
  • Gather favorite scenes from the two stories and act them out all together, using the illustrations in the books as guides. Have students become the animals and/or the creatures (e.g., the spider washing herself, the mother shaking the spider webs out on the broom, the children swinging, the ankylosaurus yawning and dragging a blanket, the apatosaurus swinging his neck, the trachodont stomping and shouting). Spotlight the specific physical choices that individual students make to enact the characters.
  • Discuss the theme. Discuss what animals are kept as housepets, and brainstorm creatures that would be very unlikely to live with a family (possible ideas: elephant, whale, moose, wooly mammoth, vulture, unicorn, grizzly bear, walrus, etc.).
  • Divide the class into groups and instruct the students to come up with their own story based on an unusual animal living with humans, and how they overcome obstacles. Tell them that they should have the human characters in the family and one unusual animal house-pet character (if there is conflict, they can alternate acting out the different roles). They should decide on several activities that the family and animal engage in. (Possibly, assign the number of activities equal to the number of students in the group, so that each student has a chance to enact the animal role.)
  • Pair up groups and have them share with each other, or have each group share with the whole class.

 

Closing Reflection

  • Review the theme of the stories, and what a ‘theme’ is.
  • Reflect on how students used their voices and bodies to become their characters.

 

Assessments

Formative

  • Observe students enacting animals in the opening activity and the group scenes.
  • Listen to students discussing similarities and differences between the two stories.

 

Summative

  • Observe how well students’ scenes clearly follow the theme of the source texts – with an unusual animal pet and a series of actions or activities.
  • Observe how students work together to enact their scenes.

 

Differentiation

Acceleration:

  • Have students write out their scenes in a playwriting format.
  • Have the groups develop a narrative in which the characters face and resolve a specific problem related to the unusual animal.

Remediation:

  • Rather than having students work independently in groups, brainstorm and collectively enact several ideas in sequence as an entire class.
  • Guide students specifically in making choices for vocal and physical expression in creating characters together (instruct and model what to do with arms, legs, upper body, faces, etc.)

 

Additional Resources

Other possible texts: Clifford the Big Red Dog, by Norman Ray Bridwell; Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile, by Bernard Waber; Charlotte and the Rock, by Stephen W. Martin; Sparky, by Jenny Offill, Illustrated by Chris Appelhans (sloth); and My Tiny Pet, by Jessie Hartland (tardigrade/water bear).

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by: Carolynn Stoddard and updated by Barry Stewart Mann

Revised and copyright: August 2022 @ ArtsNOW

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Magic Rocks & Habitats 1-2

MAGIC ROCKS & HABITATS

MAGIC ROCKS & HABITATS

Learning Description

Students will explore using their voices and bodies to become animals from three distinct habitats, and then work in groups to enact interactions among the animals in their assigned habitat. They will become Magic Rocks, emerging from stillness to act their roles, and then returning to stillness. Group will share their simple habitat scenes with the class.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: K-2
CONTENT FOCUS: SCIENCE & THEATRE
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can use my voice and body to enact an animal from a particular habitat.
  • I can work with a group to portray relationships among animals in a habitat.

Essential Questions

  • How do we use our voices and bodies to enact diverse animals?
  • How do animals interact in a desert, rainforest, and tundra?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 1:

S1L1. Obtain, evaluate, and communicate information about the basic needs of plants and animals.

Arts Standards

Grade 1:

TA.PR.1 Act by communicating and sustaining roles in formal and informal environments.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 2:

2.L.5B. Animals (including humans) require air, water, food, and shelter to survive in environments where these needs can be met. There are distinct environments in the world that support different types of animals. Environments can change slowly or quickly. Animals respond to these changes in different ways.

Arts Standards

Grade 1:

Anchor Standard 3: I can act in improvised scenes and written scripts.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

Habitat - the natural home or environment of an animal, plant, or other organism.

Animal - a living organism that feeds on plants or other animals, has organs that sense what is going on around it, and is able to move and respond to its surroundings.

Desert - an arid landscape with little vegetation.

Tundra - a large, barren region with no trees found between the permanent ice of the far north and the northern forests of North America, Europe, and Asia.

Rainforest - a lush, warm, wet habitats with tall trees and several layers of plant and animal life.

Predator - an animal that hunts or preys on other animals for food.

Prey - an animal hunted or killed by another animal for food.

Parent - an animal that has had or given birth to offspring.

Offspring - the child of an animal.

Arts Vocabulary

Act - to pretend to be or do something imaginaryCharacter - a person, or an animal or object that has human qualities, in a dramatic work.

Voice - an actor’s tool, which we shape and change to portray the way a character speaks or sounds

Body - an actor’s tool, which we shape and change to portray the way a character looks, walks, or moves.

Scene - a unit of drama, composed of dialogue and action that occurs in one place over a continuous period of time.

 

Materials

Note cards of animals that can be found in the rainforest, desert and tundra (number of notecards is dependent on the number of students in the class). Each card should have a picture of the animal, the animal’s name, and the environment in which the animal lives.

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Ask students, what are animals? What are plants? What is the difference? What makes an animal an animal, and what makes a plant a plant?

 

Work Session

Grouping Habitats and Animal Characters

  • Divide students into three groups. Assign each group one of three habitats: rainforest, desert, and tundra. Hand out note cards with the pictures, names, and habitats of various animals - e.g., the rainforest notecards might include a toucan, a black panther adult, a black panther cub, a tree frog and a monkey. Have students work in their groups to discuss their habitat, e.g., weather, plant life, land forms, other animals not featured, etc.
  • Students will explore using their voices and bodies to become their animal. Remind them that they are constrained by the limitations of the human body, but can use their imaginations. For safety, it is recommended that all animals be portrayed standing up on the floor, rather than crawling or slithering on the ground, or standing on chairs or desks.
  • Instruct the students to move through the space meeting other animals in character. The animals introduce themselves by showing their cards and saying their names and habitats. Remind them to use their character voices.

Small Group Drama

  • Put the students in their habitat groups, and assign each group a separate area of the classroom. Then tell the students to lie on the ground curled up tight to become “magic rocks”. When given a cue (“Magic rocks, come to life!”), they should wake up and gradually become their animals using their voices and bodies. They can talk to the other animals in their habitat group from their character viewpoint, using details about their needs, their physical and behavioral characteristics, and the environment in which they live. A predator might talk about wanting to hunt its prey; an herbivore might talk about the plants it eats; a young animal might talk about its life cycle; two animals might discuss the aspects of their environment that are important to them (temperature, land surface, plant life, etc.). Note: Instruct students not to act out predator/prey relationship, i.e., no chasing or pretend-eating of classmates. These may be discussed, but not enacted.
  • Give students the cue to return to Magic Rocks (“Animals, return to Magic Rocks!”). Once they have become Magic Rocks, instruct them to become themselves again.
  • Give groups a chance to discuss their Drama and their interactions. Instruct them to shape a simple scene with some planned dialogue and actions. Give them a chance to practice their scene several times.
  • One at a time, each group presents their habitat scene to the class. Have them begin as Magic Rocks, come to life, become their animals, enact their dialogue and actions, and then settle back down into Magic Rocks. If necessary, Teacher may need to give a cue for the animals to become Magic Rocks again.

Extension Activity: Have each student draw a picture of their habitat, showing all the animal characters they had in their group, and showing the relationships between them and their relationships to their environments. Remind them they can include aspects of the landscape, plants, water features, and elements of the weather.

Closing Reflection

Ask students: How did we use our voices and bodies to create animal characters? How did we make choices to act out the animals and their relationships?
What did you learn about the three habitats? How are they alike and different?

 

Assessments

Formative

  • Students use both voice and bodily to become their animal character.
  • Students work together collaboratively in their groups.
  • Students use and apply knowledge in creating their animal characters and group knowledge.

 

Summative

  • Student group dramas convey accurate interrelationships in their habitats.
  • Student drawings show accurate details about the animals, plants, and landscape of their assigned habitat.

 

Differentiation

Acceleration: Have groups write out the dialogue and actions of their group drama in scene format.

Remediation: Choose one of the three habitats, and work through the sequence with the entire class together. Allow multiple students to portray the same animal character; they can work together to create their characterization.

 

Additional Resources

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas updated by:  Barry Stewart Mann

Revised and copyright: January 2023 @ ArtsNOW

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Pantomime Summary

Pantomime Summary

Pantomime Summary

Learning Description

Students will learn how to summarize a story using the “Somebody Wanted But So Then” strategy. Next, students will create a pantomime to express the key events from the summary. The pantomimes will be performed to summarize the fiction story through movement. Students will analyze how the pantomime contributed to the presentation of the story and character development.

 

Learning Targets

GRADE BAND: 2
CONTENT FOCUS: THEATRE & ELA
LESSON DOWNLOADS:

Download PDF of this Lesson

"I Can" Statements

“I Can…”

  • I can use the “somebody wanted but so then” strategy to summarize a story.
  • I can retell a story through pantomime.

Essential Questions

  • How can we use pantomime to tell a story and enhance its presentation?
  • How can pantomime be used to summarize the key events in a fiction story?

 

Georgia Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 2:

ELACC2RL1 Ask and answer such questions as who, what, where, when, why, and how to demonstrate understanding of key details in a text.

ELACC2RL5 Describe the overall structure of a story, including describing how the beginning introduces the story and the ending concludes the action.

Arts Standards

Grade 2:

TAES2.3 Acting by developing, communicating, and sustaining roles within a variety of situations and environments.

TAES2.7 Integrating various art forms, other content areas, and life experiences to create theatre.

 

South Carolina Standards

Curriculum Standards

Grade 2:

RL.2.6.1 Use information gained from illustrations and words in a print or multimedia text to demonstrate understanding of its characters, setting, or plot.

RL.2.7.1 Retell the sequence of major events using key details; determine the theme in a text heard or read.

Arts Standards

Grade 1:

Anchor Standard 3: I can act in improvised scenes and written scripts.

 

Key Vocabulary

Content Vocabulary

Plot - The sequence of events that happen in a story.Summarize - To reduce something to its basic elements; to tell a story in its simplest, briefest form.Problem - A difficult situation that arises in a story.Solution - The way that a problem in a story is solved.

Arts Vocabulary

Pantomime - Pretending to hold, touch, or use something you are not really holding, touching, or using; in the theatrical tradition, acting without words.

 

Materials

“Somebody Wanted But So Then” Graphic Organizer (included below, or a similar document)

 

Instructional Design

Opening/Activating Strategy

Pantomime

  • Begin in silence, doing a simple pantomime activity, e.g., sweeping the floor, eating an apple, eating an ice cream cone, playing basketball, fishing, etc. Allow the students to guess the activity.
  • Debrief with the students – what made the activity clear? What were the parts of the activity? How did the hands, body position, facial expression, and other elements convey the activity?
  • Lead the students through the same pantomime, step by step. (Carefully define the steps: for example, 1. See the broom. 2. Put hands on the broom. 3. Lift the broom. 4. See the dirt on the ground, including a facial expression of mild disgust. 5. Sweep the dirt in rhythmic strokes toward a central spot. 6. Put the broom back. 7. Pick up a dust broom and dustpan. 8. Sweep the dirt into the dustpan. 9. Empty the dustpan into the garbage.)
  • Define pantomime.

 

Work Session

Process

  • Teach students how to identify key events in the story using the “Somebody Wanted But So Then” strategy:
    Somebody - Who is the main character?
    Wanted - What does the main character want?
    But - What is the problem?
    So - How does the character solve the problem?
    Then - How does the story end?
    For example, with “Jack and the Beanstalk”:
    Somebody - Who is the main character? Jack
    Wanted - What does the main character want? He wants to help his mother get the money they need.
    But - What is the problem? Jack takes the giant’s goose, so the giant chases Jack.
    So - How does the character solve the problem? He escapes the giant.
    Then - How does the story end? Jack and his mother have all the golden eggs the goose lays.
  • Choose a sample story with which the students are familiar. Write a 5-point summary of the story in the graphic organizer
  • Create a pantomime sequence, with the help of the students, to summarize the story through movement.
  • Have groups of students practice performing the pantomime and explain how the movements are used to enhance the retelling.
  • Divide the students into groups of 3-5.
  • Assign another familiar story, or stories, to groups of students.
  • Students complete their own graphic organizer using pictures and words.
  • Student groups present their pantomime sequences to the class. Allow the class to guess the story or allow the groups to articulate each step of the pantomime summary.

 

Closing Reflection

Ask students:

  • How did we use our bodies, hands, and faces to convey parts of stories through pantomime?
  • How did you know what others were doing in their pantomimes?
  • How did the pantomime summaries contribute to the presentation of the story and character development?
  • What are the benefits and challenges of summarizing stories in this way? (e.g., It’s fun; you get to work with a team; you get to act things out; you have to leave parts out; some parts of stories are hard to pantomime.)

 

Assessments

Formative

  • Students are able to describe the elements and steps in a pantomime in detail.
  • Students work together productively to create their pantomime summaries.

 

Summative

  • Graphic organizers, completed by the students, effectively summarize their stories.
  • Students effectively, clearly, and carefully pantomime the activities in their summaries.

 

Differentiation

Acceleration:Have students work first in groups, and then have them choose a favorite story to use individually to create a pantomime summary.

Encourage students to focus on emotional expression, so the pantomimes convey how the characters feel about what they are doing.

Remediation: Lead the class in several pantomime summaries as a full group, rather than having students work in small groups.

Limit the number of steps in a given pantomime activity.

Additional Resources

https://artsnowlearning.org/project/ndi-pantomime/ - An 8-minute video tutorial about pantomime and using pantomime in the classroom.

https://www.kennedy-center.org/video/education/theater/tap-mime-and-pantomime-with-keith-berger-and-sharon-diskin/ - A 10-minute video performance and tutorial focusing on classical mime techniques and routines.

*This integrated lesson provides differentiated ideas and activities for educators that are aligned to a sampling of standards. Standards referenced at the time of publishing may differ based on each state’s adoption of new standards.

Ideas contributed by: Whitney Jones Snuggs and updated by Barry Stewart Mann

Revised and copyright: March 2023 @ ArtsNOW

Back to Modules