LE Lower Elementary | Performance Guide Guess How Much I Love You? and I Love My Little Storybook Photo Credit: Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia The world of the theater is where stories, music, puppets, lights, movement and the imagination come together to help young readers learn. Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia adapted two award-winning storybooks— Guess How Much I Love You by Sam McBratney and Anita Jeram, and I Love My Little Storybook by Anita Jeram, into one theatrical production that can be an springboard for classroom activities that explore storytelling and reading. Larger-than-life puppets, based on the Baranku puppetry style of Japan, are manipulated by special handles and rods. As carefully choreographed as a dance, the puppeteers and puppets tell the stories through movement, narration and original music. CCSS: RL.k.2, 6, 7 and 9; RL.1.1, 6 and 9; RL.2.2, 5, 6 and 9; RI. k.9; RI.1.9; RI.2.1; W.k.8; W.1.8; W.2.8; SL.k.1a and 2; SL.1.1a and 3; SL.2.1a and 4; L.k.6; L.1.6; L.2.6 Ready, Set, Show! Photo Credit: Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia The Books The Artists The story of Guess How Much I Love You highlights the love between Little Nutbrown Hare and his father, Big Nutbrown Hare. Little Nutbrown Hare shows his daddy how much he loves him - as wide as he can reach, and as high as he can hop. But Big Nutbrown Hare, who can reach farther and hop higher, loves him back even more. In response, Little Nutbrown Hare loves his daddy right up to the moon! What could be bigger than that? Guess How Much I Love You has been one of the most beloved picture books for nearly ten years. Author Sam McBratney’s warm and witty text and Anita Jeram’s watercolors express the immeasurable bond between parent and child. Since 1972, artists at Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia have created unique adaptations of children’s literature to delight nearly five million young people on four continents. The company works with composers to create original music and with professional puppeteers. Their collaborations result in performances that have the visual impact to tell classic children’s literature well. The company ranks among North America’s most respected theater for young audiences. Artist educators in Mermaid Theatre offer training in the art of puppetry to performers who wish to develop and refine their skills. In I Love My Little Storybook an eager little bunny lies on the grass, opens his storybook and within moments enters a world of enchanted forests, gentle lions, stomping giants and sleeping princesses. A favorite of young readers, I Love My Little Storybook provides a glimpse of the many adventures children can enjoy through reading. A puppet is any inanimate figure manipulated by a person called a puppeteer. Even very simple puppets are powerful in their ability to bring stories to life. The art of puppetry begins in a good story, imaginative use of stage space and the animation of puppets. There are different types of puppets. Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia uses rod puppets. Rod Puppets are puppet figures manipulated by rods. During the performance the puppeteers stand on the stage as they move the puppets. Puppeteers wear black clothing and black masks to be less visible. When two puppeteers manipulate a single puppet they even use synchronized breathing to unify their motion. Guess How Much I Love You / Performance Guide The Artform of Puppetry Learning Activities Read Show Predict Before the performance, read aloud Guess After reading the stories aloud, assign One of the characters Little Bunny meets How Much I Love you and I Love My Little one of the stories to students and ask inside his little storybook is a giant Storybook. Discuss the characters, Little them to work in small groups to create a who stomps around the magic forest Nutbrown Hare, Big Nutbrown Hare, Little tableau (frozen picture using their bodies as with humongous feet. His feet are so Bunny, Friendly Lion, Frog Prince, or any people or object) of what happened at the humongous, they are all we see of him. other favorites. Talk about their relationships beginning of the story, what happened in • Ask students to imagine, to predict and and adventures. How do we know the the middle of the story and what happened draw what they think the rest of the giant characters care about each other? What are at the end of the story. looks like. the characters feeling in the story? Do the • Ask each group to rehearse their tableaus feelings change as the story unfolds and then present them one at a time to each new events happen? other. • After all the groups share, ask the students how the tableau stories were similar and how they were different. Observe and Compare After reading the story aloud and seeing the performance, discuss differences and similarities between the performance and the story book. > What did you see on stage? > What did you see in the book illustrations? > Did the play tell the story that you read in the storybook? What was the same? What was different? > How was seeing the performance different from reading the story? How was it similar? Write As a class think about and share all the stories you have read together in class this year. Then ask students to recall the many places they have journeyed together in storybooks. Let students share their memories aloud, discussing the many different lands, characters and events explored through storybooks. On small pieces of paper, write a variety of opening lines based on the illustrations in Guess How Much I Love You and I Love My Little Storybook. For example: “Once upon a time, a little bunny dove under the water to tell the fishes something important.” Put the slips of paper in a hat or box. > Ask students to choose one slip of paper from the hat. > Invite students to finish the story that their opening line begins. > Ask students to both write and draw their story. > Who are the new characters? Where are the new lands? What are the new adventures? Students may share aloud with the class. Photo Credit: Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia [email protected] / www.waltonartscenter.org Volume 10 Number 4 Colgate Classroom Series performances help students meet Common Core Standards. Photo Credit: Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia Reflect and Assess Ask the following questions. Record the group’s answers on the board and discuss. Learn more at: www.waltonartscenter.org >What did you see and hear while watching the performance? >What did you already know about the stories before seeing the performance? >Describe the characters. Who were they? What were they doing? Why? >What did you like most about the live performance? Puppets? Set? Props? Music? >Would you have performed the story differently? How? Walton Arts Center >How did the music help tell the story? Learning & Engagement >How did the performance make you feel? Laura Goodwin, Vice President >What moment in the play do you remember most? Dr. Patricia Relph, Arts Learning Specialist >Did you enjoy the play or the book more? Why? Katie Williams, Manager Shannon Rolle, Schools Concierge Puppets can tell a story >How did the puppets move differently to show different emotions? This performance guide was developed in ex. happy, sad, scared, curious, love. partnership with Trike Theatre, a resident >What did you think about the puppets? company of Walton Arts Center. >Could you make an object show emotion? Learn More Online > Official website: http://www.mermaidtheatre.ns.ca/ > Kennedy Center website on Arts Integration http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/arts-integration Walton Arts Center 2012-2013 Learning programming is generously supported by these funders, sponsors and benefactors: Education Benefactors: Jack & Mechelle Sinclair Ted & Leslie Belden David & Candace Starling Dr. J.B. & Rachel Blankenship Jerry & Brenda Walton David & Tina Bogle Jim & Lynne Walton Colgate-Palmolive Education Grantors: Ann & Gene Bordelon John & Kitten Weiss Crayola Arkansas Arts Council Judy Boreham Edy’s Grand Ice Cream The John F. Kennedy Center June Carter Season support provided by Carolyn & Nick Cole Walmart / SAM’S CLUB ® J.B. Hunt Transport, Inc. Kimberly-Clark for the Performing Arts Walmart Foundation Prairie Grove Telephone Co. Joanie & Jon Dyer Malcolm & Ellen Hayward Arkansas Arts Council is an Procter & Gamble Education Partners: Johnelle Hunt agency of the Department of Pruitt Tool Company Crystal Bridges Museum of Pat Parsons Arkansas Heritage and the Mark & Lynn Richards National Endowment for the Mary Lynn Reese Arts Shipley Motor Co. Tyson Foods, Inc. American Art NWAESC Unilever Jeff & Eileen Schomburger Kenneth & Debra Senser Guess How Much I Love You/ Performance Guide