The Very Hungry Caterpillar ERG - Seattle Children's Theatre

52 downloads 189 Views 6MB Size Report
EDUCATOR RESOURCE GUIDE. The Very Hungry Caterpillar. & Other Eric Carle Favorites. Produced by Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia Adapted. Directed  ...
EDUCATOR RESOURCE GUIDE

The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favorites

The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favorites

Produced by Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia Adapted Directed and Designed by Jim Morrow Music by Steven Naylor Narrated by Gordon Pinsent

MAY 3 - JUNE 3, 2012 AGES 2-8

SEASON SPONSORS

Grades PreK+

presents

The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favorites

Table of Contents

Synopsis................................................................................................................. 3 Curriculum Connections and EALRs......................................................... 4 Eric Carle - The Very Wonderful Artist..................................................... 5 Words, Actions & Ideas................................................................................... 6-7 Puppetry in The Very Hungry Caterpillar................................................ 8 Activity Pages...................................................................................................... 9-11 Booklist.................................................................................................................. 12 Evaluation Form................................................................................................ 13

2

SYNOPSIS

Mermaid Theatre draws upon puppetry and black light to capture the charm of three favorite Eric Carle stories: Little Cloud While all the other clouds drift slowly across the sky, Little Cloud trails behind. He touches the tops of houses and trees. He changes shape to become a sheep, an airplane, a shark, and even a clown wearing a funny hat. When the other clouds drift back and call to Little Cloud, he happily joins them to become one big cloud. And then they rain!

The Mixed-Up Chameleon A small green chameleon lives his life just like all chameleons do. He changes colors depending on where he is and how he feels. When he’s hungry, he catches flies with his long sticky tongue. It’s not a very exciting life, but it’s all he knows - until he sees a zoo and all the wonderful animals there. What would it be like to be as big as a polar bear, as handsome as a flamingo, to swim like a fish? He transforms himself bit by bit until he is completely mixed-up and looks like all the animals at once. But is he happy? No. It turns out that being a small green chameleon suits him best after all. The Very Hungry Caterpillar An egg sits on a leaf in the light of the Moon. When the Sun comes up, a tiny hungry caterpillar comes out of the egg, looking for food. On Monday he eats one apple. Tuesday, two pears. Wednesday, Thursday, Friday – three plums, four strawberries, five oranges. On Saturday he unwisely eats everything from chocolate cake to salami. Eating one green leaf on Sunday makes his stomach feel much better. Now he’s not so tiny or hungry anymore. He builds a cocoon and lives inside it for more than two weeks. When he makes his way out he’s not a caterpillar at all. He is a beautiful butterfly. 3

CURRICULUM CONNECTIONS & EALRS

The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Eric Carle Favorites touches on many themes and ideas. Here are a few we believe would make good Curriculum Connections: Growth/Development, Days of the Week, Metamorphosis, Counting, Puppetry, Colors, Clouds, Adaptation, Creative Play. We believe that seeing the show and using our Educator Resource Guide can help you meet the following EALRs:

State Standards:

Theatre

Reading

Science

Communication

1. The student understands and applies arts knowledge and skills. 1.1 Understand arts concepts and vocabulary, specifically, identifies and describes characters, setting, actions, conflict, sounds 1.2 Develops theatre skills and techniques. 1.4 Understands and applies audience conventions in a variety of settings and performances of theatre. 3. Theatre: The student communicates through the arts (dance, music, theatre, and visual arts). 3.1 Uses theatre to express feelings and present ideas.

1. The student understands and uses different skills and strategies to read. 1.1 Use word recognition skills and strategies to read and comprehend text. 1.2 Use vocabulary (word meaning) strategies to comprehend text. 1.3 Build vocabulary through wide reading. 1.4 Apply word recognition skills and strategies to read fluently. 2. The student understands the meaning of what is read. 2.1 Demonstrate evidence of reading comprehension. 2.3 Expand comprehension by analyzing, interpreting, and synthesizing information and ideas in literary and informational text. 2.4 Think critically and analyze author’s use of language, style, purpose, and perspective in literary and informational text. 3. The student reads different materials for a variety of purposes. 3.1 Read to learn new information. 3.2 Read to perform a task. 3.4 Read for literary experience in a variety of genres.

EALR 2: Inquiry. Big Idea: Inquiry (INQ). Core Content: Making Observations Students learn that scientific investigations involve trying to answer questions by making observations or trying things out, rather than just asking an adult. Children are naturally curious about nearly everything—butterflies and clouds, and why the Moon seems to follow them at night. The essence of this standard is to channel students’ natural curiosity about the world, so that they become better questioners, observers, and thinkers, laying the groundwork for increasing understanding and abilities in science inquiry in the years to come. 1. The student uses listening and observation skills and strategies to gain understanding. 1.1 Uses listening and observation skills and strategies to focus attention and interpret information. 1.2 Understands, analyzes, synthesizes, or evaluates information from a variety of sources. 4

ERIC CARLE - THE VERY WONDERFUL ARTIST

Eric Carle is acclaimed and beloved as the creator of brilliantly illustrated and innovatively designed picture books for very young children. His best-known work, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, has eaten its way into the hearts of literally millions of children all over the world and has been translated into more than 50 languages and sold over 33 million copies.

Born in Syracuse, New York, in 1929, Eric Carle moved with his parents to Germany when he was six years old; he was educated there, and graduated from the prestigious art school, the Akademie der bildenden Künste, in Stuttgart. But his dream was always to return to America, the land of his happiest childhood memories. So, in 1952, with a fine portfolio in hand and forty dollars in his pocket, he arrived in New York. Soon he found a job as a graphic designer in the promotion department of The New York Times. Later, he was the art director of an advertising agency for many years. One day, respected educator and author, Bill Martin Jr., called to ask Carle to illustrate a story he had written. Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? was the result of their collaboration. This was the beginning of Eric Carle’s true career. Soon Carle was writing his own stories, too. His first wholly original book was 1,2,3 to the Zoo, followed soon afterward by the celebrated classic, The Very Hungry Caterpillar. Eric Carle’s art is distinctive and instantly recognizable. His artwork is created in collage technique, using hand-painted papers, which he cuts and layers to form bright and cheerful images. Many of his books have an added dimension - die-cut pages, twinkling lights as in The Very Lonely Firefly, even the lifelike sound of a cricket’s song as in The Very Quiet Cricket - giving them a playful quality: a toy that can be read, a book that can be touched.

The themes of his stories are usually drawn from his extensive knowledge and love of nature - an interest shared by most small children. Besides being beautiful and entertaining, his books always offer the child the opportunity to learn something about the world around them.

Carle says: “With many of my books I attempt to bridge the gap between the home and school. To me home represents, or should represent warmth, security, toys, holding hands, being held. School is a strange and new place for a child. Will it be a happy place? There are new people, a teacher, classmates - will they be friendly? The unknown often brings fear with it. In my books I try to counteract this fear, to replace it with a positive message. I believe that children are naturally creative and eager to learn. I want to show them that learning is really both fascinating and fun.” Excerpted from The Official Eric Carle Web Site: http://www.eric-carle.com/home.html 5

WORDS, ACTIONS & IDEAS HOW THE PLAY IS PERFORMED

black light: invisible ultraviolet light. A black-light bulb seems to give off only a faint purple light, but it can make things that are white or fluorescent glow in the dark. puppetry: the art of creating special objects (puppets) and then bringing those objects to life on stage narrator: a person who tells a story by writing or speaking

LITTLE CLOUD cloud: a visible body of very fine water droplets or ice particles suspended high in the air drift: to be carried along by currents of air or water trail: to follow behind

ocean: a vast body of salt water that is home to sharks, whales, fish, and other underwater creatures dash: to run quickly

meadow: an open area of land covered by nature in grasses and flowering plants huddle: to pack together in a group

water cycle: the natural sequence in which water warms up to become wtater vapor, condenses into clouds, falls back to earth as rain, sleet, or snow, and then warms to become water vapor again, and so on

Actions in the story:

drifted slowly trailed behind pushed upward and away pushed downward touched

moved drifted back changed huddled close together flying through drifted toward stayed in one place dash across

Continued on the next page... 6

THE MIXED-UP CHAMELEON

chameleon: a lizard that can change color. Most can change from brown to green and then back from green to brown, but some chameleons can change to almost any color. camouflage: special coloring and patterns that allow an animal or person to blend into their surroundings

Colors the chameleon becomes: green

brown - brownish

red - reddish

What the chameleon wishes he could be:

yellow - yellowish

grey

big and white like a polar bear strong like an elephant handsome like a flamingo funny like a seal smart like a fox

What the chameleon wishes he could do: swim like a fish run like a deer

see things far away like a giraffe hide in a shell like a turtle

A VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

egg: the very first stage of life for many young animals, during which the animal is protected by a shell. Birds, fish, reptiles, amphibians, and insects hatch from eggs. caterpillar: the worm-like phase that makes up a butterfly’s feeding and growth stage

cocoon: a case or covering of silky strands spun by an insect that serves as a protective covering

butterfly: a type of insect that usually has a slender body, knobbed antennae, and four broad wings that are often colorful

metamorphosis: a dramatic change in form and physical appearance

What the caterpillar eats: apple pears plums strawberries oranges piece of chocolate cake

ice cream cone sausage pickle cupcake slice of Swiss cheese slice of watermelon slice of salami green leaf lollipop

piece of cherry pie

7

PUPPETRY IN THE VERY HUNGRY CATERPILLAR

The Very Hungry Caterpillar & Other Eric Carle Favorites is told entirely through the use of black-light puppetry and narration. In all three stories presented in this production, a main character goes through a series of physical transformations. Puppetry allows the play to illustrate those changes in a fascinating way.

Black-light puppetry uses a stage lit with ultraviolet, or black, lights. The puppeteers and some of the architecture of the stage are covered in black velvet, which cannot be seen under the lights. This allows the puppeteers to be completely hidden, while the puppets can be any size and have a large range of motion. The puppets themselves are fluorescent colored, so they are fully visible and able to move or float in what sometimes seems to be midair - or even disappear. The way in which the puppets are manipulated is born out of the ancient tradition of Bunraku puppetry, originally developed in Japan. This style of puppetry has multiple puppeteers operating one puppet by moving different rods attached to its feet, hands and head. Bunraku puppeteers dress in black clothing to attempt to blend into the background as much as possible. Bunraku plays feature traditional Japanese music and tell popular stories that the audience often knows beforehand. This is similar to The Very Hungry Caterpillar, which is told with music and narration from the books themselves.

Bunraku puppeteers

This style of presentation allows the puppeteers to mirror Eric Carle’s collage illustrations while making the stories come alive with movement and texture. The audience sees the stories performed in a way that stays true to the spirit of Eric Carle’s books. Operating The Very Hungry Caterpillar puppet

ACTIVITY:

Puppetry is a form of theater that can easily be recreated at home or in the classroom to explore stories, feelings, problems and transformations. Have the students write a short story and create a paper bag puppet of one of the characters in their story. Attach material like pipe cleaners, string, paper fasteners and rubber bands that can flow, jiggle, and bounce so the students can explore what happens when the puppet moves in different ways. 8

BOOKLIST

For Children & Young Adults:

The Grouchy Ladybug Eric Carle

The Very Busy Spider Eric Carle

Caps for Sale Esphyr Slobodkina

A Color of His Own Leo Lionni

In the Small, Small Pond Denise Fleming

Black? White! Day? Night! - A Book of Opposites Laura Vaccaro Seeger

Brown Bear, Brown Bear, What Do You See? Bill Martin Jr. 26 Letters and 99 Cents Tana Hoban

Planting a Rainbow Lois Ehlert

Freight Train Donald Crews This masterpiece by acclaimed designer and picture book author/illustrator Donald Crews has it all: colors, trains and an action-packed story! For Adults Working with Children & Young Adults:

Mr. Gumpy’s Outing John Burningham

I Went Walking Sue Williams

Child of Wonder: Nurturing Creative & Naturally Curious Children Ginger Carlson

Unplugged Play: No Batteries. No Plugs. Pure Fun. Bobbi Conner Chock full of activities (over 700) for all ages of children who are about the business of childhood: play! Booklist prepared by Steve DelVecchio, King County Library System

12

HOW DID WE DO?

We’d love to know what was helpful to you as you read and used this guide. Please fill out and return this short survey to us. We appreciate your feedback. 1. For which play/plays did you use the Educator Resource Guide?

Harold and the Purple Crayon A Year with Frog and Toad HELP





Robin Hood A Single Shard The Very Hungry Caterpillar

2. Was it easy for you to find and download the Educator Resource Guide?

Very

Somewhat

1

2

Not very

Not at all

3. On a scale of 1 – 5 (5 being the highest), how useful was the Educator Resource Guide?



3

4

4. What did you use from the Educator Resource Guide?

5

5. Is there something you would like to see included in the Educator Resource Guide that wasn’t here?

6. Which of the following best describes you? I teach:



Preschool Elementary School

Other Comments:

Middle school High school

Homeschool

THANK YOU! MAIL: Seattle Children’s Theatre Attention: School Shows 201 Thomas Street Seattle, WA 98109

or FAX: 206.443.0442

13

or EMAIL: [email protected]