Pirates Love Underpants
Based on the book by Claire Freedman and Ben Cort
Adapted by Brad Fitt Directed by Cara Nolan
TEACHER’S EDUCATION RESOURCE
This Education Resource is available for teachers and education practitioners to support young people’s enjoyment and learning around Curve’s production of PIRATES LOVE UNDERPANTS In this resource you will find different activities that aim to extend your children’s theatrical experience back in the classroom/nursery setting. Each activity can be adapted to suit the age and ability of your children. All the activities are about imagination and creativity. So are you ready? Great! Let’s hoist the sails, weigh the anchor and set sail for our journey!
1. SHADOW PUPPETS
During the show PIRATES LOVE UNDERPANTS, the actors use shadow puppetry to tell one part of the story. If it’s stormy seas and gloomy skies above deck, why not brighten up a dark day by learning how to tell stories with shadows?
ACTIVITY ONE: CREATE SHADOW PUPPETS
You will need:
• A desk lamp or light with a non-diffused light source
• Copies of the silhouette on card or paper
• Safety scissors
• Tape or glue
• Paper straws or lollipop sticks
• A pencil to poke eye holes
Here are three silhouettes that you can use to make shadow puppets.
• Carefully cut out the images
• Poke a hole in each silhouette where an eye should be
• Glue each image onto a lollipop stick or straw
Now set up a desk lamp or lamp with a focused beam (no lampshades) pointing towards a blank wall. Hold the shadow puppets up in front of the light and experiment to find the best distance of the light from the wall.
TIP: If the children want to be able to use the puppets as ‘non-shadow’ puppets afterwards, they can draw the rest of the details on the puppet and decorate them.
TIP: For older children, you might want to use the more complex shadow puppets found at the back of this pack.
1. SHADOW PUPPETS
ACTIVITY TWO: LEARN TO USE SHADOW PUPPETS
• It’s time for the children to discover how to bring their puppets to life. Get the class up on their feet to explore the following. Imagine how a pirate moves. How is it different from the parrot? How does the shark move? Try walking yourself like a pirate, a parrot or a shark.
• Now think how you will move your shadow puppet to match the movements you made. Do they have stiff movements or free and loose movements? Does it stomp, or does it wiggle? Is it slow or fast? Have a go at trying to move your puppets to match.
• Think about what voice each puppet would have. Squeaky? Booming? High? Low? Slow? Fast?
TIP: Children can practice moving their puppets without having to use the light.
ACTIVITY THREE: PERFORM WITH SHADOW PUPPETS
It’s time to tell a story. Get the children into pairs and give them one of the characters each. The two characters are going to meet on the beach. Each child now needs to decide whether their character is friends with the other character or is scared of the other character. The children now take it in turns to come to the front of the class in their pairs and tell a simple scene using the light to cast shadows.
The following simple scene can be guided by the teacher/practitioner.
• The first character arrives at the beach. Remember how you practiced their movements.
• The second character arrives at the beach, but they do not notice each other.
• Suddenly they notice each other. How do they react? Happy? Scared?
• Both of them leave the beach. Either together if they are both friends, or separately if they are not.
Things for the children to think about:
• Where are you standing? Can the audience see the shadows?
• Can they hear the noises you are making for your character?
• Are you making it clear what your character thinks about the other character?
• How does the audience know when to clap?
ADDITIONAL ACTIVITY: Can the children think of any other puppets they might want to make? Maybe they want to create a shadow set to decorate the scene, like a palm tree, or some underpants bunting.
JONATHANPhotographybyPRYKE
2. CRAFT
Captain Eye Patch and his pirates have a treasure map to guide them to the golden underpants. Where else could your students create a treasure map for?
We have drawn a map of Curve theatre, re-imagined as if it was a pirate treasure map. If your children attended the theatre, can you ask them to draw the route they walked in the theatre on the map?
Tickets Cove
RutlandBay
FlushingLagoon Crow’s Nest Peak
Secret Watering Hole
Tired Leg’s Rest
Pirate Pram Port Orton View Reef
Booty Cave
Fair Lady’s Forest
Actor’s Temple
Captain Eye Patch’s Treasure
Buccaneer Passage
PicnicPirate’sSpot
Brave Explorer’s Viewpoint
Crocodile Feeding Beach
Halford’s Bay
Gushing Falls
Map Key
• Tickets Cove Box Office
• Actor’s Temple Curve Stage
• Fair Lady’s Forest Auditorium
• Captain Eye Patch’s Treasure Pirates Love Underpants Stage
• Brave Explorer’s Viewpoint Pirates Love Underpants Seating
• Pirate Pram Port Buggy Park
• Crocodile Feeding Beach Green Room Cafe
• Pirate’s Picnic Spot Cafe Tables
• Orton View Reef Walkway
• Buccaneer Passage Walkway
• Gushing Falls Toilets
• Flushing Lagoon Toilets
• Secret Watering Hole Bar
• Tired Legs Rest Tables and Seating
• Booty Cave Merchandise Table
• Crow’s Nest Peak The Mezzanine
• Halford’s Bay Halford Street Entrance
• Rutland Bay Rutland Street Entrance
2. CRAFT
ACTIVITY 1: TREASURE MAPS
Ask the children where they would like to make a map of. Their school? Their classroom? Their hometown?
Then set them the following tasks:
1. Draw a map of your chosen location. Make it as detailed as you can.
2. Imagine your chosen location is transformed into a pirate island. Rename each place on your map to sound like a pirate named it. (For example, instead of stationary cupboard, you could call it Pencil Cave. A bookshelf could be called Paper Cliffs).
3. Decide where your treasure will be and put a big X to mark the spot.
4. Draw a fun route on the map with arrows guiding pirates to the treasure.
TIP: If you want, you can try to make the map look like an old map by staining the paper with tea. (Do this before drawing your map if you are going to use felt tip pens – otherwise the ink might run).
ACTIVITY 2: DESIGN YOUR OWN PANTS
Take a look at the page at the back of the book PIRATES LOVE UNDERPANTS. Ask the children to notice the large variety of different types of underpants.
Now ask them to use their own creativity to design a new pair of underpants. Get them to draw these underpants and show them to the rest of the class. To get their ideas flowing, you can ask them the following questions:
• Look at the book. What underpants do you think are the most fun?
• If your pirate crew were going to steal underpants, what type of underpants would they want to steal? Why would your pirates think these are better than every other pair?
• What size are they? What colour? What are they made of? Do they do anything special?
3. MUSIC AND MOVEMENT
Captain, Captain Eyepatch, Aye, aye, Captain, Aye, aye, Eyepatch, Captain, Captain Eyepatch, He’s got his eye on you.
The Captain will be coming soon, We’ve got to be prepared!
Salute the Captain! Shiver me timbers! Scrub the deck! Sword fight! Walk the plank!
show:
The children can learn and practice an action that matches each line in the song.
Now they can repeat each line after you in their best pirate voice while performing the matching action.
Can the children come up with any other movements that a pirate might make? (e.g. “feed the parrot”, “swim ashore”, “bury the treasure”). Can they write new lines for the song to match these actions? Try performing your new version.
TIP: If the children have not seen the show and you don’t know the tune to the song, you can sing it as a rap. It is more important to keep a rhythm to the lyrics than have an accurate tune.
JONATHANPhotographybyPRYKE
4. DRAMA
It’s time to get everyone on their feet to become pirates in these fun drama exercises.
ACTIVITY 1: THE PERILOUS PIRATE JOURNEY
TIP: This activity can be done in conjunction with the Treasure Map activity in the Craft Activity section, or can be used as a standalone activity.
Stage 1: Imagination
• As a class, come up with a name for a small island that the pirates might visit. The classroom is going to become this island.
• Now name each corner of the room as a place that might exist on this island (e.g. Seagull Cliff, Crusty Bay, Smuggler’s Cave, Sandy Beach). Place a handwritten sign in each corner of the room to make it clear.
• Decide on a route around the island that the pirates must follow in their hunt for treasure.
TIP: For older children, you might want to ask them to name the corners themselves in groups and design their own route.
Stage 2: Improvisation
In small groups, the children act as a team of pirates and walk the route of your map around the room towards the treasure.
Between each location the teacher/practitioner will shout out an obstacle that appears in the path of the pirates. The job of the pirates is to respond to these obstacles and use their imagination to find a way to overcome them and reach the treasure – just like Captain Eye Patch does!
Here are some suggested obstacles for the teacher/practitioner:
• Crocodile swamp
• A storm or hurricane
• Shark infested river
• A rare plant that eats humans
• Broken compass
• A monkey steals the map
• Quicksand
• Another group of pirates having their lunch
4. DRAMA
What is improvisation?
Improvisation (or ‘improv’) in drama is where the actors create scenes with no script, using just their imagination to make it up on the spot. In this scene, we are improvising how the pirates respond to each obstacle. Here are some tips to help the children make the most out of improvisation:
• Character. Is the pirate brave? Are they shy? Are they clever?
• Say yes! Don’t say no to any ideas other people suggest. It’s much more fun to say yes to their suggestions and see what happens.
• Be generous. Someone giving an idea to the group is like giving a present. You receive the present with a smile and play with it.
• Work together. You are a team of pirates all wanting to get to the treasure as a group. Don’t be tempted to try to solve everything on your own.
4. DRAMA
ACTIVITY 2: THE PIRATE PICTUREBOOK
This practical drama activity works on communicating scenes and ideas using only our bodies and no words.
Split the class into small groups and ask them to position themselves to create an image from the list below (give each group a different image). They must be absolutely still, like in a photo.
They should think about:
• How to stay still
• What part of the image each person is going to be
• How to make the image interesting (for example, can they be at different heights?)
• What facial expressions they will use
• What mood the scene is giving to the audience (Funny? Scary? Impressive? Beautiful?)
Once they have decided on their still image, they should choose a simple movement to add to it that makes the story come alive. (For example, it might sway in the wind, or any animals might start breathing or opening their mouths).
Finally, the group should add one noise to complete their scene.
Each group shows their scenes in turn to the rest of the class. Start with the still scene, then on the teacher/practitioner’s signal they add the movement, and then they add the noise.
The rest of the class becomes an audience for these scenes. Afterwards, the audience can provide feedback, mentioning two or three things that they liked about each scene and one thing they could do to make it even better.
Here’s a list of suggested scenes you can ask the class to make. Some of these are harder than others, so you may want to tailor your choice of scenes for your group.
• A swamp of crocodiles
• An individual crocodile (everyone in the group makes up one crocodile)
• A beautiful pirate ship
• An old rowboat
• A desert island
• Shark infested sea
• A dangerous looking rope bridge
• A treasure chest
• A parrot
5. IMAGINATION AND STORY WRITING
A key theme of the show PIRATES LOVE UNDERPANTS is ‘imagination’. This activity guides students through a journey of imagination to help create their own pirate story.
Ask your students the following questions. Give them time to answer each question individually before moving onto the next question.
1. Captain Eye Patch’s pirates love underpants. If you were a pirate, what would be the treasure that you would most want to capture? Make it as silly or as sensible as you want.
2. Why do you want the treasure so much?
3. If you were the pirate captain, what would your pirate name be?
4. What would you call your group of pirates?
5. Now imagine you had a beautiful pirate ship. What would you call the ship?
6. Imagine your treasure is hidden on an island. Where on the island would the treasure be hidden?
7. What would the name of the island be?
8. Captain Eye Patch and his pirates had to cross crocodiles and dark caves to reach their golden underpants. What obstacles do your team of pirates need to get past to reach your treasure?
9. When your team of pirates finds the treasure, how do you celebrate?
Now ask the children to write or tell a brief story about their pirates, including all of the answers to these questions as the basis for their story.
TIP: Older children might like the freedom of creating their own story from the questions in this list, but for younger children you might like to use the Pirate Story Handout Sheet we have included in the back of this pack.
JONATHANPhotographybyPRYKE
6. APPENDIX
Pirate Story Handout Sheet
The treasure I most want to capture is ..........................................................................................
I really want the treasure because ...................................................................................................
I am the Pirate Captain and my name is ........................................................................................
And my group of pirates are called .................................................................................................
We sail the seas on our beautiful pirate ship called ...................................................................
The treasure we seek is buried in ....................................................................................................
On the island called..............................................................................................................................
There are many difficult things we must get past to reach our treasure, including ..................................................................................................................................................
And also ...................................................................................................................................................
And when we finally capture the treasure, we will celebrate by
6. APPENDIX
EXTRA SHADOW PUPPETS
Cut these shapes out of card and use a brass picture fastener to join them together at the holes indicated. Attach one straw or stick to each side and you can move each side independently.
JONATHANPhotographybyPRYKE