LEO LIONNI’S
SWIMMY, FREDERICK & INCH BY INCH AT THE
This guide is designed to help you prepare your students for the
Mermaid Theatre of Nova Scotia’s Leo Lionni performances at the Lied Center, Thursday, Jan. 27 at 9:45 a.m. and 1 p.m.
This Guide includes: About the stories of: Swimmy, Frederick & Inch by Inch
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About Leo Lionni
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About Mermaid Theatre Company of Nova Scotia
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Drawing/writing activities
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Vocabulary
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Resources
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About Swimmy, Frederick & Inch by Inch After a big tuna gulps up a school of Swimmy’s friends, the small black fish journeys through the ocean and comes face-to-face with many marvelous creatures. When he meets up with a school of frightened fish, Swimmy uses his creativity to show them how to swim together as a group and outsmart the other big fish in the sea. While other field mice work to gather grain and nuts for winter, Frederick sits on a sunny rock by himself. “I gather sun rays for the cold dark winter days,” he tells them. He also gathers “colors,” and “words.” When the food runs out, it is Frederick, the dreamer and poet, whose endless store of supplies warms the hearts of his fellow mice, and feeds their spirits during the darkest winter days One day, a robin comes up to eat an inchworm. Instead of getting eaten, the inchworm talks the robin into letting him measure the robin’s tail. The robin does not eat this useful worm; instead, he takes him to other birds so they can have something measured by the clever inchworm. “Measure my song or I will eat you,” says a nightingale. But how do you measure a song? Using his brain, the inchworm finds a way to keep from getting eaten while he inches away to safety.
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About Leo Lionni Leo Lionni was born in Holland in 1919. As a child, he taught himself to draw by copying the work of the masters in Amsterdam’s museums. He emigrated to the United States in 1939 with his wife and two young sons where he pursued a career in graphic arts. He was Art Director for Time Life, Fortune magazine and Prints Magazine, and created the original layout for Sports Illustrated. As an independent consultant, Lionni’s private clients included Olivetti, The American Cancer Society, The American Container Corporation and other noteworthy accounts. Shortly before retiring from his commercial art assignments, Lionni wrote his first children’s book, Little Blue and Little Yellow. Writing for young people allowed him to combine his interest and talents in both applied and fine art. He subsequently earned worldwide popularity as the author and illustrator of more than 30 children’s books, many of them translated into numerous languages. Lionni received the American Institute of Graphic Arts Gold Medal in 1984, and was a four-time winner of the prestigious Caldicott Honor Book award. While much of Lionni’s professional life was spent in New York, he moved to Italy in 1962 where he engaged in fine arts. He split his time between Europe and the U.S. for the last 20 years of his life. In 1999, Lionni died in Tuscany at the age of 89.
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About
The Mermaid Theatre Company of Nova Scotia and the performance you will see. The Mermaid Theatre Company was founded in 1972, with a unique variation to children’s literature. It has performed on four continents and has delighted more than 1 million children along the way. Mermaid Theatre’s emphasis on imaginative design elements, original music and challenging texts provides a rich opportunity to acquaint young spectators with the visual and performing arts, as well as with the pleasures of reading. Mermaid Theatre Company returns to Lawrence to perform three of Leo Lionni’s four Caldecott Honors Books, Inch by Inch, Swimmy and Fredrick. The Company will tell the stories using puppets, stage craft and music.
About
The company Christine Oakey, stage manager Oakey is a graduate of the University of King’s College in Halifax and the National Theatre School of Canada. She has served as stage manager with Atlantic Canada’s major theatres, including Two Planks and a Passion, Theatre New Brunswick, Mulgrave Road Theatre, Eastern Front Theatre, Zuppa Circus and Neptune Theatre. Oakey has worked in Edmonton, Blyth and Toronto as well as at the prestigious Shaw Festival in Niagara-on-theLake, Ontario. She also works as a venue manager for Sundance Film Festival, Hot Docs, the Toronto International Film Festival and the popular BuskerFest in Toronto. Oakey first joined the company in 1997. Rhys Bevan-John, performer Bevan-John began his performing career as the loud kid in his elementary school class in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He spent his adolescence taking classes at the Neptune Theatre School, and eventually graduated from its pre-professional training program. Bevan-John pursued intensive studies with the acclaimed mime artist, Tony Montanaro, toured several times with the Neptune Young Company and has appeared in Neptune’s main stage and studio productions. Bevan-John has also worked with Shakespeare by the Sea, Mulgrave Road and the Valley Summer Theatre in Wolfville. He has toured with Mermaid as a puppeteer since 2008. Andrea Norwood, performer Norwood attended her first theatre classes in her home city of Dartmouth, Nova Scotia at the age of 12, and is a graduate of Neptune Theatre School’s pre-professional training program. She earned Nova Scotia’s acclaimed Merritt Award for best actress in a leading role for her portrayal of Helen Keller in Neptune Theatre’s fall 2007 production of The Miracle Worker. Norwood has appeared with Shakespeare By the Sea, and often works alongside her husband, Rhys Bevan-John. She has toured as a puppeteer with Mermaid since 2008.
About
The creative team
Jim Morrow, director/production designer Morrow creates puppets for stage, television and film. He’s directed numerous shows for the theatre, including Puss in Boots, Borrowed Black, Goodnight Opus, Very Eric Carle, Guess How Much I Love You, I Love My Little Storybook, Goodnight Moon, Runaway Bunny, and has designed many others. A gifted performer, Morrow has toured extensively in Canada, the United States, the United Kingdom and Japan. He serves as director of puppetry for Symphony Nova Scotia’s production of The Nutcracker, and frequently conducts master classes in puppetry in North America and abroad. Morrow is Mermaid Theatre’s artistic director. Steven Naylor, composer Naylor has created the music for more than a dozen Mermaid shows, including Stuart Little, Just So Stories, Gulliver’s Travels, Very Eric Carle, The Very Hungry Caterpillar and Other Eric Carle Favorites, Guess How Much I Love You, I Love My Little Storybook, Goodnight Moon, Runaway Bunny. His many other professional activities include original film and television scores, contemporary music and ‘musique actuelle’ performance, university teaching and curriculum development and a long-term international involvement with electroacoustic concert music. Naylor is Mermaid Theatre’s artistic advisor, music and sound design. Richard Donat, narrator Donat was born in Kentville, Nova Scotia. He studied acting at the University of British Columbia and at the National Theatre School in Montreal, graduating from the latter in 1967. He appeared at Centaur Theatre in Montreal during the 1970s, prior to accepting roles throughout Canada including roles at Neptune Theatre, Neptune’s Second Stage and at the Chester Summer Theatre which he helped organize. Highlights of his career include a Dora Mavor Moore award, and performing in the Stratford Festival production of Hosanna which played offBroadway for a month as well as toured across Canada. He recently won the Montreal English Critics Circle Award for directing The Drawer Boy at Centaur Theatre and Wade In the Water at Black Theatre Workshop. Since returning to Nova Scotia in 1994, Donat has appeared at Neptune Theatre and was a ‘regular’ on the television series Emily of New Moon and Blackfly. He is an active director, and is frequently heard as a reader on the CBC.
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Activities
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ARTS
Frederick To keep the mice warm during the cold winter, Frederick paints a picture of the warm outdoors and different things which can be found in the summer and autumn. Based on the idea of painting a picture with words, discuss different comparisons (similes) that can be made about colors and nature. For example: Red like the bright colored poppies, blue like the small periwinkles, yellow like the golden sun. With these statements in mind, students will use one color of paint (the color from their simile), different painting techniques and materials to create four 5”x5” color blocks or squares that represent these statements. Materials • Multiple colors of tempera paint • White paper cut into 5”x5” blocks or squares • Solid colored paper for backing the painted blocks or squares • Different textures materials – feathers, sponges, potatoes, straws for paint blowing, paint brushes for spattering, combs, et cetera Procedure Students will create a color-nature simile. 1. Using different textured materials and painting techniques (paint spattering, blowing the paint with straws, stamping, combing the paint to create stripes, et cetera), they will paint each block or square the same color using a different technique. 2. The blocks or squares will be arranged in a large square on heavy sheet of paper with the simile written at the bottom. (Kansas Elements of Art as an Inquiry Standard 2, Benchmark 2)
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Activities
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ARTS
Inch by Inch In the story Inch by Inch, the inchworm finds himself in situations where he needs to measure different objects. With your class, cut a few strips of green construction paper that are 3 to 4 inches wide and 6 inches long. Tape the end of one of the strips to the white piece of paper. Gently push the front edge of the strip back to create a bump and then tape the front edge of the strip down. Repeat this process two more times, each time overlapping the back edge of the new strip over the front edge of the old strip. This will create the body of the inchworm. With the last strip, tape it into a ring. Punch two holes in the top of the ring and insert half of a pipe cleaner into each hole. Glue two googly eyes to the front of the ring and draw a smile on the inchworm’s face. Tape the ring so that it overlaps the final section of the body. Materials • Green construction paper • Hole punch • Green pipe cleaner • Two googly eyes • Scotch tape http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/bugs/paper-inch-worm.asp (Kansas Elements of Art as an Inquiry Standard 3, Benchmark 3)
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Activities
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ARTS
Swimmy Swimmy is all about being different, so, have your students create a fish with a unique quality about it. Cut a small wedge shape out of a paper plate to create a mouth. Turn the plate upside down and paint it a color of your student’s choosing. Cut a banana shaped piece from the rim of another plate to create a tail, again have the students paint the tail whatever color they would like. When everything is dry go ahead and attach the tail to the body. After everything is done don’t forget to add an eye, and if the students want to add something extra to their fish, that is fine too. Materials • Paper plates • Paint • Funny eyes • Scissors • Glue http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/animals/paper-plate-fish.asp (Kansas Elements of art as an Inquiry Standard 3, Benchmark 2)
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Activities
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WRITING/ LANGUAGE
All of Frederick’s friends know that he is a poet, so have your class create a seasonal acrostic poem. Create a list of words that describe the season and the season’s weather. For example: SPRING Showers Puddles Robins Insects New Green Grass http://www.mermaidtheatre.ns.ca/repertory/swimmy/Leo%20Lionni%20-%20a%20resource%20guide%20for%20teachers.pdf
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(Kansas First Grade Writing as an Inquiry Standard 1, Benchmark 1)
WRITING/ LANGUAGE
Inch by Inch is all about measuring things to get out of trouble. Have the class go around the classroom measuring things, and have them keep a log on what they measure that day.
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(Kansas First Grade Writing as an Inquiry Standard 1, Benchmark 1)
WRITING/ LANGUAGE
When Swimmy swims away, he finds himself in the middle of the ocean. While swimming he notices different things the ocean has to offer. Have your class go outside, look around and then come together to figure out some good descriptive words that describe: A) What is going on outside; is it hot, cold, windy, rainy? B) If they saw something interesting; if they saw a bird or an insect—have them be very descriptive in describing what it looked like. (Kansas First Grade Writing as an Inquiry Standard 1, Benchmark 2)
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Activities
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SCIENCE
Fun facts about mice Did you know...
1. You can keep mice on a table without a cage because mice are afraid to jump off high vertical drops. 2. Mice can make their own vitamin C. 3. Mice like hard bread. 4. Mice will nurse babies that are not their own. 5. Baby mice curl up when they are being carried. 6. People worshipped mice in temples. 7. Greeks and Indians thought mice were lightning bolts. 8. Japanese bred white mice 300 years ago. 9. People have bred blue mice. 10. Mice don’t have roots on their incisors. 11. The name mouse comes from “mus”, a Sanskrit word that means thief.
Hibernation Frederick’s family and friends are gathering food for the winter so that they can go into hibernation. Consider some of these questions about hibernating. Other than mice, what other animals hibernate? How long do they hibernate for? For the animals that do hibernate, do they eat a bunch of food before they hibernate (like bears) or do they store up a bunch of food (like mice)? (Kansas K-2 Science as an Inquiry Standard 3, Benchmark 1)
Salt oceans vs. fresh water lake Discuss how the ocean is filled with salt water and the lakes have fresh water. Talk about the different animals that live in the ocean and live in a lake. Have students create a chart comparing the differences and similarities between the ocean and the lake. (Kansas K-2 Science as an Inquiry Standard 1, Benchmark 1)
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Activities
Weather charts and graphs Leo Lionni’s Frederick provides an excellent place to discuss how the seasons and weather changes. Keep a monthly record of the weather conditions (sunny, cloudy, rainy, windy). At the end of each month, create a bar graph to show how many days have had each type of weather. As a class, examine how the bar graphs change with the seasons.
Sequencing After introducing the story and becoming familiar with the text, develop students’ sequencing skills by posing the question: What did the inch worm measure first? Last? Have students use reproductions of the characters from the story and place them in the proper order. Develop size relationships by asking students to reorder the characters from smallest to largest.
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Activities
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VOCABULARY
Frederick: Sun Flower Food Mice Swimmy: Family Fish Fight Sea Inch by Inch Tail Inchworm Measure Safety
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resources
resources http://www.mermaidtheatre.ns.ca/repertory/swimmy/Leo%20Lionni%20-%20a%20resource%20guide%20for%20teachers.pdf Mermaid Theatre’s teacher resource guide, includes background, activities and lesson plans. http://www.randomhouse.com/kids/lionni/aboutlionni.php 100 Years of Leo Lionni features a detailed biography of the author/illustrator, and an essay by his grandson. http://www.insectlore.com/ Insect Lore has information for students and teachers about worms and other insects. http://edsitement.neh.gov/lesson-plan/under-deep-blue-sea#sect-thelesson Under the Deep Blue Sea, a teacher resource site for exploring oceans and ocean life.
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