MOUTH
OPEN , STORY JUMP OUT
TEACHER RESOURCE PACK FOR TEACHERS WORKING WITH PUPILS IN YEARS 4 - 6
A Battersea Arts Centre Production
MOUTH OPEN, STORY JUMP OUT Conceived and created by Polarbear
FROM THU 18 SEP - SAT 27 OCT 2018 FOR PUPILS IN SCHOOL YEARS 4 - 6 IT’S ALL IN YOU. Polarbear makes things up: stories, jokes, adventures - he’s a master maker-upper. But where did it all begin? Mouth Open, Story Jump Out is about the moment that started it all, and how one little decision set off a chain reaction that changed his life forever. International assassins, secret codes, dog-eating boa constrictors and more emerge when a father disappears and a boy discovers a talent for telling tales. An inspiring show about the creative potential inside all of us by one of the UK’s most respected spoken-word artists.
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CONTENTS INTRODUCTION TO THE PACK ABOUT THE PLAY
p. 4
p. 6
MAKING THE PLAY: INTERVIEW WITH POLARBEAR DRAMA ACTIVITIES
p. 9
p. 14
SEQUENCE ONE - CREATING A CHARACTER AND THEIR WORLD
p. 16
SEQUENCE TWO - DEVELOPING DETAIL: ADDING TO A DOSSIER
p. 22
SEQUENCE TWO (A) - DEVELOPING DETAIL: WORKING AS A WHOLE CLASS SEQUENCE THREE - STORYTELLING AND ACTING NOTE ON VIVIAN GUSSIN PALEY RESOURCES FOR ACTIVITIES
p. 27
p. 31
p. 34
p. 35
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INTRODUCTION This pack is for teachers bringing pupils to see Mouth Open, Story Jump Out in autumn 2018. Mouth Open, Story Jump Out is an original piece for young audiences. Created and performed by Polarbear, this is the story about a boy who tells a lie, and when the lie grows too big for him he discovers the difference between telling a lie and creating a story. Telling a lie is selfish, telling a story is a gift. Polarbear When his father leaves in the night, Polarbear is upset and confused; no one will answer his questions or explain why his father has gone. In school his teacher asks him to give his book presentation, and instead of giving it, he instead finds himself telling a lie in front of the class which paints his father as a mysterious hero, on a secret and important mission. Mouth Open, Story Jump Out explores the power of the imagination and the process of making up stories in which the audience becomes part of the story making. The children are invited to imagine and add to the ideas that Polarbear offers. At times it is hard to distinguish between what is scripted and what is generated in the space with the audience. The message of the piece is that we all have stories in us, we can all create stories, we just need to be given the space and the opportunity to do so. Where do we start? How do we create characters that interest and excite us and how do we choose which way our story should go? I always say to teachers that Mouth Open, Story Jump Out is a starting spark, and at the end of the performance it genuinely feels like ‘Go on, go on have a go’. That’s the goal of it. Polarbear The classroom activities in this pack are designed to support and extend pupils’ visit to the theatre and offer teachers ways to pick up on and explore the themes in the play, before and after a visit. They will use storytelling, drama and creative writing as ways of exploring ideas that are relevant to the play and to support teachers in meeting National Curriculum requirements: All pupils should be enabled to participate in and gain knowledge, skills and understanding associated with the artistic practice of drama. Pupils should be able to adopt, create and sustain a range of roles, responding appropriately to others in role. They should have opportunities to improvise, devise and script drama for one another and a range of audiences, as well as to rehearse, refine, share and respond thoughtfully to drama and theatre performances. National Curriculum Resources will also provide National Curriculum links to Key Stage Two English through the development of spoken word, as well as PSHE and citizenship.
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CPD - MONDAY 10 SEP, 10AM - 4PM There will be a free teacher CPD day for Mouth Open, Story Jump Out, co-run by Polarbear and Learning Associate Catherine Greenwood, where teachers can find out more about the show and gain practical experience of the accompanying scheme of work before running it with students. To book this or find out more, email schools@unicorntheatre.com.
Steven Camden (Polarbear) is one of the most respected spoken word artists in the UK. Regularly performing his work internationally since 2007, Steven has graced stages from Kuala Lumpur to California via Glastonbury and the Royal Shakespeare Company. His work has featured extensively on BBC Radio 1, 3 and 6. A published author, Steven has written three Young Adult novels for HarperCollins, Tape, It’s About Love, and the recently-released Nobody Real. Steven is also a playwright and his debut play, Back Down, was produced by the Birmingham REP and toured nationally in 2015. He was co-writer and script mentor on the Akram Khan Company’s Olivier Award winning production Desh, as well as script writer for LIFT festival’s acclaimed production Turfed. His theatre piece Mouth Open, Story Jump Out has received five star reviews, has been on multiple UK tours and has toured internationally four times. His most recent play, I Knew You, was performed at the Birmingham REP in 2017 and toured nationally. Steven’s first Radio 4 play, Sleeping Dogs, aired in 2013, and he is currently developing an original television series with Expectation Entertainment.
The Unicorn Theatre is the UK’s leading professional theatre for young audiences, dedicated to inspiring and invigorating young people of all ages, perspectives and abilities, and empowering them to explore the world – on their own terms – through theatre. Purpose-built for children and based in London, the Unicorn is one of the most prolific producing theatres in the UK, presenting 12 to 15 productions for children of all ages every year, and touring widely across the UK and beyond.
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ABOUT THE PLAY Mouth Open, Story Jump Out is the story of how Polarbear (the stage name for Steven Camden) started his life as a spoken word artist, poet, writer and storyteller. This one-man show explains how it all began with a lie that he told when he was a child. The story starts when Polarbear is ten years old, a boy who likes superheroes, but doesn’t like custard. He isn’t too tall or short: he’s just in the middle, and he isn’t cool. He has a dog called Gus. He introduces his mum, a nurse who can fix anything and loves reggae, and his sister Donna, four years older than him and a black belt in King Fu. He describes his dad as ‘up and down’; when he’d had a good day, his dad would tell stories and say ‘Stories could take us anywhere we wanted to go.’ When he’d had a bad day, ‘it was best to leave him in his chair.’ One Sunday night, when everyone is asleep, Polarbear’s dad disappears. He doesn’t know where he has gone and no one will answer his questions. He waits for him to come home, but when he fails to return, Polarbear, angry and upset, flushes his toothbrush down the toilet. I felt something in my stomach. Not a tingle. More like a spark and I knew then, something was going to happen. At school Polarbear has a best friend from nursery, Dominic, who eats fish paste sandwiches and doesn’t care what others think of him. But Polarbear does. Dominic has found out about the school talent show and wants to enter them both because he thinks they can win. Polarbear is not so sure. Later that day, Polarbear’s teacher, Mr Bukowski (his favourite teacher, who looks like a bear with a shaved face) asks him for his homework – a book presentation - but he hasn’t done it. He’s forgotten because he’s been distracted by his dad leaving. He stands before the class and in the moment makes up a story about not doing his homework: he tells the class that the reason he hasn’t done his book report is because he’s been helping his dad, who is travelling the world, to write a book about being a secret agent. Polarbear describes how powerful he felt as he told his story to the class. Rumours spread around the school about how Polarbear’s dad is a spy and how he’s helping him with a secret mission in Australia. The two head girls, Lucy Cheung and Maria Brown, seem to be very impressed and ask Polarbear if it’s true. When he says that it is, they tell him ‘That’s pretty cool.’ Polarbear is overjoyed with their new opinion of him. And so the lie grows, and to avoid getting found out Polarbear decides he needs to learn as much as he can about Australia and heads off to the library. At the library, he finds the school bully Danny Jones reading up on Australia. Page 6
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Danny Jones. Let me tell you about Danny Jones. Same age as us, but he looked like five years older. Big boulder shoulders made for pushing you over... He had these crazy puffed out cheeks, like some kind of hard-core hamster. He was the only ten year old who could grow a full beard and for some reason he didn’t like me. Danny Jones is fascinated by Polarbear’s mission and they become friends. Polarbear gets deeper into inventing the story of his dad, and becomes closer to Danny, while at the same time Dominic has entered them into the talent competition, under the stage name ‘Full Force’. Dominic has said that they’ll perform a dance act, but Dominic can’t dance, and Polarbear shows us how bad at dancing Dominic really is. Polarbear is caught in the middle of the web of story, or lies, he is telling. He is creating stuff to keep Danny believing, and he makes up more stories so everyone will keep thinking he’s ‘cool’. When he and Dominic fall out in a supermarket, Polarbear’s stories begin to unravel, and Danny finds out that he has made everything up. He confesses to Mr Bukowski and apologises to Dominic and Danny - he understands that telling a lie Page 7
TEACHER RESOURCES and making up a story are different. Telling a lie is selfish, telling a story is a gift. He dances in the school talent competition. And then a letter arrives... In this one man show Polarbear isn’t performing alone; he enlists the audience in the storytelling. Each performance is different as Polarbear interacts with the audience, riffing off ideas, asking everyone to imagine and draw a character from the story which shows how they imagine they might look. He asks for the audience’s own experiences of everything from dogs and what the best job in the world is, to homework and their opinions on the difference between telling a story and telling a lie. This play is about the audience’s collective imagination, the live nature of theatre and storytelling and the contract between performer and audience. Mouth Open, Story Jump Out cannot happen without its audience, without their experience, creativity and imaginations.
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MAKING THE PLAY INTERVIEW WITH POLARBEAR COULD YOU TELL WHY YOU WROTE MOUTH OPEN, STORY JUMP OUT? I was in a school with a year six group talking about making stuff up, about how much I used to lie. I’d told a lie, and my teacher said I should write a story about this lie and so I did. I won a rubber that was shaped like soap, and it was the first time I’d ever written anything, and the first time I’d felt validated. In this conversation, this kid said to me ‘So is all of it lies?’, and I said, ‘No, no, no.’ I think there’s a difference, but I didn’t have a clue what that was. I couldn’t stop thinking about it when I left: the difference between a story and a lie, what is it? I landed on the idea of motivation, the ‘why’ being important. There’s a line in it that says, ‘A lie is selfish but a story is a gift,’ and I stand by that. My goal is to connect and share and feel close to each other – that’s why I tell stories. A lie, to me, is something that is covering something up, or is something that’s trying to manipulate, and it’s tricky because both are blurry and some would argue that all stories are manipulative. Why I run with ideas is for the fun and discovery, and for that sense of feeling like we’re in it together, and then that feels like a gift. Of course, it’s also about me learning that lying is untenable, not only in terms of your own effort and brain space but in terms of your relationships. It’s about family and friendship, particularly friendship, and the boy called Danny Jones who’s the bully, and the fun of finding out his truth. The need to connect and to share stuff is the driving force.
WHY HAVE YOU CALLED IT MOUTH OPEN STORY JUMP OUT? There was a book from Trinidad of ghost stories which I read in Year 6 called Mouth Open, Story Jump Out, and it was the first book that ever fully got me. It scared the life out of me, a collection of short stories, Caribbean ghost tales. My family are from Jamaica so there was lots of crossover in terms of the myths, and it all fitted. I use my mouth with every story; even when I’m writing books I don’t write things down. I’m convinced that the story coming out of your mouth is the best way of seeing if you like it, to own it. I think it has a power that’s slightly more primal than writing things down - and I love writing things down. I think it’s a skill or a practice that has been maligned over time, that hasn’t been considered valid. I always say to teachers that Mouth Open, Story Jump Out is a starting spark, and the end of the performance it genuinely feels like ‘Go on, go on, have a go.’ That’s the goal of it.
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TEACHER RESOURCES TELL US ABOUT THE INTERACTIVE PART OF THE SHOW. THERE’S A SCRIPT, AND THERE’S A STORY THAT YOU TELL, BUT IT’S COLLABORATIVE TOO... In my mind, it’s like I’m driving and we’re in the car, and every now and again I pull over and we wade off into this wood for a while, and then we get back into the car and go with some stuff we grabbed from the wood, and that’s the stuff that we do together. The story is always the same but we’re thickening and enriching as we go and realising there are sides, and then rather than me telling you what we’re doing we realise collectively that along the way there are tangents that have added to the main story. We could follow any of them – that’s what I want to get across – we could go that way or we could follow this. It’s the idea that stories are everywhere, and if you want to run with it you run with it. It’s not like there’s ten stories in your brain that you have to use sparingly, they’re absolutely everywhere and they replenish themselves, and it’s like all you need is to do is open your mouth and share something with a person, and then another person, and another person, and combine this hive of minds. I’ve done it to two hundred people at a time and I’ve done it to three people, and it’s always fun. The success or satisfaction of it has very little to do with numbers. It has more to do with the sense of shared ownership.
WHAT DO YOU HOPE THE AUDIENCE’S EXPERIENCE WILL BE? Stories don’t exist in a straight line; they exist in all directions at once. There’s a point in it when I talk about the fact that most of my ideas don’t happen in words, they happen in pictures, and I say ‘OK, who have we mentioned so far in the story?’ and everyone gets a piece of paper and a pen and we draw a version of that person, really quickly, in a minute. A) You have to choose the character you want to draw, but B) even if the person next to you has chosen the same person, they might have a completely different version of what the character looks like. There is no wrong. All there is is what’s interesting and what’s not interesting. And for this little time, all we’re going to do is follow what’s interesting. Sometimes that’s something that people already know, at other times it’s like a revelation and you can feel that in the room. ‘What, it can’t be wrong?’ ‘No it can’t be wrong.’ ‘Wow, that’s too much for me!’ The nice thing about a group is that there’s security: you can sit there and do nothing if you want to. It’s the absence of pressure that’s important - some people just want to sit there and enjoy it. That’s fine too. When you actually mean that, and actually give people space to choose, there’s something inherently attractive about it. I don’t have to do anything, but here’s this guy saying I can choose to get involved if I want. To actually contribute. I can do what I want - how often does that genuinely happen? If I’m ten years old, I would argue not that often. And anything goes. An idea is an idea whether you’re eight or forty-eight. It’s the same, there is no hierarchy. It’s a powerful thing, a story. Whether they’re jokes or tragedies, to share something powerful that you created together - I don’t think there’s anything better. Page 10
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AS THE WRITER AND CREATOR OF THE PIECE, HOW DO YOU CHOOSE WHAT IDEAS TO INCLUDE? Feeling comes into it a lot. There are feelings in response to things, certain feelings in my gut. It’s that sense, it’s not just in my head. About 10% is in my head, but it’s how it feels in my body, it’s about what feels right: ‘I don’t know why, but I’m going with it.’ It’s the no pressure thing, it’s like ‘This feels right, I’m going to do it’. You make choices. I’ll go ‘Yes’ [to someone’s suggestion] and I won’t know why, or ‘No, no, too easy’ that comes up a lot – ‘Too easy – we can do better than that’, and something falls away, and something else, an alternative, comes in. At the end I always do a question and answer session and they always ask ‘How did you get to that bit?’ There are tangible choices being made. I also undermine myself – ‘Oh we haven’t got time for this’ – I get carried away. I’m hopefully trying to convey the sense that I don’t fully know. Not that I have no idea, that I don’t know that it’s possible, but that I could shoot off in another direction at any time. And that it’s fine.
HOW MUCH OF THE CONTENT IS SCRIPTED AND HOW MUCH IS CREATED IN THE MOMENT? There are characters that are described, or certain feelings that are described that are definitely crafted, there’s no way that it has just come to me. There’s a bit where I’m describing the bully, Danny Jones, and there’s a rhyme poem that just rolls off in the middle of everything. I can sometimes see the audience thinking ‘What, have you just made this up?’ There’s the sense that you don’t know, Page 11
TEACHER RESOURCES but it doesn’t feel manipulative. Too far either way and it becomes pointless or it becomes overmanipulative, like a puppet master. There are also bits where I do experiments and I talk about lying and what gives you away, almost a sense of ‘Let’s try and be good at it’ - there’s mess in all of it. Sometimes people get upset about the dad leaving. It’s touched a nerve and that has to be the case. It has to matter; it’s this weird pendulum between saying that there isn’t the pressure, but then things matter. Well, why does it matter? I’m choosing to tell you this, I want to tell you this because it feels important to me, it matters.
YOU’RE A WRITER: YOU EDIT AND HONE THE LANGUAGE YOU USE. ON THE ONE HAND IT’S MESS AND WHAT’S GENERATED IN THE ROOM, AND ON THE OTHER YOU’RE TRYING TO COMMUNICATE SOMETHING IMPORTANT... Mess isn’t just the absence of order, mess is contrast to me: this crafted poetic two lines of description, next to me running around the room sweating, asking a question, that’s what conveys craft to me. That the things that are crafted appear effortless. Because they have been chosen at the right time, effort has clearly gone into it. I never really wanted to be on stage, it just happened to me and I ran with it. This show came along and blew most of my other performance work out of the water. I’m basically a hype man, people are allowed to have a go, have a go if you want, if you don’t, just have some fun. If you see me do [the show], it’s clear. It speaks for itself about why I’m doing it, that my excitement is genuine. There’s the cliché of the kid coming in who doesn’t want to be there. The first thing I say to them is ‘Do you know what’s going on?’ ‘No.’ ‘Good.’ Then we know we’re on a level. These things you’re convinced or told are weaknesses - I don’t buy it. It’s not about smashing the system or anything else: there are elements, there’s a tone, a language, a feeling in this that’s transferable and useable.
CAN YOU EXPLAIN HOW YOU CAME TO BE A WRITER AND STORYTELLER? All of it is a celebration of my nan, who used to tell stories and have everyone mesmerised in the kitchen. This show is as close to me embodying my nan as possible. The kitchen was constantly full of people: relatives, strangers, talking constantly, constant laughter and music. My family came from Jamaica and from Ireland and people just talked constantly. My nan wouldn’t even be looking at you, she’d be cooking, talking about something and the whole kitchen is on tenterhooks. It’s just a quality, isn’t it? I’d sit on the floor and listen. I thought, ‘I wonder if I got that in me?’ I’d always written stories and told stories but I’d never performed them or shared them. I had been making music with friends of mine for a long time, making rhymes and rapping, and there was a booklet for a literary festival in Birmingham and we said we’d go down, but ‘Literary festival, what does that mean?’ It was in a comedy club and they called it spoken word and I rhymed something and won a phone. I hadn’t a phone at the time and I thought ‘Hang on’, and I won £20 and we had a Chinese meal. I thought, ‘This could be on to something.’ The guy came up to me and said ‘That’s great, would you come and do a gig for me in Glastonbury?’ I went to Glastonbury and someone from Apples and Snakes [an organisation promoting performed Page 12
TEACHER RESOURCES poetry and spoken word] saw me and I got my first commission. And alongside it I began working in schools, and realised that the schools stuff was more satisfying. I love writing; I love writing novels, I love writing for the screen, I love writing for other people to perform, but I’m not an actor and I’ve no desire to be an actor. If I have to do something again exactly the same I can’t do it. This feels conversational - I love holding a room, channelling my nan. It being low-fi is very important, because I wanted it to be able to go anywhere; in my head it was going to be in schools, or in one place. To be a full celebration of my nan - this is my equivalent of turning my back and making breakfast. There’s nothing if I don’t bring it, there’s no crutch. What I hope it does communicate is this sense of ‘it’s in everyone’, if you want to run with it: it’s not something that just a select number of people can do. What school did to me was made me think that there was a pristine blank page that needed to be neat and perfect, and you had to know before you started. I never knew, I never like my first, second, third, fourth idea, but just getting this stuff out and seeing it in front of me and feeling like I was discovering stuff, and saying ‘Look at what we did’ – there’s an empowerment of running with ideas and allowing yourself that freedom that I find infectious.
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DRAMA ACTIVITIES Imagination is what makes empathy possible. Of all our cognitive capacities, imagination is the one that permits us to give credence to alternative realities. ... We are called upon to use our imaginations to enter in that world, to discover how it looks and feels from the vantage point of the person whose world it is. Maxine Greene, Releasing the Imagination These drama, storytelling and writing activities are designed to follow your visit to Mouth Open, Story Jump Out and provide a springboard into children’s own creative storytelling, story acting and story writing. They aim to get children excited about telling and writing stories through the creation of characters and their worlds, providing rich material for the children to write their own stories, stories that matter to them. Drawing on Polarbear’s own creative processes the activities offer a range of ways into writing, including individual writing and drawing, collective character and storybuilding, improvisation and scriptwriting, drawing and poetry.
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TEACHER RESOURCES Sequence 1 - Creating a character and their world Begins the storytelling process through finding a central character who interests the children. In small groups, the children will create character profiles and then present back to the rest of the class. Sequence 2 - Developing detail: small group work Offers a range of ways into developing detail, or “colouring in” the initial character sketch they have made. The activities include drawing, taking photographs, improvisation, scene-making, drawing maps, and poetry. Sequence 2a - Developing detail: working as a class Provides an alternative whole-class activity where together the children create the bedroom of their character and then create scenes within that space. Sequence 3 - Storytelling and story acting These activities are inspired by Vivian Gussin Paley’s work on story-telling and story acting with young children. By providing a stimulus through a theme, an image, or a piece of music and asking a series of prompt questions, children write a story down which is then acted out by the rest of the class in a story circle.
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SEQUENCE ONE
CREATING A CHARACTER AND THEIR WORLD AIMS For children to create a central character for their story who interests them and draws on their experience of the world.
RESOURCES Dossier file, template, role on the wall outline, big paper and pens.
STRATEGIES Open questions, role on the wall, presenting back.
INTRODUCTION This sequence is all about beginning storymaking through the creation of a character, either in small groups or as a whole class, in a way that interests and excites the children. It is important that the character leads the story; the plot will serve the character, not the other way around. The aim is to create a character of depth, one who is real and interesting to students. Polarbear has some advice for getting started: This is all about beginnings: Often, the hardest part of making a story is the start. We think we don’t have any ideas, but we’re actually full of them. Trouble is, we over think and scare them off. We just need to remember not to think too much at the start. Just do it. Overthinking will squash an idea before it gets a chance to shine. Use details from your life, your friends, your memory and your imagination and always remember, there’s no such thing as a bad idea. Not at the start. There are only two kinds of ideas: 1. Ideas you find interesting.
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TEACHER RESOURCES 2. Ideas you don’t find interesting. And for stories, we only run with the ones we find interesting, and they can’t be wrong. Polarbear Polarbear says ‘Pour yourself in’. By using their own experience of the world, likes and dislikes, names and places, the stories will be full of the children’s experience of the world and full of meaning. This will make them real and believable.
STAGE ONE: WHOLE-CLASS CHARACTER CREATION (3 MINUTE EXERCISE) • Explain that you are going to start by imagining a character as a whole class. • Start by asking the class: - Who has written a story? - Who has started a story and not finished it? • Acknowledge the fact that finishing stories is hard: the empty page can be intimidating! Explain that you are going to find ways to create characters and stories out of our imaginations, and that there are things we can do that Polarbear showed us in his show that will help stories jump out of our mouths. What I know is every single person is full of them, we are all full of stories. Polarbear • Now lead this quick character and worldbuilding activity with the whole class - the idea is to demonstrate how quickly you can generate a character who interests you and which holds the seeds of future storylines. • On a big piece of paper, write down all the decisions you make together about this character as they are made. Make decisions quickly, and take ideas as they emerge. It is important to impress upon students that there is no pressure, and there is no such thing as a wrong answer. If there are different suggestions from different children, quickly make a decision based on your judgement as to what seems most interesting and real and what you feel will resonate with the class, and quickly build your character outline. Name and age • Share a little of yourself by asking the class ‘What’s my name? How old am I?’ (They may not know these things) showing them that you will be sharing your own experiences in the storymaking activity. • Now ask how old one of the children is. Write this down, and use this as the age of your character. • Go on to ask a child ‘What’s your middle name, or the name you always wanted to be called?’ Write that down, as this will be the name of your character. Polarbear always begins by asking one of the group these questions, rather than choosing a name and age himself. This keeps everything close to the children’s own experience, encouraging their investment in it, as a ‘real’ part of them. Soon, however, it becomes a fictional character, something owned by the group.
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TEACHER RESOURCES Family Now go on to questions focused around family. Give the children a choice between two options; this makes the decisions quick and based on instinct, allowing them to commit and invest in the story.
- Does our character have a brother or sister? - Older or younger? - Mum or dad? - What’s the best job in the world? - Does mum or dad do this job? Or did someone else in the family have had that job in the past, a grandparent for example? Or it may be the job mum or dad wanted to do, but they ended up doing something else instead? - What does mum or dad do? - What does the other parent do as a job?
Now ask ‘Why is dad (or mum) not around anymore? When did they leave?’ Mouth Open, Story Jump Out is centrally about a boy having to deal with the fact that his father has left, and that he doesn’t know why or where he has gone. Asking this kind of question changes the dynamic of the questioning and introduces a key theme of the show they have seen. With an absent parent, there is a mystery, and something which heightens the family relationships of those left behind. With this extra dynamic now established, go back to the protagonist with quick questions about the character’s preferences - their personal likes and dislikes. Likes and dislikes/what they do (or have done) Again, you could start by sharing a little about yourself.
- When I was in Year (4,5,6 - the relevant year) what do you think was I into? - What’s our character’s favourite food? - The song they love to sing along to? - Their favourite film - Favourite character in their favourite film - What time do they go to bed? - Do they share their room? - Their favourite item of clothing? - Their favourite subject at school? - What are they good at? - What are they not good at?
The friend
- What’s their name? - Their likes and dislikes? - What do they like doing? - What are they good at? - Where did the two of them meet?
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TEACHER RESOURCES I am looking for something that is interesting to me. The process of asking questions is looking for what interests me, the things that grab me – for example, the relationship between a younger brother and older sister when the mum has left home. Polarbear Reflect • After about 3 minutes of generating and writing up your character profile, stop and look at what you’ve created in this short space of time, the amount you’ve managed to gather together, and how much you already know about your character because of this. You can also assess if there are new questions you have now, what more you would like to find out about your character and their situation. • Recognise how much has been created in a short space of time, and the fact that this character didn’t exist five minutes ago, but now does in your collective imaginations. • Explain that now they have seen how they have created a character together, they are going to have a go in smaller groups.
STAGE TWO: SMALL GROUP CHARACTER CREATION This is the opportunity for the students to create their own character; while they will still have to negotiate with one or two others, much more of the content this time will be theirs to decide. • Put the class into small groups - preferably pairs or groups of three. • Give each group a big piece of paper and pens and ask them to find a space together where they can create their character (it can be nice to do this in a more informal way away from desks, in a hall or with some children on the floor in the classroom). • Take them through the stages from before: name and age, family, likes and dislikes and friend, posing the questions as you did before and giving the children time to discuss and get their ideas down on paper. • If you prefer you could give the children a template for recording their character’s details, or you could leave it open at this stage and when they have generated their ideas they could transfer the information onto one of these templates before presenting back to the class: a) b)
A profile for their character (resource one) Role on the wall outline (resource two) - on the inside of the outline, students write what they know about their character, and around the outside all the other detail and information about the character’s family and friends.
STAGE THREE: MOUTH OPEN - PRESENTING THE CHARACTER • When the groups have finished creating their characters, ask them to choose five things which they will tell the whole class about their character. • Bring the class back together and ask each pair or three to stand up and tell the class these five Page 19
TEACHER RESOURCES things. • Make sure that everyone in the group gets to say something about the character that they have created. • After each presentation ask for questions the rest of the class might have about the character. • The group can answer these in the moment, or they can hold onto the questions to think with later. As a whole class, begin to explore what you find interesting about these characters. The teacher facilitator role is key; you can support the children and begin to tease out the things that seem to have potential. Balance and a sense of possibility will be important in developing their stories. If they have created a very sad character in a bleak set of circumstances, ask questions that provide balance: What or who makes them laugh? What is their favourite thing to do? What song makes them feel happy and upbeat? Speaking the story out loud and telling it to someone else helps the children to own what they have created, to know how they feel about it, and makes it feel more real. The mouth sparks things in the brain that the brain can’t get by itself – using my mouth I’ll stand by it, it’s more real. Not everyone writes every day, but we all speak every day. Polarbear
STAGE FOUR: MOTIVATION - THINKING ABOUT WHAT THE CHARACTER WANTS AND NEEDS The activity so far has been about creating a character of depth and making the character matter. The narratives that emerge will serve the character, not the other way around. Through these activities you are populating a world, building the context, and a collection of people before the story starts. Creating detail about your characters will reveal what it is they need and want. Much of what drives a story is what obstructs what a character wants. • Begin to ask the children questions about what their characters want. Polarbear shares how he thinks about this when writing his stories: No matter where or how you start your story, the important question to ask yourself next is: What does my character want? There are different kinds of want. I call them THE BIG WANTS and the little wants. Little wants change in every scene. For example, in the library scene with Danny, my little want is not to get beaten up. THE BIG WANT in Mouth Open Story Jump Out was that I wanted to be cool. I didn’t know how I could become cool, but then when the lie jumped out of my mouth, something happened that made me think I might be able to be cool. The story then becomes about how your character realises whether THE BIG WANT is what they’re really chasing, or whether they learn that what they really wanted was something else.
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TEACHER RESOURCES As you start building your story and things happen, every now and again have a little think about what your character’s little wants and THE BIG WANT are and how they might be changing. That is the stuff that makes us feel like we’re going on a journey and that’s what stories are all about. Polarbear
STAGE FIVE: THE CHARACTER DOSSIER Finish this sequence by giving the children a folder to hold all this detail about their character - a character dossier. As the work continues, they can keep everything they create about their character and their world in one place, adding to it as they go along.
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TEACHER RESOURCES
SEQUENCE TWO
DEVELOPING DETAIL: ADDING TO A DOSSIER AIMS To offer a range of creative ways for the children to add detail and depth to their characters, discovering more about their world, their characters, and their wants and needs.
RESOURCES Paper and pencils, art materials, ipads or cameras, big pieces of paper and pens.
STRATEGIES Drawing, taking photographs, improvisation, scene-making, drawing maps, and poetry writing.
INTRODUCTION The activities in this sequence can be done in any order, as each one will add detail to what the children already know about their character and the world they have created. The more the children invest in the character, the more real the character will become and matter to them.
STAGE ONE: IMAGINING YOUR ROOM This activity starts by asking the children to focus on a real space, a room they know personally very well, so they remember and notice detail which they can go on to describe and record. This activity is then repeated as a way to create detail about their fictional character. • Ask the children to find a space on their own, with a pencil and paper near at hand, and close their eyes. • Ask them to think of a room they know well, the room they know best, a room they can picture easily when they close their eyes. • Ask them to imagine themselves there: - What time is it? - Are you alone? - Are you sitting? Standing? Lying down? - From where you are what can you see? - Now zoom in, like a camera. Zoom in until you’re looking at a space about the size of an A4 page. What can you see?
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TEACHER RESOURCES • Ask the children to turn to their paper and pencil and write down what they imagined they could see in as much detail as they can. • Now back with their eyes closed, ask them to zoom out in their mind until they can see the whole floor, wall, or window and describe what they see now. • Now ask the children to describe another surface in the room. Tell them to remember what time it is and make sure they pay attention to the light – night-time light is very different to daylight. • When they have five or six lines of description ask the children to find a partner and speak the lines of description out to them. After they have all done this, ask: - Do you get a sense of the time and mood and feeling in your space? - Could you enhance the feeling by changing your description? - Maybe you got a new idea from speaking your words out loud. • Ask the children to go back to working alone and add more lines of description thinking about their other senses. - What can you hear? - What surfaces can you feel? - Are there any smells? Tell them to remember what time it is and let that help colour their pictures in. • Put the children in small groups and ask them to give each other a guided tour of their room: ‘The bed is here, the lamp is over there, the window is here, looking out onto…’ and so on. • Ask them to underline six of the descriptions they have written down, and use these to create a sixline poem. First they should decide on the order of arranging their lines, then they can edit it and add to it. Prompt them to focus everything on making their poem more vivid. Vivid: adjective - producing powerful feelings or strong, clear images in the mind • Hear the poems read out to the whole class. You could ask children to swap poems, so they can hear them read out by someone else. • Reflect on how much you discover about the children when you hear about the spaces that they inhabit: about the kind of person they are, and what they value.
STAGE TWO: IMAGINING YOUR CHARACTER’S ROOM • Having described the children’s own spaces that they know well, now repeat the same activity, this time with the fictional character that they have created. The class can do this in their pairs or threes, and imagine and record the space together. • When you get to the stage of drawing the room and writing poems, children could do this
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TEACHER RESOURCES individually so that they have the opportunity to let their imagination create detail which resonates with them personally.
STAGE THREE: PHOTOGRAPHING OBJECTS • If there are iPads, tablets or digital cameras available, give the children the opportunity to take one around school and photograph things that spark their imaginations. • Ask them to take ten close up pictures of things that matter to their character, and to invent a story or reason behind each photograph. • When everyone has had a chance to take photographs, ask the groups to present their images back to the class who can then ask them questions about their photographs: - Why is this place or thing important to your character? - What are the stories within these moments? • Add the photographs to the dossier and reflect on what more the students now know about their character.
STAGE FOUR: DRAWING • At any point in the process of creating the character and their world, stop and give the children five minutes to do a quick sketch of their character. This will give them the chance to think about their story in a different medium, and draw on the visual images they will have begun to form in their imaginations. • Alternatively, ask the children to do a drawing of anything that you feel might be useful to create visually, such as the character’s clothes or shoes, their pet, the present that their grandmother gave to them, or the doodle they drew on their work book at school. • Add these to the dossier.
STAGE FIVE: MAPS • Ask the children to draw a map that covers the places their character regularly goes to: school; home; friends’ houses; nan’s house; the park; mosque, chicken shop - everywhere. • Give the groups big pieces of paper so they can have plenty of space between the locations on their maps. Have them draw small pictures to represent each place on the map and give a sense of what their character thinks of it. - How does your character get around from place to place? By bus, on foot, train, car, bike, or scooter? - Ask them to add other places which are perhaps less everyday or familiar: a marsh, an abandoned house, a running track or their worst enemy’s house.
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TEACHER RESOURCES • This map can be their reference at any time for the story. Sometimes, just looking at the world from above may give them ideas. • You could look at a group’s map and suggest something that might develop their story by saying something like ‘Look, there by the swimming pool, what’s that?’ • Ask them to draw what they imagine is there, whatever they like (a bag, a dog, a dismembered hand). Tell them that their character finds this thing. How did it get there? What does it mean?
STAGE SIX: PHONE CALL - IMPROVISATION • Ask all the children to find a space in the hall (or classroom). They are all going to imagine that they are the character they have created – they should know a lot about them by now, who their friends and family are, as well as what they want and maybe what they need. • Explain that you are going to ask them to imagine that they are on the phone. They will need to decide who is phoning up, but they will be improvising the conversation - making it up as they go along. • Model it for them first so that they can see what they need to do. Pick up an imaginary phone and begin to speak and leave gaps for the other side of the conversation: Hello …………. Oh sorry I forgot, I don’t think I can come now ………………. Well my mum said I have to stay in and finish my homework etc. • Ask them all to answer their phones at the same time and begin their one-sided phone conversation. Allow them to run for a while. • Afterwards, ask everyone to sit down and find out how they found the activity; - Who found it easy to imagine the other side of the conversation? Who found it difficult? • Ask for a volunteer or two to show the rest of the class their phone conversation. • Get the class to do the activity again; they can choose to work on the same conversation they were having and make it better, or they can choose to try with a different person phoning their character. • This activity potentially gives you three things: another character and relationship to explore; a possible problem that your character needs to deal with; and a glimpse into how your character actually speaks – this is the first time they will have physically and vocally embodied their character. • The class can write up their phone conversations, scripting both sides of the call, and add these to their folios.
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TEACHER RESOURCES STAGE SEVEN: SCENE-MAKING • In their small groups, ask the children to create a short scene of a family meal. They will need to decide: - Who is at the meal and who are they going to play? - Is it a special occasion? - What time is it? • Ask them to include the following in their scenes: A)
Their central character is late. They walk in. - How do people react? - What is said at first? - Does someone get angry? - Is there silence? Tension?
B)
Somebody says something that nobody expected. - Who says it? - What do they say? - Have they wanted to say it for a long time, or is this new? - What does it mean for your character? - What happens next?
• See the groups’ scenes and ask the rest of the class to feedback what they enjoyed and found interesting in the scenes as well as what more they want to find out. • Ask the groups to write up their scripts and add them to their character dossiers.
STAGE EIGHT: BRINGING THE CHARACTERS TOGETHER IN ONE PLACE • You could extend the map idea and decide that everyone’s character lives on the same street, or in the same area. You could look at potential storylines you already have from what has been created, or decide between the whole class that something big happens in the community. Some options could be: - There is an explosion - Someone new moves in who changes everything
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TEACHER RESOURCES
SEQUENCE TWO (A)
DEVELOPING DETAIL: WORKING AS A WHOLE CLASS AIMS To work collaboratively to create the world of the character, accepting and building on each other’s ideas. To create a visual representation of the character’s bedroom, filling the room with the things that they own. To use the room they have created as a stimulus for making short scenes.
RESOURCES Tape, lots of paper of different sizes, pens, coloured pencils or felt pens.
STRATEGIES Drawing, still image, thought tracking, improvisation, scene-making, script-writing.
INTRODUCTION Rather than children writing stories individually, or in pairs or small groups, you could continue as a whole class to develop the story you began in the three-minute activity (see sequence one, stage one). The following activities will enable you to create detail as a whole class for one character and their world, and work collaboratively to build a story together. There are opportunities for children to then break away and create their own story lines relating to this shared central figure.
STAGE ONE: IMAGINING THE CHARACTER’S ROOM - WHOLE CLASS • You already have a name, age, and some detail about family and friends to build on from sequence one, stage one. Or you could choose one of the other characters from Mouth Open, Story Jump Out, for example Danny, and explore and develop the story from that character’s perspective. • Before the class enter, mark out a large space on the floor with tape. This will represent the bedroom of our character. Page 27
TEACHER RESOURCES • Sit the class around the outside of the taped area and explain that this is X’s bedroom, and mark in the doorway and a window. • Remind the class what you know about X already, and explain that you want the class to help you fill the space with what they think X will have in this room. Begin with large pieces of furniture – a bed, wardrobe, desk, chest of drawers – whatever the children suggest, and mark these with tape. • Now ask the children what else might be in the room. For example; what kind of bed cover might X have, or what do they have on the walls or the desk? Whichever child has the idea is then asked to draw it. • Keep drawing items that the children suggest for the room. Gradually this will evolve from an activity that everyone is doing together to one where children are busy working individually on small tasks, drawing items they think might be in the bedroom. • Ask the children:
- What does X have on the top of the wardrobe? - What is under the bed? - Are there any pictures on the wall? - Is there something they keep under their pillow? - Is there something on their shelf that they brought back from a holiday or a day out? - What are the books on the desk or shelf?
• You can create clothes, computer games, jewellery, diaries, school books, things their grandparents have given them, family photographs – whatever the children imagine might be in this room and belong to X. • When everyone has created something to go into the bedroom, bring the class back around the space with their drawings and gradually place everything into the room where they belong. There may be things the children have created that feel contradictory, but this activity allows for people to be contradictory and complex. For example, it might be interesting that a boy who hides cigarettes under his bed also keeps his teddy on his pillow.
STAGE TWO: PLACE THE CHARACTER IN THEIR ROOM • When you have created the bedroom of your character, you can then bring that character into the space. • Ask for a volunteer to be X in their bedroom. Where might they be? What might they be doing? Ask the volunteer to take up a freeze frame, a still picture of X in their bedroom. • Ask the rest of the class to “thought-track” X; to speak out their thoughts in that moment in the bedroom. • You could ask two or three other volunteers to take up a different freeze frames of your character in their room, gradually building up an idea of who this character is and what their concerns are.
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TEACHER RESOURCES STAGE THREE: CREATING SHORT SCENES • Move the students into pairs (or threes) and ask them to decide who comes into the bedroom: it could be a parent, a sibling, a friend, or anyone else they choose. • Ask the children to improvise the conversation that takes place. Give them time to explore the possibilities and then ask them to shape their improvisation, cutting out unnecessary dialogue and scripting it. This will require them to edit and hone their scenes. • See the scenes and discuss as a whole class the different possible scenarios that have been generated from the shared activity of creating X’s room.
STAGE FOUR: INDIVIDUAL STORY-WRITING • Having generated a character, their world and a range of scenes, now give the children the opportunity to write their own story. Each child should have the chance to write the story they want to write which has been suggested to them by the preceding activities. So now you have your character, a potential setting and hopefully a starting point you find useful. Now it’s up to you. What happens in your story? Maybe you like the idea of plotting out what will happen in the whole story and then writing the scenes that tell it. I like to not know where my story will end when I start, I ask questions and play until I feel like I know my character really well and then I put them in a situation where there’s something they have to deal with and something they think they want and then I just go. Sometimes I realise I don’t like what I’m making. When that happens, I stop and go back to my character. Do I still like my character? Do I want to make changes or start again? It doesn’t matter. What matters is that I like it and it excites me. If you get into it and change your mind about something, then change it. It’s your story. The only person who has to be interested and care about it right now is you. Polarbear
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TEACHER RESOURCES NOTES ON TEACHER FACILITATION These activities ask you to take a few risks and shift the paradigm in your classroom a little. The tasks ask children to use their experience of the world as the basis for creating real and interesting characters. They also need you to reveal a little bit of yourself, giving your students a slice of you that they don’t normally see, and change the teacher/pupil relationship as you work together on a creative endeavour. Giving something of yourself, taking a risk and sharing your own responses, will give the children the confidence to have a go too. Polarbear says he always includes something about being embarrassed. For instance, he might ask: Who’s ever embarrassed themselves? Walked out of the loo with your skirt tucked into your knickers, or loo roll on your shoe? Or tripped up and pretended you haven’t? Sharing a part of yourself, what embarrasses or excites you, demonstrates to the class that you’re all in this creative process together. The activities in this pack are rooted in Polarbear’s creative process. However, you don’t need to try to be like Polarbear, as ultimately you need to lead the story building in your own way. Tap into what interests you, what your intuition tells you might be worth exploring, and listen to the responses of the children revealing what is of interest to them. You want them to follow your example rather than your advice; they need to see you get excited by ideas and possibilities. They also need to see that you don’t know where you’re going, but are discovering it in the moment with them. Questions are at the heart of the process: asking simple, easy-to-answer questions at times, and at others knowing which question might move the work on into something more interesting or meaningful. Who could arrive? What isn’t true? What did they witness? What happens when someone leaves - when 4 become 3? What does it feel like when adults don’t tell us what is happening? Who are these bullies? What happens if you like someone but you don’t know if they like you? Follow what is of interest and imagine different scenarios: Is mum always like that? What is mum like when she’s with a friend at work? How does it change when her boss comes in? Polarbear also notes that you must be able to drop something when you know it’s not interesting, or to push a little when you know you could do better. Keep going – I don’t know what will happen, I’m looking, if nothing’s grabbing me I’m going to keep going.
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TEACHER RESOURCES
SEQUENCE THREE
STORYTELLING AND ACTING AIMS To give children the chance to imagine, tell and act out their own stories. To explore the way in which night and day and light and darkness can make us feel as the starting point for creating stories.
RESOURCES A selection of images of the nighttime (countryside and city-based images), some on large print outs, and a piece of classical or atmospheric music.
STRATEGIES Whole class discussion, sharing ideas, helicopter technique, story writing, telling and acting out.
INTRODUCTION These activities are inspired by Vivian Gussin Paley’s work on storytelling and story acting which she developed with younger children. By providing a stimulus in a theme, an image, or a piece of music and asking a series of prompt questions, children write a story which is then acted out by the rest of the class in a story circle. We have used the theme of nighttime and the dark, but any other theme could be chosen.
STAGE ONE: OPENING DISCUSSION • Ask the class what kind of things happen during the daytime, and what happens during the night. What is different about the nighttime and the daytime and why? What do we feel about night and day; which do we prefer? • Ask the children about any stories or parts of stories they know that take place in the darkness or at night. Which type of stories might take place in the dark? Discuss with a partner and feedback. Stop/Go • Play a game of Stop/Go. When you say GO, ask the children to move about the space, weaving in and out of each other. When you say STOP, ask them to stop as quickly as possible as if they’ve been turned to stone. Practice this a few times, drawing attention to the children who are completely still
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TEACHER RESOURCES and how they look like statues. • Start to introduce some story elements to the game, so that the children have a range of ideas to draw upon later. Each time you say STOP, ask them to show you a frozen image of a different character or landscape that you might find in a story, such as: - Someone who has woken up and can’t get back to sleep. - Somebody who works at night (a night watchman, a nurse, police, someone who studies nocturnal animals. - A forest at night (whole group image), with someone walking through it. - Someone who is lost at night in the city. - In fours: inside a tent on a camping trip, with torches, hearing a sound outside. Story-making • Now look at an image of the nighttime, and as a class choose between a city or countryside image as a setting for your story. Ask for ideas of what might happen in a story that takes place there, using some of the following questions:
- Where in the image does the story begin? - Who is the main character in our story? - Are there any other characters? - Are there any special objects or things? - Is there a problem? - What do the characters do? - What happens at the end of the story?
• Don’t close down the possibilities at this stage, as you are talking about ideas for a number of potential stories. This should provide a broad range of ideas to choose from and develop. • As you discuss, take some of the ideas they have offered and write down a story which incorporates as many of them as possible. Make sure that you stay true to their ideas and don’t add much, as the idea behind this activity is that the children develop confidence in their storytelling. They can be tiny stories as well as longer, more detailed stories. Story Acting • Bring the class together to act out your story. Mark out an area with tape where the story acting will take place, and explain that you will be the narrator or storyteller and that the children will take it in turns to act out the moments in the story. • Read out the story you have prepared, bringing children up in turn around the circle to act out the characters and objects in the story. For example, children can play the trees in a forest or the moon in the sky, creating the setting where the action takes place. When you get to a natural end of a scene or moment, you can whoosh the children away and start again with the next children around the circle. • Having developed a shared language of storytelling and demonstrated how the activity works, you can now build on this by giving the children the chance to create their own story about the nighttime and darkness in stage two.
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TEACHER RESOURCES STAGE TWO: INDIVIDUAL STORY-MAKING • Display a selection of the nighttime images around the room. Ask the children to choose one they like and stand next to it. Give them time to look at the image and maybe discuss with other children what they like about it. • Now ask the children to find a space on their own and lie down and close their eyes, with paper and pencils close by. Then ask some guiding questions they need to answer to begin their story: where does their story take place? Who are the characters in their story? Is there a problem? • Ask the class to start writing their stories down. Explain that they are going to do continuous writing – you want them to write non-stop until you tell them to put their pencils down. If they can’t think what to write, they should just write the words ‘I am writing, I am writing’ until something else pops into their head. • Alternatively put the children into pairs and ask one of the pair to write their partner’s story down verbatim, exactly as their partner speaks it, without adding any of their own ideas, critiquing the story, or making suggestions of what happens next. They can encourage the storyteller by saying ‘And then what happened?’, or if they think the story has reached its end by asking ‘Is that the end or does something else happen?’ • Now create a story circle and act out the children’s stories (you could do a few each day over a week). • Ask the child whose story it is which part they would like to play in the acting out, or whether they would prefer to tell the story themselves for others to act out. All other parts are allocated at random as you go around the circle. • At the end of acting out a few stories, discuss the different ideas and themes which have emerged. • You could repeat this activity using a piece of music as a starting point, rather than an image. Ask the children to find a space, lie down and close their eyes. • As they listen to the music, ask the guiding questions from the activity above, but start with ideas around character (who lives in this place, and what sort of creature or person are they?). Let the music influence the choices they make.
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TEACHER RESOURCES
NOTE ON VIVIAN GUSSIN PALEY Vivian Gussin Paley developed a storytelling and story acting curriculum for the nursery children she worked with in America during the 1980s and 90s, and has written a number of books which outline her approach. As some of the activities in this pack draw on her theory and practice of early years’ education using dramatic play, teachers may be interested in reading the following: The Boy Who Would Be A Helicopter: Uses of Storytelling in the Classroom (1991) You Can’t Say You Can’t Play (1993) A Child’s Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play (2004) The Boy on the Beach: Building Community through Play (2010)
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TEACHER RESOURCES
RESOURCE ONE Name:
Age:
Family members:
Likes: What are they into?
Dislikes:
Strengths:
Who is their friend?
What are they good at?
Weaknesses:
What do they fear?
What are they bad at?
A place:
A family memory:
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TEACHER RESOURCES
RESOURCE TWO
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MOUTH OPEN, STORY JUMP OUT A Battersea Arts Centre Production
Conceived and created by Polarbear Resource pack written by Polarbear and Catherine Greenwood