The Velveteen Rabbit (2016) | Teacher Resources

THE VELVETEEN RABBIT TEACHER RESOURCE PACK FOR TEACHERS WORKING WITH PUPILS IN YEARS 1 - 4

THE VELVETEEN RABBIT

CONTENTS CONTEXT INTRODUCTION SUMMARY OF THE STORY INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR PURNI MORELL INTEVIEW WITH ACTOR CHRISTIAN ROE IMAGES OF THE SET DESIGN BY DESIGNER JAMES BUTTON

3 4 6 8 10

DRAMA ACTIVITIES INTRODUCTION

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SESSION 1 - 2: THE TOYS A) STORY WHOOSH: THE BEGINNING OF THE STORY B) CREATING THE TOYS C) THE VELVETEEN RABBIT WATCHES AS THE BOY PLAYS D) IN-ROLE DISCUSSION - IN THE TOY CUPBOARD

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SESSION 3 - 4: THE RABBITS A) MOVEMENT SESSION: HOW RABBITS MOVE B) RABBITS IN THE WILD C) STORY WHOOSH

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SESSION 5: AFTER YOUR VISIT A) RECREATING KEY MOMENTS FROM THE PLAY B) THE VELVETEEN RABBIT AND THE BOY C) COMPLETING THE STORY WHOOSH

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT

CONTEXT INTRODUCTION Welcome to the teacher resources for The Velveteen Rabbit. The play runs at the Unicorn Theatre from 28 March - 26 April and has been created for children in school years 1 to 4 to enjoy.

This teacher resource pack and the accompanying CPD day for the show will offer a series of drama sessions which can be used before or after your visit to the theatre, and can link to learning across the curriculum. The classroom activities in the sessions are designed for teachers who are new to drama as well as those with experience of using drama in the classroom.

The drama activities will allow the children to explore toys; how they are made and how we play with them, and articulate why different kinds of toys are important. We will connect to the children’s own experience of toys and why they are important to them. The heart of the story of The Velveteen Rabbit is about emotional connection; what it is to be loved and the drama will also give the children the chance to explore these feelings and thoughts within a safe structure.

Working through drama gives children the chance to explore things that matter to them within a fictional context, draw on their prior knowledge and apply it to new situations, develop language as they give expression to new understandings and develop emotional intelligence and critical thinking as they see things from different perspectives. The activities will also allow the children to take responsibility, make decisions, solve problems and explore possibilities from within the drama.

The age range for the show is wide and while the play will be appropriate for the full range of children in the audience, the classroom activities will need to be adapted to suit your class. The resource pack and CPD day will support teachers in responsive planning and in adapting the activities for their particular setting.

The Velveteen Rabbit CPD is a practical workshop day which gives teachers the opportunity to: experience the activities as participants; understand how to approach and adapt the work for their particular class; discuss and share ideas with other teachers and develop skills, understanding and confidence in working with drama in the classroom.

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – CONTEXT

SUMMARY OF THE STORY It’s Christmas day and at the top of little boy’s stocking there sat a splendid Velveteen Rabbit.

The little boy thought he was the best present and played with him all morning.

At lunchtime, aunts and uncles arrived with more presents and the Velveteen Rabbit was forgotten about and left alone on the floor.

After that the Velveteen Rabbit lived for a long time in the toy cupboard and no-one thought very much about him. Some of the more expensive toys; the model boat, the wooden lion, the toy soldiers, looked down on him.

The only person who was kind to him was an old Skin Horse; he was the oldest toy in the nursery and he was very wise.

One day the Velveteen Rabbit asked the Skin Horse ‘What is real?’ The Skin Horse explained that ‘Real is something that happens to you when a child loves you for a long, long time, maybe loves you so much that your fur is rubbed off, then you become real.’

The Velveteen Rabbit longed to become real, to know what it felt like.

One evening the Boy couldn’t find his China Dog, the toy he normally slept with, and so Nana picked up the Velveteen Rabbit and gave it the Boy to sleep with.

From that time on the Velveteen Rabbit slept in the Boy’s bed every night and the Boy took him everywhere during the day.

One day when the Boy couldn’t get to sleep because he didn’t have his rabbit, Nana eventually found it and gave it to him saying ‘all that fuss about your old toy’ the Boy said ‘he’s not a toy, he’s real’ and the Velveteen Rabbit was happy because he knew that he had become real at last.

One day when they were playing out in the garden the Velveteen Rabbit was left in the grass. Two rabbits approached hopping and jumping, noses twitching. They asked the Velveteen Rabbit why he didn’t hop around with them and where his back legs were. ‘He’s not real’ they said as they hopped off.

One day the Boy became very ill. The Velveteen Rabbit sat patiently in the Boy’s bed waiting for the day he got better and they could play together again.

Eventually the Boy recovered and his parents said they were going to take him to the seaside the next day.

The Rabbit was very excited at the thought of going too. But then the doctor spoke to Nana and told her she must get rid of all the Boy’s bedclothes as they were full of germs, as well as any toys or books that the Boy had in his sick-bed.

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – CONTEXT

SUMMARY OF THE STORY – CONTD. So Nana scooped all bedclothes and the Velveteen Rabbit with them and they were taken out into the garden where they were put onto the top of a large bonfire.

The Velveteen Rabbit sat on the top of the bonfire and thought about all the happy times they had had playing in the garden and a great sadness came over him.

And a real tear trickled down his nose and dropped onto the grass.

Where the tear had fallen a flower grew out of the ground. As the flower opened, out stepped a fairy.

The fairy told the Velveteen Rabbit that he was real. The wild rabbits came hopping out into the garden again and the Velveteen Rabbit joined them.

One day when the Boy was playing out in the garden he saw some rabbits hopping around and he thought that one of them looked just like his old toy rabbit.

Images from the production

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – CONTEXT

INTERVIEW WITH DIRECTOR PURNI MORELL Why did you decide to adapt The Velveteen Rabbit for the stage?

I came across the story a few years ago, and I immediately thought it would make a great show, and I also knew who I wanted in it as the Rabbit. I knew that a lot of the time when people stage this book, they have a puppet as the Rabbit, but it was really important to me that the Boy and the Rabbit should both be actors, because that way you can tell the story of the relationship between them. To me, it’s the story of a friendship.

At first, the Rabbit is new in the nursery, almost like a new child in school, but then suddenly he and the Boy are thrown together, and they become best friends. But then at the end, the Boy goes away to the seaside and leaves the Rabbit behind, and their friendship comes to a sudden and terrible end. It made me think about what it felt like to have toys when I was a child – I used to worry, for example, about whether I was playing with some of them enough: you know that feeling that you preferred some of your toys over others, and played with them more often, and then suddenly you felt guilty that maybe you weren’t taking good enough care of the others? So I guess for me there was a lot in this story that felt like the kinds of things children will recognise: what it’s like to have a best friend, what it’s like to worry that nobody likes you, what it’s like to be forgotten, how wonderful it is when you and your best friend make up after an argument. All those kinds of things were what drew me to this story.

Can you tell us a little about how it will be staged?

Almost as soon as I thought I wanted to make this piece, I knew what I wanted it to look like. I knew an actor, as I say, who looks to my mind a bit like a rabbit, so I knew I wanted to have him. And I knew I didn’t want him to be in a rabbit costume, so then I became interested in the idea that the story would not only be about the Boy and the Rabbit, but also be told by the actors themselves.

I then realised I needed a third person, to play Nana and the Doctor and all the characters who represent Authority – so if you like, the Boy and the Rabbit are children who live in the world of play and the nursery, but there is another figure who is able to control them and decide their destiny.

So then I knew I wanted three actors, and I realised that I wanted the third one to be a man as well, because otherwise it would risk looking like two boys and their Mum, which I thought meant something too specific.

So then the idea of three men in suits, playing themselves as performers telling the story, but who could also transform into the Boy and the Rabbit and the Authority Figure came to me, and that led to another thought, which was: a lot of children’s literature is set in the world of a nursery that feels a bit Victorian – I’m thinking Page 6

THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – CONTEXT of Mary Poppins or Peter Pan or The Railway Children, or even Swallows and Amazons; I know they’re not all literally Victorian, but they do all have a certain feel to their worlds that I don’t think most children live in any more.

So I became interested in a contrast between the modern and the traditional, and we’ve been working on a design that juxtaposes the two. The world of the nursery will be very traditional, with traditional and vintage toys, but the performers themselves will be in modern dress, and the games they play will be modern games.

In the second half we transform the set into a garden, so we can include games outside, and those might feel more modern. And of course at the end, when we get to the bonfire, that’ll be quite abstract – modernist almost, but definitely something the Rabbit can climb.

I want the whole thing to feel exciting, and for the audience to really want to be in that nursery with the Boy and the Rabbit, but I tend to prefer theatre that’s actually quite simple, and that doesn’t pretend the story is really happening, so at the same time there will be a slightly homespun feel to it.

We’re using movement and specially composed music, which I think is going to feel a bit like the lullabies and pieces for children by Brahms and Schumann. But then our movement director is a BBoyer (break dancer) by origin, so that’ll be an interesting mix.

I sort of want the whole thing to feel like an enormous toyshop but to be quite sad at the end, when the Rabbit and the Boy go their separate ways.

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – CONTEXT

INTERVIEW WITH ACTOR CHRISTIAN ROE What did you do during rehearsals to prepare you for playing the Velveteen Rabbit?

From the earliest conversations about the show, it was always clear that I was never going to be dressed as a rabbit, with ears and a furry tail indicating to the audience exactly what the rabbit looks like and who he is. As another theatre-maker once said, ‘I don’t want to see fireworks on stage, I want them exploding in my mind’ which is a totally brilliant description of what theatre is and can be.

Rather than try to do as much as possible, I decided that I’d try and do as little as possible, with as much economy and precision as possible, I wanted the audience to be able to enjoy engaging with and being involved in what the Velveteen Rabbit represents for them and what that means to all of us. I wanted to leave as much open for them as possible.

I then found some ‘rabbity’ facial movements that came about at the very end of the rehearsal process. I knew that the audience would need a couple of visual gestures or signals to be able to imagine the piece with us: an eyebrow twitch (he’s an outsider and that makes him feel awkward; the audience can see this, understand this and experience it with me) and a kind of nervous velvet jacket adjustment which came out of conversations with the director about the fact that the rabbit is an outsider who will try desperately to adjust his appearance in order to look his best and maybe fit in as a result. We all know what that’s like of course. And as I did that, I found that what was something uncomfortable and necessary becomes something comforting and necessary.

I think the two most important things that I wanted to keep in mind were firstly, the fact that the Velveteen Rabbit is an outsider. Secondly, that I wasn’t going to be dressed as a rabbit so I could develop ways in my performance to help each member of the audience imagine that I am - in the easy language of play-acting that all children are naturally fluent in.

In terms of references, I thought a lot about SuperTed (my favourite TV programme when I was the Boy’s age!), Rupert Bear, Toy Story, Richard II and I ended up watching a lot of Buster Keaton and Laurel and Hardy - which was a real treat.

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – CONTEXT What do you enjoy most about playing the the Velveteen Rabbit in the show?

I enjoy everything about playing the rabbit in the show! But if I had to pick one thing it would probably be the flying. If you had told me 20 years ago that I’d be flying in a show one day I wouldn’t have been able to sleep for excitement. So exciting. I also love watching the Boy and the Narrator do the Nursery scene whilst I’m discarded and ignored at the front of the stage - it’s lovely to watch and a great chance for me to get into the piece- no acting required really. I also love the feeling of anticipation I have every time I’m preset in the giant stocking (never thought I’d say that). It’s going to be a surprise when i’m revealed and that’s fun - it feels like a very elaborate instalment of hide and seek in a way and that’s quite helpful for the spirit of play that the piece needs - again no acting required! I also really enjoy the adventure sequence (special mention for the shipwreck/underwater break-dance stuff - I love the sea and I love hip hop so it’s perfect really). But the whole sequence is masses of fun to do and as much fun as it hopefully looks. So all of it then. I told you.

What do you do to warm up before going on stage?

Wilkie and Mel, our stupendous choreographers, have us doing a break-dance sequence and some yoga stretches beforehand to loosen us up and make sure we don’t pull anything during the show. Personally, I like to do some articulation exercises as well, because the Rabbit doesn’t say much during the show and what he does say is quite important so I want to make sure I’m ready for that to be properly heard. And then it’s into the giant sock! Once inside there, I also do this thing where I stretch my ears to remind me to listen to the audience and the other performers and what happens - it’s not physically necessary but it works for me I think. There’s something I’ve never told anyone - it’s quite sweet.

Can you tell us about the friendship between the Boy and the Velveteen Rabbit? What is it about the toy rabbit that the boy loves so much?

I’d love to. It basically represents, quite accurately I think, what all of our relationships were with the toy of our choice growing up. But it’s worth stating here that this obviously doesn’t just apply to toys but to people in our lives too. Which is why it’s so important and true that the Rabbit is played by a person. With the people and the toys we love there’s a true affection, closeness, comfort, contentment and abandon that comes from being with them. It’s a relationship that forms from being alone with them a lot - a sense of escape, a chance to do and say what you feel without fear of judgement and being temporarily free from the expectation of everyone and everything else. This is something that we can all relate to and part of the reason why the piece can speak to adults as well as so specifically to young people. The feeling of being alone and not being alone all at the same time is very human - it’s what the show is about and what the theatre is about too, along with books, films, music and art as a whole. And these things are all about death and dying too - what marks we leave on the world and each other as we go through time. That’s what The Velveteen Rabbit is about. In a piece of theatre that ends and lives on in our minds... as we grow up.

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – CONTEXT

IMAGES OF THE SET DESIGN FROM DESIGNER JAMES BUTTON

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT

DRAMA ACTIVITIES INTRODUCTION These drama activities are designed to be useful for teachers working in years 1 - 4. They are intended to be flexible so that they can be adapted to meet the needs of a range of curriculum and classroom objectives.

There are three sequences: The Toys, The Rabbits and After Your Visit, each could be run over two or more small sessions or could be one intensive drama lesson.

We have developed these resources with the help of Year 2 at Comber Grove Primary School and would like to thank the children, their teacher Kim, and Literacy Coordinator, Maria, for their support and input into this pack.

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – DRAMA ACTIVITIES

SESSION 1 - 2

THE TOYS This sequence of activities gives the children the opportunity to step into the story and play some of the toys that the little boy enjoys playing with. The activities include: a Story Whoosh, still image, short scene making and teacher-in-role.

AIMS • To explore toys and how we play with them.

• For the children to use their knowledge and experience to think about what makes a good toy.

• To explore the beginning of the story of The Velveteen Rabbit; looking at how it feels to be the new toy in the playroom.

Explain that in this session you are going to be thinking about lots of different toys and what it is that children might like about them. Start with a short paired discussion about what toys they like and why they like playing with them. Hear back some examples of favourite toys.

A) STORY WHOOSH: THE BEGINNING OF THE STORY A Story Whoosh is a way of acting out a story with the whole class and allows you see the main narrative, action and characters in a story in broad brush strokes. It is important to go around the circle with each child taking part in turn, making it an accessible and inclusive activity in which all children contribute to telling the story. The teacher will need to take an active narrator/director role and support the children in the creation of the images.

This is a very short Story Whoosh and so you can take a little more time making the images and giving all the children the chance to look at the pictures as they are made.

• With the children in a circle read out the first part of the Story Whoosh – Resource A (next page).

• With the first description of the Velveteen Rabbit ask all the children to sit in the circle as if they were the Rabbit in the top of the stocking, imagining what it feels like to be the toy rabbit.

• Taking it in turns around the circle, ask the children to come up and act out the different characters (and objects where appropriate) in the story.

• When you come to a Whoosh in the story, the children who are in the circle making the images go back to their seats. Then start with the next children in the circle to make the next section of the story.

• Once you have finished the Story Whoosh, ask the class the following questions and hear some of their responses:

- How might the Velveteen Rabbit feel when the boy forgot about him?

- Why do you think the boy forgot about the Velveteen Rabbit?

- Why might the boy enjoy playing with the other toys so much?

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – RESOURCES

RESOURCE A - STORY WHOOSH (THE START OF THE STORY) Bring a new child into the circle when a character is in bold.

• It’s Christmas day and at the top of little boy’s stocking there sat a splendid Velveteen Rabbit.

• The Velveteen Rabbit was soft and bunchy as a rabbit should be; his coat was spotted brown and white, he had real thread whiskers, and his ears were lined with pink satin. (You may want to talk a little here about the quality of soft toys. Maybe the Velveteen Rabbit is like a beanie baby and can sit up easily for example.)

Ask everyone in the circle to imagine that they are the Velveteen Rabbit sitting in the stocking waiting for the boy to find him.

• The little boy took him out of the stocking and played with him all morning; he thought he was the best present.

WHOOSH • The little boy was playing with the Velveteen Rabbit, at lunch time aunts and uncles arrived carrying more presents. The boy left the Velveteen Rabbit and opened the presents and very soon the rabbit was forgotten.

WHOOSH • For a long time, the Velveteen Rabbit lived in the toy cupboard and no-one thought very much about him. Some of the more expensive toys; the model boat, wooden lion and the mechanical toys were very confident and ignored him.

• The only toy who noticed him and spoke to him was the Old Skin Horse who was the oldest toy in the nursery and very wise.

WHOOSH • One day the Velveteen Rabbit asked the Old Skin Horse ‘What is real?’

• The Old Skin Horse said ‘It’s the thing that happens to you when a child loves you for a long, long time, then you become real.’

• The Velveteen Rabbit longed to become real, to know what it felt like.

WHOOSH

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – DRAMA ACTIVITIES B) CREATING THE TOYS Explain that the story we are exploring happened many years ago when toys were a little different to today.

Ask the children to work in small groups and give each group a photograph of different kinds of old fashioned toys; for example, soldiers and a fort, mechanical toys, a sailing boat or ship, a train set, a toy lion and a rocking horse.

Ask the children to think about the different kinds of toys, what makes them interesting and how a child might play with them.

Now ask them to become the toys and make a still picture.

Next ask them to think about how the boy might play with the toys: • Where would he most want to play with the toy? Inside? Out in the garden? In the park?

• What would the boy like best about playing with this toy?

Explain that you would like them to create a short scene that shows the boy playing with the toy. One child will need to play the role of the boy.

See each group’s scene showing the boy playing with the different toys. Discuss the different toys that the boy played with and what made each one special.

C) THE VELVETEEN RABBIT WATCHES AS THE BOY PLAYS Using the final group’s scene, ask for a child to volunteer to become the Velveteen Rabbit and imagine they are sitting on the floor of the playroom watching the boy playing with the toys. Remind them of the Story Whoosh and how the boy had forgotten about the Velveteen Rabbit. Ask the children to think about what the Velveteen Rabbit might be thinking.

Thought-track some of the children: when you touch them on the shoulder, ask the children to speak the thoughts of the Velveteen Rabbit at that moment in the story.

Adapting the activity for younger children: Year 1 or 2 pupils might find it difficult working in small groups to create the short scenes. You could work together as a whole class looking at all the toys and working out ways to move around the hall as the mechanical toys or the toy soldiers. You could work out ways to build a ship or train as the whole class or in small groups and the children could imagine they are a range of animals that the boy enjoyed playing with. Having embodied the toys continue to think about where the boy would play with them and what he enjoyed about each - what makes them distinct?

You may have concerns about acting out toy soldiers in the drama. When choosing groups you might like to choose a group that is able to explore this with sensitivity and use the opportunity to talk about why children like toys that allow an exploration of fighting and conflict.

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – DRAMA ACTIVITIES D) IN-ROLE DISCUSSION - IN THE TOY CUPBOARD The aim of the role-play is for the children to explore their sense of the Velveteen Rabbit at this point in the story; his newness to the toy cupboard, his sense of isolation and his aspirations – first to be played with and ultimately be loved by the boy. In the story the other toys are ‘stuck-up and look down on the Velveteen Rabbit’, however for the purposes of the drama it is enough for the other toys to be accepted and enjoyed by the boy and for the Rabbit to be as yet unnoticed.

The in-role discussion gives the children a chance to speak about their experience as the Velveteen Rabbit; being new to the play room; remembering how the boy really loved him when he first took him out of his Christmas stocking, but then forgot him; and seeing the boy enjoy playing with other toys and feeling left out.

It also gives the teacher in-role the opportunity to introduce a concept that is central to the play; that when a toy is really loved by a child then they become real.

Setting up the in-role work Explain that in the play at the end of each day, the Nanny clears away all the toys and puts them away in the toy cupboard. We are going to imagine that the Velveteen Rabbit is talking with the Old Skin Horse in the corner of the toy cupboard. You could tape out a square on the floor to show the toy cupboard.

Remind the children that The Old Skin Horse is the oldest toy in the playroom and is very wise, and that he was friendly to the Velveteen Rabbit when the other toys ignored him. Explain that they are all going to imagine that they are the Velveteen Rabbit in the toy cupboard and that you will take on the role of the Old Skin Horse. Before you begin, ask the children in pairs to think about questions the Velveteen Rabbit might want to ask the Old Skin Horse. Explain that you are going to improvise a discussion in the toy cupboard with teacher in-role as the Old Skin Horse and the children collectively playing the Velveteen Rabbit.

You will need to prepare some thoughts and facts about the Old Skin Horse to help in the role-play, as well as some open questions which will help the children draw on what they know and open up areas of interest to them, but also be open to discussing the things that are of interest to the children as they arise.

In-role as the Old Skin Horse (inside the toy cupboard) You might start with some very open questions for the children, who are all in-role as the Velveteen Rabbit: • How was your day today? Did you see much of the boy? What was he doing? Which toys did he play with?

Continue to ask open questions, but you can also move the story on by sharing more of your wisdom: • I’m a toy that has been around for a long time; I belonged to the boy’s Uncle and now I belong to the boy.

You can see that I am quite shabby with bald patches on my coat.

• I noticed that the boy seemed to like you very much on Christmas morning; he played with you for a long time I seem to remember. What games did you play with him?

• I have seen lots of toys come and go. The mechanical toys are exciting at first but then often break or lose bits. The boy will play with one set of toys for a long time, but then will get interested in a different game.

• It can take a long time for children to find that special toy, but when they finally do something special happens; when a child loves you for a long, long time, then you become real…. Generally, by the time you are real all your hair has been rubbed off, or your eyes have fallen out and you are very shabby.

Bring the role play discussion to a close by narrating that it was very late and time for all the toys in the toy cupboard to go to sleep. Come out of role and discuss what you have discovered about the Velveteen Rabbit and the Old Skin Horse.

Back in the classroom: the children can do drawings of the toys showing how the boy played with them, with writing to describe the toys and how they work.

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – DRAMA ACTIVITIES

SESSION 3 - 4

THE RABBITS In the play, the Velveteen Rabbit longs to be real; he hears from the Old Skin Horse that when you are really loved by a child then you become real. At one point in the story, he meets some real wild rabbits in the garden. These sessions give you the opportunity to explore how wild rabbits live; their habitats and their predators. It also allows further exploration of the metaphor which runs through the play; juxtaposing the real wild rabbits with the Velveteen Rabbit.

The activities include: a Story Whoosh, movement work, thought-tracking and a whole class improvisation.

AIMS • To explore how rabbits move and how they live in the wild.

• To understand why the Velveteen Rabbit might want to be real.

• To explore key vocabulary from the story through physical expression.

Explain that you are going to carry on with the story of The Velveteen Rabbit and find out what happens next.

A) MOVEMENT SESSION: HOW RABBITS MOVE Start with a physical warm up: shake different parts of the body, move around the space feeling the weight of the body falling into the floor, shake as you move and add in sounds as you shake out.

Now introduce the words and phrases – Resource B (next page) – if you have these in a hat children can pick out one of the words or phrases. At this stage do not say what the words are describing (the words are all descriptions of the real rabbits taken from the story): long and thin, fat and bunchy, hop, twitch, leap, padding softly, creep, stamp, and whirl, but at this stage we want the children just to respond to the word and explore what it means to them physically.

As you call out the words you can choose to ask the children to stand like a statue or to move about the space in response to the word. Some of the words will work better if you ask the children to stay on the spot in order to keep the children safe in the space – whirl, leap and hop for example.

If you are working with older pupils, you could ask them to choose five of the words to order into a movement sequence together. They could then practice repeating their sequence and travelling it around the space. You could underscore their sequences with music and the pairs could perform them to the rest of the class.

At the end of the session, ask the children what the movements made them think about when they were doing them. Explain that in the story the Velveteen Rabbit wants to be real and that the words are taken from the story to describe how the real rabbits in the story move.

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – RESOURCES

RESOURCE B: RABBIT MOVEMENT WORDS

Long and thin Fat and bunchy Hop Twitch Leap Padding softly Creep Stamp Whirl

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – DRAMA ACTIVITIES B) RABBITS IN THE WILD Talk about whether anyone has seen a real rabbit or one on the television – what did they notice about the way they move?

We are going to work in small groups to imagine we are rabbits living in the wild, using some of the movements we used before and creating some new ones.

Pass round photographs of the wild rabbits, the bracken, an open glade or meadow, trees, and tree roots (easy to find images online).

Explain that we are going to use these pictures to help us imagine that the hall is an open meadow covered in daisies and dandelions. Around the edge of the meadow are trees and bracken. At the foot of the trees old roots and beneath the trees are rabbit burrows.

Move the children into groups of 4/5 and ask them to imagine that around the edge of the room, at the foot of where we imagine the trees to be, they are rabbits asleep in their burrow.

Continue to narrate what happens when the rabbits wake up and ask the children to act out what happens to the wild rabbits. Say ‘freeze’ in between each moment of action to focus the children so that they can listen to the next piece of narration.

• The rabbits begin to wake and stretch – becoming long and thin and then fat and bunchy.

• The rabbits one by one pop their heads out of the burrow and then hop out, but they are careful and hide in the big bracken leaves at the edge of the meadow.

• The rabbits have many predators (ask the children what might be a danger to the rabbits) – foxes, cats, birds of prey.

• They creep out of the tall bracken, their feet padding softly on the ground.

• The rabbits become more confident and hop out into the middle of the meadow where the sun is shining.

• They begin to play: Taking a big hop side-ways. Then trying a big leap. They whirl round and round in a dance.

• They hear a sound – they stop; their ears go up and their bright eyes shine.

• They stamp their back feet to warn other rabbits there may be danger.

• All is fine so their noses begin to twitch, they look around for food; they wrinkle their noses, sniff the dandelions and begin to nibble the leaves.

• They hear another louder sound and all the rabbits jump and scatter back to hide in the bracken and the trees.

Extension for Years 3 and 4: You could ask the children to create a short scene showing what happened when the rabbits were back in their burrows that night discussing their day. Ask them to decide what the loud sound they heard was.

Maybe they can discuss what they might do tomorrow; are some of the rabbits braver than others?

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – DRAMA ACTIVITIES C) EXTENDED STORY WHOOSH Continue the story using the extended Story Whoosh – Resource C (next page), this time going up to the point in the story where the Velveteen Rabbit meets the wild rabbits.

Ask the children to spread out and find a place on their own and to show you an image of their real, wild rabbit and then one of their Velveteen Rabbit. Think carefully about how they show the difference and how different it feels being the toy and the real rabbit. The Velveteen Rabbit is a stuffed toy and doesn’t have any back legs.

Now ask them what they think the Velveteen Rabbit might think when the wild rabbits come up to him in the garden. You could thought-track a few of the children to hear some of those ideas.

Extension for years 3 and 4: Move the children back into groups of 4, ask them to imagine what might happen if the real rabbits and the Velveteen Rabbit could speak to each other. Create a short scene showing what might happen – remember that the Velveteen Rabbit can’t move and the real rabbits can.

Back in the classroom: This is an opportunity to research how rabbits live in the wild and to look at the care of pet rabbits.

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – RESOURCES

RESOURCE C - EXTENDED STORY WHOOSH • It’s Christmas day and at the top of little boy’s stocking there sat a splendid Velveteen Rabbit.

• The Velveteen Rabbit was soft and bunchy as a rabbit should be; his coat was spotted brown and white, he had real thread whiskers, and his ears were lined with pink satin.

• The little boy took him out of the stocking and played with him all morning; he thought he was the best present.

WHOOSH • The little boy was playing with the Velveteen Rabbit, at lunch time aunts and uncles arrived carrying more presents. The boy left the Velveteen Rabbit and opened the presents and very soon the rabbit was forgotten.

WHOOSH • For a long time the Velveteen Rabbit lived in the toy cupboard and no-one thought very much about him. Some of the more expensive toys; the model boat, wooden lion and the mechanical toys were very confident and ignored him.

• The only toy who noticed him and spoke to him was the Old Skin Horse who was the oldest toy in the nursery and very wise.

WHOOSH • One day the Velveteen Rabbit asked the Old Skin Horse ‘What is real?’

• The Old Skin Horse said ‘It’s the thing that happens to you when a child loves you for a long, long time, then you become real.’

• The Velveteen Rabbit longed to become real, to know what it felt like.

WHOOSH • One evening the boy was in bed, he asked Nana for the china dog that he always slept with.

• Nana was tidying up around him, throwing all the toys into the toy cupboard, but she couldn’t find the china dog.

• She looked around the room; she looked in the toy cupboard. She grabbed the Velveteen Rabbit by one ear. ‘Here take your old bunny; he’ll do to sleep with you’ and she gave the boy the Velveteen Rabbit.

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – RESOURCES WHOOSH • From then on the Velveteen Rabbit slept in the boy’s bed every night.

• They played games under the cover and they made tunnels out of the bedclothes, whispering so that Nana wouldn’t hear them.

• The boy and the Velveteen Rabbit became the best of friends and were hardly ever apart.

• One night, the boy was upset because he couldn’t find the Velveteen Rabbit. Nana finally found him and said ‘Fancy all that fuss for a toy!’

• The boy took the Velveteen Rabbit off Nana and said ‘you musn’t say that. He’s REAL!’ • The Velveteen Rabbit heard this and felt very happy - he knew what the Old Skin Horse has said was true at last.

WHOOSH • One day when they were playing out in the garden together, the Velveteen Rabbit was left alone on the grass and out of the bracken crept a number of real rabbits.

• The rabbits padded softly up to the Velveteen Rabbit and with their noses twitching sniffed all about him.

• The Velveteen Rabbit saw the rabbits approach; they were just like him but quite furry and new.

• One minute they were fat and bunchy, the next long and thin and their noses twitched. They were real rabbits.

Finish by creating an image with the whole class as real rabbits creeping up to the Velveteen Rabbit.

WHOOSH

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – DRAMA ACTIVITIES

SESSION 5

AFTER YOUR VISIT The post-show activities aim to explore the children’s responses to the play and look at the friendship between the boy and the Velveteen Rabbit, the boy’s illness and the moment when the Velveteen Rabbit becomes real.

Re-enacting moments from the play will allow the children to step into the story and explore what happens aesthetically, physically and emotionally, and find a resonance that goes deeper than just talking about what they thought and felt about the play.

A) RECREATING KEY MOMENTS FROM THE PLAY Start with a whole class discussion about the visit to the Unicorn and seeing the play. Remind the class that when we see a play no one remembers everything and that what we do remember are often the parts that have been the most significant for us.

Tell the class that they are going to work in small groups. In those groups they are going to discuss The Velveteen Rabbit and agree on three moments that the group thinks tells the story of the play (For Years 3 and 4 you could ask them to create five moments). Each group can then create still images of those moments to share with the class.

When the groups have created their moments, ask them to compose a title for each of the images.

When each group shares their work with the whole class, take time to discuss the different interpretations that have been presented. This reflective discussion is central to widening the whole class’s response to the play and to the themes it contains.

B) THE VELVETEEN RABBIT AND THE BOY The friendship between the boy and the Velveteen Rabbit and what happens when they separate at the end is the heart of the story. Explain that you are going to look at what makes their friendship so special, what happens when they separate and what it means to the Velveteen Rabbit to be real.

Ask the children to work in groups of three to create two scenes from the play which show: 1) The friendship between the boy and the Velveteen Rabbit – they can choose any moment from the

play which shows why the boy and the Velveteen Rabbit were so close.

2) The boy and the Velveteen Rabbit when the boy was ill – ask them to include something that the

Velveteen Rabbit says or thinks during this scene.

Now ask the groups to create an image for the end of the story when the boy is in the garden and he sees a real rabbit which reminds him of his old toy Velveteen rabbit.

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT – DRAMA ACTIVITIES See the children’s scenes and discuss. Ask the children to write a letter as the boy later that year. They can choose whether they want to write the letter to the Velveteen Rabbit or to the boy’s uncle – the one who used to own and gave him the Skin Horse. In the letter describe the moment when you met a real rabbit in the garden that reminded you so much of your Velveteen Rabbit. What other memories of the Velveteen Rabbit and the time you spent together would you include in your letter?

C) COMPLETING THE STORY WHOOSH Finally you might want to try to write the end of the Story Whoosh together as a whole class. You should have a lot of ideas about what are the really important moments in the play which you want to re-enact.

Gather all the children’s ideas and see if you can write the rest of the Story Whoosh for your class in a way that reflects what the story meant to them.

Run the whole Story Whoosh with the ending that you have created together.

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THE VELVETEEN RABBIT A Unicorn production

CREATIVE TEAM

By Margery Williams Directed by Purni Morell Resource pack written by Catherine Greenwood