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Retelling a Story or Fable with a Moral

9/15/2014

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         My elementary classroom teacher friends have been kind enough to offer suggestions for Lesson Plans for my new Mini-Musicals.  In many states, so much of the curriculum is scripted to meet the Common Core Objectives.  They find that it is exhausting to add anything beyond the well-stated goals.  It is simply too hard to justify "fluff' and "fun."  They are too busy trying to keep up with all of the mandated requirements.  And many teachers are so overwhelmed, they rely solely on commercially prepared pre-made worksheets and packets.
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This is such a shame!  As I have read the National Common Core Objectives, there seems to be a lot of room for creativity and fun.  For example, one of the ELA objectives for 1st-3rd grades is to retell a story or fable with a moral.  What better way to meet this objective than to present a class play?  And if the songs reinforce the concepts of the moral plus other Language Arts ideas, that is all for the better.  For example, the opening song in  "The Tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff," contains an idiom that is introduced along with many other puzzlements, "Why is Grass Always Greener on the Other Side?"  This song is a good jumping off point for a discussion about asking questions to get information using the words "who, what, where, when and why." ​

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In the Mini-Musical "The Tale of the Musicians of Bremen," the moral has to do with Age and Change.  Children may not recognize how difficult it is for older people to grow old and feel useless.  Older people often stubbornly resist change.  The old farmer and his wife in the story have to face Age and Change in themselves and for their animals.  This story shows the animals taking a proactive step to avoid their certain fate (death).  The animals are likable and do silly things, but also allow for a discussion about important life lessons, particularly Age and Change.

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The City Mouse and the Country Mouse discover that both of their homes have pros and cons.  The Country Mouse visits the City with her cousin and is terrified at the noise and hustle-bustle and all of the hidden dangers of the City.  She decides that the "cons" far outweigh the "pros" of City Life.  She races home to the Country where she already knows what to expect.  "The Tale of the City Mouse and the Country Mouse" begins a discussion about Comparisons and Likes and Dislikes.  Through explorations in acting and singing, the students can draw comparisons from the story and their own experiences to become better at determining their own preferences.

          Retelling a story or fable with a moral is what these Mini-Musicals are all about.  According to the advice of my teacher friends, I have included ideas and worksheets to help meet some of the Common Core Objectives for ELA.  The best accolade I ever got from mounting one of these shows came from two little boys.  The confided to their dad that they did not know why I kept telling them how proud I was of their hard work.  They did not feel like it was work at all.  They were having so much fun! 


          Who says learning can't be fun?

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The Three Billy Goats Gruff

8/25/2014

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         My mother was a very creative person.  She could sing and dance and play the piano.  She also was good at making things.  She could cook and sew and was quite artistic.  She always had wonderful ideas for her little children when they couldn't think of anything fun to do on rainy days.  I remember the little felt puppets she had made to illustrate the story of "The Three Billy Goats Gruff."  She taught us, my brothers and I, how to do a puppet show to act out the story.  My brothers always fought over who got to play the ugly, mean troll.  It was fun.
          As I was pondering how to write the script for my Mini-Musical of
"The Tale of The Three Billy Goats Gruff," this memory flooded back to my mind.  I simply had to design the mini-musical around acting out a puppet show to this story.  I also remembered how she used to say "the grass is always greener on the other side" whenever we wanted things that we just couldn't get right then.  Seemed like the perfect moral for this story.  So, I started thinking of all the kinds of things we want but simply cannot have or things that are puzzling that we wonder about.  With these thoughts in mind, the opener, "Why Is Grass Always Greener on the Other Side?" was born.
          I also wanted to include musical themes borrowed from Norway's greatest composer, Edvard Grieg, to flavor this musical re-telling of the famous Norwegian folktale.  Music teachers may want to point out these little nods to Edvard Grieg's music.  I based the melody and accompaniment rhythms in
"Why Is Grass Always Greener on the Other Side" on the "Norwegian Dance #2."  I borrowed the sneaky minor themes and chord progression of "In the Hall of the Mountain King" from the Peer Gynt Suite #1 for "The Troll Song."  And I used the haunting melody from the opening of "In a Morning Mood," also from the Peer Gynt Suite #1, as a motive in "The Billy Goat's Song."

          Elementary classroom teachers already use this story to teach many things, such as comparisons (Little, Medium, and Big), story elements, describing characters, retelling folktales with a moral, building vocabulary, idioms, and so forth.  This min-musical expands the range of experiences through use of music, art, poetry, and drama, with a little about the history and culture of Norway, and possibly, through extension into science, studying about why the grass really does look greener from a distance.  Now, perhaps, Classroom teachers, as well as Music and Drama teachers may use "The Tale of The Three Billy Goats Gruff" a Mini-Musical as a fun part of their curriculum.  
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Almost Ready

8/4/2014

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          Over the last few weeks I have been finishing up the writing of scripts to some Mini-Musicals (10-15 minutes in duration) for the Classroom setting.  The first four titles are "The City Mouse and the Country Mouse," "Dick Whittington and His Cat," "The Musicians of Bremen," and "The Tale of the Three Billy Goats Gruff."  These stories are very well-known and have been loved for generations, if not centuries.  The challenge has been to keep their particular traits intact while giving them a few new twists and turns.
          
          When I taught General Music Classes in school, I always seemed to need a kind of culminating event to wrap all of the curriculum goals into a finished project.  So what if we learned some songs and how to read some notation, and play some instruments and learned something about history or culture?  Unless we could do a performance of some kind, all of those goals just seemed to fizzle and lose momentum.  These classroom Musicals are designed to meet this need on as high or low a level as the teacher desires. They could even be done as part of a Chorus Concert, in a Drama Class, or for a Home School Co-Op Enrichment Activity, or in the regular School Classroom.           
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      Each story has an historical setting with songs reflecting the musical style period.  The script can simply be produced during class as a Reader's Theater, or the show can be performed with simple costumes, props and scenery in the classroom or on a stage.  Each mini-musical calls for a cast of 5-10 characters plus employs the rest of the class as a Chorus with jobs integral to the performance.  The actors read and/or act out the lines, but the Chorus kids help sing the songs, play rhythm instruments and provide sound effects within the framework of the narration.  Some of the stories teach interesting Theatrical concepts and practices from long ago.  Some have comedic action and adventure.  Some explore use of dialects and accents.  Some provide a stepping stone to studying music from famous composers.  Some employ the use of puppetry.  They can even be performed with choreography.  Besides, these stories are excellent entertainment!

         The packets include a 
Lesson Plan and Student Activity sheets, along with the Teacher's Script, Reproducible Scripts, Lead Sheets to the Songs, and a link to get MP3 files with both Guide Performances and Accompaniment Tracks.  Piano/Vocal Scores to the songs are available separately. The scripts are geared to fit two general age-ranges: K-3rd grades and 4th-6th grades.

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A Song for All Seasons

11/6/2013

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         Ah, the High School Football season is coming to a close.  We are now into the play-off's.  Last year, my son's team won the State Championship.  So far, they are still in the running for this year's championship.  I wish them luck!
        Years ago, my celebrated aunt Janie Thompson rewrote the lyrics to the chorus to fit Football and I added verses about Football fans as well as Baseball fans.  The little boys in my classes liked it a lot. Girls, too, although they were not generally as rabid of fans.  We had the kids choose which kind of fans they wanted to portray and divided the class as near to equally as possible.  The groups did actions and adopted attitudes to play-up the rivalry, then shook hands at the end to show that both sports are great fun!
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That reminds me of an arrangement I have enjoyed using as a warm-up song for the kids in my youngest Musical Theater classes.  I took the song "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" and made it 

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              into a rivalry song between Baseball and Football Fans.  
         On a musical note, this arrangement of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" provides an opportunity to introduce changing meters to the class.  The chorus is in triple meter or waltz time with three counts to the measure.  The verses, on the other hand, are in duple meter or March time, actually four counts to the measure.  So, in the Chorus, I had the kids SWAY from side to side feeling the strong accent on beat 1 of the triple meter.  I had the kids MARCH in place or bounce up and down with hands on their knees to feel the 4/4 time.  Although this may not be actual dancing, it is a good preparation for it.  Kids need many opportunities to experience RHYTHM and burn it into their very souls.  Then, later when they do need to learn choreography, it will already be second nature!

          The great thing about this song is that it is appropriate for nearly any time of the year.  It seems that the Baseball and Football seasons overlap or are only divided briefly by Christmas and a winter hiatus.  What I have found is that Baseball Fans, as well as Football Fans, really are enthusiastic about their sports and have no need of a vacation from it!  So, that gives this little song great longevity!
  It's a song for all seasons!
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    Author

    My name is Betsy Bailey.  I have sung, written and taught music all of my life.  I enjoy writing and directing Children's Theater shows.  This blog will be directed to topics on creating the magic of Children's Theater.  I would love to hear your comments!

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