The Final Four

This week we met to narrow down our script choices. Based on student's ability to attend our final AIM Showcase at the Mabel Tainter Theater, we chose 4 scripts for our focus. We surveyed students to get their choice of non-speaking, narrator, main character or other character roles. Then, based on the results, we placed any playwrights of the chosen scripts, in to their scripts first. Next, we assigned students to their preferred choices, paying attention to the combination of personality and abilities in each scripted group. Students that are unable to make the showcase were then placed with a script to act as a support team. Basically, we mixed all three 3rd grade classrooms together similar to our first showcase efforts.

Melissa shared her ideas about scene and backdrop designs before we met with our four groups. She displayed several examples and asked students about their ideas for materials used. Standup props were another example of utilizing simple items for an impact. Students shared some ideas for costumes too, but we wanted to keep the focus on the set first.

We announced the final four scripts and names of students assigned to each and the groups reported to separate classrooms to begin their work. We each worked with a script and Cindy's student-teacher Logan was assigned a group too. Melissa checked in with all four groups as we sat and read through the scripts for the first time.

Students were excited to start this collaborative group work of creativity. I worked with the group that was assigned to the script, "Karl and the Root" based on "Jack and the Beanstalk". Students read through the scripts several times. After the 3rd read, they were making suggestions for subtle word changes, scene ideas, props, and costumes.

Over the next few weeks we will continue our rehearsals both with Melissa and behind the scenes within our own classrooms. It's a very busy time of the school year with state testing, common assessments and report cards finalized, but 3rd grade teachers and students are determined to make this work. The "drama" buzz has hit our rooms, can't wait for the final four performances!

Playwrights

6 Fairy Tales

Mrs. Kneeland explains the jobs behind the play

Students read the original fairy tale

Small groups work on adapting their fairy tale

Different ways to adapt a fairy tale

The selection of stories

Graphic organizer to guide script writing

Happy Playwrights with a finished script!

Who's Who in Theater

Mrs. Kneeland showing the students the difference between how a book is
written and how a script for a play is written.

For today's lesson, the third graders were introduced to the many important people needed to help make a play successful.  We put together a slide show that Mrs. Kneeland discussed with the students. Each slide focused on  these important roles:

playwright, director, stage manager, set designer,  costume designer, makeup, lighting, sound (foley artist), choreographer, and actors  

Playwrights hard at work

After the students learned about the different roles, they became the playwrights of their own fairy tale plays. The students were divided into groups of 3 or 4. Each group was given a different familiar fairy tale and then asked to rewrite it (and make changes if they would like). They worked together to create a script for their version of a fairy tale. They are excited to see their plays come to life! They were also excited to know that over the next few lessons, they will also be creating a set, designing costumes and adding sound to their plays.

Welcome to Fairy Tale Land

The storytellers have arrived!

     Once upon a time there were two storytellers named Mrs. Kneeland and Mrs. Paulson who visited Oaklawn Elementary School. They came from a land far, far away to introduce the story elements of a fairy tale to the 3rd grade students. They captured the attention of the third graders by mixing a potion using their magical cauldron. As the colorful scarves went into the cauldron, out came a matching poster that highlighted the characters, setting, problem, solution, and other features that would eventually help students create a fairy tale. This magical moment was continued as students listened to the storytellers read the following two stories; Goldilocks and the Three Bears and The Three Billy Goats Gruff. After reading the stories by the campfire, students had an opportunity to review the story elements of a fairy tale. With their newly learned knowledge, they worked tirelessly to retell one of the two stories in their own words. Student writers were everywhere! It was a magical moment!
    

   
                                     

     The storytellers weren't done yet! They came back the next week, disguised as Jack's mom, you know her from Jack and the Beanstalk. They set the stage for another magical fairy tale journey by bringing along a huge beanstalk. There were also many other clues; a golden harp poster, large footprints, and a giant note that read "fee fi fo fum" to help guide students to figure out which fairy tale they were about to listen to. The storytellers gathered the students around the campfire once again, as they read Jack and the Beanstalk. After the story was done, the students focused on one element of the story. The element they were changing was the setting. The students had to figure out a new way for Jack to get to the giant's castle in the sky. The students went forth and created dioramas that showed one scene using the new mode of getting to the giant's castle. They eagerly filled in and shared a cloze story about their new scene. The students were very creative!

Jack's mother is concerned about her son!

   
     The third appearance occurred when the storytellers returned as reporters. They were trying to get the "real" story about the Three Little Pigs. They did just that when they were interviewing students, as they were trying to figure out what happened in the story. After reading The True Story of the Three Little Pigs, the students discussed what a fractured fairy tale is and how it is a little different from the original fairy tale. Students were then directed to use a graphic organizer to map out a new story that they were creating. There were three small cauldrons; one filled with character choices, one filled with story problem choices, and one filled with other magic choices. They had to choose two characters, one problem, and one magical item to create a new fairy tale. The students wrote their story in their writer's notebook. These stories turned out amazing!

The reporters are getting the "real" story!

Setting the stage for a fractured fairy tale!

                          

Fairy Tales - Mixing the story elements

From observer to participant, students played an active role in mixing up the familiar and unfamiliar story elements. The pink castle was the setting for the story. The remaining elements were left up to fate of the draw. Students drew from 3 cauldrons, characters (good/evil), problem, and magic.

Here is how one student chose to map out a story:

• Good Character - Grebsnag, the goblin
• Evil Character - Billy Bob, the farmer
• Setting - unrealistic pink castle
• Problem - The goblin was called to the castle, but Billy Bob tries to stop him.
• Solution - The goblin puts the farmer under a spell using a pencil he did not know was magic.

And, here is the story:

Once upon a time in a galaxy far, far away lived Grebsnag, the goblin. One day Grebsnag was called to the castle to sell a pencil that was magic. Sine Grebsnag was half Farange, he agreed. After arguing about how many latnem bars he would get, Grebsnag had many enemies, but his worst enemy was Billy Bob the farmer. Why? Because Grebsnag had cursed him so everyone forgot he was the King of the Galaxy. Except Grebsnag didn't forget that was part of the curse. Anyway, Billy Bob knew he had to stop him because if Grebsnag had 5 more latnem bars, he could buy the potion of immortality. Now, if he was immortal, then he couldn't brake the spell because to do that he needed to get rid of  him. Grebsnag was on his way to the castle when...

Author share

Students worked on their versions of many stories and shared as authors do...

Choosing elements

Breaking News.....

Breaking News....We are reporting live from the wolf's castle.  We just heard that the wolf wants to let the world know that he is NOT the Big Bad Wolf like everyone says he is. He says everyone has the story wrong!  He just needed some sugar to bake a cake for his dear granny's birthday, so he asked the pigs if he could borrow some.   And that's where the trouble began.  He wants a chance to tell his side of the story!  

Our reporters, Lisa Mayer and Melissa Kneeland are on the scene now to bring us the latest.  

The first thing they notice is the sign on the castle says "Beware of Wolf",  but strangely it has hearts on it and the castle doesn't look frightening at all.  Could the wolf be nice after all?  Could we have been believing the wrong story all along?

Reporters: Melissa Kneeland and Lisa Mayer

Reporters: Logan and Cherish

Reporters: Ilisabeth and Brooklynn

As the news begins to spread, more reporters show up at the scene of the wolf's castle, ready to break the latest.

Reporters: Allysa and Lauren

The reporters are all anxious to get back to the office and write their stories of the recent development.  They are also beginning to wonder if other fairy tales are all wrong too.  They are talking about investigating them and maybe exposing the truth in their articles. 

Students picked out of a cauldron slips of paper
that represented elements of fairy tales such as
 good and evil characters, magic, and a problem.  Then they wrote their own version
of a new fairy tale.  For some writers,  the grandma was made to be evil
and the troll was good.  They had so much fun twisting these familiar tales.

Fairy Tales - Changing the setting

The fairy tale story - Jack and the Beanstalk

Setting the stage...





  

Listening to the story...

 

Revising the story with a new setting...

Cotton candy stalk in the making

Cloze writing exercise

  Building the scene...
  

Sharing the new adaptation - student style...

Jack and the Beanstalk

While the students were out of the room, we hung a paper beanstalk in the front of the room, hung a sign on the door from the giant and taped footprints down on the floor that lead to the beanstalk.  We were "igniting the fire" in hopes the students would be curious about what we were going to do that day.  Of course, it worked!  The students were full of questions.  

Ms Kneeland and I were dressed in an apron and took on the character of Jack's mother.  After talking a bit, we took the students to the carpet where our story telling campfire was burning.  The students gathered around and listened to the two of us take turns reading the story to them.  After we were finished, we reviewed with the students the fairy tale elements that they heard in the story.  The students were in engaged and shared examples from the book.  

Then we went back to our desks and began working on a cloze paragraph where the students were able to change one element of the story.  To make things a little more focused and easier to understand, the students were only able to change how "Jack" (them) were able to reach the cloud where the giant lived.  

The students had fun being creative and coming up with interesting ideas.  Some ideas were:  sling shot, bouncing off a bed, climbing a marshmallow ladder, flying in a plane, climbing a licorice rope and many more.  The students then worked on bringing their paragraph to life by creating a diorama of the scene from the story.  They finished these over the next day and then we did a gallery walk to enjoy other people's ideas.  They students had fun sharing their ideas.  

They also loved interacting with the beanstalk and pretending to climb it.  They were begging to have their picture taken with the bean stalk.