The Story of Ferdinand

Once upon a time we performed the Story of Ferdinand as an improvised opera!  

Author, Munro Leaf wrote this parable for his 5 year old son in 1936 during the civil war in Spain.  

It's a story about a peaceful, nature-loving bull who prefers sitting and smelling the flowers rather than fighting and butting heads like the other little bulls.  

I incorporated some of Manuela Widmer's ideas (shared at the national Orff conference many years ago) with my facilitation of the musical drama.  Manuela is an Orff teacher from the Orff Institute in Salzburg.  I found her ideas incredibly workable for my style of teaching.



Imagine, a class of 5 & 6 year olds...full of energy and ideas!
I sang the story to the children with operatic vowels and vocal trills, etc...

They were mesmerized at first and then they started joining in on the word  "flooooooowwwwwers".

That's all they needed and they were ready!  



Some of the kids wanted to be in the Orchestra and some wanted to act out the various roles.  They chose their favorite places and after we performed we switched up and everyone tried a new part.  



Orchestra parts include:

1. flower music - glockenspiels and metallophones (I set them up ahead of time in C pentatonic)
2. hop gallop music of the bulls - shakers, woods and drums

hop gallop gallop gallop

hop gallop gallop gallop

hop gallop gallop gallop

hop hop hop  OLE!

1. Ferdinand's walking music - drums
2. Ferdinand's sitting music - drums
3. Ferdinand's jumping about music - drums
4. the bee buzz and sting sounds - kazoos and
5. 5 men from Madrid walking music - woods

Acting/singing roles include (this is an opera!):

• narrator (singing like an opera star)  "Once upon a time in Spain..."
• chorus (whole class)

"Ole!"

• hop gallop speech piece
• Ferdinand
• Ferdinand's mom
• the other little bulls - play fighting with their hands used as horns on top of their heads
• 5 men from Madrid - walking through the room side by side...
• flowers
• bullfighters

The Amazing Body Percussion List

The Body Percussion List

What to do with this list?  
I'd play an echo game

• you clap, they echo your clap
• you snap, they echo your snap
• it's an ear/eye training but it's playful...have fun!
• one day, I'll make a video...and post it in our Growing Grounded Kids Community!  (join us!)

listed in general from high pitches to low pitches

snap

tongue clicks

tongue clacks

full hand clap

2-finger clap

4-finger clap 
hand slide (clap with a slide) 

patschen (tap thighs)

alternate patschen (right leg, left leg)

tap top of hand

tap tummy

tap taut hollow cheeks

rub hands

rub thighs

rub face

rub arms

tickle
scratch
drag fingers - also try dragging hand upside down

drum fingers on a body part

stomp

drag feet

slide feet

hand to foot clap
slap foot

2-foot clap

B/P with a partner

partner clap (clap your partner's hands)
hip bump with a partner

Body Percussion Patterns
in 3 time, 5 time, 7 and 9 time. (a la Keith Terry)

1 = Clap

3 = Clap Chest Chest  (ladies may rather hit their stomach)

5 = Clap Chest Chest Leg Leg

7 = Clap Chest Chest Leg Leg Back of leg Back of leg

9 = Clap Chest Chest Leg Leg Back of leg Back of leg Stamp Stamp 




B/P patterns in 2 time 
(combine for 3, 4, 5, 6 time)


Z = rest

2 time 
clap  clap
snap snap
pat pat
stomp stomp
clap Z
snap Z
pat Z
stomp Z


clap snap
clap stomp
clap pat
Z clap

 

The Winter Woods have come down!

A quick photo just before our "Christmas in Narnia" party this past December.

 I painted this mural of the winter woods near Cair Paravel (from "The Lion , the Witch and the Wardrobe" story...in case you're wondering) at the request of a group of children a few years ago.  It's a big installation process to hang so it stays for all the Christmas parties once it's up.

  This year one of the mom's asked if I would sell it to her for their family weekend ski home.  I declined...we all love it so here at Musicalia...as you can see below...

Angel puppets and small children playing in the winter woods.

  

Yesterday was a New Year's clean-up day...the ladder's out...it's coming down...

View from top o'the ladder...14 foot ceilings are really high up!

I'll fold up my beautiful Narnian mural and save it for a future Narnian celebration.

The Boo! Curtain

Dressing up!

When you work with very small children dressing up at Halloween is not really an option.  There is always one little person that just doesn't like the teacher to look different.  So...I have never dressed up for Halloween at Musicalia...except for this year.  

After 18 Halloween seasons (could Halloween be considered a season?) I am dressing up at the request of my oldest group (ages 8-12).  They meet on Mondays and we're having a big Halloween party this year.

Last week I handed out invitations

I wrote Shakespeare-style then printed them out, rolled them up and placed each one inside a spider ring.  I addressed one for each child, writing each name on a crackly, rotting oak leaf.  The children loved them!

Double, double, toil and trouble...fire burn and cauldron bubble!

It's a busy party!

We will...

• dance the Harry Potter Dance
• perform the Dringo Bell creative movement piece (the kids LOVE this), 
• play Ghost Chickens in the Sky on guitar, 
• Old Joe Clark on fiddle, 
• then break into an Old Joe Clark band with fiddle, guitar, cello, singing original halloween verses about Old Joe Clark.  (scare ye well, old joe clark, scare ye well I say)
• perform Inchworm (what would Halloween be without worms??) as a Boomwhacker Orchestra
• singing Trolls and Goblins 
• eat pizza and play Halloween charades
• bob for poison apples

Last spring at our year-end celebration they asked me to be the "Evil Fairy".  My hairdresser was very helpful in creating the fresh-from-the-forest look.   She will not be available for my Halloween transformation however, so I've been busy gathering bits and pieces for my Scary Old Witch costume.    


There's a big hat, a wig, a dress, a cape, green paint for my face, hands and feet, a long nose, black nail polish and old black fingerless gloves and my Book of Spells & Potions (it a fake book hiding the treats!).    

Book of Spells and Potions

Hahahaha!  Spooky treats...choose carefully.....!

I created an old broom with an long branch from our garden, tying old lavender, moss and twigs to the sweeping end for magical effect!  I love this broom!

Witch Broom

Room on the Broom (part 2/2)

Wall chart for Room on the Broom and Dragon Drum Rumble

This is Part 2 of the "Room on the Broom" play. Part 1 is here.
Last post we read the story and heard the song for Room on the Broom.

Today we learn the Dragon Drum Rumble and the Orff Orchestration.

2.  Dragon Drum Rumble (drums and gong)

Wall chart

We are being musical!

• reading repeat signs
• reading crescendo and decrescendo
• playing piano and forte
• G! = gong
• blue parts are played by drums (with hands or mallets)

Process

1. We practise playing crescendo (the dragon coming nearer) and decrescendo (the dragon flying away).
2. We play the word rhythm on the drums.  ("I am the dragon, mean as can be, etc...)  

3.  Orff Orchestration

We learn as many parts as we can and simplify the ones that are too hard for the group (sometimes we get parents to play those parts).  


Every time an animal asks if there is room on the broom we sing the song and play the instruments.

Room on the Broom - a simple recording of the Orff arrangement

• CBX - whole note D
• BX/BM -  D/A bordun  (will you be my friend)
• AM/AX/SM/SX - alternating D/A bordun
• I used cello for alternating D/A bordun in the recording
• GLOCKS - "tings on high D then low D"   (on the word "me" in Is there any room for me?")
• non-pitched percussion - play on the beat
• scrapers - play on the word "any" (you'll hear this in the recording)

4.  Choral Speaking!

When the animals rise up out of the bog covered in mud (we use black scarves as mud) and scare away the dragon, this is what they say..."Buzz off!  That's my witch!"  in a forte voice! (Those are the actual words used in the book...so we use them too...some of the kids know the story so if we don't use them...they want to anyway.)

5.  Our modern 5-seater broom

chairs for the witch, the cat and the dog...

...a nest for the bird and a shower for the frog!

More Halloween fun to come tomorrow!

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Room on the Broom (part 1 of 2)

Room on the Broom by Julia Donaldson

I discovered this book about 7 years ago.  I turned it into a musical puppet play almost instantly and have been having fun with it every Halloween ever since.

Meet the characters

The Witch

The Cat

The Dog

The Frog

The Bird

The Dragon

Process (I use this process Grade 1 and 2)

1. Read the book and sing the Room on the Broom song with your group!

 

I adapt the text as I'm reading to the children to include my own version of the "room on the broom" tune.

Storyline

Throughout the story, the witch has some challenges and meets animals that help her with them.  After helping the witch, each animal asks if there is room on the broom for them.   

Instead of asking the question, we sing the question (D dorian mode)!

Is there any room for me?

Is there any room for me?

On the broom, on the broom,

Is there any room for me?

The witch says, "Yes!" everytime and eventually, the broom is overloaded carrying a witch, a cat, a dog, a frog and a bird. 

The broom is not strong enough and breaks in half.  The animals fall into the bog and the witch has a rumble with the dragon.  

The dragon stalks her, catches her and is about to eat her when the animals come to her rescue.  

The witch rewards them by casting a spell on the broom and transforming it into a modern 5-seater broom that can accommodate all of them.

A modern witch's 5-seater broom!

Tune in tomorrow for Part 2!

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Making Shadow Puppets for our Alien Orchestra Shadow Puppet Show (part 1/2)

This year, my Maestros 1 group (ages 6-7 years) has been playing recorder, ukulele and violin.  At the end of our year together we have a celebration to show off our playing skills.

This year we did play our tunes on all our instruments but I have to say the most excitement came from our process work to create a shadow puppet show using the children's ideas.

I chose a piece of music in 6/8 time to use as a stimulus for our play.

Grieg's Morning Mood from Peer Gynt Suite was our focus.

Creating the Shadow Puppet Show Script

1.  Listen to Morning Mood (from the Peer Gynt Suite by Greig).

Children lie on the floor with eyes closed and just keep track of the images they see in their imagination as they hear the orchestral music playing.  

We gather together after listening and share all our visions.  Susan writes madly as they share their visions.  (see pix below)

2.  The following week at our next class, we listen again, add any new ideas and then begin brainstorming how to incorporate the ideas into a story that will be accompanied by the orchestral recording of the music.

We listed the main characters from our story and then worked out a simple storyline. (below)

Creating the Shadow Puppets - drawings first

3.  I don't try to nail down the storyline too precisely during the second listening but just get a general outline of the ideas that seem most popular to the children.

After our third listening, we reviewed the storyline and I introduced the idea of the shadow puppet screen and creating a set of shadow puppets for this storyline.

I asked the children to claim characters and bits of the story and to draw  a simple outline of the bit they chose.

Some children chose to draw birds, the alien orchestra, the space ship, the Easter bunnies.

I've posted some of their drawings below.

Due to time constraints, I actually spend many hours outside of our class time creating the actual puppets but I base the design on these drawings.

I'll post the puppet pix in my next post only because blogger is not letting me add photos to this one now!...what's up with me and blogger???

alien playing drums

birds flying in formation

an Easter bunny

alien playing xylophones

another bunny

 

the spaceship - notice the flames upon lift off!

Dreamcatcher Drama (part 3) Invites & Programs!

A Story of Enchantment and Inner gifts

Photo Gallery showing invites and programs!

The invitations were written in a word doc and printed out.  I rolled them into a tube and drew a ribbon of glue on one edge.

Each invite (there were 8) was rolled in a pile of small feathers.

Lots of feathers!  The glue is working:)  Now just a bit of pruning with scissors so the feathers aren't quite so wild.

To complete the invite each one was tied with a hemp string.  A wooden bead was added to each string for a finishing touch.  The invites had an organic, native feel to them.  I would definitely do this again...maybe not right beside my computer keyboard though...much feather dust to deal with after!

I printed out the name of each child's spirit animal and attached it to the invites.  See post 2 of the Dreamcatcher Drama series for more info on how we discovered each child's spirit animal using spirit animal cards.

Parents were intrigued by the labelling and asked questions about it.  This allowed the children to begin explaining a bit of how our show was put together and what their spirit animal had brought them as an inner gift.  Invites went home one week before our show.

What the invites said once they were unwrapped!

The programs were prepared using a word doc template.  Front of program shown.

Back of program shown

Inside program showing.

Photo of the white board in the studio entrance.  It was blank as the children arrived and they requested a quick welcome sign be drawn for parents and siblings to see as they arrived.