Hartford Performs

Folktale Drama: Exploring Cause & Effect (K - 4)

Last changed: 07/13/2022 8:21pm

Maichack Arts

Available to Grade(s): K , 1 , 2 , 3 , 4	Program Can Serve: Theater
Art Form: Theater	Curriculum Focus: English
Program Type: Both Grade Level and Arts/PE Program	Integration Continuum Level: Alignment
# of Visits as a Grade Level Program: 1	Length of Visit (Grade Level Program): 45 min
# of Visits as an Arts/PE Program: 1	Length of Visit (Arts/PE Program): 45 min
Program Format: In-School Workshop	Program Format Info:
Availability: Available all year.	Location: In-School,
Cost Per Student: $10	Minimum # of Students Needed In Order to Book This Program: 0
Program Requires Prior Meeting: no	Meeting Method: Email , Phone
Materials Arts Provider Provides: Story cards with drawings of characters, costumes/cloth or paper headdresses.
Materials School Provides: NA
Space and/or Set Up Requirements for Program: Any classroom will work. We usually stage it around the perimeter. They understand sequencing, cause and effect, through this fun cumulative or chain folktale.
Program Learning Objective: I can follow directions to play a role in the story with my peers. I can retell familiar stories in an audible voice. I can stand and move in coordination with others. I can learn sequencing. I can use costumes. I can laugh while learning. I can acknowledge differences in point of view. I can use character voices.
Program Description: Folktale comes alive with all kids participating actively. Despite its plain title, this is a charming, kids-in-costume, cause-and-effect folktale that teaches kids to predict action and plays like a Rube Goldberg device in drama. Program works across all grade levels and is adjusted as in learning standards. Want to have fun, fun, while serving standards? Here is a mix of storytelling, theater, & visual art offering every child a chance to take part. I model telling the tale, using simple illustrations on story cards (or on your board). Children catch on and join in the telling. We play w/characters' voice & movements, review the sequence of scenes, then block it out. This has been perfect for all these ages. The story features the problem of a man who can't move his stuff because his horse is too skinny. The horse is too skinny because the grass won't grow, and that's because the rain won't fall, clouds won't move, rain won't blow--because children won't sing! They sing and all the problems are solved. Classic folktale motif. This has been tested in dozens of classrooms and varied ages, as well as on summer stages with audience volunteers of all ages. Kids really connect with this, and love learning by playing--their natural, instinctual way of learning. Fantastic literacy and great for social-emotional work and cooperation, listening, following directions.
Additional Notes: It's not necessary, but it is helpful if there is some sort of board or easel on which to write/draw (by performer).
Parent Engagement Opportunities: I look for ways to invite EVERYONE to play. Helpers may help don costumes or offer ideas for movement/voice/encouragement.

Core & National Art Standards:

Grade K

Kindergarten: Reading Standards for Literature: Key Ideas & Details: #2: With prompting and support, retell familiar stories, including key details.

Kindergarten: Reading Standards for Literature: Key Ideas & Details #3 With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story.

Grade K: Theatre: Creating: Anchor Standard 1: Generalize and conceptualize artistic ideas and work. a. With promp=ting and support, invent and inhabit and imaginary elsewhere in dramatic play or a guided drama experience (e.g., process drama, story drama, creative drama).

Grade 1

Grade 1: Reading Standards for Literature: Key Ideas & Details: #2 Retell stories, including key details, and
demonstrate understanding of their central message or lesson.

Grade 1:Reading Standards for Literature
: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas: #7: Use illustrations and
details in a story to describe its characters, setting, or events.

Grade 1: Theatre: Creating: Anchor Standard 1: Generalize and conceptualize artistic ideas and work. c. Identify ways in which gestures and movement may be used to create or retell a story in guided drama experiences.

Grade 2

Reading Standards for Literature: Key Ideas & Details: #2 Recount stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures, and determine their central message, lesson, or moral.

Reading Standards for Literature: Key Ideas & Details:#6: Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.

Grade 2: Theatre: Creating: Anchor Standard 1: Generalize and conceptualize artistic ideas and work. c. Identify ways in which voice and sounds may be used to create or retell a story in guided drama experiences

Grade 3

Grade 3: Reading Standards for Literature: Key Ideas & Details: #2 Recount stories, including fables, folktales and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain how it is conveyed through key details in the text. .

Grade 3: Reading Standards for Literature: Key Ideas & Details:#6: Acknowledge differences in the points of view of characters, including by speaking in a different voice for each character when reading dialogue aloud.

Grade 3: Theatre: Creating: Anchor Standard 1: Generalize and conceptualize artistic ideas and work. a: Create roles, imagined worlds, and improvised stories in a drama/theatre work.

Grade 4

Grade 4: Reading Standards for Literature: Key Ideas & Details #3 Describe in depth a character, setting, or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words, or actions).

Grade 4: Speaking and Listening Standards: Presentation of Knowledge and Ideas: #4 Report on a topic or text, tell a story, or recount an experience in an organized manner, using appropriate facts and relevant, descriptive details to support main ideas or themes; speak clearly at an understandable pace.

Grade 4: Theatre: Creating: Anchor Standard 1: Generalize and conceptualize artistic ideas and work. a. Articulate the visual details or imagined worlds, and improvised stories that support the given circumstances in drama/theatre