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We are a group of friends/parents that run a not-for-profit cultural association in Spain.
This is our (bilingual!) blog about our theatre workshops for kids...

jueves, 26 de enero de 2012

Actividades 'Warmer' I


Un “Warmer” en inglés es una actividad corta que se usa para calentar motores al principio de clase. Pero también se pueden utilizar para cambiar el ritmo de una clase; para romper tensiones; para introducir un nuevo tema o para ‘situar’ a los alumnos en un nuevo contexto y para apoyar de alguna manera a las actividades principales de la clase. Estos son algunos de mis “warmers” preferidos (con enlaces, si los he podido encontrar).

El juego de los nombres
Todo un clásico del primer día de clase, este juego está genial para aprender los nombres de la clase y para que todos se conozcan si es que el grupo es nuevo. Un alumno da un paso adelante a la vez que tiene que decir su nombre y asumir una postura que refleja de alguna manera su personalidad. Por ejemplo, Sara baila una jota mientras chilla su nombre. Los demás tienen que copiar lo que ha hecho Sara antes de seguir con el juego.

Una variación: Cuando le toca, cada alumno tiene que decir su nombre y pensar en un adjetivo (o si prefieres, un objeto) que empieza por la misma letra que su nombre y que le representa de alguna manera ej. “Soy María y soy maravillosa”.

Otra variación: Se forma un circulo y se lanza una pelota a alguien a la vez que se dice su nombre. Al cogerlo, ellos hacen lo mismo. Poco a poco se introducen cada vez más pelotas… ¡y empieza la locura!

El Sandwich más grande del mundo:
Un juego de memoria para aprender los nombres. Los alumnos están sentados en círculo. El primero tiene que decir: “Soy Juan y el sándwich más grande del mundo tiene… queso!”. El siguiente tiene que decir su nombre, el ingrediente de Juan y luego elegir su propio ingrediente: “Soy Elisa y el sándwich más grande del mundo tiene queso…. Y regaliz!”. Si quieres, puedes pedir al resto de la clase que digan la lista de ingredientes cada vez y al final del juego – como no – habrá que tomar un gran mordisco.

El escultor… y su escultura
Los alumnos están en parejas. Uno hace de escultor y el otro, de su escultura. Sin tocar a su compañero, el escultor le ‘moldea’ para formar una escultura. Una vez completadas las obras de arte, cambian de papeles para dar a la escultura la posibilidad de ‘vengarse’ de las maniobras de su compañero. Como ejercicio, favorece el trabajo en equipo/pareja y el control de movimiento

Actividades con Globos:
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  • ·         Inflar un globo por alumno y pedirle al grupo que lo mantenga en el aire. Esta actividad favorece que la clase se mueva y le obliga a coordinarse. Una vez pillado el truco, se puede ir soltando cada vez más globos o introducir una nueva ‘regla’ ej. no se permite usar las manos. También se puede pedir al grupo clasificar los globos por colores sin dejar caer ninguno.
  • ·         Los alumnos se colocan en círculo. El profesor lanza un globo al aire a la vez que dice el nombre de alguien. Esa persona tiene que coger al globo antes de que toque el suelo. Si lo consigue, lanza de nuevo el globo y dice el nombre de otro.
  • ·         Como alternativa, en vez de coger el globo, lo tienen que mantener en el aire. Además de decir el nombre de alguien, se dice la parte del cuerpo que se tiene que utilizar para mantener el globo en el aire hasta que dice el nombre (y parte del cuerpo) del siguiente alumno.
  • ·         Los alumnos forman equipos. Cada equipo se coloca en círculo cerrado e intentan mantener el globo en el aire utilizando solo el aliento (¡y sin marearse, claro!).
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  • ·         Los alumnos tratan de equilibrar un globo sobre la punta de un dedo a ver quien dura más tiempo. No está permitido ni sujetar el globo ni tocar al globo de otro y el dedo siempre tiene que estar en contacto directo con el globo. Un juego que favorece la concentración y la coordinación.
Bueno, la verdad es que la lista de actividades de calentamiento chulas (“warmers”) es larga. Así que por hoy lo dejo. Mañana más….

miércoles, 18 de enero de 2012

Starting from Scratch VIII: choosing the music

The stage productions we develop on our workshops centre on music. It provides the dramatic backdrop to the action and helps establish the 'mood' - and indeed to some extent - the message of each scene. So making the right choice of music is a very important (and time consuming!) part of the process when it comes to developing our own material.

Any music we use, needs to:
  • be a suitable length (is it long enough? can I shorten it easily?)
  • have a structure kids will be able to easily recognise (obviously all music has structure, but is it structured in a way kids will be able to follow up on stage?)
  • convey the essence, the mood, the atmosphere... of the scene

To kick off the selection process, I tend to look first at obvious choices like sound tracks to films of a similar theme (in the case of "The Ugle Bug Ball", I might first listen to the sound track to "A Bug's Life or "Bee Movie") or well-known, similarly themed classical music ("The Fight of the Bumblebee" by Rimsky-Korsakov is an obvious choice, for example).
Cover of Bee Movie (Full Screen Edition)


After a bit of googling, I can start to expand the list. For the "Ugly bug ball" I find a surprising number of possible sources of inspiration:
  • 'Insect Symphony' by contemporary Finnish composer Kalevi Aho (this includes pieces for butterflies, dung beetles, grasshoppers, ants and dayflies so would be a good place to start)
  • "The Spider's Feast" by Roussel 
  • Overture to the Wasps by Vaughan Williams
  • Scriabin's Tenth Sonata, also known as the "Insect" sonata due to its trills. 
  • Bartok's "The Night's Music" from his piano suite "Out of Doors" mimics different creatures at night...birds, frogs, insects.....
  • Mussorgsky's "Song of the Flea"
  • Grieg's "Papillon"
  • Schumann’s Les Papillons
  • Schubert’s Der Einsame (The Lonely) about the melancholy of a cricket, sitting on a hearth, mourning the disappearance of the summer
  • "The Ant and the Grasshopper" by Leon Rosselson
  •  Josquin des Prez's "El grillo e buon cantore"  is a musical painting of a grasshopper

A search for more modern themes comes up with a long list of gems  like:
  • Chet Atkins "Centipede Boogie"
  • "Spiders" by System of a Down
  • "Bug Eyes" by Dredg
    Wonderful (Adam Ant album)
    Image via Wikipedia
  • "Butterflies and Hurricanes" by Muse
  • Nina Simone's "Funkier than a Mosquitoes Tweeter"
  • "Insects" by 10 Years
  • "Butterfly Caught2 by Massive Attack
  • "Ant Music" by Adam & the Ants
  • "Hey there little insect!" by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers 
  • "Black Butterfly" by Sounds Of Blackness
Not all these songs will be suitable (and many will not really even be about insects!) but the advantage of throwing the net as wide as possible is you might just find something perfect, something really inspiring. It takes a lot of listening on Youtube and Spotify (and a lot of crossing off the list) before you can really start to narrow it down. but the effort is worth it in the end because of what the right piece of music can bring to your play.





English: James Brown, February 1973, Musikhall...
Image via Wikipedia
I like to also think about juxtaposition when I'm choosing music for a play. I like it to 'sit well' with what comes before and after it and to provide contrast. I also like using vintage (or simply, older!) songs and music, as they can sometimes be used in a way that is witty. A song like Adam Ant's "Ant Music" for example might be a witty choice for a scene about..... well, the ants, precisely because it is such a, well, obvious choice... and because it will make the adults in the audience chuckle. Vintage choices provide great beats and sometimes a more theatrical musical style. Songs that spring to mind that could be used in this way for this play are Chet Atkins "Centipede Boogie", "I Got Ants In My Pants" by James Brown,"La Cucaracha" by Los Lobos or "Mean Old Bedbug Blues" by Bessie Smith. Depending on how the play itself pans itself, on the direction it takes, there is sometimes room for something a little experimental if it might resonate with audience. An example of something that could be used with our theme would be Tom Waits' spoken 'song' "Army Ants". The moment would need to be there but it could work.







lunes, 2 de enero de 2012

Starting from Scratch VII: Exploring Bugs...

In recent weeks, I've been looking at how you might adapt the children's song "The Ugly Bug Ball" into a stage production for kids. This week, I've been thinking about the type of activities that could be used to explore the "bug" theme in a theatre workshop.

So, a few ideas to get started (feel free to chip in with more!):
  • Eric Carle's 'The Hungry Caterpillar'
Base a lesson on the story of The Hungry Caterpillar. When I did this, I cut the fingers off cheap gloves so everyone had a caterpillar to wiggle and handed out food and flashcards to be waved at the right moment. Get kids to do different actions (stand up, sit down, wave one arm etc) when they hear certain words.
As a follow on, get kids to act out a short sketch based on the cycle of life of a butterfly or do this as a puppet show, with quick cutout drawings as puppets or socks and coffee filter butterflies (see below)
  • To make coffee filter butterflies: 
  1. Cut a coffee filter along the 2 sloping edges and open up to make wings
  2. Clip a clothes peg along the centre as a body 
  3. Decorate the wings with felt tip pens
  4. Use a plant spray bottle to spray lightly with water. leave to dry before clipping onto curtains, lamp cables etc.
  • Make an egg box caterpillar by cutting an egg carton in half along the length to leave a string of 3 egg cups still joined together (the caterpillar's body). Decorate and add pipe cleaner antenas.
  •  Make pebble 'bug' pets by painting stones (or combinations of stones) and sticking on googly eyes, pipe cleaner antenas etc
  • Explore Traditional Songs: 
    • There Was An Old Woman Who Swallowed A Fly: Get them to act out the song - draw a circle on the floor (or make one out of chairs or rope) as the old woman's stomach and get the kids to squeeze in (and wriggle and jiggle) at the right time
    •  Nobody Likes Me Everybody Hates Me (Going Down The Garden To Eat Worms): have fun with this traditional playground song (could be combined with the Icky Textures activity below!)
    • The Ants Go Marching
  • Play Musical Bug Statues: a twist on the traditional party game - get the kids moving like a spider... an ant... a butterfly.... in time to music. When the music stops, they freeze and you choose a new insect. (This would be good preparation for the "Ugly Bug Ball" as kids could experiment with dancing like a given insect and explore how different ones would move (a worm would wiggle, for example, and a grasshopper might dance a jig?!)
  • Play a variation of Hunt The Thimble with plastic bugs hidden around the room. Kids 'become' any bugs that are found for a couple of minutes and then the hunt resumes. This can be combined with the tradional game "Warmer/Colder" - one student goes out and the rest decide where to hide a particular bug. They "guide" the first student to the hiding place by calling out 'warmer' and 'colder' when they are closer or further away. This works well with foreign language students as you can substitute the name of the particular bug being hidden and shout or whisper to guide the searcher (lots of vocab practice).
  • Play 'Be A Bug': In small groups, get the kids to work together to represent different insects: use their arms and legs to be a centipede, lie head to foot to be a worm, use a bit of imagination (!) to make a grasshopper, a spider, a beetle...
  • Experiment with music: find a selection of different styles of music (some faster, some slower) andplay them one by one to the students. Get them to listen with their eyes closed and then discuss which music might 'fit' which insects. Opinions may vary but the important thing is to get them thinking...
  • Talk about phobias: find out who likes bugs... and who doesn't! Why do insects produce this reaction? Show flashcards of different animals (kittens, horses, lions as well as different insects) and discuss the differing reactions.
  • Take this further by playing a Halloween favourite, "Icky Textures": prepare several tupperwares filled with a variety of textures (spaghetti, grapes, honey, sand paper.....) and cover them with a cloth so the kids don't know what they are. One by one, get kids to put their hands in the different tubs and describe what they feel. As an extension (as a way of exploring the role of our expections when it comes to the things we are afraid of) send some students out of the room while you do the first activity. Then get them in, one by one, and tell them what they are going to feel (eyeballs, slugs, worms etc). Get help from the rest of the students to build the tension! Later discuss the difference in reaction between the two groups of students.
  • Talk about life from an insect's perspective....
  • Go outside and spot bugs, watch ants 'at work', hunt for butterflies, find a spider in a web. This can be extended into a bug treasure hunt by giving the kids a list of bugs they must try and find.


For more ideas, check out:
Bug-related Activities  
Ideas for story books about insects and songs that can be sung to traditional tunes
Great ideas for exploiting the Aesop's fable, 'The Ant and The Grasshopper'
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