Theatre For Children: Second Lesson

10th September 2014 

Hey,

So for our second lesson, we were going to watch a clip from the Matthew Bourne's nutcracker (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4leYMIcA_eI) but the computer wasn't working so we were told to look at the short film in our own time. We could do a worksheet to describe what we saw for homework or after she had finished talking.  I choose to do it as homework so I didn't feel rush to do it in the lesson.  We had a free afternoon so Molly and I choose to do it together. This was helpful as we could write what we both saw and discuss it to get other points of views.

 

After not being able to work the computer, my teacher told as what our performance that three of our classes were working toward would be based on the christmas poem called "'Twas the night be for Christmas" which was really exciting because it's my favourite christmas poem. Our teacher said that it was based on the poem, but we do not need to follow the poem but should follow any ideas we come up with while researching the assignment to develop the theme.

Our other homework was to find music that we could use for our performance. I also did this with Molly because it was something fun and we could try and come up with dance moves while listening to the song. We came up with the idea that we could have an upbeat song for the evening before christmas which the family are putting up decorations and the kids are getting out snacks for Santa and his reindeer and trying to calm down so they will sleep that night, and maybe the mum could put them to bed and tell them a story that turn in to a song. We also came up with the song called "It's Oh So Quiet" which would be funny for the first line of the poem

                                       

                                         " 'twas the night before Christmas,

                                            when all through the house,

                                           Not a creature was stirring,

                                                    not even a mouse."

 because you would have a mice coming and being quiet then really loud and dancing around because they are as excited about christmas as everyone else, but these are just ideas and maybe we come build this idea or it might spark someone else's imagination.

Listen to the song: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=htobTBlCvUU

I'm still liking my research idea about 'Something Special'.  I started looking at the Cbeebies web site and found this link that goes to a grown-up page about the different shows and how it help the child development. This piece of information was really handy to tell me why they made this show.

' The educational value of the show

"The simple format and the repetitive aspects to each programme will help children to absorb new information or remember something they have previously learned. There is also frequent use of well-known nursery rhymes and tunes.

Even very young children who do not have difficulties with learning can gain so much. They will quickly learn the names of everyday items, actions and settings. The activities used throughout the series include aspects of the Early Years framework that encourage children's learning." '

Source:  BBC.Something Special. Available: http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/shows/

something-special. Last accessed 13th Sept 2014.

I think shows what children can gain and helps the parents understand what the children are watching, I read though the whole page and found that it gives a quiet a bit of information about the show and it tell us that it's made up of bright colours and big actions with different characters which have different personalities which help the child understand there are different people in the world. This web site has a page on what is Makaton? which shows a film about how it can help children and give a child with disability the ability to communicate with their mum and dad and children at school. There are lots of shows that help children, like Tree Fu Tom can help children with  Dyspraxia.  I'm amazed about the shows helping children with communication and dyspraxia.

This is the link if you wanted to look at it:  http://www.bbc.co.uk/cbeebies/grownups/shows/something-special

till next time

Jenny