All the World’s A Stage

Did you know Stratford is for kids too?

Visit Neverland as Peter Pan leads the gang of Lost Boys and battles the pirates on stage at the Avon Theatre at the Stratford Shakespeare Festival with a great offer – Tuesdays thru Thursdays in June, July and August kids are free when you buy an adult ticket. Call 1.800.567.1600 and quote promotion code 33731.*

Click HERE to see all the great Stratford Activities for Kids

Why is Acting so Important?

Recent cuts to the education system have seen many arts programs slashed as non-essentials.Drama is an essential. Dramatic skills are essential for job interviews, presentations,, fostering creativity, empathy,and more. Drama can be integrated into all subject areas . Did you know there are some math problems best solved using the strategy “Act it Out”?

IF you can’t get to Stratford, check out  a Little Theatre Production  close to you!Take a leaf from many famous authors, and put on plays yourselves, even if the only audience is a line up of teddy bear.

Here are some links you may find useful :

http://www.childdrama.com/Menu.html   Tons of FREE Lessons K-12

Drama Printables

L.M. Alcott comprehensive Biography

Math Work Sheet Act it Out

Why? How? Where?- Questions Spur Creativity

This picture from Animal Planet reminds me of  the Rudyard Kipling story: How the Elephant Got its Trunk (a favourite with many children) In this story, Baby Elephant asks a lot of nosy questions about his neighbours.
Fostering  Curiousity
Young children have an enormous curiosity about the world, that if nurtured , can lead into many marvellous areas of invention, scientific discovery, and composition. Sometimes in frustration,, at not having a definitive answer,,adults will stifle this curiosity. One very successful tactic that , is to admit, “I don’t know. What do you think?” These are the times to grab a recording device and capture for posterity this peek into our child’s thought processes.
When students get a bit older ,they tend to lose a bit of this curiousity, to rekindle the creativity a study of "Pourquoi Tales", or “Just So Stories"  can be just the ticket.
Suggested Resources
Many Native legends give explanations about how the animals received their traits, some favourites with my audiences include How Bear Lost His Tale, the bitter,sweet story of Jumping Mouse (or How Eagle Came to Be), and the scary Water Monster (Bullfrog & the importance of free water for all).
Many tried and true authors authors offer explanatory tales as well. Young children enjoy these stories, for even though they will often see the silliness in the tale, they take comfort in there being a predictability to the world in which they live. Try a comparative literature study of Rudyard Kipling's Just So Stories or Thornton Burgess' Mother West Wind Stories , then create some of your own Pourquoi tales to explain animal adaptations  that interest your family.

Here are some questions from  students I recently met:

Why do earthworms have both genders’ organs?   Why do  daddy seahorses carry the babies?  Why do bears hibernate?

Send me your stories, and  I’ll post them here!

Authors on the Net

I just stumbled across Canadian Author MichaelIP Burke on Twitter!  He is a new author to me, but his site Flower and the Giant.com is very intriguing, so I can’t wait to read some of his books.

 

Some of my other favourite Canadian Author sites include: Robert Munsch, where you can listen to his books online.

 

Jan Brett, ( ton of FREE downloads)

 

 

and for the older crowd Gordon  Korman - (has an interactive message board ) Did you know he wrote his first book at age 12? What are your favourite Canadian author sites?