Fables Camp - Thursday

Here is the outline of our day:

Morning Verse

We are truthful and helpful and loving in trust
For our heart's inner sun glows brightly in us
We will open our hearts to the sunbeams so bright
And we'll fill all the world with our heart's inner light

Theatre Games from Drama Notebook

Gibberish

Gibberish is the art of using sounds and utterances in place of normal speech. Put the group into pairs and invite each pair to carry on a conversation as if speaking in an unknown language. Players should converse as if making perfect sense. (Note: Before presenting the concept of gibberish to your class, practice using gibberish with family or friends.) In class, keep the conversation going until everyone participates. Some students find it easy to speak in gibberish, while others struggle. Invite students who are having trouble to start with making simple sounds such as: ma; dee; dah; doo; etc. This will help them become more at ease with vocalizing nonsense sounds.

I read the 2017 Caldecott Honor book Du Iz Tak by Carson Ellis to the group before presenting the game.

Boppity Bop Bop Bop

Players standing in a circle with one player in the center (the leader). The leader points to a player in the circle and quickly says “Boppity Bop Bop Bop.” The player he pointed to must say “Bop” before the leader finishes or that player is out. The leader may also try to trick the players by just saying “Bop.” If the player he pointed to repeats “Bop,” he is out because he’s only supposed to say “Bop” in response to “Boppity Bop Bop Bop.”

Energy Ball

This is a classic theatre game! In a large circle, have all players hold their hands up, palms facing each other. Next, ask them to imagine that they are holding a ball of energy. Invite them to feel the energy pulsating and radiating light. Have them make it larger, and then smaller. After a few moments of practice, have everyone drop their hands and choose one person to create an energy ball and toss it to another player across the circle. Players can make their energy balls move quickly, or very slowly. They can be large or tiny. Players receiving the energy ball can transform the ball before tossing it to another player.

Younger Group - Morning

"The Crow and the Pitcher"
the (longer) version from Teaching with the Fables: A Holistic Approach

using a white sheet folded over the bottom chalk & eraser rail of the chalkboard to create a shadow puppet stage - removing the lampshade and setting up a lamp with a bare lightbulb behind the puppeteer - setting out a yellow glass wide mouth vase (I've had marbles get stuck in the neck of the vase in the past when it was too narrow) and a blue glass bowl of marbles - putting on a shadow puppet performance with the child's thumb and first finger as the crow's beak, adding pebbles one by one until the water level rises sufficiently and the crow can drink - sitting patiently and watching this take place really drives the moral home - the audience can see the shadow of the water level and see it slowly rise as "Little by little does the trick"

the older group continued their peacock quilling projects from yesterday and watched our performances

Read Aloud Story

chapter four of The Fox that Wanted Nine Golden Tails by Mary Knight

Younger Group - Afternoon

"The Tortoise and the Hare"
we used the version illustrated by Jerry Pinckney

creating moving pictures using the instructions in Making Picture Books with Movable Pictures by Brunhild Muller - I prepared three 1/2 sheets of 11 x 14 inch drawing paper per child - one half sheet for the background, rip one half sheet in half horizontally to be the two foreground pieces, use remaining half sheet for the figures and the handles - block and stick beeswax crayons - layer shorter and taller foreground pieces on top of background piece after coloring them and glue ONLY down the left and right hand sides of the paper and NOT across the bottom or your pieces cannot move along their paths in the race

spontaneously, the group also returned to the shadow puppet stage set up this morning and each child tried to retell the story of The Tortoise and the Hare in shadows, using their hands to make the shapes of the animals

Older Group - Afternoon

"The Great and Little Fishes"
the version from Borrowed Feather and Other Fables

creating multi-media collage artwork inspired by this lovely art idea - stretching a large piece of watercolor paper on a painting board - painting the paper blue and sprinkling different kinds of salt on the wet paper to create designs (table salt, kosher salt, coarse sea salt) - texturizing aluminum foil by taping pieces onto the mesh bag which onions are sold in and rubbing it to create a fish scale look - cutting out fish from the textured foil and coloring them with ultra fine point Sharpie markers - gluing the fish to the now-dry watercolor background - adding details to the scene such as sea grasses, the smaller fish, and the fisherman's net with watercolor pencils

we didn't use them but there are several fish patterns in Feltcraft

also...
lunch, snacks, outdoor play, indoor play with dress up silks, playing with the Cuboro marble maze as well as a variety of board games (Qwirkle, Labyrinth, Bingo, Wildcraft, Rhyme Out!), continuing to play our favorite theatre games from earlier in the week, visiting the pets, learning how to weave potholders

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