P
C C H O I N I
Original story by:
Carlo Collodi
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Table of Contents A Note to Teachers........................................ 2 So You’re Going to the Theatre.................. 3 Plot Summary................................................... 4 A Chat with the Playwrights......................... 5 About the Author............................................ 6 Setting.................................................................. 7 Characters.......................................................... 8 Vocabulary......................................................... 9 Suggested activity: Marionettes & Me.. 10-11 Suggested activity: Sticky Situations....... 12-13 Suggested activity: Funland Frenzy............ 14 Worksheet: Measure the Nose.............. 15-16 Worksheet: Living or Nonliving?.............. 17 Discussion Questions..................................... 18 Teacher resources..................................... 19-20
A Note to Teachers Dear Educators, Greetings! We are excited for you and your students to attend the Birmingham Children’s Theatre’s rendition of Pinocchio! To prepare for your upcoming visit we invite you to use this packet as a resource resource in your classroom. This packet is designed to assist you in introducing the play’s plot, characters, settings, language, and themes to your students. We hope you find the material in this packet both educationally enriching as well as fun. We encourage you to use these provided activities prior to the day of the event in order to guide your students to a better b etter understanding and enjoyment of what they will see. We hope your students let their imaginations soar as the curtains open and they are invited to enter the magical world of Pinocchio at Birmingham Children’s Theatre. Just as importantly, we hope you find this packet full of helpful curriculum that cultivates a rich classroom environment. Thank you for helping to extend the learning process beyond our theatre walls, and for instilling an appreciation appreciation of the arts in lives of the Birmingham youths. Kindly, Birmingham Child’s Theatre, City of Birmingham
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So You’re Going to the Theatre... Dear Theatre-goer, Get excited! You are about to enter into a world of imagination and fun where the impossible comes to life. Before Before you attend the Birmingham Children’s Theatre’s performance of Pinocchio there are a few guidelines we would like to share with you about about theatre etiquette.
Theatre Etiquette: Theatre etiquette is the proper and expected behavior for the audience (you!) when watching a performance. Here is a list of the proper and and expected behavior behavior at Birmingham Children’s Theatre: • Arrive on time • Have all electronics turned completely off and put away • Be respectful: keep your hands and feet to yourself; avoid talking, waving, shouting during the performance; no eating or drinking; only exit in the case of an emergency • Sit in your assigned seating • Throw any garbage in the proper receptacles
Play YOUR Part: A live performance is different than watching a movie or a TV show. During a play, the actors can see your reaction. Your responses help fuel the performance. Don’t be afraid to laugh, gasp, and applaud! The actors will feed off your energy and both you and they will experience a magical theatrical adventure.
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Plot Summary In a small Italian village lives Geppetto, a kindly woodcarver, who longs to have a son. Geppetto creates puppet after puppet, hoping that one might come to life and fulfill his dream dream of fatherhood. fatherhood.
With the help of the Blue Fairy Fairy,, Geppetto’s Geppetto’s dream comes true! The Blue Fairy makes the puppet, Pinocchio, come to life.
Pinocchio quickly realizes realizes that being a puppet in a world world of real boys and girls can be very difficult. He must discover discover what it means to be a good person, including: working hard, going to school, being a good friend and putting others’ before yourself. Pinocchio must learn how to be a truthful, brave, brave, and unselfish boy if the Blue Fairy Fairy is to make him a real boy. Ultimately, Pinocchio does learn these life lessons and is transformed into a real boy.
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A Chat with the Playwrights A Chat with the Playwrights, Leah Luker and Jean Pierce: When did you write the play and was it a commissioned piece; if so, for whom? “The Play was written in January, 2009, exclusively for Birmingham Children's Theatre by Leah Luker and Jean Pierce.” When/where did it receive it premiere? “The world premier will be on March 31st, 2009, at Birmingham Children's Theatre.” What prompted you to write this particular story about Pinocchio? What was/is your hope audiences will take away from the play? Ms. Luker: Luker: “Jean and I were inspired to write the play after reading the original story by Carlo Collodi. We saw so many wonderful things in the book that we felt needed to be shown on stage. More than just lying- Pinocchio is called on to be brave, selfless and work hard. We just wanted to give give people a more well rounded view of the character rather than an innocent, but dishonest puppet.” Mrs. Pierce: Pierce: “A good script was needed, one that would allow Pinocchio, through hard work and determination, to earn the right to be a real boy. This was my co-writer’s vision for the play. I hope our audiences will remember the lessons Pinocchio learned about truth, loyalty, responsibility and making wise choices.” Pinocchio is based on story written by Carlo Collodi... how was the original inspirational and in what ways did you make changes to the original to suit the needs of your script? What excited you about the original to make an adapted play about it? Ms. Luker: Luker: “Well, Jean and I made changes to the original story because it is a very long story to fit into an hour. We did not want to loose the author's intention, so we kept the themes of the story in tact by combining Pinocchio's lessons into five main story lines (The Puppet Master, The Fox and Cat, The Land of Fun, The Whale, and the Medicine Woman). The Medicine Woman was invented by Jean and I to help keep the Blue Fairy actively involved in the story, and to help Pinocchio learn the act of selflessness. There are many times in the Pinocchio story when he helps someone who is in need at the cost of his own happiness... we wanted to show that in one great action. Also, we knew that the Blue Fairy and Cricket (though small parts of Collodi's story) are important teaching characters and personify conscience and discipline, whichPinocchio lacks at first. Personification is one of the best tools of a playwright. Especially when writing for young audience. [Personification is] making an idea into a character trait of a person (The Blue Fairy=Conscience. The Cricket=discipline). Any time you can replace an explanation of an idea with action or a character is always a good idea.” Mrs. Pierce: Pierce: “The story, originally published as a magazine serial, is filled with enough appealing characters and fantastic adventures to inspire any playwright. It was necessary to choose only the most stage-worthy episodes and to compress the whole into an hour-long play that would appeal to today’s young audience. I can imagine the eagerness of those children long ago as they waited to read the next exciting chapter. I hope our audience will be just as eager to follow Pinocchio’s amazing adventures as they unfold on stage.”
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About the Author Carlo Collodi was born November 24, 1836 in Florence, Italy. Carlo’s mother was the daughter daughter of a farmer and his father was a cook. Carlo had had ten (yes, TEN!) brothers and sisters. Carlo was lucky enough to go to school where he discovered his love for writing. Here’s a fun fact about the writer Carlo Collodi: the last name “Collodi” was actually Carlo’s pseudonym (sue-dopseudonym (sue-donim: a fake name). Carlo’s real last name was Lorenzini. Carlo chose the last name Collodi to honor his mother mother who was from from the tiny Italian city of Collodi. Collodi was interested in telling stories, both true and fictitious ( fik-tish-es: not true). Before deciding to write stories for children, Collodi wrote for newspapers. As he developed as a writer, Collodi realized he liked writing for children most most of all. The most successful story Collodi Collodi wrote was The Adventures of Pinocchio. Pinocchio. Since it’s publication, publication, the story of Pinocchio has been been adapted (changed adapted (changed or adjusted) to entertain and delight audiences all over the world. world. One of the most popular adaptations adaptations is the Disney movie movie Pinocchio Pinocchio.. Today, oday, it is estimated that the story of Pinocchio has been translated in over over 240 languages worldwide, fantastico!
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Setting(s) Geppetto’s Home: A simple, small, one bedroom apartment that is also used as Gepetto’s workshop.
An Italian Village: Busy, crowded streets surround Gepetto’s home.
A Marionette Theatre: A crowded, cramped theatre with a stage that Maestro Maestro runs. Some Some of the performing puppets there are Punch and Judy Judy..
The Land Land of of Fun: Fun: A place where boys and girls go to escape school and responsibility, they are promised eternal fun. Really Really,, the Land of Fun is a trick and eventually the children who stay there turn into donkeys donkeys because of a curse.
The Ocean: Vast and wet, the ocean is a scary place when some of our characters are are lost without a boat. boat.
Inside a Whale: Inside the whale is so dark our characters need lanterns just to see each other!
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Characters Narrators- the the storytellers of the play Geppetto- a kind, elderly woodcarver who desperately wants a son Cricket- a magical talking cricket who is 127 years old; Cricket represents discipline in the play, a trait that young Pinocchio must learn Pinocchio- one of Geppetto’s Geppetto’s wooden puppets that that comes to life and wants to be a real boy Blue Fairy- a magical being who helps Pinocchio become real; Blue Fairy represents conscience; a trait Pinocchio must prove to have before he can be turned into a real boy Crow- a character the Blue Fairy becomes to teach Pinocchio Medicine Woman- a character the Blue Fairy becomes to teach Pinocchio LampwickLampwick- an orphan who befriends Pinocchio MaestroMaestro- the owner of the puppet show show Punch- one of Maestro’s Maestro’s puppets puppets Judy Judy- one of of Maestro’ Maestro’ss puppets Fox- a trickster Cat- the Fox’s partner Coachman- a greedy man
Pre-Show: What do you imagine these characters to look like? Based on the descriptions, which characters do you predict will be good, and which will be evil? Post-Show: Which character did you like the most? Why? Have you ever had experiences similar to a character in the play? What were they?
Donkey DriverDriver- one of the coachman’s coachman’s workers workers
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VOCABULARY Here are four new “m” words to learn lear n before you watch our Magnificent, Magic-filled, Masterpiece! Maestro- noun ; a title of respect for a person who is an expert in an art form Marionette - noun ; a puppet controlled from above by strings attached to its limbs Mischievous Mischievous - adjective ; when a person or animal causes annoyance, annoyance, harm, har m, or trouble. Misfortunate - adjective ; having bad luck Exercise 1.1 Directions: Using each word once, label each picture with the vocabulary word that best describes what is being portrayed.
1. _______________ _______________
2. _______________ _______________
3. _______________ _______________
4. _______________ _______________
Exercise 1.2 Directions: Create a story using all of the following words in the order they they appear in the list below. below. Example: flower child eternal Once upon a time there grew a special, rare FLOWER. FLOWER. One day as a small CHILD was walking along, she spotted the flower and decided to pick it. Not knowing the flower had special powers, the girl picked the flower and at once was iven the ift of ETERNAL ETERNAL life.
tiny magical strange misfortunate house expensive marionette happy love mischievous castle sleeping maestro
Remember to have fun and use your
imagination!
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Marionettes & Me!
There are many types types of puppets. Pinocchio is a marionette marionette puppet; marionettes are controlled by strings that are attached to the puppet’s limbs. limbs. In the play you will be asked to think about what makes human beings unique from all other creatures. In some ways people are similar to puppets, but what qualities make a human being a human being and a puppet just a puppet? Read the statements below and circle circle if the statement is true for REAL eo le or MARIONETT MARIONETTES ES or BOTH. BOTH. Discuss Discuss our answers. answers.
R M B
1) Has arms and legs
R
M
B
2) Has the ability a bility to love
R
M
B
3) Does what other people want them to do
R
M
B
4) Can distinguish right from wrong
R
M
B
5) Can express emotions
R
M
B
6) Can teach others
R
M
B
7) Can learn
R
M
B
8) Is valuable
R
M
B
9) Is unique
R
M
B
10 Has hobbies, hobbies, interest interests, s, habits habits
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Make your own bird Marionette!
Marionettes &
Materials:
Me!
- Colored Paper - Glue - Scissors Popsicle Sticks - Popsicle - String - Hole puncher - Colored Marking Pens, crayons, glitter, etc...
STEP ONE: Using strong glue, attach two popsicle-sticks into a capital “T” shape. STEP TWO: While the glue is drying, assemble and decorate your marionette bird. Older students may cut out the silhouette on their own, o wn, while younger students should have pre-cut silhouettes to assemble. Have students decorate one or both sides of the silhouette. Attach the wings to either side of the bird with glue (or tape if desired) by making a small fold along the edge where the wings will be attached to the bird. STEP THREE: Using a hold punch make two holes: one at the top of the head and one at the back end of the bird. It is important to have two points with which to suspend the bird. Tie Tie string through both holes and then ties the other end of the strong to the popsicle-stick “T”; tada! your bird is ready to take flight!
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Sticky Situations Throughout Throughout the play Pinocchio finds himself in sticky situations. situations. Pinocchio must decide what is right and what is wrong. Sometimes, in the moment, it can be tricky to know what your first reaction should be. Let’s practice by playing “Good Choice, Bad Choice”. Preparation/Materials Needed:
What is right is right, even if not one is doing it.
sort of buzzer buzzer - bell or some sort - blackboard to keep score
What is wrong, is wrong, even if everyone is doing it. -Unknown
HOW TO PLAY: !Divide
the class into two equal teams and have each team in a designated area.
RIGHT
!Place
the bell bell in the center center of a flat surface.
!Each
team will select one member to go up to the bell. The teacher will read a statement from the “Good Choice/Bad Choice” activity sheet. The first student to press the bell answer “good choice” or “bad choice”. Have students switch each round.
Scoring: If a student pushes the bell before the end of the statement the point goes to the opposite team. If If a student answers incorrectly the opposite team gets the point. The first answer verbalized is final, a student st udent cannot change their vote.
WRONG
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Sticky Situations: Teacher Activity Sheet Start each sentence with “You “You make a choice to...” and then read of each statement, one statement per round. Feel free to make the situations more or less challenging challengin g based on your your students level of understanding understandi ng.. For For older students, have a challenge round where the students create the sticky situations. Teacher may decide to allow students to debate their answer choices and award points based on “why” explanations. “You make a choice to...” “You 1. Take your classmate’s pencil without asking so you can complete an assignment. 2. Tell your teacher if you notice she dropped her wallet, but look through it first. 3. Go outside to exercise. 4. Go outside to play without permission, but leave a note saying where you are. 5. Tell your friend a secret that another friend asked you not to tell. 6. Play with matches with your friends. 7. Walk away when someone starts to fight with you. 8. Get mad at your mother because she wont buy you a new toy. 9. Skip class to help a friend who is upset. 10. Tell 10. Tell your parents a lie so the wont ground you. 11. Stand 11. Stand up for yourself. 12. Stay 12. Stay up past bedtime to continue reading a book you are interested in. 13. Kick 13. Kick the dog because he chewed your shoes. 14. Tell 14. Tell your friends and family you love them. 15. Lie 15. Lie to a friend so you wont hurt their feelings. 16. Use 16. Use your sister’s toys because your guest asked to play with them. homework instead of your science homework homework 17. Choose 17. Choose to do your math homework because it is worth more points. 18. Watch 18. Watch a movie your parents didn’t let you watch at home while you are at your friends house. house. ell a joke about someone that makes lots of people laugh. 19. T 19. Tell 20. Check 20. Check your cellphone during class because you think your parent is texting you.
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FUNLAND FRENZY
In Pinocchio The Land of Fun is a place where cotton c otton candy, candy, toys, t oys, and games are everywhere! There are no adults and there is no school, sounds wonderful, doesn’t it? Well, don’t get too excit excited. ed. The Land Land of Fun is actually a cursed land, over time the children who go there turn in to donkeys and are forced to do hard
Why donkeys?
MATERIALS:
The donkey is a symbol in Italy for laziness and stupidity. Carlo Collodi is suggesting that when we have too much fun and no responsibility such as school, we become lazy both physically and mentally.
- Poster paper - markers or crayons
ACTIVITY: Divide into groups of 3-5. Each group is to have a poster paper and markers/crayons. markers/crayons. As a group decide how your own version of Fun Land operates. What are the rules? What happens on a daily basis? Are there jobs? What do people eat? Are there parents? Write down these decisions on your poster. Also on your paper, paper, draw a visual of what your group’s group’s Fun Land looks like. Present your poster to the class.
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Measure Pinocchio’s Nose Throughout the play, play, Pinocchio must learn to be honest. Pinocchio struggles, just like the rest of us, to tell the truth. Unlike us though, when Pinocchio lies his nose grows! Directions: Using a ruler, ruler, measure Pinocchio’s nose and write down how long it is for each unit of measurement. For For an extra challenge, use your imagination to decide what lie(s) Pinocchio told that made his nose grow!
Inches _________ Centimeters _________ _________ What did Pinocchio lie about?
Inches _________ Centimeters _________ _________
What did Pinocchio lie about?
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Inches _________ Centimeters _________ _________
What did Pinocchio lie about?
Inches _________ Centimeters _________ _________
What did Pinocchio lie about?
Inches _________ Centimeters _________ _________
What did Pinocchio lie about?
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Living or Nonliving? The story story of of Pinocchio touches society. How do we affect Pinocchio touches on what it means to be a living, active part of a society. our surroundings and everything and everyone in our surroundings? Also, what does it mean to be human? How are humans unique from other living things? Pinocchio makes us think about the differences between living and nonliving things. For For example, a tree is alive. Puppets, are made from wood which comes from tree, but they are not alive...that alive...that is, unless a magic blue fairy helps them out! What distinguishes living things from nonliving things?
LIVING • • • • •
Moves by itself Grows and changes Breathes Needs food and water to survive Reproduces
NONLIVING Cannot move by itself Stays the same Is not breathing Does not need any type of food or water • Does not reproduce • • • •
Directions: Cut out the pictures below and place them on the side of living or nonliving. nonliving.
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Discussion Questions Here are a list of discussion questions that you you may wish to incorporate into your lessons. Pick and choose which ones you would like to pair with the activities. You may want to revisit revisit some of these questions after seeing the performance performance to see if your students perspective change at all.
QUESTIONS: 1.What 1.What qualities do you think define a human? 2.What 2.What is peer pressure? 3.How do we counteract peer pressure? 4.What 4.What does it mean to learn from your mistakes? 5.Do 5.Do you think we are are born with a sense of what is right and what what is wrong? wrong? 6.If 6.If you never studied and only ate candy, candy, what do you think would happen? 7.How 7.How do you choose your friends? 8.How do your friends affect you? 9.Why 9.Why is education important to our success in life? 10. Have 10. Have you ever wished for something and your wish came true? Was it what you expected? 11. What 11. What does it mean to be selfless? 12. Pinocchio’s 12. Pinocchio’s nose grew when he lied, how do real people physically change when they lie? 13. Why 13. Why do people lie? 14. Is 14. Is there ever a good reason to lie? 15. Is 15. Is love necessary to be a real person? Is it possible to NOT experience love?
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Teacher Resources: Alabama State Standards
Grade K: • With prompting and support, identify characters, settings, and major events in a story. [RL.K.3] • Ask and answer questions about unknown words in a text. [RL.K.4] • With prompting and support, name the author and illustrator of a story and define the role of each in telling the story. [RL.K.6] • Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose opinion pieces in which they tell a reader the topic or the name of the book they are writing about and state an opinion or preference about the topic or book (e.g., My favorite book is …). … ). [W.K.1] • Use a combination of drawing, dictating, and writing to compose informative or explanatory texts in which they name what they are writing about and supply some information about the topic. [W.K.2] • With guidance and support from adults, respond to questions and suggestions from peers and add details to strengthen writing as needed. [W.K.5] • Write numbers from 0 to 20. Represent a number of objects with a written numeral 0-20 (with 0 representing a count of no objects). [K-CC3] • Describe measurable attributes of objects such as length or weight. Describe several measurable attributes of a single object. [K-MD1] • Pantomime a variety of roles in real-life and make-believe through guided dramatic play. • Identify appropriate audience behavior in a variety of settings. • Compare size, shape, structure, and basic needs of living things.
Grade 1: questions to help determine determine or clarify clarify the meaning meaning of words and phrases in a text. [RI.1.4] [RI.1.4] • Ask and answer questions questions about about what a speaker speaker says in order order to gather gather additional additional information information or clarify clarify • Ask and answer questions something that is not understood. [SL.1.3] drawings or other other visual displays displays to descriptions descriptions when appropriate appropriate to to clarify ideas, ideas, thoughts, thoughts, and • Add drawings feelings. [SL.1.5] • Order three objects by length; compare the lengths of two objects indirectly by using a third object. [1-MD1] • Arts education: Relate a personal experience to an incident in a dramatic production. education: Demonstrate Demonstrate behavior behavior appropriate appropriate to specific types of performances. performances. • Arts education: Describe survival traits of living things, including color, shape, size, texture, and covering. •
Grade 2: • Recall information from experiences or gather information from provided sources to answer a question. [W.2.8] • Measure the length of an object by selecting and using appropriate tools such as rulers, yardsticks, meter sticks, and measuring tapes. [2-MD1] • Measure to determine how much longer one object is than another, expressing the length difference in terms of a standard length unit. [2-MD4] • Arts education: Describe different elements in a dramatization.
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Grade 3: • Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words and phrases in a text relevant to a Grade 3 topic or subject area . [RI.3.4] • Use text features and search tools (e.g., key words, sidebars, hyperlinks) to locate information relevant to a given topic efficiently. [RI.3.5] education: Create Create ideas for alternate alternate settings, settings, characters, characters, and endings endings for for a dramatic dramatic production. production. • Arts education: Arts education: educ ation: Identify Ide ntify different dif ferent elements ele ments in a theatrical performance p erformance. . • education: Identify Identify ways in which the the arts are used for personal pleasure pleasure and and enrichment. enrichment. • Arts education:
Grade 4: • Refer to details and examples in a text when explaining what the text says explicitly and when drawing inferences from the text. [RI.4.1] • Determine the meaning of general academic and domain-specific words or phrases in a text relevant to a Grade 4 topic or subject area. area . [RI.4.4] Arts education: educ ation: Identify Ide ntify the elements of a scripted scripted drama, including dialogue, dialogue, character character,, plot, and and setting. setting. • education: Identify Identify ways in which theatre theatre reflects reflects the social social values and accomplishment accomplishments s of a culture. culture. • Arts education: • Arts education: Identify possible connections between theatre concepts and concepts from other content areas.
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