TEACHER RESOURCE PACKIT’S HOT, IT’S NOT FOR TEACHERS wORKINg wITH PUPIlS IN NURSERY - YEAR 1

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A Unicorn Production in association with Reckless Sleepers

IT’S HOT, IT’S NOT By Reckless Sleepers

FROm SAT 2 FEB - SUN 10 mARCH 2019FOR PUPIlS IN NURSERY - YEAR 1

wEATHER THE wHETHER.

Why is it that sometimes I’m hot but you’re cold? Why are there puddles and

sometimes not? How can it be sunny and rainy all at once and also not at all? And if

it’s summer here, why is it winter there?

Reckless Sleepers is an extraordinary company who make work somewhere between

visual art, dance and theatre. This surreal, funny and carefully crafted physical

performance explores the weather in all its forms and takes delight in how we

experience it differently wherever we are.

Duration: Approx 50 minutes

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CONTENTSINTROdUCTION p. 4

ABOUT THE PlAY p. 6

mAKINg THE PlAY: INTERvIEw wITH dIRECTOR mOlE wETHERAll p. 10

dRAmA ACTIvITIES p. 12

SEQUENCE ONE: THE SEASONS p. 13

SEQUENCE TwO: HOT, COld, wINdY ANd STORmY p. 19

SEQUENCE THREE: STORYTEllINg ANd STORY-ACTINg p. 22

RESOURCES FOR ACTIvITIES p. 25

TEACHER RESOURCES

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INTROdUCTIONThis resouce pack is created for teachers bringing pupils to see It’s Hot, It’s Not at the Unicorn Theatre in the spring of 2019.

This pack offers a brief introduction to the play (which is devised by Reckless Sleepers and will be finalised during rehearsals in the new year) and an insight into the show’s ideas and creative processes through an interview with its director, Mole Wetherell, who also performs in the show.

The classroom activities in this pack will be designed to support and extend your pupils’ visit to the theatre and offer ways for teachers to pick up on and explore the themes in the play, both before and after a visit. The activites will use drama, games and art activites as ways of exploring ideas that are relevant to the play and to children’s lives.

Resources support the EYFS framework and explore the following characteristics for effective learning: playing and exploring, active learning and creating and thinking critically. There are links to the key areas of learning at the Foundation stage: personal, social and emotional development, communication and language, physical development, expressive arts and design and understanding the world.

At Key Stage One, the resources and theatre visit will have particular relevance to spoken language, writing and science, as well as supporting the social and emotional aspects of children’s learning.

TEACHER RESOURCES

CPd: mON 21 jAN, 10Am - 4PmThere will be a free teacher CPD day for It’s Hot, It’s Not, a chance for teachers to find out more about the show and gain practical experience of the accompanying scheme of work and classroom activities before leading them with a class. For more information or to book your place, email schools@unicorntheatre.com.

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ABOUT THE PlAYIt’s Hot, It’s Not is a new, devised theatre piece by Reckless Sleepers, a performance theatre company which combines physical theatre, dance, sound and visual art elements; their new work, It’s Hot, It’s Not, will provide its audience with a playground for the imagination.

Structured loosely around the four seasons, the piece will move from summer to autumn, to winter, to spring. Elements of the weather will be staged by the company, but all might not be what it seems with the predictability of the seasons upended, things turned on their heads, the outside experienced inside, and the inside outside.

Reckless Sleepers create highly visual, inventive and surprising work. For It’s Hot, It’s Not, our Clore theatre will be filled with a tree. The apples which dangle from this tree may work like a light switch, or create a sound when pulled - the relationship between cause and effect playfully demonstrated, extended and subverted. The natural world (trees, blossom, leaves, mud, wind, snow and lightning storms) will find a theatrical form, allowing the audience to experience and relate to the world they know outside of the theatre in new and exciting ways.

Creating a new piece of theatre takes time: the company have undertaken two periods of development for the show before their final devising and rehearsal period in the new year. Mole Wetherell describes some of the elements the company have discovered for the show in these initial devising workshops:

We looked at what we liked, and what our children liked: slapstick; Foley; Laurel & Hardy; making sculptures with found objects; lego, building temporary structures or environments and then knocking them down.

During our second research and development phase, we produced the playtext for It’s Hot, It’s Not. We developed a rough script, structured with four chapters for the four seasons.

We stopped using words onstage, and started communicating visually and phsyically with each other. We developed a set of rules and logic for our imaginary world. We brought in flowers, apples and a tree, planted seeds, swatted imaginary insects, got overrun by a swarm of flies and created a new accumulative physical language of cause and butterfly effect.

We researched weather systems and scientific theories, and played with this newly formed system of producing performance materials and situations. We still had our methods of slapstick, word play, word association and Foley, then we brought in cats and dogs for when it might rain, invented a world where wet weather happened inside and it was dry outside; an upside down place where summer and winter co-exist and an imaginary world grew out of our actions. And thus, It’s Hot, It’s Not was born. Reckless Sleepers

TEACHER RESOURCES

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TEACHER RESOURCES

Page from director, Mole Wetherell’s sketchbook

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mAKINg THE PlAY INTERvIEw wITH dIRECTOR mOlE wETHEREllwHAT mIgHT wE EXPECT FROm THE SHOw? I’d say it will be a lot of fun. It’s got this undercurrent about the weather, and of course we can’t ignore what’s happening to the world and to the weather - but I don’t think that’s what we want to explore. The way we see the show is that it’s a play on words, or a play on images. It’s about the language and objects sometimes not making complete sense together, but of course they always make sense.

One of the focuses is about play, and playing with objects, and reimagining what an object can be. We played this game the other day with a stick where the stick became a cricket bat or a tennis racket; that one object had a completely different set of scenarios around it - an interpretation of an image and a multiplicity of ideas of what it could be.

We then repeated the activity using movement instead of objects, starting with a gesture like a wave that could then become something bigger like fanning yourself because you’re hot, and then the fan becomes a kind of rain dance. So we see someone doing an action but then make it bigger and make it into something else.

So it’s playing around with and reinterpreting physical language, which is the basis of the show so far.

YOUR PREvIOUS SHOwS HAvE BEEN FOR AdUlTS; YOU dON’T NORmAllY mAKE wORK FOR CHIldREN, dO YOU? We’ve never made a show specifically for a younger age group. We think that our theatre shows have been quite accessible to children, because they are generally quite visual and allow scope for ideas and imagination rather than narrative-based story or complicated psychologically based characters. It’s more about an energy or a feeling as the emotional route through the work, and often it’s focused around task: the task to build this, or the task to destroy that. So our work is quite open to a wider age range.

HOw mUCH dO YOUR IdEAS COmE FROm wATCHINg YOUR dAUgHTER? OR IS THIS THE KINd OF PlAYFUl APPROACH YOU TENd TO USE wHEN mAKINg THEATRE?A bit of both! I trained as a visual artist, and what has been brilliant about having a child is going back to some of those simple drawing techniques I learnt when I was a student: simple things like squeezing paint onto a piece of paper, folding it over and getting a butterfly. We’ve got a table in the kitchen and underneath it there’s an outline of my daughter Charlie. We take the top off every now

TEACHER RESOURCES

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and again and do another outline. It’s a bit like a tree ring; that’s a really nice little project in itself. She’s testing me as a young person to make new things. I’ll be busy this afternoon making a little table out of some wood for her doll, and making a little chair! She knows I can do these things. I quite like the challenges that she sets me; the other day she asked me is there such a thing as a Darth Vader penguin? There is one on the internet - someone had put some Darth Vader music on film of a penguin. I love the playfulness of ideas that she has and responding to that.

It was Charlie jumping in the puddle and me joining in, and enjoying that process and allowing myself to enjoy it. I enjoy playing with that age group, they’re liberated at that age.

wIll THE SHOw TOUCH ON ClImATE CHANgE? Initially we talked about making something that connected to our own ideas about the weather. We’re careful not to say we’re making a show about the weather, because like with all of our projects they have no singular “This is about” thematic… The weather is one of the frames that we stretch the project around, and by doing this a project can be much more than about one topic or theme.

We talked about the weather because Reckless Sleepers have consistently brought the weather into our theatre performances.

We like the idea of bringing things that happen outside inside. We once built a real snowman and stood him on stage. We like turning things upside down, inside out and back to front.

We’d watched our children jump into puddles, and wanted to join in, building snowmen, blowing the seeds off a dandelion, enjoying what the weather brings, but also at the same time we’re (as artists, adults and parents) concerned with what’s happening outside the studio: freakishly cold spells, droughts, storms, hurricanes, and that the seasons seemed to be muddying - it didn’t seem to drip, drip, drop in April anymore…

We wanted to make something that was fun for children to experience, but also prompted questions from the older members of the audience that came along, too. So we imagined building a world, another Reckless Sleepers world that exists inside a theatre, not like the world outside. It is governed by a different set of rules, has its own logic, structure and systems of behaviour. It takes inspiration from the outside world, yes, but this world is a better place, it’s a place where ideas, objects, actions and words are recycled. It’s a place where you can witness the results of cause and effect: it’s an environment that is good for nature, where fish don’t eat plastic, where night follows the day, where spring follows winter.

It’s felt like spring is tending to happen earlier and there are freaky weather conditions. That’s what drew me to making a show about the weather and our confusion with that, and nature’s confusion with that. Daffodils are coming up much earlier than they used to. It’s those things that really struck me as something we needed to tackle and that can be extended to talk about global warming, without talking about global warming. I think what we try to do as a company is open up an idea for imagination to grow – we never go “This show is about this”, in doing that, it kills that possibility of growth of imagination. We call it the playground of the imagination: not just for us, the people making the show, but for the people we are sharing the room with.

I’m interested in doing something that could spark an idea for teachers to talk about what’s happening, how can we save the planet from global warming? It’s about starting that conversation

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early. Not that I want to lose the responsibility of our generation, we’ve got to act. We can help by introducing ideas early on.

So that isn’t the primary purpose for doing the show, but I think we have to be aware of it.

YOU’RE NOT IN REHEARSAlS FOR THE SHOw AT THE mOmENT, BUT dO YOU CONTINUE wORKINg ON IT? REAdINg ANd dOINg RESEARCH FOR EXAmPlE? I’m busy with it all the time. We want a tree suspended in the theatre in the show. I was walking in the Ardennes recently and looking at all the trees, and we want an apple tree because it’s a particular

TEACHER RESOURCES

Page from director, Mole Wetherell’s sketchbook

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shape, and I was thinking about activities you can do with children – what you can do with little twigs? We made a really nice weather mobile with bits of twig and string. I’m always busy with it.

We’ll really start working on the play in a focused way in January, when we build the set and work on it and things will change. They always do when you work on the set; it opens up new worlds. It’s hard, isn’t it? Because how do we articulate something that doesn’t exist yet?

CAN YOU dESCRIBE HOw YOU wIll USE SOUNd ANd FOlEY?The set will be a big tree, or trunk, with apples on strings; some of them will be switches, and if you pull an apple, it might switch a light on. Pull another apple and it might start a rain storm, pull another apple and get sound – it could be a thunder storm. So we want to play with how sounds makes an action, makes a sound, makes an action. It’s accumulative.

There’s a scene with a fly, playing with that idea, me going buzz, as if there’s a fly in the room, but there’s not, it’s me. It’s a little bit panto, illustrating the playfulness. Someone comes in and switches the light on because it’s dark, and I switch it back off, they switch it on, I switch it off, switch it on, switch it off... It’s that repetitive action; if someone jumps in a puddle when they are four years old they don’t want to leave it.

It’s like with my daughter – I switch the light off, she turns it on. I switch the light off...

IS IT lESS ABOUT wEATHER ANd mORE ABOUT ABSURdITY?It’s about the joy of discovery, the joy of a joke, the joy of pretending together.

Often what we make is not just the show, but coming into the theatre and leaving is a part of that experience, so we’re always available for chats afterwards. We don’t like to hide, and that is an aesthetic of the way we work; you can see the mechanics of the show. It’s often very funny, even though it might have a dark undertone. We like that idea of making people laugh, but we never look for laughs, it’s a balance.

ARE THERE ANY ACTIvITIES YOU dO IN THE REHEARSAl ROOm THAT mIgHT BE gOOd FOR A TEACHER TO RUN wITH THE CHIldREN IN THEIR NURSERY/ClASS?We played a game the other day with a few of our children aged between four and seven, where a stick could be presented as something else with a mime, or a static image. So it became a telescope, a bat, a snooker cue, a walking stick…

It’s been a long time, but I used to do this process called freestyle silly dancing, playing some music and the group has to dance like they are shopping in a supermarket, or walking on the moon…

I’ve been thinking about the visual art workshops that I’ve done in the past; there are quite a lot of activities that I have done, and still do with Charlie (our daughter). These are very simple things, like wax crayon rubbings of leaves, folding a painting to create butterflies, drawing around a shape or body - different colours to show a movement sequence.

TEACHER RESOURCES

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TEACHER RESOURCES

I’ve also been thinking about growing things from seed. Charlie and I planted some melons earlier this year, we’ve also got a garden full of sunflowers. We’ve been making kites, weather stations, creating things from twigs, like a simple mobile that has images of clouds, rainbows, rain…

I’m also thinking about materials which are easy to source, like soil and mud (my daughter loves making mud stuff), but then making drawings from these things. We also do massive paintings with just water and big brushes on the flagstone patio in our garden, using chalk on the floor, and making stepping stones, which could produce a movement sequence.

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dRAmA ACTIvITIESTEACHER RESOURCES

ClASSROOm ACTIvITIES:These drama and art activities are designed to provide ideas for teachers to use in their classroom to extend and deepen responses to their visit to see It’s Hot, It’s Not.

The show will be a non-narrative, funny and surprising theatre experience for the children. While about the seasons and the weather, it will also explore the different ways in which we look at and experience the world. Everyone’s perception of the world is a little different from everyone else’s, and this can be celebrated in a class of children.

Activities in the pack enable children to identify and articulate their experience and view of the world and to share and exchange ideas in playful and creative ways: children will build confidence, develop their vocabulary, use their imaginations, share ideas, and enjoy differences as well as consensus. They will imagine a different perspective to their own, step into fictional worlds, take action and make decisions within the drama.

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TEACHER RESOURCES

SEQUENCE ONE

THE SEASONSAImSTo introduce the cycle of the seasons, finding out what children identify with spring, summer, winter and autumn.

To look at different kinds of weather and how they tie in with seasonal changes.

To tell the story of the Snow Child as a way of looking at the cycle of the seasons.

To relate the work on the seasons to the growth cycle of plants (and all living beings).

RESOURCESAn image for each season, a picturebook of the story of the Snow Child (such as the version by Freya Littledale), Story Whoosh (resource one), image and video of seed growing.

STRATEgIESSTOP/GO, still image, mime, soundscapes, Story Whoosh, guided improvisation, teacher and children in role.

INTROdUCTIONThis sequence of activities explores the different seasons and how children experience them, building towards the acting out of the story of the Snow Child in a Story Whoosh. The initial activities will build the drama vocabulary the children need for the acting out the Story Whoosh.

STAgE ONE: THE SEASONS Your favourite season

• Ask the children if they can name the seasons, and show them four images you have chosen to represent spring, summer, autumn, and winter. Find out if they are able to identify which season follows which, and then place the images at four points around the room, representing the cycle of the season.

• Now ask children to move to their favourite season.

• Hear from a few of the children, asking them:- What do you like about the season? - What kind of weather happens in this season? - What do you like doing in spring, summer, autumn or winter?

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TEACHER RESOURCES

Playing in the different seasons

• In four groups, ask the children to create still images of things they like doing in their favourite season, then bring them to life and mime these activities.

• Look at each group’s mimes and ask everyone to try out doing one or two of the actions.

• As a whole class decide on one simple action that you can all do for each season and all practise that action. These actions will be used in the STOP/GO game which follows.

Stop/Go seasons

Play a game of STOP/GO:

• Ask the children to move around the space and when you say STOP, to stop frozen like a statue. When you say GO they should move off around the room again.

• When they are good at STOP and GO, explain that now when you say STOP you are going to call out a season and that they are going to perform the actions you have decided on for each season (for example, spring – flying a kite, or autumn – throwing leaves).

• Now explain that you are going to the opposite for each instruction: when you call GO they should stop, when you say summer – do the image for winter etc.

• Return to the images for the seasons and when you call out STOP this time, ask the children to create an image of children playing in each of the seasons – they are no longer restricted to the one action that was decided on earlier, but they can do a range of mimes of children playing.

• Play some music under this game to help pace and focus.

Building a snowman or woman

• Ask the children what they think the stages of making a snowman or snowwoman are. Hear their ideas, and explain that you are going to go through the steps one by one.

• You could show them a video that demonstrates how to build a snowman which will help them visualise the stages and, in particular, what it’s like rolling the large balls of snow for the body and head. An example of this can be found here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=206yVUMtQBs

• Ask the children to find their own space in the room and to mime the following actions:

1. First make a snowball, 2. roll it in the snow until it becomes bigger and bigger – this is the body, 3. make another snowball – roll it around in the snow to make a head, 4. place the head on top of the body and press it down, 5. do you want to add some arms? What will you use?6. Now you need something for the eyes, the nose and the mouth. What can you find?7. Do you want to add anything else? A hat or a scarf?8. Do you want to name your snowperson?

• When you have finished, ask a few of the children to show you and talk about their snowman or snowwoman and some of the choices they made.

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TEACHER RESOURCES

• Could they imagine their snowman or woman coming to life? What would they say or do?

• Ask the children to now become their snowman or snowwoman and take up a still, frozen image. Tell them: Imagine it is late afternoon and all the children have gone home for tea, as it is beginning to get dark. The park, where the snowpeople are, is very quiet and still. As it gets darker and colder the snowpeople very slowly come to life, and if you look closely you can see them breathing. They blink their eyes, and slowly move their (twig) hands. They look around and see the other snowpeople around them.

• Ask the children to find a small group of two, three or four and decide what their snowpeople do at night. What adventures do they go on at night time when all the children are asleep? Ask them to act out their snowpeople adventures.

• See some of their scenes and then gather the class together – ask them all to be their snowpeople and explain that you are a reporter and want to interview them about what it is like to be a snowperson. Ask them questions about what it is like, what they enjoy doing and what they don’t like.

STAgE TwO: THE SNOw CHIld Read the story

• Start by telling the children the story of The Snow Child with a picturebook (we recommend the The Snow Child: A Russian Folktale by Freya Littledale) so that they can become familiar with the story.

Snow Child STOP/GO

• Now play a game of STOP/GO using images from the story and incorporating the children’s own ideas from the previous work on the seasons:

WinterAn old man and old lady warming themselves by their cosy fireA snowman or snowwomanChildren making snowballs and having a snow ball fightA snow child making a bed out of the snow under a tree

SpringThe sun begins to warm the land – be a snowman or woman and melt on a count of fiveSeeds under the earth begin push their shoots through the earth and the plants begin to grow towards the sunBirds fly back from the southA snow child sitting under the shade of a tree, hiding from the spring sunChildren playing outside – flying kitesSplashing in puddles

SummerChildren sunbathingChildren playing in a paddling poolEating an ice lolly

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TEACHER RESOURCES

AutumnChildren gathering leaves and throwing them up in the airJumping in puddles Building a bonfire

Snow Child Story Whoosh

• Now act out the Story Whoosh (resource one) in a story circle – incorporating all of the image work on the seasons that you created before (children playing in the snow, children playing in spring, summer and autumn).

• Sit the children in a large circle and when you narrate the events of the story, bring children into the middle of the circle to act out the events you are describing. Children can be the trees, the window, the snowman, the falling snow, and the birds as well as the characters.

• At the end of each section or scene Whoosh, send the children involved in that scene back to their place in the circle and invite the next children in the circle to create the next part of the story. As you go around, everyone in the circle will be involved in telling the story of the Snow Child.

Teacher in role – a child who hates the snow

• Explain that you would like the children to imagine that it is winter and they have been playing outside in the snow. When the children come back into the classroom, they see a new child sitting inside with their coat, hat and gloves beside them.

• Explain that you are going to take on the role of the new child, and that they haven’t been outside playing like the others, and are looking a little anxious.

• Before you begin the roleplay, ask the children to think about why the new child might be feeling upset, and what questions they might have for them. With partners, they can come up with a question they might have for the child. Think about how they might approach the new child. When you have prepared, ask the children to imagine they have just come in from the snow and to mime taking their outdoor shoes, coats, gloves and hats off.

• Take up a position as the child and wait to see if the children approach you, but if they don’t, you can begin to ask them questions about what they have been doing outside.

• From within the role, see if you can get the children to explain the different seasons to you and what they enjoy about the different kinds of weather; some children may agree with you about the snow and winter. The role should provide the children with an opportunity to ask the child questions and to offer advice. Here are some ideas for things you could say in role:

What have you been doing outside?I’m not used to this weather – how long will this cold last? In my home country it is warm most of the time. Sometimes it is rainy and windy, but I’ve never seen snow before. What do you enjoy about winter? It’s just cold and wet – I don’t like having to get all wrapped up. I slipped over on the way to school and it’s really dangerous – how do you walk when it’s all slippy? It’s dark all the time too – in the morning and after school, so we have to be indoors all the time.

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•Finish the role work by thanking the children for their advice. Maybe you agree to try and go out in the snow at lunchtime, or that you will enjoy being cosy inside during the winter months.

• Come out of role and discuss what the children think might happen to your character when they next go out in the snow. You can talk about why the child found it so difficult when it is cold and snowy and what it might be like to come from a country with a climate so different from the UK. You could also discuss what other things the character might find difficult starting school in a different country where things are unfamiliar.

• You could go on to discuss how different the seasons are in different countries and how children all over the world have different experiences of the weather.

• Look at an atlas or globe and find places in the world where the weather is very different, both countries where it is cold and snowy for a lot of the year and countries where it is warm and sunny most of the time.

STAgE THREE: THE CYClE OF THE SEASONSSoundscapes – creating seasonal atmospheres

Work with the children to create soundscapes of one or more seasons. This exercise will help the children feel the mood of that season and add a new sensory dimension to their explorations.

• Sitting in a circle, ask the class to think of the sounds they might hear at a particular time of year (for example: blustery wind; crunchy leaves; buzzing insects, ice cream van). As the sounds are suggested, assign a sound to each child or group of children. When everyone has a sound, conduct the circle like an orchestra: when your hands are on the floor, everyone is quiet, and as you raise your hands the sounds begin and get louder. Experiment with bringing in different sounds at different volumes.

• Try moving your soundscape through a full cycle of the seasons. Ask:- What atmospheres did you feel when you were making the sounds of different seasons?- What kinds of things do you feel like doing when you hear the different sounds?- What happened when the sounds were louder or quieter?

Plant cycles of growth

• This exercise introduces the notion that there is a life cycle attached to the journey through the seasons, with times of year in which living things may lie dormant before they return to life – like the way in which the Snow Child leaves when it is spring and returns to the village in winter.

• Ask the children to imagine they are all seeds in the ground. As you lead them through the improvisation, they can move and grow in response to what they hear you say:

It is spring. Each seed is going to begin to grow shoots and roots, to push up through the soil and grow towards the sunlight. As the rain falls and the sun shines, the tiny plant grows stronger.

Now the sun is strong, it is summer. The tiny plant has grown into a beautiful flower or tree, with waving leaves and branches and brightly coloured flowers that face the sunshine.

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TEACHER RESOURCES

In autumn, the leaves and petals start to turn red and yellow. Strong winds blow, the plant is blown by the wind, its leaves and seeds fall to the ground.

Now it is winter and all that is left of the plant is few bare stems, and its roots below the earth. It sleeps, deep under the ground, and waits for the snow to melt, the earth to soften and the spring to come again so it can grow.

What do you think the seed is doing in the ground?How did you feel as you were unfurling and growing in the sunshine?How did you feel when winter approached again?

• You could watch a time lapse film of a plant pushing through the earth, unfolding and growing. Here are two examples: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iZMjBO6A7AE or https://youtu.be/w77zPAtVTuI

Animal cycles

• Discuss some of the different ways in which animals respond to the seasons with the children. For example, birds migrate in winter while hedgehogs hibernate, squirrels bury nuts in the autumn ready for the colder months, and other animals staying in cold climates might struggle to find food.

• Explain that in the UK there are three animals which hibernate: hedgehogs, bats and dormice.

• Ask the children to find a space in the room and to become these animals as you describe them:

Hedgehogs - spiky on the outside with soft fur on their tummies. They have little legs and scuttle around in the leaves finding food to eat, such as slugs, snails and insects. When they sense danger, they roll up into a ball so that their spikes are sticking out, to deter any animal which might attack them.

Bats – they have furry bodies and leathery wings. They fly around and catch insects for food. They can’t see, but hear everything very clearly to find their way. Bats perch on ledges in caves or abandoned buildings.

Dormice - tiny mice famous for being sleepy! They curl up into tight little balls with their paws in front of their eyes to go to sleep. Dormice are very good at climbing and often live in trees. They feed on flowers and pollen in spring, before moving on to insects such as caterpillars in summer. In autumn, dormice prepare for hibernation by eating nuts (particularly hazelnuts), seeds, and berries.

• Ask the children to choose one of the animals, and ask them to get into pairs of the same animal of their choice preparing for winter. They should show how they prepare for the cold weather: eating lots of food then creating a warm den, covering themselves with leaves and curling up to sleep, or perching on a ledge in a cave. When the spring comes, they can begin to stretch, wake up, come back to life, go outside and forage for food in the sunshine.

• Divide the group in half so that each half can watch the others’ hibernation sequence. Ask

- How did you feel when the weather changed?- What was fun about being awake?- What was good about going to sleep?

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SEQUENCE TwO

HOT, COld,wINdY ANd STORmYAImSTo explore the extremes of hot and cold.

To act out the effects of sun, wind and rain on us, and to think about the impact extreme weather can have on us.

RESOURCESImages for Hot and Cold (resource two), music, Aesop’s fable of ‘The Wind and the Sun’ (resource three) fabric for capes.

STRATEgIESSTOP/GO, Colombian Hypnosis, soundscapes, small group story acting.

INTROdUCTIONThis sequence explores the strength of heat and cold, wind and thunderstorms. Beginning by looking at the extremes of hot and cold, these activities go on to look at power in nature - that of the sun, the wind, and the rain.

STOP/GO, Hot and Cold

• Discuss what happens to your body when you are cold. What does it feel like? Have the children try out different actions which show what we do when we are really, really cold and decide on one that everyone will do when you call COLD.

• Do the same for HOT, finding an action that everyone can do.

• Play a game of STOP/GO, adding in the elements of HOT and COLD.

• Now reverse the actions: when you call HOT, the response for the children is to say ‘It’s not!’ and then to do the action for COLD. When you call COLD, the children say ‘It’s not!’ and do the action for HOT.

Spectrum - from hot to cold

• Discuss (or introduce) phrases which describe what it’s like when it’s extremely hot: BOILING HOT or BAKING HOT, for example.

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• Do the same for extremely cold: FREEzING COLD or ICY COLD.

• Now discuss with the class what comes in between hot and cold. What are the words you could use to describe these different temperatures? Can you find an action for WARM, COOL, or JUST RIGHT (or whichever words you have decided to use)?

• Start with the action for COLD and ask the children to move slowly from COLD to HOT, with the actions for the stages inbetween.

• Find a picture to represent very hot (we have provided a square of red in resource three) and place it at one end of the room; place an image for cold (a blue square) at the other end. You might want to discuss things in nature which are hot and cold, so you could have an image of a volcano or an iceberg instead.

• Now ask the children to move across the room between the extremes - from BOILING HOT to FREEzING COLD, as you call out ‘Warmer, warmer, hotter, hotter’ and ‘Cooler, cooler, colder.’ In this way, you establish that they move away from one extreme towards the other, growign hotter and colder.

Getting hotter

• Explain that you are going to play a game. Perhaps starting with an adult, ask one person to go out of the room (or close their eyes), and as a whole group hide an object somewhere in the room.

• When the person comes back in, ask the children to call out ‘Warmer’ or ‘Hotter’ as they get closer to the object and ‘Cooler’ or ‘Colder’ as they get further away.

• The adult who is demonstrating should move quite slowly at first and show how they change directions as they listen to what the class are telling them.

• Now let the children take it in turns to be the one to find the object.

Wind – Colombian hypnosis

• Explain to the children that you want them to imagine that they are leaves on a windy day and that you will be the wind.

• Ask them to spread out around the room and hold one of your hands out in front of them, your palm

facing them. Explain that they need to follow your hand wherever it moves, but to keep the same distance away from it. So if you move your hand forward about six inches, they will move back that far, and if you move your hand to the side, they will move that same distance to the side.

• When you have established these basic rules, you can add in more complex choreography: moving your hand around and around to make a swirling whirlwind of leaves; you could take all the leaves down to the ground as if the wind has dropped and then gently the wind could gradually lift the leaves off the ground, or you could keep the leaves low whirling around in a circle (as in the video links below).

• Play some music underneath to support the movement work.

• You could watch the video links below before or after your work to reflect on what you’ve done, and

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how the wind can move leaves (and other things) around in many different ways, and with many different levels of force.

• Discuss the kind of things that can happen when it is really windy. It isn’t just leaves that are blown around, but trees can be uprooted and even parts of buildings can blow away.

Examples of videos you could show to the class include https://youtu.be/UCDnQtC4300 or https://youtu.be/YhGZPuTtuIk

The Wind and the Sun – Aesop’s fable

• Start by again asking the children to imagine it is a very windy day and that they are out in the wind. Ask them to try and show what it is like to walk into the wind. You may need to demonstrate this yourself.

• Now try and show what it is like when the wind is behind you and you almost feel like you’re being carried along.

• Ask the children which they think is more powerful: the sun or the wind? How does each one affect them? What do they do if it is very sunny? What do they do when it is very windy?

• Tell the class the Aesop’s fable of ‘The Wind and The Sun’.

• In small groups, get them to act out the story with one as the traveller with their long cape and other children playing the sun and the wind.

Rain storm soundscape

• Create a soundscape of a rainstorm. Sit in a close circle on the floor and explain that you are going to begin with very gentle drops of rain and then build up to a really strong thunderstorm.

• Start by getting everyone to tap one finger slowly on the palm of their hand – this is the sound of gentle rain drops beginning to fall.

• Now try two fingers with a slightly faster beat.

• Add another finger and see if you can find an irregular beat.

• Finish with the whole hand clapping and if you can add in some really loud slapping sounds.

• Start from the beginning again, and ask the children to really listen to the sounds as you do the exercise. Talk them through it so that they build slowly and when you have had enjoyed the full downpour (with thunder) for a while begin to go back down the scale gradually until you are left with one finger tapping the palm of the hand.

• Discusswhattherainstormatdifferenttimesforthemandtheexerciseingeneralmadethemfeel.

• Discuss children’s experience of powerful rain storms and the way in which rain is important to us, but can also be powerful and destructive at times.

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SEQUENCE THREE

STORYTEllINg ANd STORY-ACTINg AImSTo support the children in telling their own stories using the seasons, types of weather and the idea of inside and outside as starting points, with unexpected things happening in their stories.

To share the stories in a story-acting circle.

To use storytelling approaches to enable the children to process their experience of the visit to It’s Hot, It’s Not at the Unicorn.

RESOURCESA series of props such as a piece of string, a stick etc.

STRATEgIESImprovisation, storytelling and story-acting, still image.

INTROdUCTIONThese activities use Vivian Gussin Paley’s Helicopter story-telling and story acting approach to helping children to write and act out their own stories. Children’s stories can be long or short, have clear narratives or be surreal. Building on the drama activities in the first two sequences, children are given the opportunity to write their own personal stories. The techniques are also used to respond to It’s Hot, It’s Not and act out their favourite moments from the show.

If this wasn’t...

• Get the class to stand in a circle and explain that you are going to play a game in which you’ll imagine that an everyday object could be something completely different.

• Using a piece of string or a rope, and demonstrate the game by saying ‘If this wasn’t a piece of string, it could be…’ Then show by miming with the string what it could be. For example: a snake, spaghetti, some long hair, the outline of a puddle and so on.

• Play the game with the whole class, coming up with as many ideas as you can.

• Younger children may need support with this game and might all want to imagine the string becoming the same thing, which is fine. Have a few goes with the string becoming one thing and then together see if you can come up with another idea that you can act out.

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• Now move the children into small groups and give each group a different object. Ask them to see how many things they can come up with. Interesting objects which will feature in the production and will be used in surprising ways are a watering can, a long red scarf, an apple, a beach ball, an umbrella, cocktail umbrellas, and a bucket.

• You could ask them to imagine what these objects might be if they were owned by a giant or a tiny elf, or a Borrower (for example the beach ball could be a giant’s peach).

• Other good objects to use for this game are a box or a stick.

Story circles – unexpected events

• Explain that when they come to see the play It’s Hot, It’s Not, there will be some surprises with things that don’t seem to make sense but are fun. You might want to introduce ideas of things happening outside that usually happen inside and vice versa.

• Together decide on a place which is inside where your story might start – it could be a flat, a school, the library or the cinema.

• Discuss what might happen inside that would be really surprising, something that you wouldn’t expect to take place inside.

• Keep asking the children ‘What happens next?’ until it feels like your story has concluded, and check whether that is the end for them.

• Write your story down, checking you have all the characters and incidents recorded, then in your story-acting circle act the story out using the children as you did in the Story Whoosh.

• Explain to the children that if they want to tell a member of staff a story, they will write it down for them and the class can act it out later in the week. Encourage the children to think of stories that are to do with the weather, or surprising stories, playing around with the idea of inside and outside.

• When writing a child’s story, staff should write everything down exactly as the child tells it. You can ask questions to clarify, or to ask what happens next, or to establish whether you have come to the end of the story, but should not try to make suggestions. It should be the child’s story as they have imagined it.

Post-show – responding to It’s Hot, It’s Not

• After your visit to the Unicorn, sit in a circle and gather memories of the performance from all the children.

• Now ask the children to work in groups of four or five. Using ideas they have shared in the circle, ask them to work very quickly and make frozen pictures of images that you call out; for example, putting on a long scarf, pulling an apple on a string etc.

• As the groups make their pictures, you can walk through the shapes they have created as though they are a landscape or theatre set.

• Now ask the groups to discuss their own strongest memories from the performance. The children

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should choose three memories, and make a still image showing each one.

• The children can then link the images with movement, and share these sequences with the rest of the class. Play some music (preferably from the show) as they are rehearsing and sharing their moments.

NOTE ON vIvIAN gUSSIN PAlEYVivian Gussin Paley developed a storytelling and story acting curriculum for the nursery children she worked with in America during the 1980s and 90s, and has written a number of books which outline her approach. As some of the activities in this pack draw on her theory and practice of early years’ education using dramatic play, teachers may be interested in reading the following:

The Boy Who Would Be A Helicopter: Uses of Storytelling in the Classroom (1991)You Can’t Say You Can’t Play (1993)A Child’s Work: The Importance of Fantasy Play (2004) The Boy on the Beach: Building Community through Play (2010)

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RESOURCE ONETHE SNOW CHILD STORY WHOOSH

Once there was an old man and old woman who lived together in a cottage in a small village.

They were very happy together; they would sit by the fire, warming themselves, and talk or read their books.

But sometimes they felt sad because they didn’t have any children.

Whoosh

One day, when it had been snowing all day and the ground was covered, the old man and old woman looked out of the window and saw the children of the village playing.

Some were skating on the pond.

Some were having snowball fights.

Some were making snow angels.

Some were making snowmen and snowwomen (rolling a big ball for the body and a smaller one for the head, adding the eyes, arms, nose and mouth).

Then the children were called home for their tea.

Whoosh

The old man turned to his wife and said “Why don’t we go outside and build a snow child?”

And the old lady replied “Why not? We can make a little girl.”

So they put on their hats, gloves and boots, left their cottage and went out into the snowy garden.

Whoosh

In the garden, the old man and the old lady slowly and carefully shaped the snow. They made a little body with hands and feet, they rolled a ball of snow and made the head. Then the mouth, nose and eyes.

They stood and looked at the snow child they had made – she was perfect.

The old lady sighed and said “How I wish she was real,” and she touched the snow child on the shoulder.

As she did this, the snow child came to life! Warm breath came from her mouth, her eyes blinked and the child smiled.

The old couple took the snow child back into their cottage.

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Whoosh

That night, the old lady made up a little bed for the snow child, with a warm woollen blanket.

But the snow child shook her head and said “I can’t sleep here, I must always sleep outside.”

“But you will be too cold,” said the old lady.

The snow child laughed and said “Oh no, I will never be too cold!” And she ran out into the garden.

Whoosh

Every night the snow child slept outside in a bed made of snow, surrounded by the frosty forest trees.

The old couple looked out of the window from inside their cottage, to make sure that she was alright.

The moon shone down upon her and they could see that she smiled as she slept. All was well.

Whoosh

All winter, the snow child would play with the children in the village in the snow: they had snowball fights, made snow angels, went sledging and ice skating on the pond.

Whoosh

Then the spring came and the sun warmed the land. The children of the village were glad; they played outside, flying their kites and jumping in puddles.

But the snow child hid from the sun and sat in the shade under a tree.

The old lady asked her “What’s wrong?”

The old man asked “Are you ill?”

The snow child grew sadder and sadder as the days got warmer. She seemed weak and tired.

Whoosh

One morning, when all the snow had melted, the snow child came to the old man and the old lady. She held their hands and said “I must leave you now. I am a child of the snow; I must go where it is cold.”

The old man and lady were very sad and tried to stop her, but she slipped from their arms and ran out the door, away from the cottage towards the snowy mountains.

The old couple were sad. They thought they would never see the snow child again.

Whoosh

All summer, the children played, splashing in paddling pools, making sandcastles in the sandpit, sunbathing and eating ice lollies.

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But the old man and old woman were sad without their snow child.

Whoosh

Autumn came, and when the wind blew the leaves began to fall from the trees.

The children scooped the leaves into big piles and then threw them up into the air.

Whoosh

Finally winter came and the snow began to fall. The children put out their tongues to catch the snowflakes.

The old couple looked out of their window and there in the garden was the snow child!

They rushed outside and hugged her. Whoosh

The snow child stayed with the old couple all through winter. And when spring came, she left them again.

But this time the old man and his wife were no longer sad. They sat in their cottage by the fire and felt happy, for they knew that their snow child would return to them every winter for ever after.

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RESOURCE TwO

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RESOURCE THREE‘The Wind and the Sun’ by Aesop (Harvard Classics version)

The Wind and the Sun were disputing which was the stronger. Suddenly they saw a traveller coming down the road, and the Sun said: “I see a way to decide our dispute. Whichever of us can cause that traveller to take off his cloak shall be regarded as the stronger You begin.” So the Sun retired behind a cloud, and the Wind began to blow as hard as it could upon the traveller. But the harder he blew the more closely did the traveller wrap his cloak round him, till at last the Wind had to give up in despair. Then the Sun came out and shone in all his glory upon the traveller, who soon found it too hot to walk with his cloak on.

“KINDNESS EFFECTS MORE THAN SEVERITY.”

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RESOURCE FOURClouds by Christina Rossetti

White sheep, white sheep,On a blue hill,When the wind stops,You all stand still.When the wind blows,You walk away slow.White sheep, white sheep,Where do you go?

It’s Raining, It’s Pouring

It’s raining, it’s pouring,The old man is snoring.He bumped his head, and he went to bed,And he couldn’t get up in the morning.Thunder(to the tune of Frere Jacques)I hear thunder, I hear thunder,Hark, don’t you? Hark, don’t you?Pitter patter raindrops, pitter patter raindrops,I’m wet through.So are you.

Weather Song(to the tune of “Oh My Darling”)

What’s the weather?What’s the weather?What’s the weather, everyone?Is it windy?Is it cloudy?Is there rain?Or is there sun?

Weather

Whether the weather be fine,Or whether the weather be not,Whether the weather be cold,Or whether the weather be hot,We’ll weather the weatherWhatever the weatherWhether we like it or not.

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I Like the Weather(to the tune of “The Farmer’s in the Dell”)

I like the rain,I like the rain,R-a-i-nI like the rain!

I like the sun,I like the sun,S-u-nI like the sun!

I like the wind,I like the wind,W-i-n-dI like the wind!

I like the snow,I like the snow,S-n-o-wI like the snow!

I like the clouds,I like the clouds,C-l-o-u-d-sI like the clouds!

IT’S HOT, IT’S NOTA Unicorn Production in association with Reckless Sleepers

By Reckless Sleepers Resource pack written by Catherine Greenwood