AMS Class Acts 2018 Study Guide Sweaters, Stockings and ... · 2. 2018 AMS Fall Cabaret at Kent State Tuscarawas Sweaters, Stockings and Stories: Warm Holiday Memories Study Guide

2018 AMS Fall Cabaret at Kent State TuscarawasSweaters, Stocking and Stories: Warm Holiday Memories Study Guide

Sweaters, Stockings and Stories:Warm Holiday Memoriesfrom Around the World

AMS Class Acts 2018Study Guide

Table of ContentsAbout Our Show 2

Our Heritage 3

Draw a Picture 4

Family Traditions 5

Other Traditions 6

Other Holidays 7

Standards 8

Write to Us 9

Sweaters, Stockings and Stories: Warm Holiday Memories from Around the WorldThese dramatized folk tales are pulled from Europe, Iceland, Africa and more, and will help show that while we all carry deeply held beliefs unique to our own culture, there is a common holiday thread that runs through the world and binds us all together.

TUSCARAWAS

2018 AMS Fall Cabaret at Kent State TuscarawasSweaters, Stockings and Stories: Warm Holiday Memories Study Guide

Sweaters, Stockings and Stories AMS Class Acts 2018

Study Guide

AMS Class Acts 2018Sweaters, Stockings and Stories: Warm Holiday Memories from Around the World

Teachers, please read the following to your students before seeing our production of Sweaters, Stockings and Stories: Warm Holiday Memories.

ABOUT OUR SHOWAs winter is approaching, people’s thoughts turn to the coming holidays. Which holidays do you celebrate? How do you celebrate the holidays? What are your family’s traditions? What may seem like easy questions actually have many, many, different answers. This show looks at a group of friends as they start to get ready for the coming holiday season. In doing so, they share their memories and family traditions from around the world.

Additionally you may be interested to know…

ABOUT THE CONTENT OF OUR SHOWThis show is a cultural exploration exposing children to the concept of different holidays celebrated from November to mid-January, specifically the way Christmas as a holiday is celebrated by different cultures around the globe. Staging them as live theatre, it draws from lesser known classic holiday literature (“A Child’s Christmas in Wales” by Dylan Thomas) to more familiar holiday music (the Christmas carol “Silent Night”) and weaves these together into a narrative that promotes understanding of what makes your family unique.

Along the way, it exposes students to holiday traditions in England, Iceland, Scandinavia, Eastern Europe and Czechoslovakia, and introduces them to other holidays that also happen this time of year, including Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, New Year’s, and the Chinese New Year.

ABOUT THE COMPANYAMS is the Student Arts Organization at Kent State University at Tuscarawas and is dedicated to the creativity and growth of all the arts within our community. Every fall semester, for the last six years, this group of students has been responsible for creating the Kent State Tuscarawas Fall Cabaret. This is a full length, original production devised, developed and produced entirely by the students themselves. This year, these ambitious undergraduates, in collaboration with the Kent State Tuscaraws Performing Arts Center Class Acts series, have come together to present Sweaters, Stockings and Stories: Warm Holiday Memories from Around the World.

For more information about AMS and the work they do, please contact Kent State Tuscarawas Professor of Theater William Auld, the organization’s faculty advisor at [email protected].

For more information about seeing this full-length production on November 29th and 30th at 7:30 p.m., please contact the Performing Arts Center Box Office at 330.308.6400.

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Study Guide

Heritage Makes Our Holidays Special!

One of the things that makes each of us special is our heritage. That word means the part of the world your family first came from. It also can mean if there is a part of the world where your family has been living for a long time.

For example, your family could have started in the country of Italy, so that is your heritage. Another example is that your family could have lived in Ohio for a very long time. That can be your heritage, too.

Your heritage plays an important role during this time of year. It helps determine what holidays your family may celebrate. It also may tell you what traditions your family has at this time of year.

Our play tells the story of several people working together during this magical time of year. Everyone has come together to celebrate the holidays. They also share what holiday traditions and activities their family has. This helps make each of them special!

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Study Guide

How We Celebrate the Holidays at My HouseDraw a picture of what the holidays look like at your house.

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Study Guide

My Family’s TraditionsIn the space provided, describe what goes on in your house during the holiday season. What are some of the holidays that your family celebrates? What are some of the ways your family celebrates the holidays at this time of year? What is one way your family celebrates the holidays that makes them special?

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Study Guide

DID YOU KNOW THESE OTHER CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS FROM AROUND THE WORLD?

> In China, a popular traditional Christmas Eve gift is apples!

> In Italy, it's common on Christmas Eve not to eat meat (and sometimes no dairy products)!

> In Switzerland, Christmas trees are bought and decorated on Christmas Eve!

> In Portugal, presents are delivered to children on Christmas Eve and left under the Christmas tree or by the fireplace!

> In Ukraine, Christmas trees are often decorated with spider webs, and it is considered good luck to find a spider on your tree!

> In Japan, the traditional Christmas dinner is fried chicken and sponge cake!

> In India, a banana or mango tree is decorated instead of a pine tree!

> In Iceland, there are no native evergreen trees, so people make their Yule Trees by hand from a central pole with branches attached and painted green!

> In South Africa, which is in the southern hemisphere, Christmas falls in the middle of their summer. People celebrate with lots of sunshine and beautiful flowers in full bloom!

> In Egypt, they celebrate Christmas on January 7th!

> In the Czech Republic, they believe that if you throw a shoe over your shoulder on Christmas Day and the toe points towards the door, you will be married soon!

> In Norway, a traditional Christmas tree has small, heart shaped paper baskets hung on it called “Julekurver”!

> In New Zealand, most people spend Christmas on the beach or camping!

> In Greece, on Christmas Day, children go from house to house singing carols, playing the triangle and banging on the drums!

> In Sweden, a popular tradition is at 3 o’clock in the afternoon on Christmas Eve, families watch the Disney special on TV “From All of Us to All of You,” featuring Donald Duck!

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2018 AMS Fall Cabaret at Kent State TuscarawasSweaters, Stocking and Stories: Warm Holiday Memories Study Guide


Study Guide

DID YOU KNOW THAT THERE ARE LOTS OF HOLIDAYS CELEBRATED AT THIS TIME OF YEAR? THEY INCLUDE…

✓ U.S. Thanksgiving – the fourth Thursday in November

✓ Black Friday (the start of the Christmas shopping season in the U.S.) – the day after Thanksgiving

✓ Julebukking Season begins (“yule-goating” or displaying a large straw goat or reindeer statue that will be burned to a crisp by year’s end) – December 1

✓ Hanukkah (the Jewish Festival of Lights) – sometime between late November through early January

✓ Advent – the four Sundays preceding Christmas Day

✓ Krampusnacht (Saint Nicholas’ devilish companion named Krampus who punishes the bad children on this night) – December 5

✓ Saint Nicholas' Day – December 6

✓ The Buddhist Day of Enlightenment – December 8

✓ Sadeh (a mid-winter feast to honor fire and defeat the forces of darkness and cold.) – sometime in the middle of the winter season

✓ The Winter Solstice (the longest night of the year and the start of the winter season) – December 21

✓ Erastide – sometime in the middle of the winter season

✓ Saturnalia (the ancient Roman festival to honor Saturn) – December 17–23

✓ Pancha Ganapati (a five-day Hindu festival to honor Ganesha) – December 21–25

✓ Christmas Eve – December 24

✓ Christmas Day (Gregorian calendar) – December 25

✓ The Twelve Days of Christmas – December 25 through January 6

✓ Boxing Day – December 26

✓ Kwanzaa – December 26 through January 1

✓ New Year's Eve – December 31

✓ Hogmanay (Scottish New Year's celebration) – December 31

✓ New Year’s Day – January 1

✓ Christmas Day (Julian calendar) – January 7

✓ The Yule (Festival) – sometime late December through early January

✓ The Lunar New Year – sometime late January through mid-February

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Study Guide

AMS Class Acts 2018Sweaters, Stockings and Stories:

Warm Holiday Memories from Around the WorldStandards Applied toKINDERGARTENRelevant English Language Arts Standards:RL.K.5 Recognize common types of texts (e.g., storybooks, poems)RL.K.9 With prompting and support, compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in a familiar story.

1ST GRADERelevant English Language Arts Standards:RL.1.3 Describe characters, settings and major events in a story, using key details.RL.1.9 Compare and contrast the adventures and experiences of characters in stories.

2ND GRADERelevant English Language Arts Standards:RL.2.2b Retell stories, including fables and folktales from diverse cultures.RL.2.9 Compare and contrast two or more versions of the same story (e.g., Cinderella stories) by different authors or from different cultures.

3RD GRADERelevant English Language Arts Standards:RL.3.2b Retell stories, including fables, folktales and myths from diverse cultures.RL.3.3 Describe characters in a story (e.g., their traits, motivations or feelings) and explain how their actions contribute to the sequence of events.RL.3.5 Refer to parts of stories, dramas, and poems when writing or speaking about a text, using terms such as chapter, scene and stanza; describe how each successive part builds on earlier sections.

4TH GRADEEnglish Language Arts Standards:RL.4.2a Determine the theme of a story, drama or poem from details in the text.RL.4.3 Describe in depth a character, setting or event in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., a character’s thoughts, words or actions).RL.4.5 Explain major differences between poems, drama, and prose, and refer to the structural elements of poems (e.g., verse, rhythm, meter) and drama (e.g., casts of characters, settings, descriptions, dialogue, stage directions) when writing or speaking about a text.

5TH GRADERelevant English Language Arts Standards:RL.5.3 Compare and contrast two or more characters, settings or events in a story or drama, drawing on specific details in the text (e.g., how characters interact).RL.5.7 Analyze how visual and multimedia elements contribute to the meaning, tone, mood or appeal of a text (e.g., graphic novel, multimedia presentation of fiction, folktale, myth, poem).

Ohio Department of Education

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2018 AMS Fall Cabaret at Kent State TuscarawasSweaters, Stocking and Stories; Warm Holiday Memories Study Guide2018 AMS Fall Cabaret at Kent State TuscarawasSweaters, Stockings and Stories: Warm Holiday Memories Study Guide


Study Guide

WRITE TO US!Teachers – please photocopy this page and distribute it to your students.

We would love to hear from you! Please let us know what you thought of our play! Send your letters to: Kent State Tuscarawas Performing Arts Center 330 University Dr. New Philadelphia, OH 44663

And we love getting pictures in the mail as much as we love getting letters! If you want to draw us your memoriesof our show, your holiday traditions or anything else, please flip this paper over and give us your best work!

Thanks!

Teacher’s Name:________________________

Your School:___________________________

Dear AMS,

My favorite part of Sweaters, Stockings and Stories: Warm Holiday Memories was________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

One thing I learned was _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Here is what else I have to say about the show ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Sincerely,Your Name______________________________________________

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AMS Class Acts 2018 Study Guide Sweaters, Stockings and ... · 2. 2018 AMS Fall Cabaret at Kent State Tuscarawas Sweaters, Stockings and Stories: Warm Holiday Memories Study Guide