Teacher Resource Pack - Polka Theatre · 2018. 10. 30. · If you have one, use a large empty wicker basket for this exercise. Explain that Ratty has brought along a fabulous picnic

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Teacher Resource Pack

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Dear Teacher,

We are delighted to welcome you to Polka Theatre for our winter

production of The Wind in the Willows. Adapted from the classic book by

Kenneth Grahame, first published in 1908, Polka’s thrilling new production

is written by Toby Hulse and brought to life on stage by director Roman

Stefanski (The Snow Queen, Polka 2017) and designer Liz Cooke (Peter Pan,

Polka 2014).

This classic story will take you on a journey through the seasons - a

wonderfully funny tale, brought to life with music, songs and the usual Polka

magic!

The exercises in this pack have been devised to support pupil’s engagement

in the play before and after seeing the performance. The activities are

suitable for Years 1 – 6 with extensions to modify the activity for the age

and ability of the group.

How to use this pack:

Part 1: Pre-Show Activities

Use the pre-show activities on pages 3-5 to help familiarize your pupils with

the characters and story before they come to see the show. The drama

activities on pages 6 – 12 are designed to enable pupils to engage

imaginatively with the characters and settings of the River Bank and Wild

Wood while exploring themes of friendship and bravery.

Part 2: Post-Show Activities

Part two explores Toad’s adventures through drama activities on pages 13

and 14 which can be used to enable pupils to re-enact parts of the story. On

page 15 pupils are encouraged to think further about the characters and the

consequences of Toad’s behaviour and devise their own adventure.

Enjoy the show!




Part One: Pre-show Activities

Discuss with the class that you are going to see a play at Polka Theatre called The Wind in the Willows and you are going to explore the story, settings and some of the

characters before your visit.

Animal Facts

On the IWB look at some of the animals from the play:

mole toad badger water rat ferret stoat weasel rabbit swallow What are some of the features and characteristics of the different creatures? Are some

of the animals nocturnal? Migratory? Do they hibernate in winter? What habitat might

they live in? What might they eat?

In pairs ask them to put together a fact file based on a chosen animal or bird that

features in the play, using the template on page 4. Include interesting facts as well as

an image and descriptions.




_______ Description:

_____________________________

_____________________________

_____________________________

_____________________________

Habitat:

________________________

________________________

________________________

________________________

________________________

Diet:

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________

____________________________

Other interesting facts:

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________

___________________________________________________________




Exploring the Story

Allocate the class into groups. Cut out the boxes below and ask the groups to put them

in order of what happens.

Extension: You could also use these parts of the story to do a drama exercise – asking

the class to make a still image/ freeze frame of the action at each point in the story.

One spring day, Mole leaves his molehill to explore. At the riverbank he meets Ratty, a sensible and brave water rat. The two quickly become friends and Ratty introduces Mole to the excitable Toad. Mole and Ratty join Toad for a trip in a horse-drawn caravan. The trip ends in disaster when they are driven off the road by a motorcar. When Toad becomes fascinated with motor cars, his increasingly wild driving is worrying for Ratty and Mole, and they ask for the advice of wise Badger. The friends want to help Toad and so take away the key to his car. Toad has a secret spare key and he drives off into the countryside. Meanwhile, Toad Hall is taken over by the Wild Wooders, the stoats, ferrets and weasels. Toad’s adventure is cut short when he is caught in a jam jar. Toad escapes and returns to his friends: Mole, Ratty and Badger. The four friends make a plan to get Toad Hall back from the Wild Wooders. A fight takes place and the four brave friends are victorious!




Pre-Show Drama Activities: The River Bank

Animal Groups

Give each child the name of one of the animals from The Wind in the Willows (Mole,

Ratty, Badger, Toad) They mustn’t tell anyone else what animal they have been given.

When you say “Go” all the class must move around the room as their animals, only

using the sounds and actions that their animal would make. Their objective is to find

out who is the same animal as them without using words. When each child has found

their like animals ask them to sit together in their groups.

Extension: You could ask them to think about the main characters in the book and

their character traits – Toad is very excitable, for example. How would they show that

to make it really clear which animal they are acting out?

Make me a…

In small groups, ask the children to connect and use only their bodies to make the

following:

A wood

A molehill (with a door)

A river flowing under a bridge

A boat

Ask each group to freeze in position and comment on focus and use of body language,

different levels etc. that are used effectively to create the images.

Extension: Ask the groups to add a sound and a movement to each image.




On the River: Guided Improvisation

Ask pupils to sit in a space on their own. Play

instrumental music and ask students to curl up

into a small ball. Be clear that the children are

working on their own, without talking and need to

think carefully about what they might see and

hear around them as they become the character of

Mole.

It is a beautiful spring day and Mole has just woken up. Mole stretches and sniffs the air and sneezes. Mole’s home is very dusty! Elicit from children what spring cleaning activities Mole will do and mime some of the suggestions. Today is a special day because Mole is going to go on a boat trip along the river with his friend Ratty. What will Mole need to pack into his rucksack to take with him? Elicit suggestions. Rucksack ready, Mole opens the front door; it is a beautiful spring day in the wood. What can they see on the ground or in the trees and sky? What can they hear? Elicit suggestions. After closing the front door Mole walks through the wood to the riverbank where the ground is soft and squishy. At the river, Mole carefully climbs into the rowing boat – it’s a bit wobbly - and sits down and picks up the oars. What colour is the water? Are there any fish or dragon flies. Ask for more suggestions for what Mole might see on the river. Mole arrives at an island in the river where Ratty is waiting with a delicious picnic. Carefully, Mole puts down the oars and picks up a rope that is at the bottom of the boat. Mole jumps out of the boat and ties it to a tree stump with the rope to stop it floating off down the river. Phew! Rowing a boat is hard work. Mole sits down on the soft green grass on the river bank and has a little nap before the picnic.

MOLE: It’s beautiful. It’s all a-shake and a-shiver, all glints and gleams and sparkles, all rustle and swirl, chatter and bubble. Oh my!




The Picnic

If you have one, use a large empty wicker basket for this exercise. Explain that Ratty

has brought along a fabulous picnic. Place the basket in the middle of the circle. We are

going to imagine all of the things that Ratty has packed. What food would the animals

in the forest eat? Model miming taking a handful of wriggly worms out of the basket.

Ask students one by one to mime taking food out of the basket. It could include

discarded human food that ratty has found too.

Extension: In the classroom, design a menu for the picnic using adjectives to describe

the food.

I like friends who......

Discuss with the class how Ratty is a nice friend to Mole and elicit other ways in which

we can be good friends to each other. Arrange the class in a circle. One after the other

they say “I like friends who...” then give their answer. Repeat and ask each child to add

an action to go with their statement.

Extension: Friendship Flower

Photocopy the template on page 9. Give each child a flower to colour in and write their

name at the top. All children then move around the class and write something nice on

other people's flowers. It has to be about that person e.g. they helped me with my

maths; they looked after me when I fell over.

RATTY: …I usually eat plants, bulbs and fallen fruit. I’m quite partial to bark too.

MOLE: Really? I eat slugs, snails, centipedes and spiders.







Pre-Show Drama Activities: The Wild Wood Animal Chairs This is a version of the game often called ‘fruit salad’. All the class sits in a circle and are given the name of an animal from the story (there should be 3 or 4 different animal types so the class is split equally). There will be one child who is not in the circle who will begin the game and call the name of one of the animal groups e.g. “Mole”. All the “Moles” would then change places and the child in the centre of the circle would try and find a place – thus leaving another child in the centre of the circle. The child in the centre would then call the name of another animal group and would attempt to find a place in the circle and so on. If a child says “Wild Wood” all of the group change places at the same time. Extension: This game could be developed so that the different animal groups would have to move across the circle as that animal might move. Which House? Label each corner of the room as the River Bank, Mole’s house, The Wild Wood and Toad Hall. Ask the class to stand in the centre of the room. Explain that you are going to turn around and count down from 10. Students have to run to one of the corners of the room. On 0, call out the name of one of the places; all the students that are in that place are out and sit down at the side. Continue until there are only one or two students left. Ask students who are out to take turns to stand and do the count down. The Wild Wooders (10 second pictures) Discuss with the class the differences between the animals that live on the riverbank (Mole, Ratty and Toad) and the Wild Wooders (the Ferrets, Stoats and Weasels). What are the differences between the two groups? Discuss that the River Bank animals can talk but the Wild Wooders can’t. How might the Wild Wooders communicate? How might they move?

MOLE: The Wild Wood sounds an awful place. And the Wild Wooders even worse. Weasels and ferrets and stoats. Oh my!




Ask students to find a space on their own. When you say “Go”, they are going to become the wild creatures in the Wild Wood. Explore moving around the space in different ways: Crawling, Slithering Creeping Scuttling Explain that you are going to count down from 10 and when you get to 0 you would like the class to freeze and make the image of one of the animals in the Wild Wood. Repeat several times and experiment with adding different noises that the animals in the Wild Wood might make e.g.: Grunting Hissing Growling Wild Wood Soundscapes First, ask everyone in the group to close their eyes and imagine the Wild Wood. In particular, ask them to think about what sounds they might hear there. Tell them that, in a moment, you would like them to make one of these sounds; this could be vocal, or made using the body or the floor. When you give the cue, ask everyone to make their sound and to keep repeating it until you tell them to stop. When you have finished, discuss the impact of the soundscape with the group. Was it effective? Did anyone have a particular picture in their mind when you heard the sounds? Conducted Soundscapes As above, but using a conductor. The conductor will point to people when it’s time for them to start making their sound and will agree a signal for ‘stop’. Other signals can be built in along the way if appropriate, for example raising and lowering volume, speeding up or slowing down. In this version, it is easier to hear contributions from individuals before building up into a whole group soundscape. Once signals have been agreed, you can pass the responsibility (and power!) of conducting to members of the group.




Small Group Soundscapes: After the initial whole group soundscape, split into smaller groups of around 5. Ask each group to consider the emotion or atmosphere they would like to evoke. Encourage them to play with where they place the audience. How close will they come to the audience? Do they perform behind the audience members’ backs? Could the audience be enclosed by performers? There should be time to play with lots of different ways to make sounds, perhaps introducing simple instruments too. Once the audience is seated each time, ask them to close their eyes and listen carefully to each group’s performance. Ask for feedback on what was successful, what images or feelings came to mind etc. Into the Wild Wood (physical theatre) Ask the class to stand in a space on their own. Explain that you are going to count down from 10 and when you reach 0, you would like each child to freeze in the shape of one of the twisted trees we might see in the Wild Wood. When children are frozen in position comment on effective use of their bodies to make different shapes, use of different levels and facial expression. Ask for one volunteer to be Mole. Explain that in the play, Mole walks through the Wild Wood to try to find his friend Badger’s house. Elicit from the group ideas as to what it would be like for Mole to walk alone through the Wild Wood? How might his eyes play tricks on him? Repeat previous exercise, but this time after the group has frozen in position the volunteer Mole is going to walk slowly through the “Wild Wood” passing each of the trees. The children being trees can now make one movement and sound as Mole passes by as if Mole was imagining the Wood coming alive (however, they are not allowed to touch Mole). Extension: This physical theatre exercise can be combined with the sound scape with half the group presenting their sound scape as the other half of the group show Mole travelling though the Wild Wood. Diary Writing Discuss with the class whether they think Mole was brave to go into the Wild Wood alone. Ask pupils to write a diary entry as if they were Mole after going into the Wild Wood. Ask pupils to think about the different senses and what Mole could see, hear and touch and the different emotions Mole would feel.




Part Two: Post-Show Drama Activities Toad’s Transport Elicit from the class all the different kinds of transport that Toad uses during the play: Allocate into pairs. Each pair should have one chair each. Call out a type of transport eg. Motor boat, horse-drawn caravan, motor car and ask each pair to create an image of the type of transport using only the chair and their bodies. Count down from 5 and ask each pair to bring their image to life with sound and movements as the transport is driven on the spot. Discuss what other type of transport Toad would like if he had the chance e.g. jet plane, rocket. Ask pairs to create a still image of their new transport for Toad. Look at each pair’s image and ask them to bring it to life; can the group guess what type of transport it is? Extension: This could be developed into a short improvisation as one pair presents the vehicle to the rest of the group in the style of a salesman, pointing out its unique features while their partner demonstrates driving. Toad’s Adventure:

Ask the group what they remember about Toad’s adventures in his motorcar. What did Toad say happened? Do they think it is true? What do they think really happened? You can use the following statements as a prompt:

With a glorious whoop of freedom, TOAD rattles through the English countryside: villages are skipped, towns and cities jumped – it’s always somebody else’s horizon!




The police stop Toad’s car. Toad is pulled out of the car. He is locked in a prison cell. He plans his escape by pretending to be human. He charms the gaoler’s daughter. The gaoler’s daughter gives him a disguise to wear. Toad escapes, dressed as a washer woman. The police chase Toad across the country. Toad sneaks onto a train. He tricks a boatman and sails a barge up the river. He steals a horse and rides bare back. He sells the horse for a large amount of money. He steals a fast motorcar and drives off across the countryside.

Still Images

Allocate into groups and give each group 3 or 4 sections of the story. Ask them to

create a still image to show what happens in each section. Remind the groups to think

carefully about using different levels and exaggerated body language and facial

expressions to create an engaging image.

Practise and model some examples of effective still images. Ask each group to now

think carefully about their transitions between each image. When ready watch each

group present their images so that Toad’s Adventure is performed in chronological

order.

Extension: Ask each group to bring their section of the story to life with action and

dialogue. Their performance should begin and end with a still image so that it maintains

structure and there is a sense of sequence between the groups.




Toad TV (Hot Seating)

Explain to the class that we are going to watch an episode of Toad TV on the BBC

(Badger Broadcasting Company). As teacher, you are going to be Badger and the host

of the TV show. Via satellite link up you are going to interview different groups of

characters from the story who are going to discuss Toad’s recent arrest for stealing a

motor car and take questions from the live studio audience.

Divide the class into the following groups:

Group 1: River Bankers (e.g. Mole, Ratty, Rabbits, Swallows) Group 2: Wild Wooders (Stoats, Weasels, Ferrets) Group 3: Police Group 4: Gaoler’s Daughter, Train Driver, Barge driver, Horse Owner, Give each group time to discuss who their character is and their character’s reaction to Toad’s behaviour. How have they been affected by his behaviour? Does he deserve to be punished? Then, ask them to think of a question each that they would ask a different character in another group. Set up a panel of chairs at the front and invite each group to take a seat as the show begins and we are taken live to the Riverbank or Wild Wood etc. In role as TV host, interview each group of characters and invite questions from the “studio” audience, the other groups of pupils. Letter Writing Ask pupils to write a letter as Toad to one of the characters in the previous exercise. In the letter, Toad apologises for his actions and promise to never steal, trick, lie or drive fast cars again… Toad’s New Adventures Use the following storyboard template to think of a new adventure for Toad. What will his next transport craze be? Jet plane? Rocket? What trouble will Toad get into? Will his friends be able to help him?

Extension: Ask pupils to work in groups to use still images to perform and present their storyboards to the class.




Story Title: __________________________________________




Thank you! We hope you have enjoyed The Wind in the Willows and your visit to Polka. We can also provide plenty of opportunities for follow-up activities. Polka’s experienced team of actors, directors, storytellers and puppeteers are on hand to deliver a range of workshops in your school. We can create a bespoke workshop for you and your pupils based on the play you have seen or to introduce your pupils to your next curriculum topic. Whether it’s a puppet-making session exploring your favourite pets, a storytelling masterclass to celebrate World Book Day, a drama workshop discovering the wonderful women who have changed the course of history or a chance to develop your poetry skills – we will create a tailor-made workshop for you and your pupils. For more information, please visit our website: www.polkatheatre.com/ schools/ Or contact Abigail, Polka’s Schools Relationship Officer to request a workshop enquiry form: [email protected]

We will look forward to seeing you at Polka Theatre again soon!

Best wishes,

The Creative Learning Team


mailto:[email protected]

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Teacher Resource Pack - Polka Theatre · 2018. 10. 30. · If you have one, use a large empty wicker basket for this exercise. Explain that Ratty has brought along a fabulous picnic