Teacher Resource Guide and Lesson Plan Activities
This resource guide includes information about the show and ideas for follow-up lessons to use in your classrooms. The activities were designed for 2nd-5th grade classes; however, feel free to adapt them as needed. Looking for ways to connect to the Common Core and other standards? Watch for this symbol throughout the resource guide for activities to meet the national standards.
The Brothers Grimm Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm History is filled with many brothers who, by working together, made great contributions. One set of brothers, often referred to as The Brothers Grimm, collected About StoryTime Theatre oral traditions that came in the form of fairytales and StoryTime Theatre was developed by Blue Apple’s legends. They were not the first to compile such works, Education Department in 2012 as a way of introducing however, Jacob and Wilhelm were committed to students to story genre. In the spirit of the Blue Apple keeping stories true to form instead of adding flowery founders, the Education Department creates a new, expositions and insulting the commoners from whom original play each year featuring a different genre of story their stories came. Their first publication came across and the culture from which it originated. A folktale from too violent and had other adult themes so the Grimms Appalachia was performed in 2012; 2013 focused on had to explain the stories were not written for children. myths from four Native American tribes. Last year, the Later, realizing the market for children’s literature, the team examined the legends of Daniel Boone from Grimms rewrote the stories to appeal to younger American frontier culture. audiences. This year, we use the fairytale of Rumpelstiltskin and Their work caused them to be beloved in their explore the German culture where the Brothers Grimm homeland, Germany, and to be renowned storytellers collected the story. Please let us know of any projects for generations to come. Many other stories, films, and inspired by this module at P.O. Box 4261, Louisville, series have been based on Grimms’ fairytales so KY 40204 or [email protected]. We delight in modern-day readers and audiences continue to benefit hearing about all class adventures! from the genius and hard work of these two brothers.
We hope you have enjoyed this year’s performance of StoryTime Theatre: Rumpelstiltskin, a Fairytale. We request that you take a few moments to fill out a short survey to help us understand how we can continue to meet your classroom needs. Visit the link below:
https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/D8M2DGN Meet the Cast
Jomaris DeJesús is an actress, business coach, motivational speaker & trainer. The Puerto Rican born also known as Jomy, joins the Blue Apple Players/Walden Theater for her first tour. Jomy has been acting since she was six years old having performed in theater, radio, film, and television. She has worked with renowned production companies and networks such as Tele- mundo International and Lionsgate Productions. Locally she serves as a board member for La Casita Center and Looking for Lilith Theatre Company; those positions she accepted after inter- preting the title role at Looking for Lilith’s production “Luz”. She has rapidly become an impor- tant part of Louisville's Hispanic theater performing the multi-role principal on “Monster’s in the Closet, Ogres Under the Bed” with Teatro Tercera Llamada where she also works as the director for the pantomime project “The Pantomimes: Stories of Immigrants”. In addition, Jomaris holds an MBA in Global Management, from the University of Phoenix as well as a BA in Communica- tions with a minor in Education from the University of the Sacred Heart in Puerto Rico.
Tim Mathistad returns to Blue Apple Players after serving as their musical director for 20 years. His theatrical career spans 40 years of musical productions and plays in Denver, New York, Minneapolis, Chicago, Phoenix, and Louisville. Previous musical productions with Blue Apple include The Melting Pot, Red Riding Hood, and Santa and the Unhappy Elf; as well as, Blue Apple’s StoryTime Theatre productions of Molly Whuppie and Native American Myths. Local audiences may have seen him in 14 shows at Derby Dinner Playhouse and in the role of Wilbur in Hairspray at MTL and as Gunner Johnson in A Don’t Hug Me Christmas Carol at Bunbury Thea- tre. Tim was also a member of the highly successful musical revue group Cabaret Sauvignon.
Letitia Usher returns to Blue Apple Players after serving as their Education Associate for 8 years. She is a Colorado native who graduated cum laude with a Bachelors Degree in Theatre and Speech Com- munications from Murray State University in 1994. In 2009, she earned a Masters Degree from the University of Louisville in Counseling. She is a Master Storyteller, Certified Teacher and School Counselor with over 25 years experience in Theatre Education. She has worked professionally as an actress, storyteller, scenic painter, carpenter, and stage manager. Ms. Usher has taught award winning theatre/storytelling and literacy building programs to young people in multiple states, including; Cali- fornia, Colorado, Kentucky, New York, Pennsylvania, and Tennessee. After nearly a 10 year hiatus, "Tish" is thrilled to return to the stage with Walden Theatre/Blue Apple Players. Previous roles in- clude; Clelia Walgrave in The Nerd, Mary Sue in Blue Collar Blues, Maria in Shakespeare's Twelfth Night, Ariel in The Tempest, Hermia in Midsummer Night's Dream, and as Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland. In addition to her work with Walden/Blue Apple, Letitia works as a Teaching Artist with Actor's Theatre of Louisville and as a Theatre Instructor for Sacred Heart School for the Arts.
Tony Pike is an actor based out of Louisville, KY. Working on his third Blue Apple tour, Tony is a former student of Western Kentucky University's Theatre. He is a company member of Savage Rose Classical Theatre in Louisville where he has been seen as Petruchio in Taming of the Shrew, Mr. Martini in the Bald Soprano and Ferdinand in Shakespeare’s The Tempest. He has also been seen at the Cannes International Film festival, Short Film Corner staring in the Rivera/Sennet production of “Writing the Big One”.
Mera Kathryn Corlett—Playwright/Director Mera Kathryn began her work at Blue Players as a member of the touring company in 2011. Currently, she serves as an Artistic Associate where her focus has primarily been on early childhood and elementary programming. Mera Kathryn has played an active role in Blue Apple’s StoryTime Theatre, touring musical productions, drama residencies, and professional development for teachers. This is the second show she has written and directed for the company. Prior to Blue Apple, she worked for Kentucky Shakespeare as a touring actor, workshop facilitator, and lead teacher for Camp Shakespeare. Upon graduating Cum Laude from Hanover College with degrees in theatre and theology, she received the Henry C. Long Citation for Scholarship and General Excellence, the most distinguished award a female graduate can receive. Characteristics of a Fairytale A fairytale is a story with roots in the oral storytelling tradition that usually takes place in the past and involves magic or magical creatures. Have students listen to or read other Grimm’s fairytales for children. Suggestions are Rapunzel, Snow White and Rose Red and The Three Spinners (on pages 5-6). You may even want to incorporate fairytales from other cultures such as The Irish Cinderlad, The Little Mermaid, and Beauty and the Beast. Next, use the headers below and list elements students heard or found in the selected fairytales. Has good characters People, animals, or Elements in the story Usually has a happy Teaches a lesson or and bad characters. objects have magic. present in threes— ending, i.e. “...they demonstrates values The magic can be Also known as “The lived happily ever important to the good or bad. Rule of Threes” after”. culture.
Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy: RL.2: Recount stories, including fables, folktales, and myths from diverse cultures; determine the central message, lesson, or moral and explain through key details in the text; RL9: Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (eg. mysteries and adventure stories) on their approaches to similar themes and topics. Story Mapping Two Fairytales Questions to There is another lesser-known story found in the Grimm’s collection of German stories. The story is called The Three Spinners Accompany the Story and appeared in a later edition of Children’s and Household Tales. Recall: Gather Facts Scholars have found many commonalities in the two stories; some have even argued that The Three Spinners is a sequel to Rumpelstiltskin. When the Miller says that his daughter can spin straw into gold, Have students recall the story of Rumpelstiltskin. Take large pieces how does the King respond? of paper and fold them once horizontally, then into thirds vertically. What does he do? Unfold them and each sheet should now have 6 boxes. Title the boxes as follows. Interpret: Find Meaning Based on the King’s reaction, how Characters Problem Setting do you think he feels about this Event 1 Event 2 Event 3 talent? Why might he feel that way? Break students into small groups of about 4-5 and ask them to think Analyze: Take Things Apart about the play they just saw. Instruct them to work in groups, first to List at least three times any of the draw what they think the main character should look like. Give them characters made a mistake and the option to draw other characters from the story. Next, tell the the result of his/ her mistake. students to work together to decide when the first problem occurs and Synthesize: Bring Things Together to draw that moment in the ‘Problem’ box. In the ‘Setting’ box, students should draw a picture of the setting of the story. Lastly, ask If you had to pick one lesson that each group to think of three different events that happened in the story this story teaches, what would it and draw them in the “Event” boxes. be? Have students read, or read aloud, the story of The Three Spinners. Evaluate: Make Judgments The story is on pages 5-6. Now, have each group create a second pa- Should the Miller’s Daughter per with the new story’s characters, problem, setting, and events. Stu- have promised her child? Why dents must next find similarities between Rumpelstiltskin and The or why not? Three Spinners. Ask, “why do you think spinning was an important task in these stories?” Then have students name differences in the two Extend: Connect Ideas narratives. Prompt, “Are the lessons in the stories similar or different?” Are there other stories that you Have groups present what they found for the class. Later, hang the can think of that use the motif of story maps on the wall as displays. taking a baby away? Common Core Standards for English Language Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy: RL1: Ask and answer Arts and Literacy: questions to demonstrate understanding of a text, referring explicitly to the text as the W 1: Write opinion pieces on topics or texts, basis for the answers; RL9: Compare and contrast stories in the same genre (eg. mysteries supporting a point of view with reasons; W 2 and adventure stories) on their approaches to similar themes and topics Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic SL1: Participate in collaborative conversations with diverse partners about grade topics and text and convey ideas and information clearly; W 8: Recall with peers and adults in small and larger groups; information from experience or gather information from SL4: Describe people, places, things, and events with relevant details, expressing ideas and feel- print and digital sources; take brief notes on sources and ings clearly; sort evidence into provided categories. SL4: Describe SL5: Add drawings or other visual displays to descriptions when appropriate to clarify ideas, people, places, things, and events with relevant details, thoughts, and feeling. expressing ideas and feelings clearly. Story Collecting What’s My Name? The Grimm Brothers published their first collection of The name is the game for Rumpelstiltskin. The stories in the year 1812. Every few years they would guessing of the name is the central part of this story. publish a new edition adding even more stories. The first In fact, this is not the only story that depicts the be- edition included eighty-six stories. By 1857, when the lief that knowing someone’s name means you have final edition was published, the brothers had collected power over him or her. When Antti Aarne and 211 tales and legends. The brothers wanted to create a Stith Thompson created their classification for sto- scholarly book that documented the stories told in house- ries, they classified the Grimms’ Rumpelstiltskin holds across Germany. They traveled all over the coun- with #500 “Guessing The Helper’s Name.” There try listening to folk tales and writing them in their jour- are 19 other stories included in this category. You nals. If it were not for Wilhelm and Jacob Grimm, we can find a few of them on page 7 with the would not know many of our common stories today. “Supplemental Reading Suggestions”. Before their time, these kinds of stories were not written; Invite your students to investigate their names. rather, they were told orally. Explain that names are central part of who we are. For an activity with your class, let your students become Names come from all kinds of places: friends or the story collectors. Give each student a notebook (or family members, name books, and every country on simply paper stapled together), to collect and document the map. Sometimes names are even made up, like stories. Have your students ask family and friends to tell Rumpelstiltskin. Give students the assignment to go them a story. They must write down whatever narratives research their names. Have them start by asking are told to them in their notebooks. Tell them not to family members how they got their names. You worry if they miss some details in the story, even the may choose to bring in name books that include Grimms elaborated a little. name origins and meanings. For students with more unique names, search the internet for sources. For older students, you can start to explain the differ- ences in narrative voice (i.e. first person protagonist, first Later, have each student create a short presenta- person witness, third person omniscient). tion about his or her name. They must present what it means and what makes it powerful or special. Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and Common Core Standards for English Language Arts and Literacy: W3: Literacy: W 7: Conduct short research projects that build Write narratives to develop real or imagined experiences or events using knowledge about a topic; SL 4: Report on a topic or text, tell a effective technique, descriptive details, and clear event sequences; W4: story, or recount an experience with appropriate facts and With guidance and support from adults, produce writing in which the relevant, descriptive details, speaking clearly at an understand- development and organization are appropriate to task and purpose. able pace.
Spinning Stories Have you ever wondered why spinning wheels appear in many fairy- tales? Rumpelstiltskin, The Three Spinners, The Golden Spinning- Wheel, and Sleeping Beauty are all stories that feature the domestic machine used for making wool or flax. It is believed that many of these stories were created and passed to others by women working in large spinning circles. As they spun, they would tell these tales to keep one another awake and entertained. For this activity with your students, you will need a large ball of yarn. Tell your students about the history of spinning circles and their relation- ship to oral storytelling. Next, have them create in a large circle and sit down. Explain that together they are going to build a new fairytale. Re-
Common Core Standards for mind them what a motif is when it applies to the genre. Ask students to English Language Arts and Liter- name a few characters or motifs that appear in fairytales (i.e. royalty, witches, ogres, acy: sleeping spells, difficult tasks). Once you are satisfied with their answers, take the SL 1: Engage effectively in a range of collaborative discussions with ball of yarn and hold onto the end of the string. You will start the story with “Once diverse partners on grade topics and texts, upon a time…” and pass the ball of yarn across to another person. The person the building on others’ ideas and expressing yarn is passed to must next add a line to the story, hold on to the string with one their own clearly; SL 6: Speak in complete sentences when appropriate to task and hand, then pass the ball with the other. Continue building the story and passing the situation in order to provide requested ball of yarn until everyone is holding a piece of thread. Have the last pass be back to detail or clarification.; SL4: Describe peo- ple, places, things, and events with relevant you. End the story with the line “… and they all lived happily ever after.” At the end details, expressing ideas and feeling clearly. of the activity take a picture of the story web you created together. The Three Spinners From Children’s and Household Tales by the Brothers Grimm Adapted by Mera K. Corlett HERE was once a girl who was idle and would not spin, and no matter what her mother said, she could not bring her to work. At last the mother was once so overcome with anger and impatience, that she gave her daughter a spanking. The girl began to weep loudly. Now at this very moment the Queen drove by, Tand when she heard the weeping she stopped her carriage, went into the house and asked the mother why she was spanking her daughter? Then the woman was ashamed to reveal the laziness of her daughter and so instead she said, "I cannot get her to leave off spin- ning. She insists on spinning for ever and ever, and I am poor, and do not have enough flax." Then answered the Queen, "There is nothing that I like better to hear than spinning, and I am never happier than when the wheels are humming. Let me have your daughter with me in the palace. I have flax enough, and there she shall spin as much as she likes." The mother was very happy with this, and the Queen took the girl with her. When they had arrived at the palace, she led her up into three rooms which were filled from the bot- tom to the top with the finest flax. "Now spin me this flax," said she, "and when thou hast done it, thou shall have my eldest son for a husband, even if thou art poor. I care not for that, thy hard work is dowry enough." The girl was secretly terrified. She knew could not have spun all the flax, not even if she lived till she was three hundred years old, and worked every day from morning till night. When she was alone, she began to weep. She sat thus for three days without moving a finger. On the third day the Queen came, and when she saw that nothing had been spun, she was surprised; but the girl told her that she had not been able to begin because of her great distress at leaving her mother's house. The queen understood this, but said as she was leaving, "Tomorrow thou must begin to work."
When the girl was alone again, she did not know what to do, and in her distress went to the window. Then she saw three women coming towards her, the first of whom had a broad flat foot, the second had such a great lower lip that it hung down over her chin, and the third had a large thumb. They stood at the window, looked up, and asked the girl what was wrong with her? She told them of her trouble, and then they offered her their help. They said, "If you will invite us to the wedding, not be ashamed of us, and will call us your aunts, and let us sit at your table, we will spin up the flax for you." "With all my heart," she replied, “please come in and begin the work at once." She let the three strange women in, and cleared a place in the first room, where they seated themselves and began their spinning. The one drew the thread and worked the wheel, the other wetted the thread, the third twisted it, and struck the table with her finger. As often as she struck it, a skein of thread fell to the ground that was spun in the finest manner possible. The girl hid the three spinners from the Queen, and showed her whenever she came the great quantity of spun thread. When the first room was empty she went to the second, and at last to the third. Finally, all the work was complete. Then the three women left and said to the girl, "Do not forget what you have promised us”
When Queen saw the empty rooms and the great heap of yarn, she gave orders for the wedding. The bridegroom was happy to have such a smart and hard-working wife. "I have three aunts," said the girl, "and as they have been very kind to me. I would like to invite them to the wedding, and let them sit with us at our table.” When the feast began, the three women entered in strange clothing, and the bride said, "Welcome, dear aunts." "Ah," said the bridegroom, "how do you have such awful looking friends?" So, he went to the one with the broad flat foot, and said, "Why do you have a broad foot?" "From tread- ing," she answered, "from treading." Then the bridegroom went to the second and said, "Why do you have a falling lip?" "From licking," she answered, "from licking." Then he asked the third, "Why do you have are large thumb?" "from twisting the thread," she answered, "from twisting the thread." After hearing this the King's son was surprised and said, "Neither now nor ever shall my beautiful bride touch a spinning-wheel." And so she never had to spin again.
THE END
Vocabulary words found in this story: Idle: lazy
Flax: a slender plant with blue flowers that is grown for its fiber from which linen is made and for its seed
Dowry: the property that a woman brings to her husband in marriage
Distress: a painful situation
Broad: not narrow : wide
Ashamed: feeling shame, guilt, or disgrace
Skein: a looped length of yarn or thread put up in a loose twist after it is taken from the reel
Bridegroom: a man just married or about to be married
Treading: to beat or press with the feet
All vocabulary definitions from Merriam-Webster’s wordcentral.com Supplemental Reading Suggestions
Adaptations: From other Cultures: Multiplying Menace: The Revenge of Rumpelstiltskin by The Girl Who Spun Straw Into Gold by Virginia Pam Calvert Hamilton In this children’s book, Rumpelstiltskin returns to steal the This variation of the Rumpelstiltskin story is from the West Miller’s Daughter’s ten year old child. The only way the hero Indies and focuses on the character of Quashiba. can save the day and return to his parents is with multiplica- Duffy and the Devil by Harve Zemach tion. This story is from the Cornish tradition. The story is usually Rumpelstiltskin by Xavier Carrasco presented around Christmas time and sometimes as a play. This would be a wonderful book to use with students Whuppity Stoorie: A Scottish Folktale by Carol White learning Spanish. It includes the text in both languages. This story originates from Scotland and is a true “fairy” tale. Rumpelstiltskin’s Daughter by Diane Stanley Rather than a little man trying to take the child, it is a green In this wonderful reimaging of the story, the Miller’s Daugh- fairy named Whuppity Stoorie. ter and Rumpelstiltskin fall in love. Later, the King is taught a Tom Tit Tot by Joseph Jacobs powerful lesson on how to truly bring prosperity to his king- dom. This is the version of the story comes from England. Rather than gold, the girl must spin a large amount of
flax and it is her mother who lies to the King.
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Sources
Fairytales: "Common Elements of Fairy Tales." readwritethink.org. Web. 1 Jan. 2015.
The Brothers Grimm: Johnson, Virginia. "Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: Brothers and Best Friends." Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm: Brothers and Best Friends. Web. 19 Mar. 2015. <http://www.librarypoint.org/brothers_grimm>.
Spinning Circles: Bottigheimer, Ruth B. "Spinning and Discontent." Grimms' Bad Girls & Bold Boys: The Moral & Social Vision of the Tales. New Haven: Yale UP, 1987. 115. * *Contains some mature content*
Special thanks to: Mera Cossey Corlett & Kevin Corlett, Heather Burns, Paul Lenzi & Geraldine Anne Snyder, Annie Smith, Communities in Schools of Clark County, and The Shubert Foundation.