Lesson 4

Do you think the material you have created today will be suitable for ‘little People’? Why is it/is it not suitable?

Today we created the torch material and the tiger dance material. I think that the torch material is suitable for the children because the suspense of not knowing where the tiger is will keep them engaged and focused. Also I think that our scared faces will entertain them and the big bright tiger eyes will shock them and also interest them. I think the ‘here kitty, kitty, kitty’ is suitable because the children can probably relate to it if they have a cat however to make this section as effective as possible we need to make sure we are in time so that we sound like one voice and the words sound clearer. Also by leaning in and away from the tiger it shows a contrast when we get more frightened and moving the eyes around will allow the children on all sides to feel involved.

The next second part we worked on was the dance and song. The dance I believe is suitable because we all now have embodied the tiger which we show through our movement of the body and also using the butterfly nets. I believe this section would be suitable, however the song still lacks energy. We really need to improve this otherwise the children will become bored and loose interest.  I think that we should either shorten the song or change it altogether. I think we could make facial expressions and keep up the energy if the song was shorter or we should just change the song to a more light hearted kid’s song that will keep the energy high and will be easier for the children to understand. At the moment the song goes on for a long time and is boring because not enough facial expression is put into it and also the words are difficult to understand.

Here are some examples of other kid’s tiger songs which are more energised and show us what we need to do to improve our song:

At the end of the lesson we came up with some ideas for the play ending I really liked the group’s torch idea with the ‘the tiger can’t eat me!’ I think this will be suitable for the children because it will add some humour to the piece. I then think we should all go and try and find another creature but to make it humorous I think we should get in a line and follow each other in a line, then the person at the front can stop, everyone will bump into each other and say ‘what is it?’ where the person will reply ‘oops sorry it was just an ant’? Then continue until they find another animal. I also think we could do some of our group work for example when we were lifting kitty up to look in a tree. Near the end I think we should be returning home with all our amazing discovery’s which will then follow onto Eleanor’s idea of it all being a dream when taking the children on stage. I think all these ideas will be suitable for the children because we are still exploring in our setting and by getting rid of the tiger it is no longer on stage however I do believe we could catch the tiger so that’s why it ends up escaping from the zoo in the story. Also the dream idea was really good because it will suggest to the children the story is a fantasy but it all starts normally with a child having a dream and it all goes back to normal.