The K2 Showcase 2023

Theme:

How We Express Ourselves

 

Central Idea:

The art of storytelling  develops our understanding of the world.

Lines of Inquiry:

* different ways to tell a story

* how stories express and connect our ideas
* what we learn through stories

Key Concepts:

PERSPECTIVE, FORM

Related Concepts:

creativity, expression, technique, purpose, presentation, audience

 

The Brainstorm

The K2 children gathered to brainstorm ideas for their showcase.

Mr. Seth “Every class share at an assembly and soon it will be our turn to present at our K2 showcase. We have been doing a lot of storytelling this year. What are some of the ways we have told stories?”

• Patrick “I told a story about scary germs. I told it with Mason and Andy.”
• Tracey “I told a funny story.”

Teacher “What would you like to share? What will that look like?”

The children put their ideas down on paper and discussed their thinking and suggestions with others in their group. At the end of the brainstorm, the children’s ideas included:

• Where: On the stage, sitting on cushions​
• Who: Small groups​
• How: Books, video, puppets, music​
• What: Stories about nature, scary, funny

Details​

• Characters:monsters, germs​
• Puppets:Giant​
• Music:instruments​
• Decorations​
• Sets: colorful, rainbow city, castle,  ​
• Props: hot air balloon, roller coaster

We look forward to our next planning meeting as the children decide on more specific information.

 

 

The PLAN 

What ideas do you have for your story?

We gathered to think about our next steps in planning the showcase. 

After a brief discussion about the different stages; initiating, planning, delivering and closing, the children were invited to think about all the different ideas they had, to create an initial plan.

 

The children began to discuss their ideas and put them down on paper. Favourite characters and settings began to emerge through their drawings.

Then, we went to the next stage, to share ideas with others and decide if we want to create groups to tell our stories.

At this stage, the children needed to decide if they wanted to join others based on the characters and stories.

 

 

Group Story Plan

The groups convened with clipboards in hand to talk about their ideas and put them down on paper. They sat around chart paper, using pictures and words to share their ideas.

Many of the groups discussed characters and settings. We noticed the children collaborating, looking for ways to include and weave in ideas suggested by others.

We noticed the children being open-minded and inclusive, using a common language and gestures to share their ideas.

The chart papers were overflowing with suggestions. Scary, funny stories began to emerge.

At the end of the session, the children gathered to talk about their next steps. A challenge was to identify the ‘plot’ in the story.

• What was going to happen in the story?
• How do we know what happens first, then, next and finally?

 

 

The Storyboard

The next day, Ms. Heidi joined our planning. We revisited what we did the previous day.

• Jessie “We went into groups and drew different things and shared ideas.”

Then, A few groups shared their ideas for stories.

Group “Snowman, people and bugs that bite people. It is on a mountain.”

• Ms. Heidi “Think about how many characters you need to have in your story. If we have 5 people in our group, we might want to have 5 characters. The narrator might be there to tell the story.”

Group “It’s in a castle. We have ghosts and germs.”

Group “Our story is in the rainbow and a roller coaster. We have rainbow ghosts. Rainbow ghosts and A robots.”

• Mr. Seth “You have lots of characters and lots of settings. We have a beginning, the middle and an end.”

Mr. Seth introduced a ‘storyboard’, a way to plan a story.

The children went off into their groups to create their storyboards. The teachers checked-in with the groups to listen, suggest, brainstorm and provide feedback.

The children worked hard to include different ideas while thinking of the flow of the story.

We continue to talk about the sequence of a story, the plot and end.

How can we make our stories more interesting? Our collaborative storytelling continues…

 

 

Showcase Storyboard Presentations

The storytellers have been discussing ideas and creating storyboards to plan the sequence of their performance. Over the planning sessions, we noticed how the storytellers collaborated with each other, making suggestions, taking turns and including everyone in the task.

Some of the groups were ready to present their initial storyboards with the intention of seeking feedback and suggestions for improvement. We used the T.A.G. feedback protocol to help the storytellers with this process.

 

The Story Presentation by Dylan, Patrick, Soohyeon, Jessie and Tae Woo​

The Story: The ghost goes to the king’s castle. King goes to the ghost’s house. The monsters see the dragon.​The good monsters and germs go to the king’s house for a party. They make the king feel better. ​​

• Tracey “Why are the monsters going to the party?” ​
• Suggestions from Mr. Seth “Let the audience the know which monsters are good and which are bad.” ​

Story Presentation by Yilun, Mason, Kyle and Ethan​

The Story: The snowman melts and the ambulance comes. The snowman melts in the ambulance. The monster comes and gives the ambulance driver a red packet. The driver makes a new snowman​.

• Soohyeon “I like the melting.” ​
• Patrick “I like the drawing​.”
• Tracy “I like the snowman because the snowman is cute.”​
• Luca “I like the happy ending​.”
• Yeonwoo “I like the snowman’s head.​”
• Dylan “Why have a snowman?” ​
• Patrick “Why does the monster go to give the driver the red pocket?” ​
• Luca “Why did the snowman melt?”​

 

Story Presentation by Yeonwoo, Doho, Eujin and Jiu​

The Story: Rainbow looks at the rainbow house. Rainbow finds a rainbow ghost in the house. Rainbow ghost goes to the roller coaster. A punching robot breaks the roller coaster. Another robot fixes it. Rainbow ghost finished the roller coaster and went home. Another robot goes to the rainbow ghost’s house. The end. ​

• ​Luca “I like the rainbow ghost because it goes on the roller coaster.” ​
• Soohyeon “I like the rainbow house, because it is the same as the rainbow.” ​
• Kenan “I like the roller coaster.”​
• Soohyeon “Where is the roller coaster?” ​
• Heidi “Why does rainbow find a ghost?”​
• Seth “Is rainbow a character?” ​
• Luca “If rainbow ghost has a telescope, he can look at the rainbow.” ​
• Soohyeon “Put a camera on the roller coaster so we can see.” ​
• Patrick “The rainbow can be a roller coaster​.”

 

Story Presentation by Junot, Luca, Noah, Kenan, Allen and Tracey​

The Story: The girl goes to the house and she sees a snowman.  She sees a tree. She goes to the tree and sees a roller coaster. A princess is on the roller coaster and the unicorn is flying above.  A dragon comes from the sea, and fights with the princess and unicorn. Then the dragon flies back over the sea. Then they have a party and then they see a rainbow. The dragon goes back under water. ​

• Soohyeon “I like the sea, because of the water.​”
• Yeonwoo “I like the rainbow, because it is colorful.” ​
• Jessie “I like the rainbow, because it is colourful​.”
• Jiu “Why did the dragon come?”​
• Soohyeon “What kind of dragon is it? Why is a fire dragon in the sea?” ​
• Kyle “Why did the princess and dragon fight?​”
• Heidi “Why the dragon come back again and then go back to his home again?” ​
• Yeonwoo “Why is there a rainbow?” ​
• Shemo “What happened to the snowman?​”
• Heidi “Explain why the dragon comes and what it wants.”
• Soohyeon “Give the dragon two homes.”

 

Story Presentation by Yuha, Eunice, Sean and Chloe

​The Story: This is water like a fountain. There is a unicorn heart and unicorn rabbit. This is the castle at Disneyland. This is me, this is my rabbit and heart unicorn. They go to the castle. The ghosts made the music. They ghosts are wiggly, wiggle and say “Oooooh”. The ghost is coming. They see a toy rabbit and it has red all over it and think it is blood. He goes “ah”, but it is jam. They lick it off. Then they go to see the fireworks. And then go into the house.

• Soohyeon “I like the fireworks and the unicorn.” ​
• Yeonwoo “I like the strawberry jam, because it’s yummy.​”
• Patrick “I like the strawberry jam, because it is sticky and yummy.​”
• Luca “I like the unicorn, because it’s so cute. You can put the jam on the ghost.” ​
• Jessie “I like the drawings.” ​
• Yilun “I like the fireworks, because of the colours.​”
• Junot “I like the fireworks ​
• Kyle “I like the rabbit, because it is cute.” 
• Yeonwoo “Why did the ghost come?​”
• Patrick “In the end, where did the ghosts go?​”
• Soohyeon “Why are there only two colors?”  ​
• Luca “Who are the characters in the shop?” ​
• Kyle “Why did they go to the castle?”  ​
• Soohyeon “More colours.” ​
• Yeonwoo “More lines on the story.​”
• Patrick “More details​.”
• Dylan “More details.” ​
• Jessie “Add more colours.” ​
• Kyle “I think you need more colours.” ​
• Patrick “Let people know what the music is.”

All the groups have presented their storyboards. The audience have shared what they liked, asked questions to learn more about the story and offered suggestions for improvement. We noticed that the children became more familiar with using the T.A.G. feedback protocol with each presentation. They were becoming more aware of how questions, suggestions and feedback can help the storytellers improve their story, setting, characters and plots.

When we return from our holiday, we will begin to think about the different ways we can present stories.

 

 

The Stage Plan

The Showcase groups have been using the feedback they received from their peers and teachers to make their stories more interesting and exciting. Some groups have focused more on the characters, others on the sequence and events in their stories. They have noted these changes on a Draft 2 Storyboard.

We gathered to review our plans so far, reflecting on our goal: ‘to make an assembly with stories for the whole school and our families’. ​

We wondered what the stage might look like. The children said:

• “They will see us on stage.”
• “We might be singing.”
• “We might be playing the guitar or ukulele.”

We knew we had to do some ‘imagining’.

Mr. Seth said, “When the curtains open, what is the audience going to see?”

The storytellers were invited to ‘imagine’ the stage. They could create their stage plans with a friend or work alone. The storytellers used pictures and explanations to share what the stage might look like during the Showcase.  

 Our next step is to present these individual or group ideas to Ms. Heidi, to receive her feedback. Then, we can collectively decide on how the stories are presented on the stage.

 

 

The Art of Storytelling

The storytellers drew their ideas for what the stage might look like. Ms. Heidi came in to show us one way to present using sound, props, musical instruments, costumes and a setting.

She invited the K2 storytellers to think about her performance piece and how some of the ideas she presented could be used in the K2 Showcase.

– What ideas could we use?

– What NEW ideas do we have?

We could:

• make our own sound effects
• make the sounds of the animals
• use our own voices to make sound effects
• be the animal characters
• 3 people can make the sounds and one person can show the puppets
• divide the jobs
• make puppets in our group and have a group sing a song
• make our own props
• make our own backdrops or settings
• make the stage look like the setting
• use props and fabric to tell the story
• use puppets and plastic animals

Two groups presented their storyboard 2 ideas to Ms. Heidi. She gave them feedback and made some suggestions.

Together, they brainstormed ideas for the:

• cast
• props
• sound effects
• backdrop
• and decided how they wanted to narrate or ‘tell’ the story.

We are excited to see the different ideas the storytellers have thought about as they use the Performing Arts Creative Cycle of planning, practicing, polishing and performing to help them create and present their K2 Showcase.

 

 

Props for the Showcase

The storytelling groups have brainstormed ideas for their props. They have made a list of what they will need to tell their stories to an audience. One group went with Ms. Jo to begin the process of making the props. They gathered to talk about their ideas. Decisions needed to be made.

Ms. Jo asked the storytellers to consider the stage, and then think about the size of the props. How big or small do the props need to be?

What materials would you need to use?

K2 designers know the value of collaboration and voice. The group discussed each prop to gather as many ideas as possible.

Sword:

• Patrick suggested they use plastic and Dylan thought metal was a better choice.

Stop Sign: Patrick “Cut a paper and write “stop” on it and glue it on.”

• Jessie “We need to cut it smaller.”

Rocket Bomb:

• Patrick “A bomb.”
• Dylan Jessie & Patrick “A water bottle.”
• Soohyeon “A big water bottle.”

Treasure Box:

• Patrick “We can draw a key on the box.”
• Soohyeon and Dylan “Not open the box.”

Rope: How can we make the rope a magic rope?

• Soohyeon “With paint.”
• Patrick “Glue some gems.”
• Georgia “Use pipe cleaners.”

Cars:

• Soohyeon “Lego car.”
• Jessie “The cardboard car which Dylan make in class.”

Over the next few weeks, each group of storytellers will collaborate with different experts to create the props they need for the Showcase. They will need to consider their presentation, technique, and audience. They will need to conduct research, to explore and make choices about spaces, materials and technology tools that will showcase their creativity. They will need to listen to each other’s ideas, work collaboratively to accomplish their goal ‘to make an assembly with stories for the whole school and our families‘.

 

Over the last few days, the storytellers have been working on their props, costumes and set design.

Important choices needed to be made on the size of items, the choice of colours and the materials that would be used. During the process the children were:

• actively engaged in various stages of learning, including: thinking about, planning, modifying and creating

• involved in discussion and being self-directed in their creating (as opposed to passive receiving)

• applying their understanding of concepts through the construction of their projects

 

• solving problems and learning through trial and error or experimentation

• reflecting on their actions and self-regulating in order to complete their tasks safely.