Where the leaves blow
By Ffion Wyn Bowen and Jeremy Turner
A production for Foundation Phase children
October 2012 – January 2013.
WHERE THE LEAVES BLOW
Director and script:
Jeremy Turner and Ffion Wyn Bowen
Actors:
Ffion Wyn Bowen, Gethin Evans
Research:
Ffion Wyn Bowen, Jeremy Turner
Set designer/Wardrobe
Cordelia Ashwell
Production manager:
Rhys Hedd Pugh Evans
Stage manager on tour:
Siwan Griffiths/ Gruffydd Arwel Jones
Teacher’s pack:
Jeremy Turner
Illustrations:
Jeremy Turner, Ffion Wyn Bowen
Arad Goch Permanent Staff
Company clerk:
Ann Penny
Schools Liaison Officer:
Anne Evans
Community workers
Art and Video:
Elin Crowley
Music:
Simon Lovatt
Technical Manager:
Rhys Hedd Pugh Evans
Marketing Officer:
Heulwen Davies
Actress/Teacher:
Mari Rhian Owen
Administrative Manager:
Nia Wyn Evans
Artistic Director:
Jeremy Turner
Thanks to:
Miss Carol Davies and pupils of Llanilar School for their assistance with the research and
photos. Miss Bethan Mair Jones, Education Department of Ceredigion County Council
for her guidance and Mr Derrick Bowen for the wood.
Methods of contacting Arad Goch:
Phone: 01970 617998
Fax: 01970 611223
E-mail: [email protected]
Post: Arad Goch, Bath Street, Aberystwyth, SY23 2NN
Arad Goch’s work is supported by the Arts Council of Wales, Ceredigion County Council,
Carmarthenshire County Council and Pembrokeshire County Council.
INTRODUCTION and INFORMATION FOR TEACHERS
The Performance
“Where the leaves blow” was created with the requirements of the Foundation Phase framework in
mind; it has a considerable mixture of themes and is the starting point for many post-performance
activites in the classroom.
As we present our performance our intention is :
To enable children to identify emotions in a simple story about two people;
To enable children to recognise their own emotions and behaviour;
To offer a wide spectrum of incentives to generate stories, games and activities by the children;
To reaffirm the right to play creatively;
To enable children to make comparisons – e.g. ‘the wood is like a dragon’;
To encourage the children to find adjectives to describe an object – e.g. ‘rough wood’, ‘pointy
leaf ;
To present a number of activities for copying – e.g. counting the twigs aloud, comparing weight.
In addition, the drama uses very few words –
and that is intentional so that children can
create their own stories about the events and
the characters.
The performance commences outside in the
yard (we ask that you ensure the children
have appropriate clothing). The performance
lasts for about 55 minutes with interactive
elements woven into the performance (and
therefore the isn’t a separate workshop.)
There is no need to prepare the children
ahead of the performance.
Teacher Pack
Within the Teacher Pack are suggestions for
activities which can be used in the classroom
following the performance; we are confident
that you, the teachers, will also be full of
ideas for activities after viewing our
performance!
Things to Remember
The company will perform more than a hundred times during the “WHERE THE LEAVES BLOW” tour.
The timetable is very full. In order that everything goes smoothly we ask kindly that you bear the
following point in mind:
We ask that you do not tell the children about the performance in advance: the unexpected
element is part of the experience.
There must be a teacher present during the performance in the school or village hall.
This will be a new type of theatrical experience which is performed inside and outside the
School/Hall. There will be an opportunity for the children to interact with the characters and to
contribute to the activities. If the weather isn’t favourable and if you have an outside covered play
area, this would be ideal for our use. We ask that you remind the children to bring weatherappropriate clothing.
If you are uncertain of the arrangments please ring ARAD GOCH.
The staff members on tour will be able to deal with any small problems. If you have more complex
problems or questions, feel free to ring us at ARAD GOCH.
Any complaint should be directed to the Office at ARAD GOCH and not the staff visiting you.
Detailed arrangments were made with each School that have asked for a performance. We ask
politely that you do not make independent arrangements to invite other schools to your
performance and not to alter the arrangments without consulting ARAD GOCH.
We very much respect and appreciate your comments and observations about our work; we look
forward to receiving your feedback forms following our visit.
Keeping in Touch
Remember – any problem – contact us!
We love receiving examples of the children’s work as a result of our visit – so please send them in! If they are
too heavy to post, let us know and we will collect!
We receive a lot of e-messages from
children that see our shows and we
respond to them all. You are welcome to do
the same – our e–mail address is
[email protected]
Thank you once again for your cooperation:
we hope you will enjoy the performance!
Jeremy Turner
Artistic Director
October 2012
IDEAS FOR TEACHER-LEAD ACTIVITIES
Enabling children to recognise their emotions.
Acknowledging emotions can be difficult at times –but it’s often easier to discuss your
own emotions by discussing other people’s imaginary emotions.
Ask the children how the characters – PEGI A DERI –felt at different times during the
story :
How did Pegi feel when she saw that someone had made
a mess in her new home?
How did Pegi react when she first saw Deri?
How did Deri feel when Pegi wouldn’t speak or play with
him?
Why did Pegi build a small wall with the wood?
How did Deri feel after Pegi had built a wall from the
wood?
Why were Deri and Pegi pretending to be dragons?
How did they behave?
On the next pages are photos of some parts of the story to remind the children.
CREATIVE PLAY
Prepare to go out to collect natural items – wood, twigs, leaves, nuts, seeds, moss.
Before you leave, create a simple “collecting” song.
You could use the tune from WHERE THE LEAVES BLOW : it’s a simple tune and you
can set all types of words to it.
You can all sing the song whilst collecting wood and other natural items.
Create simple sentances to sing to the tune – they do not have to rhyme or be the
same length:
Put your coat on to go out in the cold,
Oh, out in the cold.
Here we go collecting wood
Oh, collecting wood.
Collecting things from Mother Nature
Oh, Mother Nature.
The birds in the trees are singing all day,.
Oh, singing all day.
You could sing each line followed by the response – the teacher could sing the first
line with the children repeating some of the words.
Take the children to collect natural items: give the group a name such as: ‘We are
the ‘Tree and Twig Team’. Give a task to everone in the group or to each group:
twigs, leaves, bark, moss, nuts.
We are collecting little twigs .
Oh little twigs.
Bring the items collected back to the classroom so the children can make different
pictures and stories: a village, dragons, a den, a rocket to the moon, faces, towers...
As they build things, use their work to discuss different principles:
- Shapes - circles, squares, oblongs ..;
- Shapes and patterns symmetrical and asymmetrical;
- Soft, rough, pointy, smooth....;
- heavy and light weights;
- Balance and imbalance - e.g.why
does a tower made from pieces of
wood stand or fall.
Ask the children to tell their pictures’
story to a friend or the group.
Ask the children to create a short title
for the story and to write it using
twigs.
ORCHESTRA OF THE SOUNDS OF NATURE
Prepare to go out and collect sounds.
Explain that the children will be hunting – therefore you have to be quiet in case you
frighten things away.
Take the children to a field or woods; ask them to listen carefully to the sounds
around them – and to remember some of the sounds.
Get the children together again; ask each one in turn to make one of the sounds
that they had heard.
Explain that you will be an orchestra of sounds. These are the rules:
- I (the teacher) will be leading the orchestra for the first time
- if I point at anyone, I would like that person to make that sound over and over
again;
- if I do like this (hold my hand up) I would like that person to stop making that
sound;
- perhaps I will be pointing at more than one person – so that a number of sounds
can be heard at the same time;
- If I raise my arms like this – I would like you to make more noise;
- if my arms go down like this – I would like you to make less noise.
Try to lead the orchestra by changing the tempo, quantity and the quality of the
sound.
When you think that the children understand the game, ask some of them to take
turns to lead.
You can do something similar by using bits of wood and branches as percussion
instruments – the same as in the drama.
VOCABULARY
Very few words are used in the drama. Here are some of them:
decorate
warm
cosy
safe
rough
smooth
dragon
dragons
fight
beautiful
Ask the children for more words to describle the following:
the woman –
[busy, happy ,noisy, angry,lonely...]
the man -
[quiet, shy, playful...]
the home -
[cosy, colourful,quiet ,safe... ]
the wood and leaves-
[long,short, light ,heavy,dry, brown,
green,withered , pretty, beautiful, ...]
the dragons -
[noisy,annoyed, angry, friendly, ...]
the noise hitting the wood -
[high, exciting, lively,..]
Encourage the children to create words using the twigs and the leaves to describe the
pictures..
Encourage the children to create words using the twigs and leaves to describe feelings.
COUNTING ALOUD
Give the children a pile of twigs or leaves and ask them to make sets of 3, 4 or 5 in the
shape of a triangle, square or a pentagon.
They could sing the song WHERE THE LEAVES BLOW while doing this.
How many twigs are needed to make 3 squares?
How many twigs are needed to make 3 triangles?
How many twigs are needed to make 4 squares?
How many twigs are needed to make 3 five-sided shapes?
ADDITIONAL IDEAS
Use two bits of
wood to beat
out the syllables
in different
words
Open a
shop selling
twigs
Use the bits of
wood and leaves
to create
designs for
rooms in a
house
Make an outline around
a variety of twigs and
leaves
Create a character using
bits of wood – think of a
name, age, their
loves/hates, home, etc.,
Create a pattern
using the twigs
and ask a friend
to copy the
pattern
Think of
Construct a
questions for
word/sentence by
the
using the twigs
characters in
the drama
da’rddrama.
Introduce yard games
Weigh the twigs
e.g. use twigs to count
and distribute
in 2s i.e. ‘Hopscotch’
them from the
lightest to the
heaviest
heaviest
brigau a’u
dosbarthu yn ôl y
VARIOUS PICTURES BY THE CHILDREN OF LLANILAR SCHOOL
PHOTOGRAPHS OF ‘WHERE THE LEAVES BLOW’
Deri a Pegi
How did Pegi feel when she saw that someone had made
a mess in her new home?
How did Pegi react when she saw Deri for the first time?
How did Deri feel when Pegi did not want to speak to him or
play with him?
Why did Pegi build a little wall with the wood?
How did Deri feel when Pegi built the wall of wood?
Why did Deri and Pegi pretend to be dragons? How did
they behave?