Lesson video

Hello, my name is Adam.

Welcome to lesson two in this unit about Storytelling Through Drama.

In this lesson, we're going to be using our imagination to bring toys to life as puppets, as we tell stories.

For today's lesson, you're going to need a few things.

You're going to need some cuddly animal toys and some sort of box or plastic tub.

Pause the video, go and get those things and press play when you're ready to carry on.

In today's lesson, we are going to be using our imagination.

We are going to be moving our bodies, playing with our voices, and more importantly, playing with toys.

Do you have your toys ready? Then let's begin.

We've also got some new words to learn today.

The first, is a puppet.

A puppet, it's something that performers use on stage to create a new character.

It could be created out of a piece of cloth of some fabric or it could be used like a toy.

Today we're going to be using our toys as puppets and bring them to life as characters in our stories.

The next word is a prop.

Props, are things that performance bring on and take off the stage.

And they're used as part of the performance.

Today, we're going to be using our plastic tub or box as a prop and we'll find out how we do that in a minute.

It could also be a walking stick, it could be a camera, it could be anything that an actor brings on and off the stage.

The next word is voice.

You've heard of your voice.

It's what we use to speak with but our voice communicates how we feel and what we're thinking.

And we can use our voice as performers to create new voices for our puppets.

We'll have a look at that in a short while.

As part of this lesson, you need to stand up move your chair away from your desk and make sure there's plenty of space around you so that you can move freely without bumping into any furniture.

Pause the video and when you're ready to carry on, press play.

Have you ever been on a journey? Have you been on an adventure? Have you ever been on a boat? Well, today's story is about two characters who do just that.

They are the Owl and the Pussy-Cat.

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat sail away on a beautiful pea-green boat.

At nighttime, they look up at the stars, they play their guitar and they sing to each other about how much they love each other and they plan to get married.

They find an Island with very strange trees and a big hill.

In the woods, they meet a pig with a ring at the end of his nose and they buy that ring so that they can get married.

The person who marries them is the Turkey who lives on the hill.

And after they get married, they dance and sing to each other on the beach, eat food and live happily ever after.

It's a lovely story and we're going to follow it.

This is the first verse of our Nursery Rhyme, the story of the Owl and the Pussy-Cat.

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat.

They took some honey and plenty of money wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The Owl looked up to the stars above and sang to a small guitar, "O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love, what a beautiful Pussy you are, you are! you are! What a beautiful Pussy you are!" There's quite a lot of information here.

This first verse tells us who the story is about, the Owl and the Pussy-Cat.

It tells us where they are, in a boat at sea.

It tells us when it is as nighttime because they're looking up at the stars.

It also tells us as a little bit about who these two characters are to each other because they're singing about how much they love each other.

Before we carry on, I've got a couple of questions for you to make sure you are listening carefully.

The first question is, what creatures did we just meet? Was it an Owl and a puppy dog or an Owl and the Pussy-Cat.

It was an Owl and a Pussy-Cat.

The next question is which character sang and played on a guitar? Was it the Owl, or was it the Pussy-Cat? It was the Owl.

You get both of those, right? Let's have a go at bringing that first verse to life, shall we? Get your toys, your puppets, and your tub or box for your boat.

and start to play with your puppets as your characters and think about what are they going to take with them? Do they know where they're going to go? Or are they just going to let the wind and the seas take them? You decide is your story.

Now it doesn't matter what toys you use for this.

As long as you know which character is which, it's all fine.

So get your puppets, give them the characters and plan their journey across the sea.

Have a play, pause the video and when you're ready to carry on, press play.

Now it's time for the second verse.

Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl, how charmingly sweet you sing! Oh let us be married; too long we have tarried, but what shall we do for a ring?" They sailed away for a year and a day, to the land where the bong-tree grows.

And there, in a wood, the Piggy-wig stood with the ring at the end of his nose.

His nose, his nose, with a ring at the end of his nose.

Here, we find out a little bit more about our characters.

We know that they are both in love with each other and they want to get married.

And they're sailing for a whole year which is a very long time.

We also know where they're going, to the land where the bong-tree grows.

This is a made up word.

There's no such thing as a bong-tree, but it's one of the fun things we can do when we're creating.

When we're using our imaginations, we can create and make things up as we like, there are no wrong answers.

So if you want to go to the land where the bong-tree grows, you can go to the land where the bong-tree grows and what that bong-tree looks like, you decide, it's your imagination, it's your story.

We also introduced a new character, a Piggy-wig.

I don't have a pig, I have a dinosaur.

So that's what I'm using.

So this is our Piggy-wig and he's got a ring at the end of his nose, which they buy so that they can get married.

So we've got the Owl and the Pussy-Cat out in sea for a whole year.

It looks very long time to be out on sea.

So think about how they feel.

What did they talk about for that whole time? What are they doing out in the sea for all that time? Think about what they might be doing.

And I found out with your puppets and how do you think they feel when they finally get to the place where the bong-tree grows? And when they see another character, a Piggy-wig, how do they talk to each other? What do they talk about? Do the tell the Piggy-wig all about their journey across the sea? Get your toys, your puppets, and have a play.

Get them, talk to each other and maybe start to think about giving each character a different voice so that they sound different when they're talking.

Press pause, have a play and then press play when you're ready to carry on.

Now it's time for the third and final verse of our Nursery Rhyme.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will." So they took it away and we're married next day by the Turkey who lives on the hill.

They dined on mince and slices of quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon.

And hand in hand on the edge of the sand, they danced by the light of the moon, the moon, the moon.

They danced by the light of the moon.

Isn't that lovely? Now we know how our story ends.

They buy the ring from the end of the Piggy's nose for a shilling, which is a type of old, old money.

The Turkey, who lives on the hill, does the wedding for them.

And then they dine on mince and quince.

Quince is a type of apple or pear, which they each with the runcible spoon.

Runcible is a lovely word.

It's a made up word, which means a type of spoon which is a bit like a fork and a spoon combined, which is quite interesting.

And then they dance and party under the light of the moon on the beach.

How lovely is that! So our characters are finally getting married.

Get your toys, get your puppets and act out that story.

How do you think they feel about finally getting married? Introduce the Turkey who lives on the hill, who's going to conduct the wedding for them.

I never knew that Turkeys could do weddings but you learn something new every day, don't you? It's your story, so you can make it however you like.

Try to think about whether there are any other characters there.

Are there any other characters who live on this Island who might come to this wedding and see what's going on between the Owl and the Pussy-Cat? What does the wedding look like? Maybe you could decorate it and create the wedding for them.

Maybe there's music, maybe there's food.

You could lay down the whole feast if you like, have a go, press pause, and tell this whole wedding and that celebration afterwards dancing by the lights of the moon and then press play when you're ready to carry on.

So we've had a look at all three verses of our Nursery Rhyme, one at a time.

What I'm going to do for you now is read it all out again for you, and give you an opportunity to tell that story using your toys.

If you want more time, pause the video between each verse and press play again when you're ready to carry on.

Are you ready? Then I'll begin.

The Owl and the Pussy-Cat went to sea in a beautiful pea-green boat.

They took some honey and plenty of money wrapped up in a five-pound note.

The Owl looked up to the stars above and sang to a small guitar.

"O lovely Pussy, O Pussy, my love.

What a beautiful Pussy you are, you are, you are! What a beautiful Pussy you are!" Pussy said to the Owl, "You elegant fowl, how charmingly sweet you sing! Oh let us be married; too long we have tarried, but what shall we do for a ring?" They sailed away for a year and a day, to the land where the bong-tree grows.

And there, in a wood, the Piggy-wig stood with the ring at the end of his nose.

His nose, his nose, with a ring at the end of his nose.

"Dear Pig, are you willing to sell for one shilling your ring?" Said the Piggy, "I will." So they took it away and we're married next day by the Turkey who lives on the hill.

They dined on mince and slices of quince, which they ate with a runcible spoon.

And hand in hand on the edge of the sand, they danced by the light of the moon, the moon, the moon.

They danced by the light of the moon.

It's time for a quick recap of everything that we've been doing today.

We've used props such as our plastic tub or box which we use as a boat.

We've created some characters using our toys, making them into characters as puppets.

And we have performed using our bodies to create movement using our voices to bring our puppets to life, using our props to tell the story of the Owl and the Pussy-Cats.

Well done! You've done a lot of work today.

If you've enjoyed this and would like to, you can ask a parent or carer to share your work on Twitter, tagging @OakNational and using the hashtag LearnwithOak.

Thank you for joining in.

My name has been Adam and I will see you soon for another lesson.