Day #4: Making Every Word Count with Pirate Mad Libs!

Today is always one of my favorite days. I love using mad libs to create stories and to emphasize the important of every word that the students  include in their stories. Before we did this, though, we started off right by playing "Yes, Let's!" This is an activity that teaches the students the necessity of accepting the ideas given by their group members and trying them out in the scene, especially when they are doing improvisation (making it up as they perform!). We are working our way up to doing improvisation in class, yet acting and writing with templates and narrators is still the best way to go at this stage of the game.

In "Yes, Let's!" I pulled out a verb from my action verb bag and said, "Let's (insert verb here)!" The students all excitedly responded with "Yes, Let's!" and then they pantomimed and performed that action to music. Once the music stopped, we changed the verb and repeated the routine. I used these kinds of verbs:

Action Verbs found on kidspicturedictionary.com

Here are some of the action shots from "Yes, Let's!"

"Let's wave!"

"Let's dream!"

"Let's dig!"

"Let's dance!"

THEATRE VOCABULARY WORDS OF THE DAY: STAGE DIRECTIONS, RAKED STAGE, AND APRON

After we were all warmed up, we reviewed the stage vocabulary from the last 3 lessons. Then we learned the stage directions and practiced locating them in the room, pretending the area where they were sitting was the stage and that I was the audience. This lesson is so important because people often get the stage direction backwards, thinking they match the perspective of the audience (the classes thought that, and so did I when I was in high school). In fact, they correlate with the ACTOR'S perspective, since he/she is the one actually moving on stage. So it should be easiest for the actors to know where to move.

We first discussed Left (the actor's left), Right, and Center Stage directions. Then we added Up and Down stage, which is named because back in Elizabethan times, stages used to be raked, meaning they were lifted in the back and declined as it moved toward the audience. Moving down stage meant going down this little hill, and we still use those terms today to mean moving back (up) and moving forward (down). We used these maps to talk about the 9 major locations on the stage, and practiced moving to those locations when I named them for the students. This also served as a physical warm-up! 

We also discussed how the semicircular portion of the stage that remains visible when the curtain is closed in a proscenium theatre is called the "APRON" because it resembles an apron worn for cooking. It is sometimes called the Orchestra Pit, as mentioned here because it can sometimes move down so the orchestra can sit there and play for a musical or opera without being seen by the actors or audience.

 Then in preparation for the Mad Libs, we discussed the following parts of speech, defined them, and gave examples. This is because they will be filling in the Mad Libs with words that fit these 4 categories.

To emphasize just how much these types of words can make and alter an entire story, I showed them what would happen if we changed the houses built in the famous story of "The Three Little Pigs" from straw, sticks, and bricks to camels, a jar of pickles, and a million dollars! It changes everything! Especially how the wolf tries to respond (tactic) to blowing these houses down! Nouns (like in this example), adjectives, and verbs are so crucial to every story, and phrases make it really funny, especially if they are famous lines from movies, or nonsensical statements.

ACTIVITY: PIRATE MAD LIBS

TOOL: Mad Lib, Picture and Stuffed Animal

TECHNIQUE: Recite and Act Out Mad Lib and Show Picture

Then I explained that the students were going to receive three sheets to create and act out their Mad Lib. Paper #1 would be the word list. They would also receive a stuffed animal, and one of the NOUNS they wrote down would need to be the stuffed animal. Once they completed the list, they would receive the actual Mad Lib, and would fill in the words in the blanks from their list. This must be two different steps so that it is a surprise to the students what their story will ultimately sound like. The story may not sound like they thought it would, but again, in theatre we must say "Yes" and learn to go with the flow and make it work, especially when collaborating. 

Sheet #1 is featured below. To keep the stories and performances from feeling too redundant, there are two options for Mad Libs. These are modified from Pirate Mad Libs found online. Each one has 10 words/blanks to fill in.

Here are the actual Mad Libs:

After filling in the words, the students rehearsed how to read/narrate and act out the Mad Libs for the class, and to show a picture they have colored. Drawing and coloring a picture as part of this assignment emphasizes the fact that in theatre, there are many jobs in design as well as storytelling (acting and playwriting). There are costume designers, make up designers, lighting designers, sound designers, costume designers, and set designers. This picture highlights the set and costume designing the most.

Here are the picture templates I took from a stamp book. 
 

Mad Lib A "How to Act Like a Pirate goes with this picture, "Draw a Scene from a Pirate Movie."

Mad Lib B "Hidden Treasure" goes with this picture, "Finish the Pirate Treasure Map."

Here are the stuffed animals I used for this activity. Each group received one. This made the performance more entertaining, giving them a prop/character to interact with on stage.

MOOSE

GIRAFFE

DUCK

ELEPHANT

DOG

BEAR

BUNNY

Here are some pictures from the performances of the Mad Libs. Pictures of the drawings are forthcoming.

This group used crayons for the sword and made the stuffed animal the pirate in Mad Lib A! Arg!

This group used the elephant as the three-cornered object/noun that would sit on the head of a pirate in Mad Lib A.

This group used a basketball as the noun that perches on top of the pirate's shoulder  in Mad Lib A. It looks like it's on the dog's shoulder!

Lots of digging in the Mad Lib B scenes!

Marking the hidden treasure spot with a giraffe in Mad Lib B!

I always love how animated the boys are in these projects, especially when they have the chance to act together in a scene and have chosen very active verbs such as attack and sword-fight. Perhaps we should do a lesson on stage combat!

These scenes were short and sweet and tons of fun! Lots of hilarious and original ideas. Some students were worried they would not know how to act out their scene since it didn't make a lot of sense, nor did they take a lot of time to practice. Yet I was so impressed to see how they still got up in front of the class and made the best of it, finding ways to act out the different parts, even adding dialogue as it went. I loved when they shared the script and took turns reading and repeating lines and phrases. They are doing such a great job. I am looking forward to the upcoming projects where the students have even more freedom to write and improvise their dialogue and narration. ARG!