DORATEACHER RESOURCES

THE UK’S THEATRE FOR YOUNG AUDIENCES

13 SEP - 17 NOV

BITS AND BOBS, JUMBLE AND JUNK, DORA STORED IT ALLDORA is a Unicorn Theatre production based on the popular book Dora the Storer by Helen East and Katinka Kew.

Letting go of things can be hard but sometimes giving something away can make you even happier. Dora’s story celebrates the pleasure in giving and receiving and links to classroom work around home, identity and sharing.

CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION TO THE RESOURCESp. 2

SUMMARY OF THE STORYp. 3

THE DESIGN OF DORA p. 4 CLASSROOM ACTIVITIESOverview p. 5 Part 1 p. 6Part 2 p. 7Part 3 p. 8

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Image of Dora from the desinger Verity Quinn

INTRODUCTIONWelcome to the teacher resources for Dora. The play which runs from 13 September to 17 November is created for Nursery to Year 3 children to enjoy.

The teacher resources and CPD day for Dora on Monday 23 September will offer a simple Mantle of the Expert framework for exploring the themes within the play in the classroom. The series of drama sessions can be used before or after your visit to the theatre, and provide tasks which offer purposeful activities across the curriculum. The resources and CPD are designed for teachers who are new to drama as well as those with experience of using drama in the classroom.

Mantle of the Expert is an approach to drama that puts children in role as experts and allows them to use the knowledge and understanding they have to fulfil the role. By creating an imagined enterprise – the running of a charity shop – teachers and children will be in role exploring the kinds of tasks they will need to do for the enterprise to be successful.

This framework will allow the children to explore the value of objects and the stories they hold; what it means to hold onto things and to let things go and why some objects which are of little financial value can be priceless. We will connect this to the children’s own experience of precious objects and of giving and receiving.

Working through drama gives children the chance to explore things that matter to them, draw on their prior knowledge and apply it to new situations, develop language as they give expression to new understandings within the drama and develop emotional intelligence and critical thinking as they see things from different perspectives. Mantle of the Expert is dramatic enquiry focused learning which allows children to take responsibility, make decisions, solve problems and explore possibilities from within the dramatic context.

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The age-range for the show is wide and while the play will be appropriate for the full range of children in the audience, the classroom activities will need to be adapted to suit your class. The CPD day will support teachers in responsive planning and in adapting the activities for their particular setting.

The Dora CPD day is a practical workshop day which gives teachers the opportunity to: experience the activities as participants; understand how to approach and adapt the work for their particular class; discuss and share ideas with other teachers and develop skills, understanding and confidence in working with drama in the classroom.

SUMMARY OF THE STORY

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Dora loved to collect things that other people had thrown away or lost, she thought that they would come in useful one day. But the one thing Dora did not have was space. Her home was full to the brim of stuff.

One day an advert for a Jumble Sale was slipped though her letterbox. It was for a very good cause. So Dora decided to give some of her stuff away, she filled up a pram and wheeled it down to the sale hall.

But even though she had given lots away she still had so much stuff, she felt ashamed and decided she needed to be generous.

So Dora wheeled more and more of her things to the sale hall, until eventually she had given away all her stuff. That night Dora couldn’t get to sleep thinking about her precious objects.

The next day Dora decided to go to the sale and buy all her precious objects back.

But when she saw the pleasure of people buying her stuff, she didn’t buy a thing, but watched as people proudly took home their precious objects.

Dora’s dream - from the designer

We would recommend leaving any exploration of the story until after your visit, so that the play itself can tell the story.

DESIGNING DORA BY VERITY QUINN

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Designing this set was kind of like designing an elaborate obstacle course. Dora’s life is in a bit of a mess, she has so many belongings that moving around her house is almost impossible. To show this, we built the set out of Dora’s belongings, there are no walls or doors, so it looks like she’s trapped by a mountain of stuff.

Her things aren’t always pretty, but she’s very attached to all of them. When selecting objects to fill Dora’s house, I had to get to know Dora’s character and try to imagine the choices she would make.

Dora is a mustn’t-grumble-make-do-and-mender, a magpie with a special eye for things that might come in useful later. She’s also, I think, a little lonely.

Who are we without our belongings? The objects we own can say a lot about us. They’re like a series of small statements about ourselves, of who we are or would like to be, to remind us of something or to create the starting point of a story.

On the other hand, it’s hugely refreshing to have a really good clear out and find new things to replace the old. It’s an opportunity to reinvent ourselves a little bit. For me, that’s the genius of a Jumble Sale: you can do both – give something away and find a new, even better thing in its place.

DRAMA ACTIVITIESMANTLE OF THE EXPERT - THE CHARITY SHOP

These activities are outlines for the kind of approaches that can be taken. We have tested some of these activities with a class of Year 1 children in a local London primary school. How a teacher decides to use these activities will be dependent on their class, and their curriculum priorities. While we have a outlined a number of sessions which build on the previous work, these can only act as examples, as responsive planning is key to successful Mantle of the Expert work; evaluating the session with your class, identifying warm trails – areas of interest and investment for the children that are asking to be developed; as well as planning around teaching priorities and opportunities that present themselves to develop curriculum objectives.

The activities described can be simplified for nursery and reception children; cleaning and preparing the shop, sorting through bags of stock and thinking about what should be put on sale or thrown away, or talking to the mother of the child whose daughter is upset at the loss of her toys are all activities that are appropriate for EYFS.

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Central to these activities is the use of in-role work, where teacher and children participate alongside each other in the dramatic fiction. Working in role can be a very simple technique, and is not about performance, but about speaking from a different perspective. The teacher CPD day at the Unicorn will offer teachers a safe space to try out working in role.

The jumble-sale - from Verity the designer

PART ONE: CREATING THE ENTERPRISE

OVERVIEW The first activity will explore how to begin to create an enterprise and frame children in role as ‘as if’ experts who are going to help run a charity shop.

The teacher will be in role as the ‘client’ - the person who wants this enterprise to run smoothly and who is enlisting the children’s help in this. The session would begin with the children agreeing to step into the role and imagine that they are volunteers who want to give their free time to help the charity. A simple signifier may be used by the teacher in role (TIR), for example a scarf or a jacket, to mark when they are taking on the role of the client.

This session will help build belief in the enterprise through a series of simple easily accomplished activities that don’t demand too much expertise at this early stage.

OPENING DISCUSSION A short discussion about charity shops, boot fairs, table top sales and jumble sales will help contextualise the work and allow children to draw on their real life experience. You will need to decide what charity your shop will be raising money for.

POSSIBLE ACTIVITYTasks which give the children the opportunity to make decisions will build investment in the enterprise. For example:• The teacher in-role as the client (the person who runs the charity) meets the children in role as

volunteers who have turned up to help run this charity shop. The client asks the volunteers about their previous experience of working in shops and what kind of skills and experience they might have that will be relevant. The client can also talk about the charity and why the profits from the shop are important and ask the volunteers why they have chosen to give their time to the charity.

• The volunteers could be asked to complete a simple form which shows how many days a week they are able to volunteer and sign their name at the bottom of the form.

• The volunteers could be given a little training: this is an opportunity to think about what kind of jobs might be involved in running a charity shop - in pairs the volunteers could be asked to role-play: one person is the customer, the other the volunteer shopkeeper trying to help the customer – the TIR as client could model this activity with a volunteer.

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The children will be thinking about customers, volunteers, different kinds of shops and what is needed to run a shop smoothly. Having given the children an idea of their role in the drama and the kinds of things they might need to think about it is now time to build a sense of the shop they are about to run and the kind of things they might stock.

PART TWO: CREATING THE SHOP

OVERVIEWThis session is designed to build the volunteer’s investment in the enterprise through making decisions about the layout of the shop and sorting through stock.

OPENING DISCUSSION What might you donate or give away, what would you never give away? (pairs or whole class)

PREPARATION/RESOURCESLarge map of shop, bag of objects, paper/pens, tape for marking out the shop on the floor.

POSSIBLE ACTIVTY• The TIR as the client introduces a large map of the shop that they will be renting. The volunteers look

at the map of the shop and think about how it might need to be laid out and what might work where. Example of in-role discussion: Remember from the last session what we understand about charity shops and the kind of stock they might have; clothes, bric-a-brac, shoes, books, DVDs, toys etc. What kinds of things will we need to display our stock (clothes racks, shelves, cabinets, baskets etc)?

• Cleaning the shop and getting ready for the stock: Having become familiar with the layout of the shop, the volunteers could act out getting the shop ready; sweeping, mopping, putting up shelves, bringing in furniture, plugging in the till, making sure there is a kettle and other tea-making equipment for the volunteers etc.

• A large bag of donations can be sorted through (you will need a bag with enough items for every child). In pairs children can take an object each out of the bag and think about who might have donated it to the shop and why they might have donated it.

• The volunteers could then sort the objects, deciding which things go well together and where they might place them in the shop. You may want to use a rough plan of the shop marked out on the floor. *See photo at the back. What things go well together? What things are delicate and need to go under the glass cabinet? What would be best to display in the window to attract customers?

• You could then create more stock; drawing things which someone might donate to the charity shop. Our ‘try out’ class created lots of lovely drawings of more stock that were added to our shop.

• Volunteers may want to make posters to advertise their shop; either to put in their own shop window or to go up about town showing what a wide range of stock they have in the shop.

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This session works well if there is a wide variety of clothes and objects for the volunteers to handle. One of the key concepts to explore is the potential of objects – things that look unpromising to one person might be valuable to someone else. This will be explored in more depth in the following sessions.

PART THREE: THE VALUE OF OBJECTSWHAT ARE THINGS WORTH?

OVERVIEWThis session will focus on the value of things and the idea that some things which seem worthless can be of value to someone else. By this stage the class should have a shared sense of the shop, the stock and how it is laid out.

PREPARATION/RESOURCESA bag of objects - some broken/old looking, sticky labels for pricing.

OPENING DISCUSSIONRecapping on the last session - the layout of the shop and the stock.

POSSIBLE ACTIVITY

• You could create small group improvisations or freeze frames of people passing the window of the shop and looking in; you could thought-track the children and hear what the passers-by think of your shop and the things that are for sale in it.

• In role as the client, ask the volunteers to help sort through a bag of things that you can’t decide what to do with. Maybe they should be thrown out? Maybe they are worth putting on sale? For this you need a bag with some objects in that provide interesting discussions about what value they might have for someone, even if they look like rubbish to other people.

• Volunteers move back into groups with items of stock (we had toys, clothes and shoes, shiny and ancient objects and books and ornaments). The client explains that the policy of the shop is to sell items for between £1 and £10, the teams need to decide on the value of items and using sticky labels price their stock ready for sale.

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In our ‘try-out’ class we had a snow globe from New York which had very murky water; the volunteers discussed what the object was, a souvenir and what that meant, who might have bought it and who might like to buy it despite its condition (someone who wanted to be reminded of New York). We also had a doll with a wonky eye; some volunteers thought it looked scary and we should throw it away, some felt that if we made it some new clothes someone might like to look after it. We also had a lovely old silver stop watch with no hands. What is the point of a watch that can’t tell the time? The volunteers decided we would find a watch mender and then it would probably be worth quite a lot of money.

PART FOUR: DEALING WITH CUSTOMERSTHE LOST TOYS

OVERVIEWThis session helps the children think more deeply about the value of objects and the meanings they can hold for people. They will also draw on their own experience of growing up, change and transition. They are called upon to help work through a problem using their empathy, experience and understandings and come up with solutions for a difficult emotional situation.

The shop is finally ready for customers. With all the stock ready you can now create opportunities for the volunteers to help out with a range of customers.

PREPARATION/RESOURCESProp or costume signifyer for mother/father role

POSSIBLE ACTIVITY

• You may want to take it in turns for the volunteers to be working and other children or staff come in as customers looking for something. Making some successful sales will develop a sense of an enterprise which is working – making money for the chosen charity.

• The teacher or classroom assistant enters in role as a mother or father who has a problem they need help with: the parent has decorated their child’s bedroom, it is coming up to their 5th birthday and they are going into Year 1 (big school) . The parent did it as a surprise and threw some of the old things out thinking they were rubbish. The child is now going straight to their room when coming home from reception and won’t talk to the parent. What can he/she do about it?

• The TIR as the parent needs help to understand what they have done and why their child is upset. The things that have been thrown away need to be described – maybe something like a really old and dirty soft toy, something that seems really worthless (like an old McDonald’s toy, but something that when asked about can provide a story about a particular trip/day out), a drawing the child did, something that reminds them of someone important.

• These items are not in the shop so cannot be replaced. The volunteer has to help the parent to decide what do next – how could they talk to their child? Is there anything they can do to make the situation better?

• TIR as the parent concludes the discussion, thanks the volunteers for their help and re-caps the ideas they will try out when they go home.

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the taped out shop floor plan

objects for the shop

UNICORNTHEATRE.COM | 020 7645 0544

RESOURCE PACK WRITTEN BY: CATHERINE GREENWOOD

DEVELOPED WITH: ELLA MACFADYEN & YEAR ONE AT COMBER GROVE PRIMARY SCHOOL

THE DORA TEAM:DIRECTOR - PURNI MORELLDESIGNER - VERITY QUINNDORA - HANNAH BOYD