MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE AT OUTOFTHEBOXFESTIVAL.COM.AUOUT OF THE BOX CREATIVE LEARNING GUIDE

SLAPDASH GALAXYPresented by Out of the Box A Bunk Puppets Production

Supported by YFG Shopping Centres

Shadow puppets in space! Two brothers embark on an epic quest to find a new home planet.This is the tale of Sam and Junior. Two brothers, who must flee their barren planet and embark on an epic quest across the galaxy. Using the contents of your cleaning cupboard, Bunk Puppets’ David Geddes conjures up astonishing lo-fi theatrical wizardry using only old boxes, bubble wrap, drinking straws, tennis balls, ping pong bats and old toys. It’s a crazy shadow puppet universe, made from bits of rubbish.Award-winning Bunk Puppets, creators of Swamp Juice and Sticks Stones Broken Bones, present this new, delicious, DIY theatre event.Forget what you think you know about shadow puppets, buckle-in and tear open your imagination for an epic journey with two brothers as they battle the bad guys, and find strength in each other at warp speed.

EARLY YEARS FRAMEWORKOutcome 2: Children are connected with and contribute to their world

Outcome 3: Children have a strong sense of wellbeing

Outcome 4: Children are confident and involved learners

Outcome 5: Children are effective communicators

NEED TO KNOWAGE RANGE: 5 and older. Parental guidance is recommended under 5 years as some scenes may be scary.

VENUE: Studio 1

AUSTRALIAN CURRICULUMDRAMA: F-2

Explore role and dramatic action in dramatic play, improvisation and process drama (ACADRM027)

Use voice, facial expression, movement and space to imagine and establish role and situation (ACADRM028)

Respond to drama and consider where and why people make drama, starting with Australian drama including drama of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (ACADRR030)

MUSIC: F-2

Develop aural skills by exploring and imitating sounds, pitch and rhythm patterns using voice, movement and body percussion (ACAMUM080)

Sing and play instruments to improvise, practise a repertoire of chants, songs and rhymes, including songs used by cultural groups in the community (ACAMUM081)

Create compositions and perform music to communicate ideas to an audience (ACAMUM082)

Respond to music and consider where and why people make music, starting with Australian music, including music of Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander Peoples (ACAMUR083)

SCIENCE: 1-2

YEAR 1 Science involves observing, asking questions about, and describing changes in, objects and events (ACSHE021)

YEAR 2 Light and sound are produced by a range of sources and can be sensed (ACSSU020)

YEAR 3 With guidance, plan and conduct scientific investigations to find answers to questions, considering the safe use of appropriate materials and equipment (ACSIS054)

Consider the elements of fair tests and use formal measurements and digital technologies as appropriate, to make and record observations accurately (ACSIS055)

CREATIVELEARNINGGUIDE

MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE AT OUTOFTHEBOXFESTIVAL.COM.AUOUT OF THE BOX CREATIVE LEARNING GUIDE

Slapdash Galaxy provides the opportunity to discuss and explore moral lessons such as good versus evil and the importance of friendship. Through an easily accessible narrative, the performance encourages the audience to reflect on choices we make and the consequences of our actions. Exploring familiar

school challenges such as being a good friend and making good choices, these topics can be expanded on through various stimuli to enhance student’s connection to one another and improve wellbeing.

Imagination and innovation are the focus of this performance, taking the audience on a magical adventure using everyday objects. Shadow puppetry used in the performance is accessible and models how students can apply these ideas to their own stories using everyday household items. The visibility of how the puppets and projections are made inspire students with their own storytelling and encourage imagination. Connections to science with regards to light and projection enable students to explore core learning areas in an artistic and creative way.

Limited dialogue ensures the performance is accessible to all ages and abilities, which caters for diverse and multicultural communities. The visual focus combined with audience interaction and participation allows the storytelling to be interactive and responsive; ensuring the audience is engaged and further deepens the engagement in the storyline and its message.

ART FORM FOCUS:Drama, Music, Science

KEY MESSAGES:The importance of family and friendship.

Actions have consequences, so think before you leap.

Adventure can be found everywhere; the limit is your imagination!

LEARNING OPPORTUNITY:• Use your imagination to create a story focussing on visuals

and music rather than focusing on the dialogue

• Experiment with light and shape to communicate action

• Reflect on the importance of friendship, family and learning from our mistakes.

LEARNING ACTIVITIES:MORALS AND LESSONS

• Discuss what morals are. Decide as a class the definition of a moral.

• Use a picture book focussing on friendship such as Snail and Turtle are Friends by Stephen Michael King or Croc and Bird by Alexis Decon (or one from the OTHER RESOURCES listed below) and show the class each page.

• Encourage students to describe the setting of the pictures and the characters in the images. Discuss:

o What do you think each character is like? How could they be related to the other characters in the image?

o What is happening in each image? What do you think is happening in the story?

o What could be the potential lesson or moral of the story?

• Read the story as a class to see if the predictions were accurate.

• Discuss the moral of the story. Why is this moral important? How could you apply this in our classroom and/or in your family or household?

• Make this moral the focus of the week and from the class brainstorm, list the ways the students will demonstrate the learning of this moral or lesson.

MATCHING THE SOUND TO THE CHARACTER

• Look at images of characters or watch short clips from popular children’s shows such as:

o Ben and Hollie’s Little Kingdom

o The Furchester Hotel.

• Discuss specific characters from the shows viewed and describe how their voice sounds as well as how it communicates their role and attitude.

• Do vocal warm ups as a class using call and response to model the sound so the class can copy the sound. Use an ‘Ahh’ sound to go up and down in melody (refer to the vocal warm up links OTHER RESOURCES). Repeat tongue-twisters such as:

o “my mummy makes me mash my mini m’n’m’s on a Monday morning”

o “the tip of the tongue the teeth the lips”.

• Provide images of unknown characters (or cut out shapes to create a character) and discuss how they might sound and why. Experiment with different vocal sounds for characters and decide how your chosen character will sound. Listen to the interpretations of the different roles as a class and discuss whether the voice chosen matches the character and why.

EXPERIMENTING WITH SHAPE, LIGHT AND DISTANCE

• Create animal shapes with your hands to communicate different animals (refer to links in OTHER RESOURCES) such as a:

o Butterfly or bird (link thumbs and flap fingers)

o Duck (put four fingers together and tuck thumb under and open and close to create the beak)

CREATIVELEARNINGGUIDE

MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE AT OUTOFTHEBOXFESTIVAL.COM.AUOUT OF THE BOX CREATIVE LEARNING GUIDE

o Swan (curl one hand over in a hook shape with the thumb tucked underneath for the beak and place the other hand mid-way down the ‘hook’ arm and stretch all fingers out to create the back feathers of the swan).

• Work in pairs to add light (such as torch) behind your animal shapes so you can see the shapes on the wall. Experiment with the animal shape, whether you can improve the shape further or if there are other animals you could create also.

• Experiment with the distance of the animal shape from the light and how you can make your animal larger or smaller. Determine whether the light further from the puppet makes it larger or smaller.

• Use your voice to communicate how the animal noise sounds, ensuring your hand movements are matching with the sound you are making. Use a line of dialogue to experiment with your character’s voice.

EXAMPLE

“My name is (insert), I haven’t seen you at this waterhole before…”

• Play with your voice and decide whether your character is a hero or villain and what attitude your character will have. Are they cranky? Happy? Sleepy?

• Trial a variety of vocal experiments and decide on how you want the character to sound.

• Watch and listen to characters to hear the different characters created.

COMMUNICATING MOOD: CREATING A SOUNDSCAPE

• Look at images of different landscapes and locations and discuss what sounds you might hear and what the atmosphere is like in these locations.

• Choose one landscape to focus on as a class (such as space to link to the Slapdash Galaxy performance) and brainstorm a list of the sounds you might hear. Allocate a sound to a pair of students to recreate using vocals, words or instruments (if available) to communicate their sound.

• Allocate small groups to experiment with ways to build the sound to a climax using dynamics (how loud or soft a sound is) as well as layering the sounds. Do all the sounds need to start at once or can you add sounds to the soundscape to build the atmosphere?

• Listen to some small groups (ask all listeners to close their eyes to focus on the atmosphere created) and discuss whether the sound matched the image and why.

Extension activity: Provide a small group with a short dialogue between astronauts talking in space. Encourage groups to useecho, delayed response time and experiment with the dialogue floating through the soundscape. Reflect on this soundscape and whether it communicates the atmosphere in the initial stimulus.

POST-SHOW QUESTIONS AND DISCUSSIONS

• What did you enjoy about the show? Why?

• What was your favourite part of the performance?

• Did you like that you could see how the performer made the puppets come to life with light and sound? Why or why not?

• What challenges did the two brothers (Sam and Junior) face?

• How did the music change when the brothers faced a challenge such as defeating the spider or the space pirates? How did this help build the atmosphere and excitement or tension?

• What do you think was the moral of the story?

• How do our choices have consequences? Discuss:

o What were some of the consequences of the choices made by Junior? For example: When Sam asked him to not touch the switches in the spaceship and he did. What was the outcome of these actions?

o Have you had a similar experience with your older brother or sister? Have you been the older brother or sister and has your sibling ignored your advice? What happened? What was the lesson?

o Why is it important to apologise and take responsibility when you make a mistake?

POST SHOW: DISCUSSION

• Describe the story of Slapdash Galaxy.

• What was the most memorable moment of the performance?

• What was unexpected about the show?

• Describe a moment that made you laugh?

• Describe an ordinary object that was made extraordinary in the show. How was this achieved?

MORE INFORMATION AVAILABLE AT OUTOFTHEBOXFESTIVAL.COM.AUOUT OF THE BOX CREATIVE LEARNING GUIDE

OTHER RESOURCES:BOOKS – SHADOW AND SHAPE FOCUS

Firefly, Light Up The Sky by Eric Carle

BOOKS – TEACHING MORALS

Have you Filled A Bucket Today? By Carol McCloud (Helping others and yourself brings happiness)

The Mine-O-Saur by Sudipta Bardhan-Quallen (To share is to care)

A Bad Case of Stripes by David Shannon (Celebrating individuality)

Sylvester and the Magic Pebble by William Steig (Always be grateful for family)

Snowflake Bentley by Jacqueline Briggs Martin (Following your dreams is important)

The Story of Ferdinand by Munroe Lead (Being you is more important than being who people want you to be)

WEBSITES

Vocal warm ups for kids

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m-3i2CJQo4I

How to make shadow puppets

https://www.wikihow.com/Make-Shadow-Puppets

Bunk Puppets

http://www.bunk.studio/PUPPETS/HOME.html

You Bunk: Slapdash Galaxy by Bunk Puppets

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jADdwgaaUxQ

These notes have been prepared by Education Consultant Lucy Flook for QPAC’s Out of the Box in 2018.