Elementary Curriculum Guide Note to Teachers: This guide was created for elementary age students, ranging from grades K-5. Feel free to adjust the questions and activities to fit your class. Geography - Have students locate Asia on a globe or map. Help them locate Korea, China, the Philippines, Japan, and all of the other Asian countries. How far are these countries are from where they live? - Using a classroom map, look at the vast area covered by Asia. Discuss the varied topography and climates. What effect might the environment have on the lives of storytellers. What kind of stories would people who live in the mountains tell? How will those stories differ from the stories of people who live by the sea? Folktales - Be sure students understand that folk tales are stories that have been handed down, usually orally, for generations. What kind of stories do the students know? Who told the stories to them? Do they know any family stories? Did a parent or relative tell them the story? Artistic Elements within the Storytelling - Discuss with students the different ways that theater, dance, movement and music can be used to tell stories. - Remind students to listen and watch carefully for all of the different artistic elements of Eth-Noh-Tec's performance- such as movement, facial expressions, dance, and spoken word. - With the students, discuss the following statements: Dance can tell a story by sharing feelings and showing pictures with movement and actions. Theater tells stories by using spoken words and stage pictures. Music tells a story by using sound and the listener's imagination. Discuss the Performance - What part of the story presentation did they particularly enjoy? Why? What did they learn? Did any part of the performance surprise them? What did the students see? Art Activities - Students can illustrate their favorite story or part of the program. Details can include costume pieces, props and characters, then share and explain their art work to the class. Encourage them to work together in groups to create a series of pictures that when combined create an entire storyline. Writing and Storytelling Activities - Encourage students to recall a turning point or situation in their life that they could make into a story. Have the students elaborate on the who, what, when, where, why and how of the event. What lesson did the student (as the main character) learn? The stories can be told or written, and shared with the class. - Students can create a story together in a "story circle." Divide the classroom into small circles of six or seven students. The first person starts off with "once upon a time" and begins the story with a character, a time or a place. The story continues as the "plot" is passed around the circle, each student adding a new element or idea to the story. The students who are second, third and fourth will get to make up the middle of the story. The fifth and sixth person start bringing the plot to an end, and finally, the last person finishes the story and says "the end." Storytelling Movement Theater - As there are dozens of Asian countries, and even within them countless more cultures, languages and subgroups, there are a bounty of stories and styles of traditional storytelling. Some people stand, others sit, some only use their voice. Some tellers perform their stories using dance, music and theater to dramatize their show. - Eth-Noh-Tec's style of storytelling, called Storytelling Movement Theater, uses a great deal of movement and dramatic gestures. The use of hands, face, body positions are stylized or exaggerated shapes that are used to set a mood or describe an environment. Often times in the traditional theaters of Asia, there are no fancy props or sets. Instead the performers use a simple prop or hand gesture to imitate real life objects. - Have students recall, re-enact or draw the shapes, expressions or images that the performers were able to create using their bodies, faces or movements during the performance. Vocabulary List - Folk tale: a common story, legendary and/or fantastic, that is handed down from generation to generation. - Myth: An ancient tale that recounts the happenings of the Spirit World, beyond human history, time, and space. - Metaphor: an image or concept in a story that has a symbolic meaning. For example, "It's raining cats and dogs" means it's raining heavily, NOT the animals are falling from the sky. - Origin Myth: a type of myth that explains how things came to be. - Ditze: Chinese bamboo flute used for folk and classical music. - Shakuhachi: Japanese bamboo flute that is blown at the end. - "Kam sa ha mida" (Korean): "Thank you" - "Talaga!" (Filipino): "Really!"