Moon Forest was a great find recently at the public library. For teaching artists working with 2nd-5th graders - and larger sized classes of 10 or more - this story has lots of action and lots of "roles."
A fox is traveling through a forest looking for food. Many animals interact and respond to the fox. The story so naturally lends itself to a dance, especially in a school setting with 20-35 children in a class. Develop the dance, and you can read the story aloud on stage. Your words and pacing can naturally cue the students.
The story begins with:
The great white eye of the moon looks into the forest. What can it see?
A flitter of bats.
A twist of briars.
A dusting of moths.
A coil of ferns.
A red fox running through a blue forest.....
An owl gliding between shadows.
A warm breeze ruffling fur; a hunter's nose
sniffing the sweet night air,
something stirring,
a rat scuttling.
Teaching artists can easily explore this book for several weeks in class, taking time to try out the many actions in the book. The story lends itself to exploring level changes, tempo, and a wide variety of locomotor and axial movements.
Patricia MacCarthy's magical illustrations evoke traveling, swirling, dodging, and hiding within the forest.
Music ideas include songs from the album Chamber Music, a collaboration with a cellist and kora player (Ballaké Sissoko and Vincent Segal). Try out "Halinkata Djoubé."
---------------
Comments