Materials: Laminated letter S, props for The Soup Opera
Concepts and Vocabulary: What-questions, loud/soft, big/little, opera, sing, waiter, menu, chef, ladle, policeman (or policewoman), badge, mayor, pen, President of the United States, prop, costume, applause, curtain
Transition Song: Must Be Santa. This time, we're singing it without the build-a-Santa prop. We're practicing to go caroling next week. See November Week 4 for the link to this song.
This week we're all about singing The Soup Opera by Jim Gill. This is a book you can find in your local library with a CD. But Jim Gill also has it on Vimeo. It has the soundtrack and the book pages. Or you can see it performed live with audience volunteers, an orchestra, and two opera singers on this video:
Back to our preschool performances. First we read the book and learned the lines we needed to sing. Then we dispersed around the preschool room to find costumes and props in order to look like our characters. What does a waiter need? What does a chef need? What is a mayor? Some of us chose puppets that looked like our characters. Some of us found costumes and props. Everyone came back to the rug and we performed it again. We talked about how on a stage there is a big curtain that goes up and down. We talked about clapping and learned the word applause. We got up to sing our parts and everyone sang if someone was shy about singing their part. For our kids who were nonverbal, we had a button for them to push that would play a recording of everyone singing the line "I can't eat my soup!" After the performance we applauded and shouted "Bravo!" which is what people shout when they like the opera.
DO THIS AT HOME: Put on an opera at home. It could be The Soup Opera practiced and performed for family members. Or make up silly lines that you can sing repetitively during every day tasks. Sing familiar songs. Singing and choral recitation (where everyone says the same line such as "Chicka Chicka Boom Boom!" in the book of the same name) is a great way for our kids struggling with language to work on articulation and phrase expansion when they don't have to plan what to say but can focus on how to articulate it or how to put all the words in the phrase together. Kids who are not struggling with language get excited about the different parts and the new vocabulary. The best part about an activity like this is that it involves families in an activity they can do together.
When we do this again next month, the children will be directing, performing, narrating, leading the music, and even considering other characters than those mentioned in the book. The children will be in charge. Will the story have a different ending? Will the music change? Wait and see.....
