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IAN JOHNSTONE
Study Guide Material
for
Elementary School Concerts
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Welcome !
On this page, I'd like to tell you a bit about my Elementary School Concerts.
I'll include a "thumb-nail sketch" of the show and some suggestions for pre-concert preparation activities. Also, as a catalyst for your own genius, a few ideas for post-concert follow-up projects.
[Program Description] [Pre-Concert Prep] [Ian Johnstone's Home Page] [Bottom]
PROGRAM DESCRIPTION
This "Thumb-Nail Sketch" of Ian Johnstone's Elementary School concert is intended to prepare the classroom teacher for, and alert them to, the countless educational opportunities offered by Ian Johnstone's Elementary School concert.
Ian Johnstone's school concerts involve a combination of original songs and a story/song that are blended into a structure that is logical and educationally productive.
The concert begins with the students being introduced to "audience etiquette".
With the use of some of Ian's original songs, such as Always Room for one More, Boat Named Roy and I Can Fly, the children are shown how to be an audience in a live performance, and how to participate responsibly without being disruptive in any way.
The pace and intensity gradually build, and Ian leads into his 15 minute story song about the monster Abbey-Yo-Yo. (At this point, the history and physical characteristics of the 5-string banjo are reviewed).
This story describes a little boy, his grandfather, and a community that is plagued by the monster, Abbey-Yo-Yo. It is an allegorical tale that demonstrates social, community and personal values, personal courage... and a little bit of magic. At the climax of the story the entire audience participates in helping to solve the problem of the monster (and they live "happily-after-ever").
Following the story of Abbey Yo-Yo are more songs from Ian Johnstone's two albums "Dear Mr. Johnstone..." and "Love and Warm Fuzzies...".
Silly Monkey/Serious Owl again helps the children to learn about involvement and participation, while developing and making use of rhythmic and tonal interval listening skills.
The penultimate song When Sometimes I Forget gives an introduction to American Sign Language and the final song, the perennial favourite You are My Sunshine, provides a suitable, positive climax to the concert.
Throughout the concert, the children are shown that learning these and other skills can be entertaining, exciting and fun !
PRE-CONCERT PREPARATION ACTIVITIES
The following activities are designed to assist teachers in preparing their students for Ian Johnstone's performance, without in any way detracting from the spontaneous excitement generated by that performance or compromising the dramatic impact or integrity.
- A brief review - picture identification of musical instruments, particularly including the banjo in comparison to the guitar.
- How do they differ?
- How are they similar?
- Sing some songs with the children.
- Use 'echo' or 'mimic' technique (children echo exactly what they've just heard) to teach rhythmic patterns (clapping) and tonal intervals (vocal).
- Discuss "audience participation" with the students.
- What is participation?
- What is just listening?
- Discuss the concepts of "passive" vs "active" participation.
- Discuss the difference between television/movies, tapes/CDs, and "live" music.
- What are the advantages of each medium?
- What are the disadvantages?
- Have each student perform a song (or a verse) for the entire class.
- How does it feel to be a performer vs an audience?
POSSIBLE FOLLOW-UP ACTIVITIES TO ABBEY-YO-YO
Monsters and monster stories are perennial favourites with children. Use one or more of these activities to add interest to classroom learning and to enrich the experience of hearing the Abbey-Yo-Yo story.
Language Arts:
- Retell the story of Abbey-Yo-Yo. Change the ending.
- Dramatize the story. Give everyone a chance to be one of the main characters.
- Rewrite the story with you as one of the main characters.
(Younger students could dictate their stories to be written for them.)
- Illustrate your story with crayons or paints.
- Make a monster book.
- Have each student write a monster story and illustrate it.
- Put the stories together in books and present the books to the school library.
- Using Abbey-Yo-Yo or one of the class's original stories, divide the story into short scenes.
- Have different students or groups of students illustrate each scene and fasten the illustrations together to form a continuous "movie".
- Tape a narrative of the story with sound effects and a way to present it to another class.
- Make monster puppets
- Paper bag puppets are fast and easy.
- Have plenty of cloth, paper and yarn scraps for embellishment.
- Using your puppets, produce a puppet show. Present to the whole class or another class.
- Have students trace or draw monster footprints on tagboard, approx. 15 cm x 20 cm.
- On each footprint write a provocative "story starter" such as:
- You're on your way to school and while you're waiting to cross the street, you see a monster drive by on a motorcycle. What do you do?
- You're looking for the baseball you've just hit into the bushes and you notice a huge footprint in the flowerbed. You call your friends over and...
- Put all the footprints together in a Monster Writing Centre.
Art:
Make individual papier-mâché monsters or a class monster.
- For a really large monster...
- shape a base using chicken wire.
- Form a cylinder by fastening the edges of a rectangle together to use as the trunk of the body.
- Make appendages the same way and add as needed.
- Cover with layers of newspaper or paper towelling soaked in wheat paste.
- Let dry
- paint or paste on outer covering
- Suspend by wire from the ceiling
- Looks great!
Health:
Use Abbey-Yo-Yo story to lead into discussion about being afraid.
- Small discussion groups work best, so that each child has a chance to tell of some time when they have been scared.
- Teacher could model with real fear of her/his own to show that being afraid is legitimate, even for grownups.
- Talk about physical signs that show when we are afraid, i.e. "butterflies", shaking knees, sweating, paleness, etc.
Social Studies:
Use the Abbey-Yo-Yo story to start discussion on differing values in our society:
- How did the values of the little boy and the magician grandfather differ from the people around them?
- Why were the people afraid of Abbey-Yo-Yo?
- Can you think of other stories where the local "weirdos" or "misfits" end up being the heros?
- What conclusions might you draw about our society from the study of its heros?
- Which character from the story would you like to be?
- How would you change the story to make it reflect your values?
Resources:
Check your library for monster books such as:
- Primary;
- My Mama Says..., Viorst, Judith
- Where the Wild Things Are, Sendak, Maurice
- Where Is My Monster, Victor, Joan Berg
- Intermediate;
- Danny Dunn and the Swamp Monster, Williams, Jay and Abrashkin, Raymond
- Sea Monsters, Buehr Walter
Ian Johnstone currently has two children's albums available on CD.
Here's where you can find out about them and/or order them...
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This page was created by me... Ian Johnstone.
Last updated on January 24, 2006
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(Th-th-that's all, folks!)