Pre-K Movie First Draft

Posted on by forstm

Oh my! I can’t believe it’s this time of year already.  We began creating stories for our script early in January and have now come down to what I think will be our final direction.  This in no way ensures that changes won’t be made.  In fact, if history has taught us anything in Pre-K, the characters are sure to change in these last two weeks of writing.  Remember, this story is written by the Pre-K students.  You’ll find all sorts of silliness and that is just the way we like it.   Here is a copy of our draft thus far.  We’ll figure out a title, change the format to look more like a play, and begin planning costumes and sets once we return from Spring Break.

Once upon a time, there were 2 little pigeons playing basketball. Two Big Baby Ducklings came along and said, “What are you doing?” Then the 2 pigeons ran into their house. The BBDs were very hungry and now they were grumpy. They tried to blow down the house.

2 police officers came. “Halt!” They captured the 2 BBDs and took them to the police car.

The 2 pigeons decide to watch tv. They were watching The Pigeon on the bus.

(On the tv.)
Pigeon decides to drive somewhere and get some mac and cheese. Then pigeon gets dressed in blue stuff. Then she puts on some make-up. She has to go to an important meeting with her friend Red Panda. They drive to the meeting.

Penguin, Rainbow Spring, and Grape are at the meeting. They are talking about work. (work talk). Rainbow Spring and Grape accidentally end the meeting by being too silly. Penguin, Red Panda, and Pigeon get back on the bus and leave. After they drive for a while, they stop and go to sleep.

(Back at the pigeon house)
The 2 pigeons go back out to play basketball again. Everyone that isn’t BBDs or police slowly comes over and says, “Can we play, too?”

Then they all get tired and fall asleep in a heap.

—–

The police officers drive the BBDs to jail. The BBDs say, “We just wanted some food!” “O.K.,” says the police, “we have a cage that can help you with that!” The cage is made out of bananas, so the BBDs eat the banana jail. The police say, “We’ll drive you back if you say please.” The BBDs say, “Please drive us back.” The police drive them back to the pigeons’ home.

Everyone was inside when they arrived. The BBDs knock on the pigeons’ door. “Who’s there?” says the pigeons. “The BBDs, can we please have some food?” replied the ducklings. “Sure!” said the pigeons, “Here’s an apple.” “Come in guys, we have some yummy food in here.” “You can have as much as you want.”

Everyone has a party at the pigeon house.

The First “Play” Meeting

Posted on by forstm

The discussion at Morning Meeting on Monday centered on the annual Pre-K play.  Each year, the children draft, revise, revise, and revise again a script for our end of the year play.  Introducing the idea today, we asked the children what they knew about plays.

TO:  People wear clothes and they dress up.

DK: They act out.
 
JW: Play is like you are playing with a toy.
 
JJ: You go on a stage.
 
SC: Maybe it could be puppet show.
 
SB: You need to make the decorations and pick what actor you want to be.
 
OA: Sometimes there are seats for people to watch and sometimes there are not seats.
 
JJ: There might be music.
 
AJ: You can sing songs.
 
SM: You can dance.
 
AH: They could dance.
 
Mrs. Forst: The people who do this are called actors, right? What are they trying to do?
 
JW: They pick toys for the sharing bag and you can bring it in. If it is different you can bring it in the sharing bag.
 
HP: I saw one called the Lion king. it was about lions.
 
JJ: I saw Cinderella.
 
TO: I saw the Nutcracker but there is no story. there are bad mice and bad rats.
 
AH: I saw the Little Mermaid. She got legs and she could swim up but the mermaid king didn’t want her to go up there.
 
DK: I saw a king mice in the Nutcracker. He fought with the boy.
 
AJ: I saw Apollo the movie.
 
JW: It was morning when I went to the Lion King. I saw lots of animals.
 
AR: I saw frozen.
 
Some of the children had solid preconceptions about the concept of “a play”.  As we progress with this project, all of the children will gain a clear understanding of the process.  
 
For any of you who are new to our play writing project, it might be a bit different from any other school play you’ve had experience with.  Most significantly  the story is created completely by the children.  In the beginning, they tend to create mini-stories that only involve their own characters of choice.  As we progress through the drafting process, some of the stories will evolve to include other children and characters.  Through reading and storytelling, we provide them with many examples of story structure.  One of our goals is to guide the children to recognizing the basic plot line inherent in all fiction: character introduction, problem, solution, ending.  However, with each class group, the final iteration of our play is always a surprise.  We will post the drafts here for your perusal and enjoyment.
 
Each child will be able to change his or her character and the story line until the beginning of Spring Break.  At that point, we will begin preparing for the final version of the play.  When we return from break, the children will make costumes, scenery and any needed props.  The final performance of the play will be presented in May.