Page 1 Bambert’s Book of Lost Stories Teacher Resource Notes

Bambert’s Book of

Lost Stories

TEACHERS RESOURCE NOTES

Page 2 Bambert’s Book of Lost Stories Teacher Resource Notes

Introduction

These Creative Learning Journey Resources have been prepared to help you get the most out of Bambert’s

Book of Lost Stories. These resources are full of activities and inspiration to prepare your students before

coming to see the Sydney Opera House, what you can do on the way, what you can do at the Sydney Opera

House and then unpacking the experience back in the classroom.

You should adapt these Resources to suit the student age and stage of your class and the curriculum foci and

outcomes used in your school. These Resources are written as a creative document for you to bring to life. If

you have questions about exercises or provocations please feel free to make contact to talk it through. We are

always open to feedback, comments and working with you to assist and learn from you. Contact details are on

the back page.

Some websites are suggested throughout this resource. It is recommended that you first visit the sites and

assess the suitability of the content for your particular school environment before setting the activities based

on these.

Performance Description and Synopsis

Will Bambert's stories ever find a home?

Discover the profoundly inspiring story of Bambert – an impossibly small man with an enormous love for writing. Sending his stories into the world on tiny balloons, Bambert hopes that whoever finds them will return them with a stamp from the city they landed in. But will anyone return them?

Reinhardt Jung’s internationally lauded novel is brought to life as a thrillingly inventive and remarkable production that will enchant students and teachers alike.

Winner of the 2016 Helpmann Award for Best Children’s Presentation and nominated for Best New Australian Work, Bambert’s Book of Lost Stories brings together Australia’s most extraordinary creative minds to realise an exquisite production that reminds us how stories connect us to the world and ultimately, the power of kindness.

Adapted for the stage by Dan Giovannoni & Luke Kerridge from Bambert’s Buch der verschollenen Geschicten by Reinhardt Jung.

Presented by Sydney Opera House and Barking Gecko Theatre Company

Page 3 Bambert’s Book of Lost Stories Teacher Resource Notes

SYDNEY OPEAR HOUSE CREATIVITY FRAMEWORK These Creative Learning Journey Resources have been written using the Sydney Opera House Creativity

Framework as the pedagogy. This Framework underpins much of what we do in our work with schools. More

information can be found at the Sydney Opera House website. In short the Framework aims to define the

creative process in a way that educators can use to teach and be inspired by.

At a glance this Creativity Framework is:

Prepare: Tools and Pathways

Preparing mind, body, space, materials and time

Buy in: Presence and Enthusiasm

Convincing students that they want to be there

Imagine: The Fertile Unknown

Exploring a subject through arts practice. Using form to uncover content. Allowing uncensored expression to

reveal new ways of seeing a subject

Question: Analysis, investigation and revelation

Creating new understanding by analyzing what just happened when honing the imagination

Make: forging form from content

Putting shape to content and moving towards a project; scripts, composition, choreography, project design

Show: Commit, frame, judgement

Performing and presenting the work

Reflect: Remembering, Processing, exiting

Creating understanding and healthy memories from the creative process and product.

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Classroom Context and Curriculum Links

This performance provides the classroom teacher with many opportunities for learning activities that link to

the following curriculum. See below for the suggested links to specific curriculum, however creative teachers

will find many more.

Subject Outcomes

Content Stage 2 Content Stage 3 General capabilities and cross-curriculum

English Thinking imaginatively, creatively, interpretively and critically

EN2-10C thinks imaginatively, creatively and interpretively about information, ideas and texts when responding to and composing texts

EN3-7C thinks imaginatively, creatively, interpretively and critically about information and ideas and identifies connections between texts when responding to and composing texts

Literacy

Critical and creative thinking

Personal and social capability

Ethical understanding

Intercultural understanding

Expressing

themselves

EN2-11D responds to and composes a range of texts that express viewpoints of the world similar to and different from their own

EN3-8D identifies and considers how different viewpoints of their world, including aspects of culture, are represented in texts

Geography Places are similar and different

GE2-2 describes the ways people, places and environments interact

A diverse and connected world

GE3-2 explains interactions and connections between people, places and environments

Drama Appreciating DRA S2.4 Responds to, and interprets drama experiences and performances

DRA S3.4 Responds critically to a range of drama works and performance styles

Visual Arts Appreciating VAS2.3 VAS3.3

Page 5 Bambert’s Book of Lost Stories Teacher Resource Notes

Acknowledges that artists make artworks for different reasons and that various interpretations are possible VAS2.4 Identifies connections between subject matter in artworks and what they refer to, and appreciates the use of particular techniques

Acknowledges that audiences respond in different ways to artworks and that there are different opinions about the value of artworks VAS3.4 Communicates about the ways in which subject matter is represented in artworks

Page 6 Bambert’s Book of Lost Stories Teacher Resource Notes

Pre and post show activities

The below activities are designed to respond or prepare students to see the Bambert’s Book of Lost

Stories. They do however work as standalone activities if you have not seen the show. These

exercises delve into the forms and content of the show. We strongly recommend you read the book

and watch the trailer. The performance company Barking Gekko are a great resource to check out as

well. Luke Kerridge the director is also worth investigating in any deeper research. The origins of the

work are actually in a school when Luke was working for the Sydney Theatre Company School Drama

program. We have included some inspiration for teachers about preparing or responding to the work

but other resources which might equally inspire your teaching can be found at the Sydney Opera

House teachers resources page

Page 7 Bambert’s Book of Lost Stories Teacher Resource Notes

Activities and Exercises

Story structure through imagery and story telling

In this exercise you will use pictured images, (places, people, emotions etc) as an ignition point for

students to create an improvised, spoken word story. You will need to download about 20 images

from the internet. A variety of images which could be places, people, objects or landscapes. Here are

some examples to get you started: Water pistol, mountains, tiger, castle, cloud, fence, hills hoist,

zoo, car.

Before students begin the main part of the exercise described below, have an open discussion about

different story types. If the students don’t specifically mention it, lead them to talk about adventure

stories where the character leaves home, or is forced to leave, but ends up returning home at the

end. Lead them to think about the circular aspect of some stories. Hopefully other story structures

come up in your discussion as well.

Exercise 1

Have students form a circle, with each student being given an image that you have downloaded. At

your discretion students can either view the image before the exercise proceeds or not.

The first student lifts their image and starts the story based on their image. They talk for one or two

sentences kicking the story off based on their image. The next student in the circle then uses their

image to progress the story. As each student has their go the story grows. At one point you can start

to tell them to bring their character home, like with the adventurer returning home. This will help

resolve the story. Equally, not every story has to be neat and it can spiral off into the weird and

wonderful places children will take it.

Stories through movement

Exercise 2

In this exercise we will be using mime as a driver of the story telling process. Watch the following resource links and then venture into some fun warm up games before beginning the exercise. This will be a great introduction to the basic concepts of mime.

Resource Links

The following links are to help spark student’s imaginations. A fun way for students to start exploring mime. Mime Performance https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MP4A3cLuBP0

Page 8 Bambert’s Book of Lost Stories Teacher Resource Notes

Mime tutorial link https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PmZXC-NL01M&index=5&list=PLFe4OJ38zyDIZF24fR-VZLPqSyahhFn6Z

Warm up game 1

Tell students to mimic your actions and then pretend to get bubblegum out from your pocket, unwrap it and pop it in your mouth.

Chew.

Explore all the possible movements:

Up and down Side to side Chin moving around Blowing a bubble Bubble bursting on your face

Warm up game 2.

The teacher first explains that we are about to go on a ship and as crew there are lots of jobs that we

need to do.

Students start by forming a line (one behind the other) directly in front of the teacher to enter ship.

The teacher then shouts a command and the children have to perform the activity associated with

that command and go to various areas of the ‘ship’.

Commands include:

Captains coming Salute and stand still for inspection

Boom crossing Duck

Scrub the deck Scrub the floor

Climb the rigging Climb up sail

Port Go left and load the cannons

Starboard Go right and look out

Bow Go to the front and all walk the plank

Stern Go to the back and all pull in the anchor

Page 9 Bambert’s Book of Lost Stories Teacher Resource Notes

Warm up game 3.

Give students an emotion, counting down from 10 to 1 have the students gradually mime that

emotion through their bodies and faces increasing the intensity as you get closer to 1

Nervous

Loving

Confident

Proud

Curious

Fascinated

Excited

Energetic Friendly

Angry

Sad

Embarrassed

Frustrated

Annoy

Page 10 Bambert’s Book of Lost Stories Teacher Resource Notes

Exercise 3 - Stories through movement

Break students into small groups and have them come up with a short inspiration story line. This

could be as simple as ‘The day we took our dog to the vet for her first vaccination’ or ‘The day I

helped my grandma plant flowers in the garden’.

Students work together using mime to tell their story. Once finished students discuss through their

responses, what they thought the story was about.

Exercise 4 – magnetic story

Magnetic stories are a great way to introduce the concept of word classes to students and generate

story ideas. Before you begin the exercise start with some fun games to engage students.

Game

Have students in a circle. Use a noun i.e. ‘Moon’, each student makes a sentence or group of words

from each letter. Eg. Martha’s open ostrich net. It doesn’t have to make sense, it can be silly or

serious. Do this a few times using different nouns.

Game

Break students into pairs. Have each pair decide on who is Player A and who is Player B. Call out

three words that are unrelated (i.e. “Moon”, “Shoe”, “Dog”)

Player A has one minute to tell Player B a story that somehow incorporates all three of those words.

After the minute is up, call out three new words. Now Player B has one minute to tell Player A a

story that incorporates those words.

Exercise

Have students write out as many words on cardboard/paper as possible, these include nouns,

adjectives, determiners. You can choose to place these on the floor during this exercise or with some

blu tack place them on the whiteboard.

Break students into two groups, group ‘moon’ and group ‘Mr Bambert’. Each student is given a

word.

Page 11 Bambert’s Book of Lost Stories Teacher Resource Notes

Start with you leading with ‘Once upon a time’…………students are then invited from each group one

at a time, to place a word and create a story.