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TEACHER’S NOTES

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TEACHER’S NOTES The following activities are for use by teachers to enhance their students’ experience of seeing WOMBAT STEW. Teachers are encouraged to adapt activities to suit individual situations and relevant learning outcomes. These notes are arranged according to the following areas:

READING & WRITING

SPEAKING & LISTENING

THE ARTS

CROSS CURRICULA

CONTENTS ABOUT WOMBAT STEW – Page 3 READING AND WRITING ACTIVITIES – Page 4 SPEAKING AND LISTENING ACTIVITIES – Page 9 ART ACTIVITIES – Page 11 CROSS CURRICULA – Page 16 REVIEWS AND ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS – Page 18

Production photos: Wombat Stew 2010 tour

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ABOUT WOMBAT STEW Script Adaptation and Director: Gary Young Original Score and Arrangements: Paul Keelan Original Choreography: Andrew Hallsworth Set Design: Graham McGuffie Costume Design: Mel Drummond Producer: Garry Ginivan This production licensed for the stage by Scholastic Australia One day, on the banks of a billabong, a very clever dingo caught a wombat and decided to make a gooey, brewy, yummy chewy, wombat stew! However when Wombat’s friends decide to help, things go very wrong for Dingo.

Author: Marcia Vaughan is the author of WOMBAT STEW. She was born in America in 1951 and spent some of her early life in Australia where she began her writing career. Her love of literature and writing began when she was a librarian, after she experienced the joy of reading to children. Although her first two books were never published, she has gone on to write over fifty books and has become a successful children’s author. Her themes are eclectic and her stories include native Australian animals, mystery and imagination and many have a musicality to them. She often writes her stories then records herself reading them aloud to see if she is animated by the story line. Marcia feels strongly about children having the opportunity to explore literature and having books read to them from an early age.

Illustrator: Pamela Lofts is both an author and illustrator. She is a visual artist and presents her work at galleries locally and nationally. Her artwork includes sculpture, photography and video with a focus on Australia. As an author Pamela has won prestigious awards and has degrees in both Art and Philosophy. Her artwork has been influenced by cultural, political and environmental issues. Pamela Loft has also illustrated for Mem Fox and has won awards for her contribution to developing artists. She shares a similar view to that of Marcia Vaughan, believing books should provoke the imagination, make you laugh and be entertaining.

Synopsis of Wombat Stew Live On Stage The concept for the children’s musical, WOMBAT STEW is the play within the play, a story within a story. A troupe of Australian Bushland players called the Clap like Thunder Troupe, are travelling the countryside. The show that they decide to perform is WOMBAT STEW. In order to do so they have to decide on the theatrical elements required to perform the show eg: who is to play which role, learning words, creating a setting for the story and inventing costumes to suit the characters of the story. They consult the story book and in “A SHOW FOR YOU TODAY”, roles are allotted as the elements of each character are discussed and decisions made as to which actor is best suited to which role. Costumes have to be found and in “DRESSING UP” the look for each character is created. Props, scenery and lighting elements are solved and the company are ready to begin. A problem arises… the Dingo doesn’t appear to have a tail. The actors enlist the assistance of the children to decide just what might make the right tail for the Dingo. The problem is solved and the show begins. The story then takes us into the book and we follow the journey of friends taking care of each other as they all devise ways to delay the Dingo in his plan to cook the Wombat. They triumph and their friend is rescued.

Going To the Theatre For some students, seeing WOMBAT STEW may be a first experience of live theatre. Discuss what constitutes appropriate audience behaviour at a live performance before attending. For example:

Do not have conversations, even whispering, during the performance. This will distract performers as well as fellow audience

members. But you can respond to the show by laughing or clapping but not starting private conversations.

Remain in your seat until the applause has ended and the house lights have come up. Discuss what a curtain call is.

Use the restroom before the performance.

Keep your feet on the floor, not on the chair or balcony rail in front of you.

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READING AND WRITING ACTIVITIES

Introducing the Text Required materials: Copy of the book ‘Wombat Stew’. Prediction: Try and predict what the story could be about by looking at the cover and analysing the type and font of the text of the title. Display the cover page of the text and ask children to ‘put on their thinking hats’ and look at the illustrations and discuss: 1. What characters are presented? 2. The type of environment. 3. The expressions of the animal faces. 4. Ask the students what they think will happen in the story (predict the story). Write up the students’ predictions and recheck them after reading, focusing on what, where, when, how and why questions. Discussion: Genre “Is this story real or fantasy? What is the difference between a factual and fictional story? Tell me a few things that indicate this is only a story.” For example: Animals can’t talk. Dingos can’t cook. A platypus cannot walk on his hind legs. Was there a message in the story to teach something or was it written just for fun? Use of repetition Discuss the repetition in the text, what lines change and which lines are the same? Alliteration Students identify the alliterations within the story such as ‘big blogs of boiling mud’. Grammatical and Punctuation Features The teacher models the speech in the text. Discuss “when and why did I change my voice, what shows us how to change our voice, what is the character feeling?” Students read a given character’s direct speech using appropriate intonation indicated by question and exclamation marks.

Word Study Required materials: Copy of the book ‘Wombat Stew’, coloured pencils and thesaurus. Rhyme: Students identify the rhymes within the text. Explore other words with common 2 letter, 3 letter and 4 letter word phonemes and blends. For example: hay, way, bay, sway. Identifying and Classifying: Read text once again and have students identify difficult words (or words which they don’t understand). Create a word bank to be displayed in the classroom (and use in their spelling list). Students can:

Write the word meanings Place words into their own sentences Classify words as nouns or verbs.

Adjectives: List the adjectives and nouns from the text. Children mix and match the nouns and adjectives creating new descriptions of each noun. Discuss the job of an adjective and where the adjective is found. The adjective gives the story more depth. Nouns and Adjectives: Students look up the adjectives from the text and find other words with similar a meaning in a thesaurus. Teacher selects work to enlarge and display. Discuss the new found words from the thesaurus and how using new words is important. Alternatively: Students draw a picture of a fat wombat and clever dingo. Around their pictures they write words to describe the animal’s physical appearance as well as their thoughts and feelings. Give students a piece of paper and have them follow the teacher’s instructions to draw a noun modified by an adjective. For example: Draw a fat wombat or a furry koala.

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Verbs and Adjectives: Make a list of the words used in the text to suggest animal movement, to discuss how the particular word chosen often gives clues to the characteristics of the animal. For example: Emu—waltzing, arched. Platypus—ambling, scooped. Lizard—sliding, snapped. Echidna—popped, bristled. Koala—climbed, shook. Dingo—danced, sang. Think of other bush animals and write some descriptive words for the way they move. For example: Fox—lurking, sprang. Kangaroo—hopping, nibbled. Kookaburra—flying, hopped.

Composition Required materials: Photocopied pages of the text. Present photocopied pages of the text and ask children to draw in landscapes on each setting. What do you notice about the setting before and after? How does it differ? Why do you think the illustrator presented them this way? What impact does that have to the characters in the text?

Body Language and Facial Expressions Required materials: Images from the text. Display images from the text and ask the students: what do you notice about the facial expressions on the dingo? Write a descriptive sentence about his body language and gaze. For example: The dingo looked creepy and was arching his back…

Story Map Required materials: Copies of the book Wombat Stew, Allow children to read aloud the story in groups. Discuss the narrative structure of the story (orientation, complication and resolution). In small groups each of the three stages of the narrative are presented as illustrations on a story map. Students can then write what is happening at each stage of the narrative. For example: Beginning/Orientation-What is the Conflict: Dingo takes the wombat The Middle-The Climax/Complication: Friends try to help. Friends plan. Dingo falls for the plan The Ending-Resolution: Dingo is no longer a problem. Display in the classroom.

Retelling Students retell the text and the teacher scribes talking through specific spelling, full stops, capital letters, etc. Alternatively: In small groups, students retell the narrative. The text can be retold with only access to the illustrations. Provide students with time to organise and practice their retelling, using props and/or visual aids, before presenting to the class.

The Characters Discuss the characters in the story. Children use yellow and black hats to brainstorm the good and bad things about the characters. Children then develop a question that they would like to ask one of the characters in the story. Children may use a question dice to help them. The questions are read to the class who assess whether it is a relevant question or not. Extension: A discussion could be held as to how the animal might answer the question.

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Text Innovation Required materials: Copy of the book ‘Wombat Stew’ and card. After a few lively sessions singing the refrain from the story, children will soon realise that only two lines differ in each verse. Examine the lines that differ and discuss the choice of words used. This could be a starting point for finding all the words that end with a ‘y’ throughout the text. List them and ask children if they can add others that they know or can create from their own imagination. Build on the children’s sense of fun by playing around with such nonsense words and phrases to make substitutions in the refrain. For example: Lumpy, chilly, In my billy, …… Bumpy, lumpy, Dumpy, jumpy, Allow children who are ready to attempt their very own versions by providing them with an outline of the structure of the refrain. Suggest that Dingo could have been preparing other types of food besides Wombat Stew. If he had decided to try to catch one of the other characters, Kookaburra, Emu or Platypus, they could have landed in Kookaburra Cake, Emu Soup or Platypus Pie. After much discussion and playing with words, substitute these in the refrain to make entirely new verses. For example Platypus pie, Platypus pie, Hot and tasty, Crunchy pastry, Platypus pie! Children will be eager to write original verses of their own with the same type of humorous twist. As each one is completed, it should be featured in class sharing sessions so that everyone can celebrate their success as writers. The favourites could then be written up and sung along with the original verses. Select other phrases from the text, innovating on them with reference to the particular animals in the story and then widening the field to think about descriptive phrases for other bush animals. Use some of these phrases for models. For example: Sliding off his sun-soaked stone … Rubbing his paws together … Up through the red dust … After much discussion of the ways other animals move and some of the places where they are found, the children will come up with their own colourful phrases about the other animals. For example: Hopping across the dry plain … Swimming in the murky creek … Flying up to the sweet blossoms … Climbing up to the tender gum tips … Write each sentence on card and cut off the phrase so that children can have fun making all sorts of variations. Of course, some of the combinations will make nonsense sentences, which the children will greatly enjoy. Extension: You could put the sentences into a flip book for the same kind of hilarity while focussing the children’s attention towards interesting syntactic structures.

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Animal Food With the children, model the recipe for Wombat stew using a real recipe format. For example: What you need 1 pot of billabong water 1 fat wombat Billabong mud 6 fine emu feathers 100 flies About 20 different sorts of creepy crawlies Lots and lots of gumnuts 1 stick for stirring What to do • Catch one fat wombat and leave aside while the other ingredients are prepared. • Boil the pot of water. • Add the mud, feathers, flies, creepy crawlies and gumnuts. • Dance and sing. • Stir frequently while adding the ingredients. • Taste the stew. • Prepare for a shock! Children should refer back to the text during this writing so that they are checking to see what sequence the ingredients were in. Then make up other animal stew recipes in the same light-hearted vein. For example: POSSUM STEW What you need 1 billy-can of salty sea water 1 fat possum 6 bananas 20 butterflies 60 maggots 10 furry caterpillars 1 cup of sand 1 piece of driftwood What to do Catch a possum and take it to the beach. Boil the billy-can of salty sea water. Mash the bananas and add to the water. Add the butterflies, maggots, furry caterpillars and the cup of sand. Stir with a piece of driftwood while you sing and dance around the billy-can. Taste the stew. Prepare to be poisoned! Extension: Create and compile a wacky illustrated recipe book of food that might be enjoyed by bush animals such as Dingo, Wombat, Platypus, Emu, Old Blue Tongue the Lizard, the Echidna and the Koala. Encourage students to name their original animal treats. Students could be asked to prepare advertising materials to promote their animal food products, e.g. packaging, posters, television or radio adverts.

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Billabong Newspaper Required materials: large sheets of paper. As the kookaburra is not actually mentioned in the text, you might have the children imagine this character to be a news reporter for The Billabong News. It would be lots of fun thinking up headlines he might have used in his report of the ‘wombat incident’. The children should then be encouraged to give details of the whole affair as if they are television newsreaders or newspaper reporters. You may need to read some simple newspaper reports to the children, or even model a report for them. Alternatively: Have students compile a newspaper for animal and/or human residents who live in and around a billabong. Together with the students, decide what the name of the newspaper will be. Consider what articles (written and/or illustrated) might appear in the newspaper, e.g. local bush news and gossip (stories about some of the characters in WOMBAT STEW), bushfire safety tips, weather forecast, bush tucker recipes (for animals, and for people), cartoons, advertisements, advice column, bush crossword puzzles, etc. Have students design the layout of the newspaper, e.g. lay out several large sheets of paper and decide and mark out where each article should appear. Working individually or in small groups, have students prepare, illustrate, and write up individual articles to then be pasted onto the newspaper layout. The billabong newspaper can be displayed, photocopied and distributed. Alternatively: Create a newsletter for ‘The Clap like Thunder Theatre Troupe’. It may include pictures/publicity of past productions, made up biographies of actors, advertisements for upcoming productions, etc.

Production photos: Wombat Stew 2010 tour

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SPEAKING AND LISTENING

ACTIVITIES

Listening Games Play dingo and wombat – students in a circle holding hands. One student is chosen to be the dingo and another student the wombat. They run around and through the circle with the dingo chasing the wombat. It is up to the students in the circle to try and help the dingo stay free of the dingo.

Animal Artist

Required materials: Pictures of Australian animals and drawing equipment. Give an individual student a picture of an Australian animal and they have to describe it to the rest of the students who have to draw what is described. (The teacher should model first).

Oral Presentation Have students choose areas of interest to research that relate to WOMBAT STEW, e.g. Australian wildlife, bush safety, camping, bush tucker, etc. Have students find out about their chosen area and prepare oral presentations on their findings to be given to the rest of the class. Alternatively: Students may create written, illustrated or multi-media projects on their chosen area of interest.

Story Telling Discuss with students the skills involved in the telling of a story. Illustrate some of these by having students come to the front of the class and explore telling stories (or other information) according to the following: making eye contact; looking down at the ground; speaking with animation; with no animation; with gesture; with no motion; pausing between phrases; speaking without pausing; speaking with a loud voice; soft voice; speaking very fast; very slow; speaking with a flat voice; in a sing song manner; shuffling around; standing on the spot; speaking clearly and carefully; mumbling; standing with arms by the sides; fidgeting, etc. Identify with students the strengths and weaknesses of the different qualities, and whether some kind of dynamic combination might serve the storyteller best of all. Bearing the preceding exercises and discussion in mind, have students prepare and tell the story of WOMBAT STEW (or other stories) to one another (3rd person narrative) with the aim of keeping listeners’ attention and interest.

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Story Ingredients

Using the stew that Dingo prepared in WOMBAT STEW as an example, explain to students the notion of ingredients as that which when combined brings about a product, be it a cake, stew … or, in this case a story. Cut out and shuffle all of the words in the table below, and place them face down on a table. One card is to be picked up and a nominated storyteller is to start to tell a story about the word on the card. Every few seconds another card is to be picked up, and the storyteller must add whatever is on the new card to the story that is already in progress. Stories can be told by one storyteller or collaboratively with a new storyteller adding to the story as each card is revealed. STORY INGREDIENT CARDS:

pencil elephant blanket

custard toothbrush map

rabbit mirror robot

sister starfish roller skate

cloud soap blue paint

koala rainbow comb

book key flies

helicopter Mug ice cream

clown caterpillar octopus

flower bicycle drink bottle

Instant Stories Sit in a circle. Going around the circle, have students make up a story, sentence by sentence, or word by word, each student adding on to the story according to what the person before them has contributed. Extension: Divide class into three groups. Have one group of students tell an instant story. Have a second group mime the story as it is being told. The third group can serve as an audience whilst also supplying relevant sound effects as required.

Production photos: Wombat Stew 2010 tour

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ART ACTIVITIES

Picture Book Model Required materials: Modelling clay and a copy of Wombat Stew. Deconstruct the illustrations and text that relates to each picture. For example, Platypus suggests to Dingo that billabong mud should be placed in the stew. Discuss the facial expressions and how platypus looks and his actions and the text that shows this expression. Have student’s work with a partner to create a modelling clay model of their favourite part of the story.

Create Clay Animals Required Materials: Illustrations from the book Wombat Stew or images of Australian animals, feathers, magnifying glasses, air-dry clay, acrylic paint. Find images of wombats and emus other Australian animals. Collect some feathers. Look closely at the textures and details through a magnifying glass. Talk about them and draw them. Teach children how to shape and join pieces of clay together. Make some Australian animals out of air-dry clay (this product does not need firing and is available from art stores). Work can be painted with acrylic paint when dry.

Exploring Drawing Required materials: A copy of Wombat Stew or illustrations from the book. Examine pictures of the animals in WOMBAT STEW. Discuss what techniques have been used to make each animal look different. Experiment with drawing different animals’ faces from observation of these pictures. Use shading, colour and line to create depth and character to the animals’ faces.

Book Illustrations Required materials: Copy of the book ‘Wombat Stew’, tracing paper, drawing paper and picture story books.

The illustrations in this book are probably water colour and watercolour pencils. Can you identify the different mediums? Look at the page where the emu is adding the feathers to the pot. Have children make out the shapes in the emu. They should be able to identify a diamond, four ovals, and a cylinder. Using tracing paper, students trace the picture in the book following the shape. When finished, place the tracing paper under a clean sheet of paper and hold the two sheets up against a light filled window. Trace the tracing onto a clean sheet of paper. Once traced, look at the original illustration and add some details. Together with students then look at and discuss an assortment of illustrations from different children’s books. Which illustrations appeal most? Which do not? Have students illustrate well-known or original stories. View these. Identify if and how stories are communicated, and if it is possible to do so via illustrations alone. Extension: Create a class library of picture books.

A Portrait on the Wall Inform the students of the hypothetical situation where the dingo, koala and platypus have become extinct. Discuss why this would be a bad thing. Give the students the scenario where so that future generations can remember about these animals, you have been asked to paint a mural containing them for the museum wall. Design the mural.

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Bush Installation Required materials: Fabric, craft materials, recycled materials and materials from the environment WOMBAT STEW takes place at a billabong (a small lake or section of still water). Work with the children in creating a mural of how they think the billabong scene would look. Discuss with them where the different features should be placed and what materials would be most effective to give atmosphere to the mural. Together with students discuss what things might be found in and around a billabong. What kind of formations, plants, creatures, man-made things might be there? Using bolts of fabric, craft and recyclable materials, collaboratively create a billabong installation in a classroom or other large space. Encourage the children to collect resources from the environment to make the mural more authentic, e.g. bark for trees, birds’ feathers, sticks for echidnas’ quills. Have students conduct tours of the billabong and surrounds, or alternatively create performances that take place there.

Collage Creatures Required materials: Paste, magazines and books. Explain to students that hundreds of years ago people outside of Australia had never seen a platypus before, and that when they did see one, they could hardly believe their eyes. Platypi are very unusual creatures because they appear to be part duck, part beaver and part otter. When a sketch of a platypus was sent to England from Australia in the late 1700s, British scientists thought that someone in Australia was playing a trick on them. Have students conceive and create original creatures that combine features of several different animals. This can be done as follows:

Search for and cut out hard-print illustrations and photographs of different animals. Assemble and paste legs, arms, heads, fins, tentacles, snouts, ears, whiskers, claws, fur, etc. from collected illustrations to create amazing original collage creatures. Once the collages are created, have students act as scientists and name, introduce and describe their original creatures to the rest of the class.

3d Art Required materials: Copy of the book ‘Wombat Stew’, paper plates/papier mache, paint, collage materials and glue. Allocate or have students decide on characters that they want to make a mask for the characters from WOMBAT STEW (Dingo, Wombat, Platypus, Emu, Old Blue Tongue the Lizard, the Echidna or Koala). Have each student create a paper plate mask (or use other medium if available) of one of the animals mentioned in the story. Features on the masks can be drawn on or paint may be used and collaged materials may also be glued onto the faces to create a 3D effect. Extension: Create performances incorporating masked characters that students have created, or conduct a bush animal parade. Alternatively: Make materials available so that children may construct puppets of the characters to use as props for dramatisation.

Costumes Required materials: newspaper, masking tape and found materials

In WOMBAT STEW the members of ‘The Clap like Thunder Theatre Troupe’ must decide on what each character in the performance will wear. It may be fun to limit materials to newspaper and masking tape or found materials only. Create performances incorporating costumes that students have constructed. Extension: Using WOMBAT STEW as inspiration, have students design and construct costumes for chosen characters from other stories, e.g. Harry Potter, Gandalf, Simba, Captain Hook, King Kong, Mary Poppins, etc.

Exploring and Improvising Improvise and explore ways of moving like each of the animals. For example: Koala: slow and sleepy Echidna: short, sharp movements Emu: Graceful movements

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Reader’s Theatre Develop a Readers’ Theatre-type presentation with a narrated story and different children role-playing each character in the story. Extension: Reflect on how effective the children’s animal movements were, in representing each character. Repeat the presentation, making changes based on these reflections.

Singing the Refrain Required materials: Copy of the book ‘Wombat Stew’, musical instruments such as triangles, tambourines, wood blocks and tuned instruments. Learn to sing the song Wombat Stew that is repeated throughout the text. Experiment with different movements which could represent a dingo stirring the billy and dancing around it, looking forward to eating the fat, tasty wombat. Create an eight beat movement sequence which incorporates some of the above movements. All students repeat these as the song is sung, then repeat the song. Refine and rehearse the dance until it flows smoothly as the song is sung. Repeat it twice each time the song appears in the book. Reflect on how appropriate it is to the text and make changes where necessary. Students represent a dingo, platypus, emu, blue tongue lizard, echidna and koala. Encourage students to consider how they could communicate that they are a wombat, platypus, emu, koala, cat, dog, tiger, horse, ant, etc. What sounds would they make? How would they move their bodies? Identify performance qualities that indicate size, weight, strength. Have students consider and explore how the same animals would move and sound if they were happy, angry, frightened, hungry, tired, etc. Ask students to identify variations between the actions and sounds of each animal. This could be used as a lead in to identifying what kind of limbs, claws, noses, body shapes might make an animal good at swimming, climbing, flying, running, burrowing, etc. Musical instruments such as the triangle, tambourine and wood blocks may be added to further assist the children to sense the movements of the animals. Using tuned instruments, have a small group learn to play the melody of the song Wombat Stew. Have some other children play notes to the beat as indicated by the guitar chords. (C, F, G). Sing the song, and have the small groups play the melody and accompaniment to the song. Read through the story, with children playing non-tuned percussion instruments to represent the different characters, each time the characters are mentioned. Have the tuned instrument group play the melody and accompaniment of the song each time it is played. Reflect on how appropriate the use of the instruments is throughout the story.

Putting It All Together Required materials: masks/costumes from previous activities, non-tuned and tuned percussion instruments, cooking pot and blue cloth. Have the text narrated while some children, wearing the masks and/or costumes, role play the story. This could be done in groups. The teacher and students can decide what lines will be used from the text. Bring the student’s attention to quotation marks. Have a music group which plays the non-tuned and tuned percussion instruments and a dance group which presents created movement sequences from the dance activity at the appropriate time in the narration. You now have the ingredients for staging an improvised dance-drama. Very few props are required. See if you can get an old cauldron type cooking pot to use as the billy, while a piece of blue cloth thrown on the floor will serve as a billabong. If possible, arrange for an audience. It may be other members of the class, another class in the school, some parents or the school’s administrators. Make posters and invitations to the performance.

Dance The performance of WOMBAT STEW included musical numbers and dances such as ‘The Bug Conga’, ‘The Aussie Salute’ (which teaches everyone how to catch flies), ‘The Bushland Boogie’, and ‘Shake It’ (a way to collect gum-nuts). Allocate or have students make up names of musical numbers and dances, e.g. ‘The Crocodile Rock’, ‘The Stegosaurus Waltz’, ‘The Billabong Bounce’, ‘The Gumboot Quick-Step’, ‘The Slip-Slop-Slap’, etc. Working in small groups (or as a full class), have students make up dance steps to suit their dance names. Have students teach and/or perform their original dances to one another.

What Am I Eating? One by one, have students pretend to be eating or drinking an allocated food or drink, e.g. ice-cold fizzy drink, hot chocolate, water, thick-shake, pizza, spaghetti, watermelon, potato chips, corn on the cob, peanut butter sandwich, etc. See if other students can guess the food or drink being tasted. Identify how an actor can make a mimed food (or drink) appear to be sour, sweet, salty, hot, cold, juicy, thick, dry, spicy, poisonous, etc.

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Sounds Required materials: Recording device. WOMBAT STEW takes place in the Australian bush. Have the whole class explore sounds that they can make to represent the Australian bush, e.g. birds, insects, the wind, crackling leaves, wildlife, etc. Have the class plan and then record a soundscape of the Australian bush that shifts from dawn, to dry heat, to a bushfire, to a rain-storm, and finally to calm dusk. Students can be given responsibility for specific sounds. Play the recorded soundscape and have students physically improvise movement to match. Extension: Have students work in small groups to create soundscapes representing other locations, e.g. a big city, an amusement park, outer-space, the bottom of the ocean, a chocolate factory, etc. Perform these. See if other students can guess the locations represented.

Objects In WOMBAT STEW the actor who plays the Echidna tells the audience that in his last play he performed the role of a door. Together with students explore how they might use their bodies to represent a door. Have students come to the front of the class and use their bodies to represent allocated or chosen objects, e.g. fork, knife, chair, clothesline, washing machine, etc. See if other students are able to guess the object being represented. Working in groups of 3 - 6, allocate or have students choose objects or machines that they are to depict as a group with their bodies, e.g. photocopier, computer, merry-go-round, popcorn maker, toaster, etc. Can other students identify what each groups’ objects/machines are?

Friendship Required materials: sticky notes and large paper. Platypus, Emu, Old Blue Tongue the Lizard, the Echidna, Koala, and Wombat are friends who are all quite different to one another. Have students think about their friends and consider the following: In what ways are your friends similar to you? In what ways are your friends different to you? What are some good things about being similar to a friend? What are some good things about being different to a friend? Why do we need friends? What makes a good friend? How can you be a friend to someone? What do good friends say and do? Complete a Y-chart about the topic of friendship. Students place sticky notes with key words and phrases to demonstrate what they believe

friendship looks like form the inside and outside on a silhouette of a body.

Platypus, Emu, Old Blue Tongue the Lizard, the Echidna, and Koala sing ‘You Don’t Put Your Friends in a Stew!’ Discuss with students what the

words might mean about friendship. Students can be asked to make up their own song lyrics about friendship. These could be composed to

original or known tunes.

Review

Have students discuss the following by way of reviewing WOMBAT STEW: Which part of WOMBAT STEW did you like best? Why? Why do you think Marcia Vaughan wrote WOMBAT STEW? What did WOMBAT STEW make you think about? Comment on the skills of the performers in WOMBAT STEW. How long do you think it would have taken the performers to remember their lines and dance steps? What did you like about the costumes, sets, puppets, music, dancing and singing? Were there any parts of the show that you did not like? Why? Compare WOMBAT STEW with other live performances you may have experienced. Give WOMBAT STEW a mark out of 10. Explain why you gave the performance the mark that you did.

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A Book Becomes a Play The play WOMBAT STEW was adapted from the book of the same name. Where students have experienced both the play and the book, identify differences between the two. Have students discuss whether they preferred the book or the play, and explain why. Extension: List and discuss other books that were turned into films, plays, ballets, cartoons, eg, ‘Possum Magic’, ‘Peter Rabbit’, ‘Harry Potter’, ‘The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe’, ‘The Little Mermaid’, ‘Sleeping Beauty’, ‘The Princess and the Frog’, etc. Have students discuss which versions they prefer and why.

Production photos: Wombat Stew 2010 tour

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CROSS CURRICULA

Researching Australian Animals Required materials: Nonfiction texts about Australian animals and internet access. Talk about the animals in WOMBAT STEW and what prior knowledge the students have about these animals/birds. In groups and using books and the internet, students start reading about and investigating these animals. Have a whole class discussion about what new information they have discovered about the animals. Classify the animals within WOMBAT STEW into birds, fish, mammals, marsupials and reptiles and describe animals in terms of appearance, habitat, reproduction, food sources etc. Write a report using a group constructed retrieval chart. Students present their report to other class members. The whole class discusses the presentations.

What Animal Am I? Have one student come to the front of the class. Allocate or ask the student to decide on and think about a particular animal. Have others ask the student ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions to see if they can guess what the animal is. See if the class can do so in less than 10 questions. Yes/No questions that students may be encouraged to ask: do you have fur, do you have 4 legs, can you fly, can you swim, are you bigger than …, are you smaller than …, etc.

Bush Tucker WOMBAT STEW takes place in the Australian bush and is all about the kind of tucker that a dingo might like to eat. Together with students, discuss the type of tucker that people who live in the bush might like to eat. Explain that traditional bush tucker needs to be easy to make because it is usually made outdoors and with only very few utensils. Together with students, create and sample some simple bush tucker. Extension: Create an illustrated bush tucker recipe book.

Let’s Eat Together with students make lists of foods and ingredients according to food types (eg, fats, dairy, vegetable, fruit, meats, grains). Discuss how much of each type of food students think would be a good daily balance, and why. Using a food analysis chart of teacher’s choice e.g. food pyramid, investigate what does constitute a healthy meal. Have a whole class discussion about what they would choose for a healthy breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks. Working individually or in small groups, have students devise meals or snacks that are not only a healthy combination of food types but also delicious to eat. Students can be asked to create written, illustrated or television style instructions on how to make their original meals or snacks. Extension: Take the class on an excursion to a local shop to look at the availability of healthy foods. Collect and pay for goods. Talk about the meal/s devised and what the requirements will be to prepare and cook it. Prepare and sample recipes. Have a whole class discussion about the cooking, cleaning up process etc. Also discuss what the food tasted like and how good food tastes good too. Recipes could be compiled to create a school or class cookbook. Alternatively, record the students teaching their recipes, and compile a school or class instructional cooking DVD.

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Stew Required materials: Recipe for stew displayed, ingredients for stew, cooking utensils and access to a kitchen. Make a real stew or vegetable soup in the classroom, following a true recipe. Have the recipe written up on a chart for the children to follow. You could even make up your shopping list from the recipe and actually take a group of children with you to do the shopping after working out the cost. After the children have helped prepare the stew and have tasted it, take a vote on who liked or disliked the stew and show the score using tally marks. This cooking experience may lead you to considering much broader concepts such as wants and needs and who provides us with goods and services. People must work together to achieve a common goal. (Even the animals in the original text knew how to do this when they tricked Dingo.) If you decide to look at goods and services, make a list of the ingredients you used in the stew and next to each one write the place of supply. Meat — butcher Carrots — fruit shop Onions — fruit shop Stock cubes — supermarket Through discussion, help the children to decide on one item to follow through from primary production to the shop where it was bought. With wants versus needs, you could make two lists of food: Food I want to eat AND Food I need to eat

Working Together In WOMBAT STEW the members of ‘The Clap like Thunder Theatre Troupe’ work together to put on a performance. Reflecting on the show, have students brainstorm and list some DO and DON’T tips that people should follow if they want to work well together. Together with students consider what is meant by the following expressions: ‘Many hands make light work’ - ‘Too many cooks spoil the broth’ Encourage students to share examples of situations that are true of each of the expressions. Ask students to think about, discuss and explain what kind of things they prefer to do individually and what kind of things they prefer to do in a group.

Helping Others In WOMBAT STEW we see that Platypus, Emu, Old Blue Tongue, the Lizard, the Echidna, and Koala work together to help Wombat. Have students share stories about having helped others or having been helped by others. Have students discuss the following:

When do people need help from others? How does it feel to help others? How does it feel when others help you?

Design and Technology Required materials: Copies of illustrations of the animals from the book ‘Wombat Stew’ and a container. Photocopy each animal, cut in half. All pieces are placed in a container and students randomly remove two odd pieces. Students design, create and construct their animal using the principles of Design & Technology. They are to name their newly created animal. Show materials and equipment needed to construct it.

Questions from Bloom’s Taxonomy What happened after Dingo caught Wombat? Who spoke to Dingo first? What do you think could have happened next if Dingo did not take Platypus’ suggestions? If you were a Dingo would you catch a wombat? Explain why or why not? Can you write your own steps for making a Stew? What do you see as another possible outcome to the story? Do you think there is a better solution than what the other animals did? How else could have the animals saved the Dingo? If you were the Wombat how would you have handled the situation? What would happen if Dingo decided he liked the taste of the stew and still wanted to put Wombat in it? What do you think the other animals could do? Can you design a newspaper article regarding Wombat’s close call?

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2014 Tour Teacher’s Notes compiled by Sharon Maine Adapted from 2010 Touring Teacher’s Notes and Ashton Scholastic Teacher’s Notes