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Play
Description:
This 25 minute musical play
can be done as a complete play, skits,
read-aloud, or you can just sing songs. A fun way for students to learn
about the tricks and rules of punctuation and grammar. No music or
drama experience needed. Grades 1-4.
Dick, Jane, and Spot are trying hard to learn
grammar, but they could use
some help. Lucky for them, they run into the Loch Ness Monster, who turns
out to be a Grammarosaurus, a dinosaur specializing in punctuation.In fact,
there are dozens of Grammarosauri, all masters of some aspect of grammar.
Although reluctant at first to reveal their secrets, each Grammarosaurus
eventually teaches the kids all about singular and plural nouns, contractions,
basic punctuation and capitalization, complete and incomplete sentences,
and subject/verb agreement.
Designed for students beginning their study of grammar,
Grammarosaurus a great introduction to and review of English
language concepts.
Teacher Reviews:
This is my
3rd year of having my class perform one of your musicals. This year we
are getting ready to do “Grammarosaurus.” Wow! The kids love, love,
love the music (great instrumentation) and are begging me to sign them up for parts.
This is after just 3 times of listening to the CD and they already have some of the
songs memorized. Thank you for your wonderful contribution to children and making
learning fun.
---Ruth Kenney, 2nd grade teacher, Terrace
Park School, Mountlake Terrace, WARead More Teacher Reviews
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National Education Standards:
Fulfills National Arts
Standard 3 for Dance, 1 and 8 for music, and 2, 3,
and 5 for Theater.
CA
State State Standards for English Language Arts 1-4
Casting:
Flexible casting from 11-40 students.
Use as many Grammarosauri as desired. There are a lot of characters
in the show, but many of them have just a few spoken lines. One student
can easily play several roles. Note that all roles can be played by either boys
or girls; see our comments on page 38 of the Teacher's Guide .
Read the Script:
This
is the first one-third of the script:
The duration of the show is about 25 minutes
CHARACTERS:
Jessica (reporter)
Roberto (reporter)
Capital Grammarosauri
Sally (roving reporter)
Plural Grammarosauri
Contraction Grammarosauri
Tourist
Cameraman
Subject/Verb Grammarosauri
Noun Grammarosaurus
Verb Grammarosaurus
Professor Participle
Professor Semicolon
Comma Grammarosauri
Dr. Pickwick
Quotation Marks (2)
Nessie
and a CHORUS composed of all students who are not playing
roles on stage at the time.
There is a big sign on the wall that reads:
Breaking News from Scotland:
Grammarosaurus Discovered!
Song 1
CLASS:
Extra! Extra! Stop that press!
Guess what they found in Loch Ness!
Greeting tourists on the beach
Teaching folks 'bout parts of speech
Grammar
Grammarosaurus
Grammarosaurus.
Extra! Extra! I'm not done
Nessie's not the only one
They think commas are a treat
Their sentences are complete.
Grammar
Grammarosaurus
Grammarosaurus.
Read the interview
They even know what colons do.
(spoken): Do you?
Extra! Extra! Stop that press!
Guess what they found in Loch Ness!
Greeting tourists on the beach
Teaching folks 'bout parts of speech.
Grammar
Grammarosaurus
Grammarosaurus
Grammarosaurus.
(ROBERTO and JESSICA enter. They each carry a
microphone. THEY address audience.)
JESSICA: Good evening. I'm Jessica, and this is Roberto.
ROBERTO: Welcome to our special report. We have breaking news from
Scotland.
JESSICA: People from all over the world are flocking here to talk to the
Loch Ness Monster.
CAPITAL GRAMMAROSAURUS #1: Hey, I heard that!
CAPITAL G. #2: I'm NOT a monster!
CAPITAL G. #3: I'm a Grammarosaurus.
ROBERTO: How many of you are there?
CAPITAL G. #1: Lots.
JESSICA: How come youčve never come out in the open before?
CAPITAL G. #2: The world is in crisis.
ROBERTO: Economic crisis?
JESSICA: Environmental?
CAPITAL G. #3: Grammatical.
CAPITAL G: #1: The world needs us now.
CAPITAL G. #2: We Grammarosauri love different kinds of grammar.
CAPITAL G. #3: The three of us, for example, love capital letters.
ROBERTO: Capitals?
CAPITAL G. #1: Of course.
CAPITAL G. #2: But there's one capital letter we REALLY like.
CAPITAL G. #3: Because it's an entire word!
Song 2
CAPITAL GRAMMAROSAURI:
The first word in a sentence gets a capital
The other words don't usually even try
But there's one word that always gets a capital
My very fav'rite capital is I!
No matter where you put it it's a capital
Beginning middle end it stands up high
The subject I like best, well, it's a capital
My very fav'rite capital is I!
I, I, I, I
CHORUS: It's just one little letter
CAPITAL GRAMMAROSAURI:
I, I, I, I
CHORUS: It can't get better than I!
CAPITAL GRAMMAROSAURI:
Oh sure a person's name will get a capital
And certain words like Monday or July
But if I have to pick out just one capital
My very fav'rite capital is I!
CAPITAL GRAMMAROSAURI and
CHORUS:
I, I, I, I
It's just one little letter
I, I, I, I
It can't get better than I!
It can't get better than I!
(THEY exit. SALLY SWAMPWATER enters with three
GRAMMAROSAURI. )
SALLY (to audience): Hi there. I'm Sally Swampwater, your roving reporter.
Ičve just come across three more Grammarosauri. Or is it Grammarosauruses?
PLURAL GRAMMAROSAURUS #1: I prefer Grammarosauri.
PLURAL G. #2: It's the Latin form.
SALLY: You guys know Latin?
PLURAL G. #3: Doesn't everybody?
SALLY: You must have been in that lake a very long time.
PLURAL G. #1: Yes---it's taking us a while to adjust to modern times.
PLURAL G. #2: But we do love the tea.
PLURAL G. #3: And it's just a few minutes before tea time!
SALLY: What do you find so confusing about life these days?
PLURAL G. #1: Lots of things. Forks, for example.
PLURAL G. #2: And the tax code.
PLURAL G. #3: And Harry Potter---is Dumbledore dead or not?
PLURAL G. #1: And especially plurals.
PLURAL G. #2: It used to be so easy to make a plural. You just added an
"s"
PLURAL G. #3: But modern life is complicated!
Song 3
PLURAL GRAMMAROSAURI:
When I was young life was simple
Plurals just added an "s"
"Voice" became "voices"
"Choice" became"choices"
Plurals were easy to guess.
When I was young life was simple
Plurals just added and "s"
Then I got older
The world grew colder
Now ev'rything is a mess!
"House" becomes "houses"
"Mouse" becomes "mice"
"Moose" isn't "mooses"
And "die" becomes "dice."
It's so random it's causing me stress
I miss the "s."
GRAMMAROSAURI and CHORUS:
When I was young life was simple
Plurals just added an "s"
"Voice" became "voices"
"Choice" became "choices"
Plurals were easy to guess.
When I was young life was simple
Plurals just added and "s"
Then I got older
The world grew colder
Now evčrything is a mess!
"Child" becomes "children"
"Sheep" just stays "sheep"
"Goose" isn't "gooses"
A "foot" becomes "feet"
It's so random it's causing me stress
I miss the "s"
It's so random it's causing me stress
I miss the "s"
(THEY exit. THREE Grammarosauri enter. They're
wearing
long coats. They whisper to each other. Then a
TOURIST
carrying binoculars walks by.)
CONTRACTION GRAMMAROSAURUS #1 (to other GRAMMAROSAURI):
Hey look, it's a tourist.
(TO TOURIST, secretively):
Pssst. Hey, buddy.
TOURIST: Wow, a Grammarosaurus! I've come all the way from _______
(fill in name of your city) to see one of you up close.
CONTRACTION G. #2 (reaching into coat and pulling at a large letter "O"):
You wanna buy an "O"?
TOURIST: You mean the letter O?
CONTRACTION G. #3: Ssssshh! Yeah. The letter O.
TOURIST: What is this, Wheel of Fortune?
CONTRACTION G. #1: A nice fresh O. Took it right out of the phrase,
"Should not."
TOURIST: You stole an O?
CONTRACTION G. #2: Ssshh. We didn't really STEAL it. We BORROWED it.
CONTRACTION G. #3: We do it all the time...we take the O out of phrases like
"should not" and put an apostrophe in its place.
TOURIST: You shouldn't!
CONTRACTION G. #1: Exactly. We end up with shouldn't!
CONTRACTION G. #2: It's a contraction.
CONTRACTION G. #3: And we LOVE contractions!
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Vocabulary Terms from
Grammarosaurus:
These are some of the subjects
discussed with their
correlating California State Standards for first grade. You can
easily find your own state and grade level standards to match
these topics:
Simple contractions (Grammar 1.3)
Uses of periods, exclamation points, and question marks
(Punctuation 1.4)
Use of quotation marks (Punctuation 1.5)
Parts of speech (Grammar 1.3)
Basic capitalization: proper names, words at the
beginning of
sentences, months, and days of the week (Capitalization1.6)
Complete and Incomplete sentences (Sentence Structure
1.1)
Commas with dates and items in a series, and in the greeting and
closure of a letter (Punctuation 1.4)
Word order (Sentence Structure 1.2)
Other grammatical
terms (including "grammatical" and "grammarian") found in
Grammarosaurus:
colons
semicolon
clause
punctuation marks |
apostrophes
participle
direct quote |
conjugating
hyphen
object |
parts of speech
subjunctive
reported speech |
General
Vocabulary Building:
economic
adjust
satisfaction
scoop
sunflowers
psychologist
transferencePhrases & Slang
"stop the press!"
"feeling negative"
"once and for all"
"tax code"
"cramp your style"
"be that as it may"
"biz"
"Loch Ness (monster)"
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environmental
die (dice)
footage
peek
bouquets
astonishing
inflammation
"breaking news"
"buzz off!"
"tea time"
"smiley face"
"beyond reach"
"so be it"
"Nessie"
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roving
random
lure
leak
groundhog
expert
buddies |
Latin
tourist
whiz
absurd
date
nervous
Bigfoot |
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More Teacher Reviews:
"It was a grat success -- fun and exciting.
Your plays make is fun to learn about grammar. The plays are flexible enough to allow ALL
students to have a speaking part and to shine. The parts are easy to learn and fun.
Students were singing the songs all day long. Even the shyest students came out. Our
classess did very well on the end of your tests and I contribute part of it to your fun
learning process. I look forward to doing more each year."
---Katherine Hawkins, NBCT Teacher (2nd grade), Brushy
Creek Elementary, Taylors, SC
"My students learned the songs
quickly and enjoyed singing them. They learned key English Language Arts facts that
reinforced the skills they have been learning in the classroom. The plays are clever and
teacher friendly. In a time when standards are stressed, you can feel good about taking
time out to work on a play because the standards are incorporated. Thank you Bad Wolf
Press for making the job of this teacher much easier!"
---Rene Griffiths, Teacher, Bella Vista Elementary,
Bella Vista, CA
"It was great!! The kids really
loved it. There were both easy parts and more challenging ones for those who were up to
it. It was awesome! My favorite part was that it served as a teaching and review tool for
basic grammar. The kids had fun and learned something too! "
---Cyndi Aghayan, Teacher (2nd grade), Foothill
Elementary, Santa Barbara, CA
"LOVED IT! Covers our
writing/grammar standards perfectly. We used each act in the play to teach students a
week-long grammar lesson. Kids were thrilled!"
---Kali Camara, Teacher (2nd grade), Monta Loma
Elementary, Mountain View, CA
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Are Two of You Planning to Put
the Play on Together?
If you ask us, we always suggest having just one class put on a play. We
think each kid is
more involved, and we think it's easier for you to deal with a smaller number of students.
But lots of teachers disagree with us.
They've been happily doing the
plays together for years.
In fact, Amy Anderson, the teacher who does four musicals a year
(and she talks about this on our home page) thinks two classes
together is the way to go.
Then what do I need to purchase? Think
of a musical play like a library book.
Only one teacher may "check out" (i.e. put on) the play at a time. If another
teacher wants
to produce the music play that you purchased in a separate production and at a
later date,
you may loan out your original plan and student copies.
Your "library" needs two copies of the play for two teachers to
put on the play at the
same time. If a teacher wants her class to put on the play with your class,
she needs
to buy her own copy of the play. For three or more teachers to produce a play together,
purchase three copies for your "library" and Bad Wolf extends a Site License for all the
teachers and classes at your school.
But why can't I just make extra copies
of the play? If copies are made for
a class other than the purchasing teacher's, it's an infringement of U.S.
copyright law.
Yikes! Bad Wolf likes to toe the line where Uncle Sam is concerned, so we offer a
discount on the purchase of multiple copies of the play.
If you are 2 teachers putting on the
play together................................$60
* Includes 2 copies of the book and CD (save
almost $20 off of buying
them separately) so each of you has a CD and
book to work with.
* Free bonus: We'll throw in our famed
"Earthworms on Parade" CD. Y'know,
that's the one with the six goofiest songs
about earthworms ever written
($9.95 value.)
* Includes the right to reproduce the
script for the students in both of
your individual classes.
Questions?
Call or email Ron Fink at (888) 827-8661
or ron@badwolfpress.com
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