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School Bound: Trouble in the Breadbox
Teacher's Study Guide
by
Pat McCarthy

The Story

Gofo, a harried and overworked kitchen helper, has just finished her lunch and is about to toss her garbage onto the ground when she notices she is being watched... by an audience. Caught in the act, she looks for somewhere to dispose of the wrappers and sets her sight on an old breadbox. She pulls down the lid and is about to throw in her garbage when she discovers a magical world inside: a blue sky and white clouds above, a house and a school at each end.

A symphony of sounds leads our curious kitchen helper to the back of her cart, and the surprises within. At first, a hissing sound grabs Gofo’s attention. She finds an egg frying in a pan, only to discover that the bright yolk is really a rising sun. She attaches the sun above a cloud, and then hears a faint snore. The snoring is coming from inside a pot, and after a few attempts at lifting the lid, Gofo peers inside and finds a yam. She’s about to eat the yam but gets an earful…from Yamma, a yam with small eyes and a big journey ahead of him. Before long, Gofo prepares Yamma for his first day of school. She feeds him porridge with measuring spoons that turn into his family, brushes his teeth, and puts a hat (a cloth tea bag) on his head for warmth.

Yamma steps out the door, and into the cold. A moment later it begins to snow as Gofo grates a snowball (foam ball) from above. Yamma starts to shiver, and the sounds of his shivers turn into rumbling motorcycles (pizza slicers) that run circles around him. The motorcycles zoom away, and Yamma forges ahead. A beeping sound puts Yamma’s journey on hold: a truck sweeper (hand beaters) barrels down the road, forcing Yamma to watch his step. When the coast is clear, he pushes on, only to be stopped in his tracks by a loud, menacing grunt. The local bully is soon on the scene, a potato masher with attitude. The bully teases Yamma, but gets as good as he gives when an elderly neighbour (a pair of tongs) gives him a tongue lashing and sends him on his way.

Yamma finally makes it to the schoolyard, where he’s greeted by a friend (a carrot). Yamma recounts his adventures before both friends head into class. As Yamma steps through the doors he hears a sound from above. He looks up and sees a bird (corkscrew) soaring overhead, a fitting finale to a journey that saw him overcome all the obstacles he encountered. Yamma steps into school, emboldened by his experience, and a rainbow rises overhead.

Gofo begins to pack up, humming O, Canada as if she were joining Yamma and his classmates at the start of another school day. The breadbox is closed, and young minds are opened to new ways of telling stories.

The Style

Breadbox Theatre was launched in 2005 by playwright Emil Sher to introduce younger audiences to the wonders of theatre on a small-scale. How small? The entire world of School Bound, the company's first play, fits into a breadbox. In this one-person show, the actor opens the box and reveals a land where kitchen utensils come to life and audiences are whisked away on a whimsical journey. A fried egg turns into a rising sun. A potato masher oozes attitude. A corkscrew doubles as a bird.

The Venue

Breadbox shows are only performed in classrooms or libraries, providing children from Junior Kindergarten to Grade 2 with a first-hand look at how a bit of an imagination goes a long way in feeding creativity.

The Themes

The play and follow-up activities explore the following:

• going on adventures,
• making the ordinary extraordinary,
• overcoming obstacles, including bullies
• arriving safely at a destination, and most importantly
• freeing the imagination.

The Set

The set is a breadbox, which opens out to form a stage with three playing areas: Yamma's home, the street on the way to school, and the classroom where Yamma arrives to retell his adventures.

The Costumes

The actor is dressed as a restaurant worker and wears a chef's hat. Yamma wears a hat made from a tea bag. The kitchen utensils are made into the story characters through the addition of googly eyes, movement, sound, and the children's imagination.

Pre-show activities

Introducing young children to the plot, characters, and setting, as well as giving them some specific details to watch for before the presentation, encourages active viewing and listening for a purpose. This kind of pre-show preparation gives the children a kind of ownership of the experience. They will be more focused and involved during the presentation, and will retain more information for post-show discussion and activities. The following are discussions and activities that will bring the students into the world of the play, without spoiling any of the surprises.

You can choose all or some of the following themes to explore before the performance.

1. Getting to School
   
Questions and Discussion:
• How do you get to school? On foot? Bike? Car? Bus?
• Who accompanies you to school? Parent? Other family member? Another student?
• Who comes to school on their own?
• Do you meet any dangers or interesting sights that may stop you on your way to school? Busy street to cross? Friendly/unfriendly dog? Big kids who tease? A candy store?
• Sing a song or chant a rhyme about safety on the streets.
• What safety rules do you know about getting to school safely?
Activities:
• Make a list of the different ways that class members come to school.
• Make of list of care-giver who bring your classmates to school
• Make a list of safety rules for getting to school safely
2. Adventures
   
Questions and Discussion:
• What is an adventure? Have you been on one?
• Name someone, real or imaginary who has lots of adventures
• What makes an ordinary trip into an adventure?
• What is good about adventures? What could be bad about adventures?
Activity:
• Invent a group adventure,
  • One person starts a story, of going on an adventure
  • When the first person finishes, the next person in the circle continues the story, adding another invented character or challenge.
  • When the teacher calls “time”, the next person must bring the tale to an end.
3. The Play
   
Questions and Discussion:
• What is a yam? Who has tried one? How do you prepare/eat a yam?
• What is a breadbox? Does any one have one at home?
• Have you ever thought about what else a yam or a breadbox could be used for?
• In the play, the writer decided to use the yam as a character and take him on an adventure. Where do you think Yamma might go on his adventure?
• Who might he meet along the way?
• What exciting or scary things do you think might happen?
Activities:
• Make a list of the children’s predictions about the play, for comparison after the play.
• Pass the pencil: (or scarf, marker, or any other simple object)
  • Start by using a pencil as another everyday object e.g. a toothbrush.
  • Pass the pencil to the child on your right and have them use the pencil as something else. After each turn the class guesses what object the pencil is representing.
  • Continue passing the pencil until all children have had a turn.

Questions to Guide Students Viewing

What to Watch for during the play:

• What ordinary kitchen utensils does Yamma meet on the way to school?
• What does each of the utensils become?
• What dangers does Yamma encounter?
• How are all the sounds during the play created?
• What language do the characters speak?

Post-Show Activities

This section contains discussion questions and learning centre activities through which the students will be able to talk about the play, relate the story to their own experiences, and extend the experience into creative projects.

Questions for Discussion

The discussion section includes questions related to the themes explored in the play as listed in the introduction.

Talking about the Play

Recalling the story

• Where did the cook throw out her garbage at the beginning of the play?
• What sound did the cook hear inside the box? What did it turn out to be?
• What did the egg become in the play?
• Where was Yamma going on his journey?
• What is Yamma made from?
• What characters does Yamma meet on the way?
• Who saves Yamma from the bully?
• What does Yamma do when he sees his friend Carrot at school?

Talking about adventures

• What kind of adventures did Yamma have during the play?
• Did he meet any dangers on his way to school?
• What other adventures can you imagine for Yamma?
• Can you name characters from books, films, TV who go on adventures? How would you make them into a puppet or character in a play?
• What dangers or obstacles does Yamma meet along the way? How does he overcome them?

Talking about Safety

• Yamma meets some motorcycles, made from pizza cutters. Was Yamma obeying the safety rules when this happened?
• What rules do you have for getting to school safely and on time?
• What rules about playing outside do you know?

Talking about theatre

• Theatre is like magic. The playwright, the sounds and lighting, the actors, and our imaginations help us to believe that what we are seeing is real. Can you name any moments that seemed like magic during the play?
• Characters in a play wear costumes. How does the playwright make costumes for the kitchen gadgets in the play?
• Who makes the voices for all of the characters? Are they speaking a real language?
• What other sounds does the character create during the play?
• The playwright named Yamma because it is made from a Yam. What name would you give to the other characters made from kitchen objects?
• Think of some gadgets in your kitchen at home? Name the item, and tell what you could turn it into. How would you do it?
• Look around the room and find some objects that you could make into puppets or characters in a play. How would you do it?

Learning Centre Activities

School Bound: The Game
(visual art, math, reading, cooperation)

At this center children will make a board game. Later they can revisit to the center to play each other's games.

Materials

• Large Construction or Poster Board
• Scissors, Glue
• Markers,
• Paper Fastener
• Corks, ribbon, craft eyes

• Draw a house on one side of the poster board and a school on the other. Draw a large circle in the middle of the board
• Make a path of squares in any pattern between the house and school.
• Draw and cut out a large circle from the construction paper. Divide the circle into six parts, and number each segment from 1-6.
• Draw and cut out an arrow, half the diameter of the circle.
• With the paper fastener, attach the arrow to the middle of the circle, to make a spinner for the game.
• Glue the construction paper circle on to the circle in the middle of the board.
• On every fourth or fifth square, draw or write an instruction, (go back a space, go ahead one space, miss a turn, etc.)

• Each student spins the arrow, and moves the playing piece the number of spaces indicated
• The student follows the instruction on the square
• The game continues until all arrive at school

Cut, Paste and Label
(research, vocabulary, phonics, imagination)

At this center children will recall parts of the story, as they create their own picture dictionary of transformed objects.

Materials

• Magazines, super-market flyers, catalogues, picture dictionaries etc.
• Scissors, glue, tape
• Large newsprint or construction paper
• Scrap paper
• Markers
• Model: Cutout of Wooden Spoon, decorated to look like a grandma

• Use the print material to find pictures of the various object from the play (measuring spoons, egg beater, yams etc)
• Cut out the pictures or draw your own, and glue onto the large sheet of paper
• Use picture dictionary to find the spelling of the word
• Print the name of each object under the picture
• Use your imagination to add to the picture, to make the object into something else. (Draw a face on a wooden spoon; add an apron to the handle, to make a grandma.)
• Name your new object using a name that begins with the same sound as the object. (e.g. Wilma Wooden Spoon)
• Print the name on top of the picture.

Puppet Centre
(visual art, drama, language art (writing), imagining)

At this center the children will make puppets out of everyday objects and use the puppets to prepare a puppet skit.

Materials

• Kitchen gadgets and other ordinary objects
• Glue, scissors, String
• Scraps of craft materials
• Plastic eyes of different sizes (purchased from art supplies or in craft stores)
• Puppet Theatre

• Choose one of the items from the box or bring one from home
• Decide what else the object could represent
• Use the craft material to transform the gadget
• Give the object a name and personality
• Combine with other gadget characters to develop a short puppet skit about going on an adventure.
• Practice and perform for classmates

Story Telling

At this center children will recall the story of Yamma, extend the story and create adventure stories of their own.

Materials

• Reproducible pages
• Paper, pencils, markers

• On the handout, fill in the blanks and complete the matching exercise.
• Use the first storyboard to tell what happened next to Yamma
• Use the storyboard to make up a whole new adventure for Yamma and his friend Carrot, or a story of your own.