Gainesville Creative Kids - Classes

The Rainbow Forest Story

Cierra Boutin	Genevieve, the horse
Zach Daegling	Rory, the lion
Emma Habeck	Rainy, the kitty
Alivia Hunter	Rain, the elephant
Talia Porter	Stars, the kitty
Isabel Vernon	Rosella, animal rescuer
Sophia Vernon	Rose, the baby horse

Act 1
Once upon a time there was a very special place called the Rainbow Forest. In the Rainbow Forest there lived a horse named Genevieve, an elephant named Rain, a Lion named Rory, and two kitties named Rainy and Stars. All of these animals were great friends. One day they were lying around with nothing to do. Rainy asked, "Hey would you like to play tag?" All the animals thought this was a very exciting idea and started a fun game of tag. They were all having a great time playing and laughing. Genevieve, the horse, was running when she looked behind her to yell, "I'm going to win." She didn't see the log in front of her and tripped and fell. The game came to a sudden end and all the animals gathered around Genevieve. Rain, the elephant, said, "Are you okay?" Rory let out a roar to let the forest know. Stars, the kitty, said, "Can you get up?" Rainy, the kitty, said, "I'll call for help." Stars, the kitty, said, "I'll go get help." Rainy got on the phone and called Rosella the animal rescuer. Rainy could only say "meow, meow, meow" on the phone. But, Rosella understood kitty talk. Rosella said, "A horse is hurt? I will be right there". Just then Stars, the kitty, arrived and led Rosella back to Genevieve. All the other animals were still gathered around Genevieve, patting her and trying to make her feel better. When Rosella arrived, she asked, "What happened?" Rain answered, "She fell over this log." Rosella bent down and asked Genevieve, "Can you stand up?" Genevieve tries to stand, but can't. She says, "No." Rosella gets out her phone to call for help, but can't make it work. She says, "My phone is jammed. Can you help me carry her back to the animal rescue center?" All the animals help carry Genevieve to the animal rescue center. When they get there she lies down on a bed and Rosella gets out a wand. Rain sees the wand and asks, "What's that?" Rosella waves the wand over Genevieve and answers, "My x-ray machine" Rain asks, "Why are you going to x-ray her?" Rosella answers, "To see what's wrong with her foot or anything else." After Genevieve has been x-rayed, Rosella says, "She only has a splinter in her foot, but she is going to have a baby!" All the animals get very excited, especially Genevieve.

Act 2
Two weeks later, all the animals are back in the Rainbow Forest. Genevieve is better and all the animals are happy. Rosella appears from the Rescue Center carrying Rose, the baby horse. Rain sees Rosella and Rose coming towards the Rainbow Forest and says, "Here she comes!" Rainy says, "The new baby horse." Rosella brings the baby horse to her mom Genevieve. All the animals gather around them and are very happy. Stars says, "Let's have a party." All the animals say, "Yay! Great!" Rory says, "It's going to rain. Listen." All the animals listen and start to hear the rain coming. Stars says, "Let's go to the kitty garden. It won't rain there." The animals all go to the kitty garden for the celebration. There is singing and dancing.

The End

Gainesville Creative Kids Theater - Fall Session
(October 13th - November 20th, 2008)
** Notes from Fall Session Theater class to show how the above play was created.

Facilitator: What would you want to be in a play?
Talia and Emma: I want to be a kitty
Sophia: I want to be a baby kitten
Cierra: I want to be a horse
Ahanu: A donkey
Isabel: I want to be a puppy
Ahanu: We can be on a farm.
Cierra: Well, how about a rain forest?
Emma: How about a rainbow forest?
Cierra: The Rainbow Forest Story

Facilitator: What does it look like in the Rainbow Forest?
Kid: The trees are rainbows and there are rainbows all the time
Kid: Rainbows are really beautiful and really pretty

Facilitator: Usually a play has 3 acts or parts - first, you introduce the characters, then there is a conflict, then there is resolution.
Kid: We could all be running in the rainbow forest.
Kid: We're running around having fun.
Kid: We're playing a game.
Cierra: The horse gets hurt.
Facilitator: How does it get hurt?
Kids: A gun, a needle, accidentally steps on a prickle.
(they discussed for awhile about how the horse would get hurt)
Facilitator: Why would the animals be running around?
Kids: They are playing tag. They are having fun

Facilitator: Why would it be bad if the horse got hurt? Why would it be a conflict?
Kid: Maybe the horse is pregnant
Sophia: I sometimes like to be a baby horse
Emma: You could play two parts
Ahanu: Maybe she could step on a pointy rainbow acorn
Cierra: I ran and got hurt tripping on a log, so maybe that's how the horse gets hurt.
Kid: Yeah, it's a rainbow log.

Facilitator: Okay, so what's your line for this scene?
Cierra: "I'm going to win tag" and then I trip.
Emma: I am going to say…
Ahanu: I will jump over the log and over the horse.
Cierra: Ahanu can say "I can't believe that this happened."
Ahanu: Then I'll pick the horse up.
Emma: The kitties will just say meow

Facilitator: Okay, is everyone happy with the kitties saying Meow? Is there a good horse sound?
Cierra: (making horse sounds)
Emma: I know a good line.
Isabel: Actually, I want to be the animal rescuer. I want one of the animals to call me.
Emma: I will call the vet. But I only say meow, meow. That's funny.

Facilitator: So, let's talk about the other parts of a play. There is the audience and the costumes.
Isabel: I should wear torn-up clothes because I am coming out of the jungle.
Emma: Dress-up clothes. Kitty with brown and pink spots.
Alivia: Elephant with pink
Zach: Bat man

Facilitator: Let's keep writing our play, The Rainbow Forest Story. Alivia, Liam, and Zach weren't here last week, so we need to figure out what part you will play.
Zach: I love to play tag.
Talia: …wants to have a baby, too.
Emma: She's having a baby, I'm not.
All: (Talking and trying to figure out story.)
Cierra: That's because I look back. I know how to neigh.
Zach: I know how to ride a horse because I took riding lessons.

Facilitator: Do you think we should find out that you're pregnant before or after you fall?
Isabel: Do we know if she is tripped or not?
Zach: We know she got tripped by the log because she saw it
Alivia: Then you're going to …
Cierra: She pulls out a twig with tweezers.
Isabel: Last time they were running all over the place. Can we make a runway?

Facilitator: The log will stay there and you just trip over it. Lion, have you thought of a line that you would like to say?
Zach: We saw the bats come out. Hundreds of them. It was a beautiful cloud of bats.
Isabel: Maybe we could say, "Well, can you stand up?"
Cierra: (answering) "No"
Kid: I'm going to ask the horse if she's okay
Kid: Horses do die if they lie down too long.

Facilitator: Let's take it from the top. When you guys are acting, you need to project so the audience can hear you.
Emma:I want to say Gainesville Creative kids presents the Rainbow Forest Story.
Talia: I want to be a newborn baby kitten. I am going to say "Meow, meow, meow"
Emma: Want to play tag (loudly)
Zach: (playing tag) Roar
Alivia: I'm going to be a baby elephant.
(They get too excited and don't notice when the horse trips over the log)

Facilitator: The horse tripped over the log and then what do you do?
Kid: Oh, the horse is hurt. I'll be hurt too.
Talia: meow, meow, what hurts?
Isabel: (to talia) The horse is hurt? Thanks for showing me.
Isabel: (to animals) What happened?
Emma: meow, meow
Isabel: She tripped over the log?
Isabel: (to horse) Can you stand up?
Cierra: No
Isabel: Are you ok?
Cierra: neigh, neigh

We made the costumes and set one day. The kids first made a picture of what they thought the Rainbow Forest would look like.
Zach: Well, I have to use a lot of colors because rainbow forest has a lot of colors.
Sophia: The ideas want to stay in my head. I'm putting a lot of colors in it.
Emma: Rainbow Forest is sparkling with colors.
Zach: I knew rainbow forest was like this.
Sophia: There's not much grass.
Alivia: That's sad. I see lots of grass because the donkey and elephant need to eat.
Zach: My Rainbow Forest is all done because it has all the colors.
Emma: My picture is sparkling with rainbows.
Isabel: I drew a squirrel in a tree. The squirrel is scared because an animal ran by and the squirrel dropped all it's nuts.
Cierra: My picture has Alivia as the elephant and everything is rainbows. Even rainbow clouds.

At the beginning of one class, we all introduced ourselves:
My name is Ahanu and my favorite ice cream is chocolate.
My name is Cierra and my best friend is Kira.
My name is Isabel and I like puppies.
My name is Liam and I wish I could see a dinosaur.
My name is Zach and I want to find a T-Rex. I want to find a bone and then I can measure it. And tigers too.
My name is Emma and I love Rainbow Ice cream.
My name is Talia and I love kittens and puppies and strawberry and vanilla ice cream.
My name is Alivia and my favorite animal is an elephant.

We read the story 'Frog and Snake Never Play Together'.
Facilitator: How could a frog talk? Can you say "Hello There" like a frog?
All: (making frog sounds)
Facilitator: How would a snake talk? Can you say "My name is ssssnake child?"
All: (making snake sounds)
Facilitator: (reading part of story where frog and snake child meet)
Kids: Oh no! Frog and snake should never play together.
(All the kids become a frog or snake, teaching the others how to move like them.)
Cierra: Snakes can go up and down, but they can't go up that high.
Sophia: I want to be the frog
Kid: I'm being a snake
Kid: Oh, you were a frog before
Kid: But I changed into a snake
Cierra: No, you first have to show me how you can jump
Alivia: Boing (laughing)
Cierra: Watch this