Readers Theater: The Poky Little Puppy

The Poky Little Puppy

Scripted for Readers Theatre

(Story By Janette Sebring Lowrey, a Golden Book)

Cast:

Narrator 1, Narrator 2, Narrator 3, Narrator 4; Puppy 1, Puppy 2, Puppy 3, Puppy 4, Poky Little Puppy, Mother

Narrator 1:  Five puppies dug a hole under the fence and went for a walk in   

the wide, wide world. 

Narrator 2: Through the meadow they went, down the road, over the bridge,

across the green grass, and up the hill, one after the other.  When they

got to the top of the hill, they counted themselves.

Puppy 1: One, two, three, four…

Puppy 2: Now where in the world is that poky little puppy?

Puppy 3: He certainly isn’t on top of this hill.

Puppy 4: I only see a fuzzy caterpillar and a quick green lizard.

Narrator 3: But when they looked down at the grassy place near the bottom

of the hill, there he was, running round and round, his nose to the ground.

Puppy 1: What is he doing?

Narrator 4: And down they went to see, roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble,

till they came to the green grass; and there they stopped short.

Puppy 2: What in the world are you doing?

Poky Little Puppy: I smell something

Narrator 4: Then the four little puppies began to sniff, and they smelled it too.

Puppy 3: Rice pudding!

Puppy 4: We have to go home for dinner!

Narrator 1: They went home as fast as they could go, over the bridge up the

road, through the meadow, and under the fence. 

Narrator 2: Sure enough, there was dinner waiting for them, with rice

pudding for dessert.

Mother: So you’re the little puppies who dig holes under fences!  No rice

pudding tonight!  You will go straight to bed.

Narrator 3: But the poky little puppy came home after everyone was sound

asleep.  He ate up the rice pudding and crawled into bed as happy as a lark.

Narrator 4: The next morning someone had filled the hole and put up a sign.

It said: Don’t ever dig holes under this fence! 

Narrator 1: But the five little puppies dug a hole under the fence, just the

same, and went for a walk in the wide, wide world.

Narrator 2: Through the meadow they went, down the road, over the bridge,

across the green grass and up the hill, two and two.  When they got to

the top of the hill, they counted themselves.

Puppy 1: One, two, three, four…

Puppy 2: Now where in the world is that poky little puppy?

Puppy 3: He certainly isn’t on top of this hill.

Puppy 4: I only see a big black spider, and a brown hop-toad.

Narrator 3: But when they looked down at the grassy place near the bottom

of the hill, there he was, sitting still as a stone, with his head on one side

and his ears cocked up.

Puppy 1: What is he doing?

Narrator 4: And down they went to see, roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble,

till they came to the green grass; and there they stopped short.

Puppy 2: What in the world are you doing?

Poky Little Puppy: I hear something.

Puppy 3: Chocolate custard!

Puppy 4: I hear someone spooning it into our bowls! We have to go home for

dinner!

Narrator 1: They went home as fast as they could go, over the bridge up the

road, through the meadow, and under the fence. 

Narrator 2: Sure enough, there was dinner waiting for them, with chocolate

custard for dessert.

Mother: So you’re the little puppies who dig holes under fences!  No chocolate

custard tonight!  You will go straight to bed.

Narrator 3: But the poky little puppy came home after everyone was sound

asleep.  He ate up the chocolate custard and crawled into bed as happy as a lark.

Narrator 4: The next morning someone had filled the hole and put up a sign.

It said: Don’t ever, EVER dig holes under this fence! 

Narrator 1: But the five little puppies dug a hole under the fence, just the

same, and went for a walk in the wide, wide world.

Narrator 2: Through the meadow they went, down the road, over the bridge,

across the green grass and up the hill, two and two.  When they got to

the top of the hill, they counted themselves.

Puppy 1: One, two, three, four…

Puppy 2: Now where in the world is that poky little puppy?

Puppy 3: He certainly isn’t on top of this hill.

Puppy 4: I only see a little grass snake, and a big grasshopper.

Narrator 3: But when they looked down at the grassy place near the bottom

of the hill, there he was, looking hard at something on the ground in

front of him.

Puppy 1: What is he doing?

Narrator 4: And down they went to see, roly-poly, pell-mell, tumble-bumble,

till they came to the green grass; and there they stopped short.

Puppy 2: What in the world are you doing?

Poky Little Puppy: I see something.

Narrator 4: The puppies could see it too.  It was a ripe red strawberry

growing there in the grass.

Puppy 3: Strawberry shortcake!

Puppy 4: We have to go home for dinner!

Narrator 1: They went home as fast as they could go, over the bridge up the

road, through the meadow, and under the fence. 

Narrator 2: Sure enough, there was dinner waiting for them, with strawberry

shortcake for dessert.

Mother: So you’re the little puppies who dig holes under fences!  No

strawberry shortcake tonight!  You will go straight to bed.

Narrator 3: But the four little puppies waited till they thought mother was

asleep.  They slipped out and filled up the hole.

Mother: What good little puppies!  Come and have some strawberry

shortcake!

Narrator 1: This time, when the poky little puppy got home, he had to

squeeze in through a wide place in the fence. 

Narrator 2: There were his four brothers and sisters, licking the last crumbs

from their saucer.

Mother: Dear me! What a pity you’re so poky. Now the strawberry shortcake

is all gone!

Narrator 3: The poky little puppy had to go to bed without a single bite of

shortcake, and he felt very sorry for himself.

Narrator 4: The next morning, someone had put up a sign that read: No

desserts ever unless puppies never dig holes under this fence again!

Balance of Standards & Creativity

This article highlights a current imbalance we have in our schools between standards and creativity.  A quote from the center of the second page sheds light on part of the reason this imbalance exists: "Many educators associate creative characteristics with nonconformity, impulsivity, and disorganization."  I believe, as the article states, that many educators, as well as politicians and people in our society simply do not understand creativity.  Things that we do not understand well, we tend to shy away from, especially when it comes to teaching or explaining it to someone else.  However, there are teachers out there that are teaching creativity in their lessons regardless of the standards in place.  It is more of a challenge to teachers to develop creative lessons, especially considering the high-stakes testing they must prepare their students for. 

Recently, I have heard from several sources about changes that are taking place in the curriculum in NC.  The state is implementing new standards called "Core Curriculum" and there will be a greater focus on critical thinking and problem solving.  This is intended to change the approach to teaching currently and I believe the goal is to help students develop in ways so they will be able to think for themselves.  Perhaps this is an idea the author of this article would be in favor of.  However, I have questions and concerns about this move for our educational system.  Will there be appropriate funding to support this change? Will teachers receive support in the way of workshops and new lesson plan ideas? Or will teachers simply be told, here is how we will do things now, go forth and do....?  These changes sound good in theory and like many ideas on paper, people read about them and think "I want my child to have that type of educaton".  My concern is that if not properly supported, this idea will fail for our students.  Any change made in education, no matter how large or small, must be supported on multiple levels or it will simply not work.

Creative Productivity

My own Creative Productivity comes from:
Hard work:  70%
Sudden Insights: 20%
Chance Discoveries: 10%


Whether it is writing term papers, completing class projects, or writing lesson plans, I think much of my creative productivity has the breakdown noted above.  In most things I do, there is some sort of deadline that must be met.  If I wait for a sudden insight or chance discovery to happen before I complete any work, then I would not be very productive.  Many times however, as I am working hard on a task, I experience sudden insights that take may help move the work along, or may even guide it in a different direction.  When working on the Scavenger Hunt project, I experienced sudden insights because I continually thought about the project, whether or not I had intended to think about it at those moments.  Chance discoveries seem to be a less frequent occurrence and can help in the completion of a task, but one usually cannot wait for something to appear to them to continue work on a task.  
However, when there is not a specific deadline for a project, then I might be able to wait more for sudden insights before beginning hard work.  For example, when I work on a scrapbook for enjoyment, I may complete a page or two every few months.  I might think about the pictures I have to work with, and then "incubate" ideas until I have a sudden insight as to what layout to use.  

Creative Personality Traits

1. When I read Davis Chapter Five, I was very surprised to read about how Einstein could not talk until he was four, how Disney was fired because he did not have good ideas, and how Dickens, Gershwin, Rogers, and Wright  never finished school.  Each individual listed became extremely successful in their own respects; this makes me think about these individuals' teachers and what they must have thought when they discovered that their student had become successful in life.  Davis explores many personality traits and their relation to creativity.  As a teacher I began to think about students I've taught and traits I noticed in them.  Perhaps someone that sat in my class or someone that one day will be in my class, will go on to become a well-recognized, successful, creative individual.  Today in our schools we place many labels on students to help identify what their learning needs are.  Some students need additional assistance in math and reading, while others need enrichment in the same areas.  I hope that as a teacher I will be able to recognize children with creative minds and look beyond test scores and categorizations to encourage students in a helpful way. 

2. I am: aware of my creativeness, somewhat independent, curious, have a sense of humor, have a capacity for fantasy, artistic, open-minded, thorough, in need of time alone, perceptive, emotional, ethical.

I also am: argumentative, childish, and absent-minded.

Upon looking at these creative personality traits, I see myself in many of them, both good and bad.  I think that overall, I would expect these things of myself because these traits have been true of me for a long time.  I do think that overtime there have certainly been changes, but I still enjoy music, art, and an involvement in all arts.  In my family I am a first-born child.  As far as the research we read, I agree with it to an extent.  Both my sister and I play flute, participated in marching band, scrapbook as a hobby, and knit.  Rebecca, my sister, has told me that she has begun some of these interests because she wanted to become like me.  I am flattered she said this of me, and I feel that I’ve always tried to encourage her endeavors.  However, we are quite different in some ways.  As the research suggests, I tend to take less risks with my endeavors than my younger sister.  Rebecca is attending graduate school for Flute Performance.  With the economy in the state that is, I could never allow myself to take a risk like this; I do admire my sister though for following through with her dreams.  She has also taken three trips to countries abroad and is considering attending school in France.  These are perhaps the differences that would be noted in the research of birth-order and creativity.

Midterm Check Point

When I decided to take this Creativity course I had several thoughts.  It is my very first semester at Meredith for Graduate School and the course description sounded interesting to me.  I consider myself to be fairly creative and hoped that this would be a course I enjoyed and perhaps it could be a great beginning point for me.  Also, as a music teacher trying to become a classroom teacher, I had concerns that it might not be as easy for me to teach creativity in my classroom, so I thought this class might have ideas for me.

Now we are at the midterm of this class, I feel that through our readings and projects I have been encouraged to see creativity in a different light and I am excited to bring this to my classroom in a couple of years.  Each activity we have completed like the SCAMPER technique, Random Word, Sketchword, Crossword, and even the Can Transformation have real classroom applications.  However, I see that not only can one use these at face value, but each can lead you into a multitude of other ideas that can also be used in the classroom.

Our articles have also provided new ideas and caused me to "think outside of the box".  Before we spent a week on gifted and talented learners, I did not really consider all the aspects of these students.  The article we read made me realize how difficult it must be for these students with the standardized tests taking control over teachers' lessons.  These children deserve an education that allows them to use their minds and develop their talents in ways they will use continually.

I also have been made aware by our last article by Sawyer about how strongly I feel about the need for creativity in our schools.  I have described the feeling I get when I read sometimes as if I have an angry little person living inside my head that becomes provoked by certain subjects.  This sounds quite silly, but I do have very strong feelings about arts education and creativity in general.  Because of budget cuts there are children in our nation that are not able to do things in school which they feel they are good at.  Children need an opportunity, whether it is singing, dancing, drawing, writing a creative story, or exploring a scientific theory, to express themselves and experience learning in a way that speaks to them.

I look forward to using this new found information and excitement from this creativity course and finding ways to express it in the classroom.