Kids love opera, right?! By the end of my opera unit, my 3rd graders are usually buzzing about it. Most kids (and adults) just don't understand what opera is. When I ask my students what it is, they always respond that it's "girls who sing really loud and break windows, boring, or annoying". I do Engelbert Humperdink's opera,
Hansel and Gretel, because the kids are familiar with the story and have fun acting it out. It's not some strange, complex tale in another language!
When I first introduce opera, we play this interactive online game:
Design your own opera and talk about all of the jobs that are involved in creating an opera. Then, we act out the opera on our own. I let several students be costume designers. Their job is to pick out costumes for everyone from my costume closet. I let some kids be casting directors, and they get to pick the lead characters. My kids who aren't completely sold yet get to be set designers and lighting technicians. They help me choose props for our set and turn the lights on and off. And finally I have my performers. Everyone plays the part of an angel or a gingerbread child. I play music from the opera and the kids act it out. They don't do any actual singing, but some do have fun pretending! It's not a huge fancy production. Just a small informal play in the classroom, but the kids love it! One class this year wanted to do it 3 times! We usually invite their classroom teacher in to watch, but I've even had students invite their parents in the past.
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| Hansel and Gretel |
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| Father and Mother |
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| My angels with boas instead of wings! |
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| 14 angels guarding over Hansel and Gretel during "Children's Prayer" |
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