I’m so excited for this Sunday’s entry in our 2016 Family Advent Calendar! As you may know, Shakespeare has often been a part of our Advent festivities. My favourite Shakespeare-related advent activity so far is when we read and illustrated As You Like It. Today, we’re doing a King Lear Cold Reading. That’s right, we’re going to […]
Now, don’t cry again… And, don’t swear, either, when I tell you we’re not illustrating Shakespeare as part of our family Advent Calendar this year! But, fear not, revellers! We’ve got one of the most beautifully written carols of all time on the drawing board this year… That’s right, this year, we are illustrating J.M. […]
Today is the first of our Write-It Wednesdays. The day’s task? Compose and perform an original Christmas Carol! Ways to get started… If you’re having trouble thinking of your own song, try putting new words to an old classic. Then, try to change the melody a bit. Make a list of some sort and write the song from […]
I know, I know. It’s a Thursday. We probably don’t want to keep the kids up all night long. They have school on Friday morning. But we’re still in that hazy lazy period of adjusting to Daylight Savings Time. And, we’ve got plans to go and see The Tempest this weekend at Hart House Theatre. So, […]
“I feel it in my fingers, I feel it in my toes….CHRISTMAS is all around me, It’s everywhere I go.” – from Love, Actually Tonight, continuing a tradition we started several years ago, we’ll write our own Christmas Carols. Since the kids are absolutely in love with the Bill Nighy character’s comic Christmas version of a […]
Today, we are making a Shadow Puppet Theatre and Christmas Shadow Puppets. Then, we’ll improvise a few plays and pageants in the dark. This is a great way to learn about telling stories without words or with truly creative narration. Here are our Shadow Puppet Theatre and Christmas Shadow Puppet tutorials! Shadow Puppet Theatre Materials Shoe […]
Tonight is all about improv and stage tricks! In front of the fireplace, the kids will improvise Christmas stories by pretending to be their favourite fictional characters. Which novels will they choose? And how will it all pan out in the end? They’ll have 2-3 minutes to conspire together and choose their characters before they […]
Over the past few weeks, the kids have been working with Blaise on a fantastic video project to coincide with the release of his second book of poems, Zeppelin (Nightwood Editions, 2013). I remember walking downstairs a few weeks ago and being utterly appalled to find that, after several hours of painting their “movie sets,” […]
On Sunday, we’ll be gearing up for an impromptu performance of our December Shakespeare play, starring all of the stuffies in the house!!
□ Make sure there are enough cookies for Santa. If not, make some more! □ Prepare the Cannoli Buche de Noel for tomorrow’s Christmas dinner. □ Go to Family Mass □ Indulge in the Feast of the Seven Fishes □ Drink Hot Chocolate and Sing Carols. □ Leave Cookies, Milk, and Maybe Even Some Reindeer Biscuits by the Fire
Today, the kids will get into the spirit of play-acting. We’ll be asking them to dream up a Christmas story featuring their favourite characters from Suzanne Collins’ Hunger Games trilogy and to improvise a performance of that story somewhere in the house. It will be interesting to see where and how they choose to set […]
Each year, we write and perform our own Christmas Carols (see last year’s Carol Hootenanny post for “Moves Like Santa” and others like it!) The kids still love their Harry Potter! So, this year, we thought we’d have them write Harry Potter specific carols. We’ll suggest titles like “The Twelve Days at Hogwarts,” “Good Wizard […]
December 25th, 2011 Advent Calendar 2011: A Shadowbox Spectacular: An Introduction to the ProjectAdvent Shadowbox: Day 1, Baking Cookies: Test-Cookies for Santa’s Plate – Chewy Chocolate Chip Toffee Bit Cookies.Advent Shadowbox: Day 2, Daily Bread Food Bank: Our first “Giving Day,” Making Contributions to the Daily Bread Food Bank in two ways.Advent Shadowbox: Day 3, […]
December 24, 2011 28th Day of Advent Christmas Eve ____________________ Christmas Eve Checklist ____________________ □ Make Chocolate Chip Cookies for Santa □ Make Gingerbread Cutouts, too! □ Go to Family Mass □ Indulge in the Feast of the Seven Fishes □ Ice the Bûche de Noël □ Drink Hot Chocolate and Sing the Carols You […]
December 20, 2011 24th Day of Advent 5 Days ’til Christmas Sing Carols To and From Your Christmas Concert! _____________ Today’s Advent Shadowbox Insert: The Shadowbox from afar:
December 17, 2011 21st Day of Advent 8 Days til Christmas WRITE & PERFORM A CHRISTMAS CAROL! _____________________________ Find a Tune You Like Or Invent One of Your Own Add Original Lyrics And Grab a Microphone It`s Our Annual Family Christmas Carol Hootenanny Be Ready With Your Original Tunes! The Gang Meets Tonight At Seven O’clock […]
