Saturday, December 18, 2010

The Nutcracker

We are going to see The Nutcracker performed by a local ballet company tomorrow.  By "we," I mean C, R, and me.  Dad has decided that he is done with live performances of any kind.  He declared himself done with any kind of theatrical production after we (he and I) saw Wicked last January, and he declared himself officially done with all live performances after we saw The Radio City Christmas Spectacular a few weeks ago.  I don't know how anyone could dislike theater, but he does.  T has no interest in theatrical productions either.  Anyway, I took C and R to see The Nutcracker for the first time last year and they both enjoyed the show.  C really enjoys the battle between the mouse king and the nutcracker; R likes the whole show.  To gear up for the production, we read a few books and found a simple craft to complete.

We own two Nutcracker books that we read this week.

The Nutcracker and the Mouse King, E.T.A. Hoffmann's Classic Tale illustrated by Gail DeMarcken - This book is beautifully illustrated.  C likes to read this year round, but it is a bit long for R.   

The Nutcracker by Susan Jeffers is the perfect Nutcracker book for young children.  As the author notes at the end of the book, her version follows the story of the beloved ballet and speaks to a child.  I bought this book last year before we went to see the performance, and it was a great introduction to the ballet.

We also read Christmas Morning by Cheryl Ryan.   This is a fun book that is written in the format of This is the House that Jack Built.  It begins with snow falling on a house where children are sleeping, and after several pages, it builds up to Saint Nick delivering presents to the sleeping family.  We see an eye peeking out of a package, and a few pages later we discover that it belongs to the Rat King,who leads his pack and kidnaps the doll in the stocking next to them. A Nutcracker and other toys come to the rescue, so that all is back to normal by Christmas morning.


In addition to reading the books, I printed Nutcracker characters on card stock, C and R colored them, and we glued them to craft sticks to make puppets.  Now we can have our own production of the Nutcracker.

For more book recommendations, hop on over to What My Child is Reading at Mouse Grows, Mouse Learns. 
   

10 comments:

An Almost Unschooling Mom said...

Three of mine were in a local production of The Nutcracker last year - and I declared myself done with all theatrical performances, too :)

But, they'd probably love those books!

Ticia said...

I love your fingerpuppets!

I'm jealous, going to see the nutcracker is one of the things I really want to do.

Phoenix Berries said...

Oh, what a great idea! We are taking Pip to see The Nutcracker this Thursday, and books and puppets are a great way to let him savor the experience. Thank you for your post.

Anonymous said...

Have fun!! I use to see this every year growing up!

Jenny said...

Too funny. I am not into theater either! I especially don't care for The Nutcracker.

LOL!

Debbie said...

One of these years I have to make arrangements to take Selena to the Nutcracker. Of course that will mean hotel and the whole nine yards, since they perform 3 hours away from us. Next year though I will definitely have to see if I can get my hands on these books.

Natalie PlanetSmarty said...

We're going on Wednesday, and I am a bit nervous. Our previous attempts at live performances didn't end well. Perhaps we can try puppets too - great idea. And I have to pull out the second book that we also have.

Sherri said...

I love nutcracker...have fun! =)

momandkiddo said...

Well, I am pretty much going to have to ignore the fact that your family members are not going to the theater anymore, although if that is based on Radio City, I might not hold a grudge for too long. We have a pop-up book of the Nutcracker that I quite like.

Brimful Curiosities said...

We saw a performance of the Nutcracker last weekend, too. My daughter could have been a mouse this year, but I decided that she was too young too withstand all the practices.