Submitted by Caryn Mears, Kennewick, Washington
Idea posted November 14, 2005
Here are some suggestions to accompany the songs of How The Penguins Saved Christmas.
On "This Elegant Christmas Time," I had the penguins hold their hands in an opera pose and they nodded their heads first left and then right for the first two lines on the staccato notes. Then when it goes to legato, they faced forward still in the pose. I left off all of the solo speaking and had them maintain the prim and proper opera pose throughout the song.
On "Who Can The Stranger Be?" I had the kids step left and then right at measure 9. They held their hands at their sides with their hands pointing out like a penguin. Then with "Who's this guy all dressed in red?" students held their hands up, bent at the elbows and brought them down beside their body. They did the same motion for the next sentence, "Fell from the sky, sure hope he's not dead." It was kind of mechanical. The next sentence, "Look at that lump on the top of his head!" students brought their arms up, bent at the elbow again, and then patted their heads. For "And look at that tummy! This guy's well fed!" their hands pointed to their waist and then rubbed their tummy.
At measure 25, go back to the stepping. I would have the kindergarten through first grades sing this chorus part. I had them sing "Maybe we should think this through," instead of changing the words the second time. At measure 33 they went to a "touch head, clap, pattern," head, clap, head, clap, head, clap.
You could have a different group sing the second verse, and I did almost the same motions except for the last part: Instead of rubbing their tummies, they did a "thinking" position. I had three classes, so it was easy to divide the verses.
I also divided the verses on "Who, Me?" You could have the Kinders sing one verse, the first graders sing one, etc. The chorus of penguins pointed to Santa first with their right hands, then their left hands, then their right hands, and then both hands for the "Yes you!" part.
"Remember" is a beautiful solo. You could have a soloist all the way through or have several kids (up to four) do different solo lines all the way through.
For the "Kazoo Fanfare For The Emperor," I didn't have enough kazoos for all 90+ students, so we put our hands up to our mouths and made a kazoo noise. I selected about four real kazoo players to play into microphones.
For the "Shout!" song, I did the first verse two times. You could have the younger ones join in on the shout section, but you will have to teach them how to count out how many times to do it. It can be confusing.
For scenery, I had a huge green paper Christmas tree with tinfoil fish glued onto it. On the reverse side I had red, blue and yellow balls as ornaments, so that I can re-use the tree each year. I made a large sign to hang up that says "SOUTH POLE" on one side and "NORTH POLE" on the other, so that I can use it for other productions.
For costumes I made white felt bibs. They are about 18-inch x 12-inch ovals with a hole cut out for the neck. They are pinned onto the children. A parent decorated them for me with red and green bow ties and three black buttons down the front of each. I also used a purple cape on the emperor penguin. I didn't use any nosepieces at all. Black socks on the arms made the students look as if they had flippers. (They held their arms/flippers out at their sides when they weren't moving them.) For reindeer costumes I bought t-shirts, dyed them brown, and bought reindeer antler headbands. Our school has a Santa costume that can be pinned up or down or stuffed with more pillows as needed.
How The Penguins Saved Christmas is a terrific investment.