Inside this guide:About: The Show, and Playwright . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2

The Big Ideas, Reading List, Questions for Discussion . . .3

Activity: What Does Bad Kitty Need? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4Compare and contrast the needs of different living things — using your students and Bad Kitty as examples. Which things do both pets and humans need?

Activity: Thought Bubbles . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .5Using the included Thought Bubble worksheet, students write their interpretation of what Bad Kitty might be thinking in reaction to different events.

Activity: Dear Human… . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7Write letters of protest from Bad Kitty to her human outlining one of her complaints and her proposed solution.

Online Resources . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8

Reflection: After the Play . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .9

Field Trip Info Length: 60 minutes

Teacher Preview: Friday, February 26

Sign Interpreted Performance: Thursday, March 10, 11:45

Questions?Learn more at octc.org/schoolservices Email: teachers@octc.org Call: 503-228-9571

Follow us on Facebook! Oregon Children’s Theatre posts videos, behind-the-scenes photos, and other great multimedia connected to your field trip.

TEaChEr rESOUrCE GUIdE

AWAR

D-WINNING THEATER

Mar 1 – 25, 2016

WINNINGSTAD THEATRE

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Teacher resource Guide

AboutThe ShowIn the beginning … there was Kitty. and only Kitty. Kitty was happy to take naps, play with her toys, and eat her food all on her own. But Kitty’s peaceful and solitary existence is soon thrown into chaos – a new puppy, a bath, a trip to obedience school, and worst of all, a drooling new baby. With too much change, Bad Kitty doesn’t have any choice except … to be bad. Your students will howl (or meow?) with laughter as Bad Kitty tries to make sense of a world that just can’t seem to operate according to her own rules.

The AuthorNick Bruel is the author and illustrator of New York Times bestseller Boing! and the Bad Kitty books, among others. he is a freelance illustrator and car-toonist, and during his down time, he collects PEZ dispensers and grows tomatoes in the backyard. he lives in Tarrytown, NY with his wife Carina and their lovely cat Esmerelda.

www.badkittybooks.com

The Playwright/ComposerMin Kahng is an award-winning playwright and com-poser from the San Francisco Bay area whose works include Where the Mountain Meets the Moon, The Song of the Nightingale, and Tales of Olympus. his upcoming projects include The Four Immigrants based on the comic book by henry Yoshitaka Kiyama, and Story Explorers, a project supported in part by the National Endowment for the arts that will adapt stories created by children living with autism and other special needs into a fully produced musical. Kahng received the 2014 Titan award for Playwrights. he is a resident Playwright with the Playwrights Foundation and a proud member of the dramatists Guild.

www.minkahng.com

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Teacher resource Guide

The Big Ideas• Change can be very hard, especially for cats.

• Pets can have very strong feelings or opinions even though they can’t talk.

• Even the most bad-tempered cat can learn to tolerate (and even love) new family members.

Big Ideas by Bad Kitty• I like to be alone.

• dogs are foul and slobbery creatures.

• So are babies.

• I like to take naps, scratch things, play with my ball of yarn, and eat. alone.

Bad Kitty Onstage is adapted from the following Bad Kitty books:

• Bad Kitty Meets the Baby

• Happy Birthday, Bad Kitty

• Bad Kitty Gets a Bath

• Bad Kitty: School Daze

Reading ListGo to www .tinyurl .com/badkittyOCT to access a Bad Kitty book list provided by Multnomah County Library SchoolCorps. Includes related nonfiction titles great for Common Core connections!

Questions for Discussion1. Choose three adjectives to describe Bad Kitty.

2. do you have a pet? how are they different from Bad Kitty? how are they similar?

3. do you think Bad Kitty loves her human owner? Why or why not?

4. a ‘pet peeve’ is a phrase used to describe something that makes you grumpy or bugs you. Can you list some of Bad Kitty’s pet peeves?

5. In the Bad Kitty books, Bad Kitty doesn’t actually talk. List two ways that you can tell, as a reader, how Bad Kitty is feeling.

6. What advice would you give the human narrator to make Bad Kitty behave better?

7. how do you think Puppy and Baby feel about Bad Kitty? how does Bad Kitty feel about them?

8. In Bad Kitty Onstage, an actor will play Bad Kitty. Make some predictions or draw a picture of what you think their costume will look like.

• What are some ways that an actor could use their bodies, voices, or faces to seem more cat-like or dog-like?

• What do you think will happen next? Predict reactions to each event:

• Bad Kitty has to take a bath.

• Bad Kitty’s human gets a leash and harness for her to go for a walk.

• Bad Kitty is given a new scratching post.

• Puppy brings some dog friends over for a playdate.

• Uncle Murray comes over to pet-sit.

• Baby decides to take a nap in Bad Kitty’s bed.

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Activity: What Does Bad Kitty Need?OverviewCompare and contrast the needs of different living things—using your students and Bad Kitty as examples. Which things do both pets and humans need?

Activity Instructions

Prepare a length of butcher paper for a class chart, or make smaller chart paper available for small group work.

What do pets like Bad Kitty or Puppy need to survive? What do humans need to survive? What do all living things need, or what is unique to a cat or a human? discuss needs of living things with students.

Create a class chart divided into columns, or if working with older students, have them work in small groups to create their own chart. Label one column ‘I need’ and the other ‘Bad Kitty needs’. as a class or in small groups, generate a list. Encourage students to be as specific as possible – what kind of food? What kind of shelter?

discuss or use some journal time to have students think about the responsibilities involved in owning a pet like Bad Kitty in order to meet their basic needs.

ExtensionWhat kinds of pets do your students have? Take a class survey and then create a bar graph illustrating the kinds of pets students have? What is the most popular kind of pet? how many students have no pets? Incorporate the chart into your math activities if you like!

Common Core State StandardsScience: Life Science: From Molecules to Organisms: Structures and Processes K.LS1.1 Use observations to describe patterns of what plants and animals (including humans) need to survive.

1.LS2.2 read texts and use media to determine patterns in behavior of parents and offspring that help offspring survive.

Vocabulary and ConceptsNeeds of living things

Oxygen

Grade Level: K-1

Length: 30 minutes

Materials•Butcher or chart paper

(or paper for group work)

•Markers

•Pencils

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Teacher resource Guide

Activity: Thought BubblesOverviewEven though Bad Kitty doesn’t speak, it’s pretty easy to tell how she’s feeling about something! Using the included Thought Bubble worksheet, students write their interpretation of what Bad Kitty might be thinking in reaction to different events.

Activity Instructions

Print class set of Thought Bubble worksheets. Select three events from the Bad Kitty book you’re reading with students, or use the following events from the play:• Bad Kitty’s owner tells her she has to take a bath.

• Bad Kitty meets Puppy

• Bad Kitty learns she has a birthday present.

Point out to students how, while readers can often guess how Bad Kitty is feeling, Bad Kitty doesn’t actually speak in the books (or in the play!). how can we tell how Bad Kitty is feeling? Can we make guesses about what she might be thinking?

Pass out thought bubble worksheets to students. Explain that you’ll be sharing three events from the book/play. as you read each event, have students write a sentence that Bad Kitty might be thinking on their thought bubble worksheet.

after seeing the play, discuss with students how the actor playing Bad Kitty used her body and facial expressions to convey how her character was feeling. Could students tell how she was feeling even though she had no spoken dialogue?

Common Core State StandardsLanguage Arts: Reading: Literature: Craft and Structure

anchor 6: assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

K.rL.6 – 2.rL.6

Language Arts: Reading: Literature: Integration of Knowledge and Ideas

anchor 7: Integrate and evaluate content presented in diverse forms and media, including visually and qualita-tively, as well as in words.

K.rL.7 – 2.rL.6

Language Arts: Languageanchor 2: demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

K.L.2 – 2.L.2

Vocabulary and ConceptsPerspective

dialogue

reaction

Grade Level: K-2

Length: 30 minutes

Materials•Thought Bubble

worksheet (page 6)

•Pencils

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Teacher resource Guide

Activity: Dear Human…OverviewBad Kitty is a feline with no shortage of opinions, but her temper tantrums, ‘feh’ noises, and smoldering glares have gone unnoticed by her human. Write letters of protest from Bad Kitty to her human outlining one of her complaints and her proposed solution!

Activity Instructions

If needed, review letter-writing conventions with students (date, greeting, etc.). If working with second grade or older, bring in some examples of letters to the editor from your local newspaper.

What are some different reasons that people write letters? One reason is to state a problem (and possi-bly propose a solution) to a community problem. For example, a person might write a public letter to the city requesting that they fix a pothole in their neighborhood.

ask students to imagine Bad Kitty’s perspective. What are some problems that Bad Kitty might list about her home? Choose one, and draft a letter from Bad Kitty to her owner explaining the problem and how she thinks it could be solved.

Share some of students’ letters with the class, or display them. do students think that Bad Kitty’s per-spective is always reliable?

Common Core State StandardsLanguage Arts: Reading: Literature: Craft and Structure

anchor 6: assess how point of view or purpose shapes the content and style of a text.

K.rL.6 – 2.rL.6

Language Arts: Writing: Text Types and Purposesanchor 1: Write arguments to support claims in an analysis of substantive topics or texts, using valid reasoning and relevant and sufficient evidence.

K.W.1 – K.W.2

Language Arts: Languageanchor 2: demonstrate command of the conventions of Standard English capitalization, punctuation, and spelling when writing.

K.L.2 – 2.L.2

Vocabulary and ConceptsLetter-writing conventions

Letters to the editor

Grade Level: 1-3

Length: 60 minutes

Materials•Pencil and paper

•Examples of letters to the editor (older students)

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Teacher resource Guide

Online Resources

www .badkittybooks .com/activitiesOfficial Bad Kitty website. Printables include how to draw characters’ emotions, Bad Kitty coloring sheets, word searches, and more.

www .clubs2 .scholastic .com/reading-club/pdfs/badkitty_cropped_small .pdfhow to draw Bad Kitty! Note: Scholastic’s drawing contest has passed, but this is a great how-to printable to draw everyone’s favorite cranky feline.

www .humanesociety .org/parents_educators/lesson_plans_for_teachers .html Lesson plans from the humane Society on animal cruelty prevention, pet care and adoption, and more.

www .cats .org .uk/cat-care/cats-for-kids/about-cats/a-cats-past a kid-friendly history of the domestic cat, from ancient Egypt to the present day.

www .cats .org .uk/cat-care/cats-for-kids/about-cats Explore the world of the domestic cat and learn about some of their amazing abilities and quirky behavior.

www.octc.org

Reflection: After the PlayAfter the Play: What did you see?download the after the Play worksheet on the next page and print a class set. ask students to complete the drawing and response portions of the sheet either in class or at home.

Write to Oregon Children’s TheatreWe love hearing student feedback and responses to our shows! Please feel free to share any letters from students with us:

Oregon Children’s Theatre 1939 NE Sandy Blvd. Portland, Or 97232

Letters can also be emailed to teachers@octc .org.

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What did you see? Name and date _____________________

What did you see? cont.

1. describe what is happening in your drawing.

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2. List two or three things you liked about the play.

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3. If you were directing your own version of this play, what would you do differently?

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4. Write one question you had about the play that you’d like to ask Oregon Children’s Theatre. Questions can be for actors, the director, a designer, etc.

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