Olive & The Dream Train (pdf)

2

TheatreAlibi

Olive amp the DreamTrain Teachers Resource Pack

This education pack has been specially designed and developed toaccompany Theatre Alibirsquos performance of Olive amp the Dream Train

Itrsquos intended as a resource for teachers of children at Key Stages 1and 2 and is best used after the performance Aspects of it areespecially relevant to Speaking Listening Creative Writing and ArtIt also touches on a range of other subject areas indicated below We have included pages suitable for photocopying for classroomuse These pages are marked WORKSHEETS so that you can spotthem easily Activities aimed at younger and older children arecolour coded

We hope you enjoy the pack and find it useful Dorinda Hulton

ContentsSynopsis of the story and characters in the story3Responding to a performance 7 SPEAKING AND LISTENING

Sequencing the story and creating a storyboard 8 SPEAKING AND LISTENING

Retelling the story 12 SPEAKING AND LISTENING

Developing the imagination through daydreaming 13 SPEAKING AND LISTENING

Jumpstarting creative writing 15 CREATIVE WRITING

Making up a story about a fantastical journey 17 ART CREATIVE WRITING

Exploring surrealism 20 ART CREATIVE WRITING

Acting out fantastical journeys using drama games 31 DRAMA CREATIVE WRITING

Looking back into the past 35 PSHE LITERACY

Yesterday today and tomorrowrsquos trains 37 ART SCIENCE

The world of work 41 PSHE LITERACY

Making the most of our abilities 50 PSHE LITERACY

The set 54 ART DRAMA

Using an iPad to make music 56 MUSIC

Resources 57

Olive amp the Dream Train

Synopsis of the storyIn Olive amp the Dream Train therersquos a girl called Olive who canrsquot stopdaydreaming All sorts of different things can start off Oliversquos daydreamsand then one thought leads to another At the beginning of the story Olivestarts to daydream when she thinks about her name and how she reallylikes olives and then wondering about this strange coincidence makes herremember being on holiday once in Spain and visiting a market that soldnothing but olives all different sizes and colours in big shiny heapshellip In her daydream Olive can see and smell the olives almost as if she werereally there

Oliversquos daydreams can happen at any time and in any place One day whenOlive daydreams at school Miss Turner her teacher tells her off Shewants everyone in the class to think about their homework for theevening and what theyrsquore going to write the next morning for an excitingstory called lsquoMy Journey to Schoolrsquo

After school Olive travels home by train feeling that she will never be ableto think about anything exciting to write for her story the next day Whenshe arrives home her Dad is feeling a bit tired after work So he goes tolie down and Olive sits for a little while with her cat Miu She tries to thinkagain about what she can write in her story and she gets so exhaustedwith worrying about it that by bedtime all she can do is stare at a posteron her bedroom wall Itrsquos a poster from an art gallery in Paris which shevisited when she was younger and it shows a picture of a tiny steam traincoming puffing out of a fireplace in an old house

The next morning Olive walks to the station to catch a train to school butshe still canrsquot think of anything exciting to write about The stationplatform is full of the usual faces but to Oliversquos eyes everything andeveryone looks duller than ever

Waiting on the station platform Olive pulls a little parcel out of her schoolbag that her Dad had asked her to post to her Grandma Pat who lives inFrance Itrsquos full of little plastic people for her Grandmarsquos model railwayand thinking about all the little people packed inside the parcel startsOlive off on another of her daydreams First she imagines herself wrappedin brown paper and going through the post to her Grandma and then sheimagines her Grandma pottering around in the attic humming to herselfas she works on her model railwayhellip Itrsquos almost as if she can hear herGrandma as if she was really there

Olive is so busy daydreaming about visiting her Grandma Pat that she

3

misses her train lsquoWhatrsquos wrong with mersquo she asks herself in despair asshe shuts her eyes and buries her head in her hands Then a few momentslater she hears a sound Itrsquos a kind of a chuffing sound and soon enoughalong comes a steam train right towards her It isnrsquot an ordinary steamtrain though because therersquos no driver and the sides of the engine arecovered in oliveshellip

Olive climbs aboard the dream train and goes off on the longest and mostexciting journey shersquos ever been on Her dream train really can goanywhere First it goes off the rails then over the grass up into the skyand deep down into the earth After that it bursts out into the air againwhizzes through a skate park up a huge oak tree and two minutes latershersquos at home There sitting on the garden shed is her cat Miu and thenext thing Olive knows is that shersquos become small enough to drive herdream train straight into the pink fluffy tunnel inside Miursquos ear Andsomewhere deep down there she comes to a place where cats are runningeverywhere all mewing like mad Itrsquos a funfair for cats It seems as ifsomehow Olive might be sharing one of Miursquos daydreams

Then Oliversquos dream train takes her through the Channel Tunnel to Francewhere she meets her Grandma Pat who seems to her to be as huge as agiant Magically Grandma Pat becomes as small as a button the same sizeas Olive Olive fetches the parcel of little plastic people out of her pocketand gives it to her Grandma and together they look around the modeltown that her Grandma made Itrsquos a special place that looks just like thetown where she grew up frozen in time a whole world of memories in herGrandmarsquos head from long ago when she was only four years old In themodel town Olive and Grandma Pat visit an old fashioned cinema and see afilm together and then Grandma Pat asks Olive about what shersquos missing atschool Olive tells her all about her worries and how she canrsquot think whatto write about for a story lsquoPoppycockrsquo says Grandma Pat lsquoYour headrsquosbursting with things to write aboutrsquo

When Olive and Grandma Patarrive back at the dreamtrain they see a littleplastic passenger sittingin one of the carriages andhe looks just like Oliversquos DadHe seems a bit glum thoughand Grandma Pat explains toOlive that her Dad doesnrsquot enjoyhis job at all She remembers that when he was younghe really liked making imaginary animals out of playdough and giving them funny made-up names

4

Grandma Pat and Olive say goodbye to each other at the station and Olivesits down in the dream train near the model figure of her Dad They arethe only two passengers on the train but he doesnrsquot notice her Finallywhen they arrive at the industrial estate where her Dad works Olivefollows him inside a big warehouse lsquoPoor Dadrsquo she thinks as she watcheshim looking bored sorting out the parcels as they come towards him on aconveyor belt Then along comes a peculiar egg shaped parcel and inside itthere seems to be a real live animal curled up in a ball The funny animalstarts to climb out of the parcel and Oliversquos Dad stops working for amoment All the parcels start to pile up and an alarm bell in thewarehouse goes off Olive rescues her Dad dragging him out of thebuilding and they run through the pelting rain together back to thedream train which is waiting patiently for them

Olive and her Dad fly off in the dream train up into the air back overParis and follow the direction of the river They fly towards an oldrailway station that was converted into an art gallery and the dream trainflies downwards and smashes through the big glass fan window at the topof the building It weaves at top speed through all the rooms and togetherOlive and her Dad see all the wonderful paintings and sculptures in thegallery Itrsquos the same gallery that Olive visited when she was muchyounger Finally they whizz down a corridor to the end where they cometo the painting with the little steam train coming out of a fireplace Itrsquos thesame picture that Olive has on a poster in her bedroom at home ThenOlive charges her dream train straight at the painting and it shoots intothe dark on the other sidehellip

When Olive opens her eyes again she finds herself sitting alone on thestation bench A train is coming down the line Itrsquos the normal everydaytrain that takes her to school

At school when Miss Turner asks all the children to write their storiesOlive canrsquot stop writing She just writes and writes about everything thathappened to her on her journey And when itrsquos time to finish Miss Turnerasks her to read out what she has written to the class When she finishesreading nobody moves Itrsquos as if theyrsquove all been on an exciting fantasticaljourney together with Olive on her dream train So this time Miss Turnerdoesnrsquot tell Olive off She gives her a special gift of a notebook and asks herto promise to fill it with more of her incredible journeys hellip

At the end of the story Olive gives her Dad a special gift of modelling clayItrsquos for him to make some imaginary animals with just like he used towhen he was small So that night at home after tea Olive and her Dad sitat the kitchen table together and make imaginary creatures and givethem funny made-up nameshellip

5

6

Olive amp the Dream Train

Characters in the storyOliveOlive is a girl who canrsquot stop daydreaming At the beginning of the storyshe gets told off for daydreaming at school Also shersquos worried about whatto write for a story called lsquoMy Journey to Schoolrsquo The next morning onher way to school Olive misses her train and goes on an exciting journeyon a dream train Then when she finally gets to school she writes aboutall the wonderful things that have happened to her on her journey Oliversquosteacher asks her to read out what she has written and all the otherchildren in her class are amazed

Miss TurnerMiss Turner is Oliversquos teacher At the beginning of the story she tells Oliveoff for daydreaming but by the end of the story when she hears the storyof Oliversquos journey on her dream train she gives her a special gift Itrsquos anotebook in which she can write down more stories about her incrediblejourneys

MiuOlive has a cat called Miu Hersquos black with a white patch under his chinwhich Olive calls his bowtie Olive likes to stroke Miu and look inside hispink fluffy ears On her journey Olive and Miu visit a cat funfair together

Grandma PatGrandma Pat lives in France and enjoys building model railways She hasalso built a model of the town she grew up in called Smallhaven On Oliversquosjourney she visits her Grandma Pat and they go to see a film together atan old fashioned cinema Grandma Pat encourages Olive to keep ondaydreaming and to write about all the wonderful things that are hiddeninside her head

Oliversquos DadWhen Oliversquos Dad was a boy he enjoyed making imaginary animals out ofplay dough and giving them funny made-up names Now he has a job hefinds boring sorting out parcels in a post office depot On her journeyOlive feels sad watching her Dad working Then something surprisinghappens and she helps her Dad escape from his work place They fly offtogether on the dream train to Paris to see a special art gallery whichthey visited with Grandma Pat when Olive was much younger In thegallery they see some wonderful pictures and sculptures together Thenat the very end of the story Olive gives her Dad a special gift of somemodelling clay and together they make imaginary animals and give themfunny made-up names

7

Responding to a performanceof Olive and the DreamTrain

In a large group encourage the children to discuss how differentmoments in the performance of Olive and the Dream Train made themfeel Were there exciting moments or funny ones or sad ones Werethere moments when they all felt the same thing Which bits of Oliversquosjourney did they think were more lsquorealrsquo and which bits more fantastical

In pairs or small groups ask the children to choosetheir own most vivid memories of the performanceWere they linked to the acting a prop a costume themusic a sound effect or the set design Or a mixtureof them all Between them they can make notes ordraw pictures and use these to help them share theirchoices with the rest of the class

In pairs or small groups ask the children to choose amoment from the performance that they think couldhave been done in a different way - not necessarilybetter Encourage them to discuss other ways oftelling that part of the story perhaps by changing theacting a prop a sound effect or an aspect of the setdesign costume or music They can note down theirown creative ideas and add drawings to help explainthem Then each small group can share them with therest of the class

Ask the children to write a review of the performanceand send it to Theatre Alibi They can include theirown creative ideas as well as tell us what theirfavourite moments were and why and how eachmoment made them feel

WORKSHEET

8

Sequencing the story Below are twelve events in Olive amp the Dream Train If yoursquove seen theperformance cut each of them out along the dotted lines Then stickthem in order one below the other with the latest last

Olive visits a cat fun fair

Olive and her Dad sit together at the kitchen table and make imaginary animals out of modelling clay

Miss Turner asks Olive to read her story out to her class

Olive is so exhausted by trying to think about what to write for her story that all she can do is to stare

at a poster on her bedroom wall

Olive goes to see a film with her Grandma Pat

Miss Turner tells Olive off for daydreaming at school

Olive finds a parcel of little plastic people in her school bag

Oliversquos Dad asks her to post a parcel on her way to school

Olive feels sad watching her Dad at work

Oliversquos Dad is tired so her cat Miu keeps her company

Miss Turner asks the children to think about what they aregoing to write for a story called lsquoMy Journey to Schoolrsquo

Olive daydreams about olives

WORKSHEET

9

Creating a story board Create a storyboard for Olive amp the Dream Train by drawing pictures in therectangles below showing some of the most important events in each stageof the story

Olive daydreams about olives Miss Turner tells Olive off fordaydreaming at school

Miss Turner gives the childrentheir homework

Oliversquos Dad asks her to post aparcel on her way to school

WORKSHEET

10

Oliversquos Dad is tired so her catMiu keeps her company

Olive stares at a poster on herbedroom wall

Olive finds the parcel of littleplastic people in her school bag

Olive goes on a journey in herdream train and visits a cat fun fair

WORKSHEET

11

Olive goes to see a film with herGrandma Pat

Olive feels sad watching her Dad at work

Miss Turner asks Olive to readout her story to her class

Olive and her Dad make imaginaryanimals out of modelling clay

WORKSHEET

Retelling the storyAn enjoyable way of retelling the story of Olive and the Dream Train isoutlined below It encourages fluency in speaking and listening and is basedon an exercise in Andrew Wrightrsquos excellent book Creating Stories with Children

In preparation for the activity fasten a clothes line from one side ofthe class room to the other near the front

In a big group invite the children to retell the story of Olive amp theDream Train If anyone gets stuck or muddled invite other childrenin the class to help clarify the sequence

Then in a big group make a list together of the most importantevents in the story You could use the twelve events suggested in thestoryboard sequence on the previous pages or compile another listusing the childrenrsquos own suggestions

Ask the children in pairs to make a large picture of an event fromthe story (one event for each pair)

Clip the pictures onto the clothes line following the sequence inwhich they appear in Theatre Alibirsquos performance Then ask thechildren to retell the story again Each pair can retell the event theyhave made a picture of

Afterwards encourage older children to recognise the way in whicheach character changes within the story Oliversquos sense of difficulty atthe beginning of the story for example changes to a sense ofachievement at the end when she reads her story out to the class Inthe course of the story also Olive learns more about her GrandmaPatrsquos childhood and gets to understand her Dad a bit better

Invite older children to wonder about what would happen to thestructure of the story if the order of events were to be changed Tryout each of their ideas on the clothes line and encourage them not toworry about getting it lsquowrongrsquo Discuss the advantages anddisadvantages of suggested changes within the sequence

12

httpwwwtalk4writingcoukresources

13

Developing the imaginationthrough daydreaming

In Olive amp the Dream Train therersquos a girl called Olive who canrsquot stop daydreaming All sorts of different thingscan start off Oliversquos daydreams and at the beginning ofthe story Olive starts a daydream by thinking about hername and how she really likes olives Then that thoughtleads her to daydream about piles and piles of olives shersquosseen on holiday in a market in Spain

In a big group invite the children to talk about daydreams and toshare any memories of daydreams they may have had Do any ofthem like Olive sometimes daydream about places theyrsquove visited orfood they like eating When they are daydreaming can they see smellhear taste and almost touch the things they are daydreaming about

Explain to the children that when they are making up their ownstories - or retelling their own versions of stories theyrsquove heard -itrsquos helpful sometimes to use all their senses to daydream about theplaces and people in them like Olive does and that you are all goingto practice daydreaming

Invite the children first to rest their heads on their arms closetheir eyes and like Olive daydream about a particular place fromtheir own memories In the story for example

Olive daydreams about piles of olives in a market placein Spain where she once went on holiday

Invite the children to picture a place they themselves have been toon holiday Is it indoors or outdoors What can they see Whatcolours are around them What can they hear What can they smellHow do they feel The more particular and detailed their imaginationsthe better

Another example

On her journey in her dream train Olive visits herGrandma Pat who lives in Francehellip

Invite the children to daydream about someone they know who livesa distance from them whom they may not see every day What dothey look like What are they doing now How are they feeling Do they look happy or sad What are they thinking about What does their voice sound like Are they saying something

14

Encourage children to use their imaginations and daydream aboutpossibilities beyond their own experience or memories For example

On her journey Olive sees a funny animal climbing outof a parcel at the warehouse her Dad works in

Invite the children to daydream about a funnysurprise that might be packed inside a parcelNudge their imaginations along withsuggestions and questions andencourage them to feel that theirweirdest and oddest thoughts areworthwhile Help them also to use alltheir senses in imagining the surpriseas well as in imagining the feelings andthoughts of a character who might bereceiving it Is she happy to see what comes out of the parcel Or isit a bit scary Is it alive Does it smell What texture is it Does itmake any sounds Is it heavy or light What shape is it Where doesshe find it Or does it find him or her What does she do with it

Invite children to share and compare what theyrsquove each imaginedsometimes in pairs and sometimes with the rest of the classEveryone will have their own unique daydreams and thatrsquos part ofthe joy and the fun

Older children may also enjoy tussling with the question of whetherthe things we imagine in our daydreams (or dreams) are any lesslsquorealrsquo than the things we experience in lsquorealrsquo life Reassure childrenthat this is something that people have wondered about for manymany years and they donrsquot all have to agree with each other

15

Jumpstarting creative writingOne day at school Oliversquos teacher Miss Turner asks everyone in her class tothink about what theyrsquore going to write the next day for a story called lsquoMyJourney to Schoolrsquo She says that it can be an exciting story or a brilliantdescription but when Olive tries to think about what to write she gets stuckand feels shersquoll never be able to write anything exciting

Below are a series of lsquoink wastersrsquo based on ideas recommended by thefreelance writer and poet Pie Corbett in his helpful book Jumpstart LiteracyCorbett advocates such exercises as being a good way of starting a creativewriting session and avoiding getting stuck His methods are based on theidea that fun activities beginning with oracy followed by shared writingcan improve literacy across the curriculum

Version 1 - based on word associations

Invite children to brainstorm and write down as many words aspossible suggested by a given title The words listed need to besomehow associated with the title but not necessarily associated with each other You could for example suggest a title inspired by a surrealist painting such as the one by Magritte that Olive has on a poster on her bedroom wall This painting of a little steam traincoming out of a fireplace in an old house is included in this pack in the section entitled Exploring Surrealism

In the same section of this pack there are also copies of selectedpaintings by Chagall and Dali For example the Dali painting of a shipwhose sails are made of butterfly wings might inspire the titlelsquobutterfliesrsquo and associations with the title might include

Colourful fluttering delicate together tickle flapping

After a minute ask the children tocount up and see who has writtenthe largest number of wordassociations Children can thenshare their lists with each otherand add some of each otherrsquos wordsto their own Then see if they cancome up with phrases using thewords theyrsquove written down or just heard These phrases can becollected individually or in pairs and edited into poems or shortvivid descriptions

16

Version 2 - based on the idea of lsquoflow writingrsquo

A second approach suggested by Corbett as a lsquowarm uprsquo exercise to acreative writing session is to ask children to lsquoflow writersquo as much asthey can in a given time say two minutes There is no right or wrongin this exercise Itrsquos just a matter of writing without stopping and notworrying too much at this stage about muddling up spelling orpunctuation

In this version you can suggest a word or a sentence to start thechildren off The rule then is that they should just keep writingwithout lifting their pens from the paper In order for them to getinto the idea and habit of lsquoflow writingrsquo itrsquos helpful also to suggest a phrase for them to repeatfor when they get stuck forexample lsquoIrsquom not stuckrsquo

Then ask the children toselect words and phrasesfrom their lsquoflow writingrsquo andto shape them individuallyor in pairs into poems orshort descriptions At thisstage children can beencouraged to pay attentionto spelling and punctuation

Version 3 - based on the idea of lsquospeed writingrsquo

A third approach suggested by Corbett - very similar to lsquoflow writingrsquo- is the lsquospeed writingrsquo technique used by the Surrealists The ideaagain is to write continuously but also as fast as possible The speedelement helps children to think creatively and less self critically Italso encourages their minds to wander and to wonder as they mightin a daydream

Begin by involving the whole class together with children calling outideas for each sentence or parts of sentences which you then writeon the board

Children can also work in pairs passing a mini-whiteboard between them

17

The idea can be extended further by forming lsquospeed writingrsquo teamswith up to six players in one team Team members sit in a circle andtake it in turns to write a word on a mini-whiteboard before passingit on to the next person In this case three minutes is a good timelimit To add to the sense of fun the number of words each group haswritten can be added up to see which group has lsquowonrsquo

Again there is no right or wrong and whilst full stops areimportant it doesnrsquot matter at this stage if childrenrsquos spelling andgrammar isnrsquot perfect or if ideas in their writing donrsquot logicallyconnect If children stop writing momentarily they can immediatelystart again by using the final letter of the last word they wrote asthe first letter of the next word

Further resources - for youngeras well as older children - offeredby Pie Corbett supported by JuliaStrong may be accessed via theTalk for Writing website at httpwwwtalk4writingcouk

Making up a story abouta fantastical journey

In Theatre Alibirsquos play Olive goes on a fantastical journey in a dream trainand visits different places people and even a cat fun fairhellip

Invite children as a class to create a mural of a fantastical journeyThey can each draw different pictures on a large sheet of paper orcreate a massive mural with cut out pictures from magazinesChildren could for example include pictures of different animalsand countries as well as birdrsquos eye views which might suggest flyingthrough the air like Olive does

Ask the children in pairs small groups or as a class together tomake up a story of a fantastical journey in which all the things inthe mural are somehow included Invite them then to each writedown their own version of the story