FRANC'S CORNER: October 2017

Thursday, 26 October 2017

WICKED: THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE WITCHES OF OZ

Wicked: The Untold Story of the Witches of Oz is a Broadway musical with music and lyrics by Stephen Schwartz and book by Winnie Holzman. It is based on the 1995 Gregory Maguire novel Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West, an alternative telling of the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz and L. Frank Baum's classic 1900 story, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. The musical is told from the perspective of the witches of the Land of Oz; its plot begins before and continues after Dorothy's arrival in Oz from Kansas, and it includes several references to the 1939 film and Baum's novel. Wicked tells the story of two unlikely friends, Elphaba (the Wicked Witch of the West) and Galinda (whose name later changes to Glinda the Good Witch), who struggle through opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government and, ultimately, Elphaba's public fall from grace.

Plot

Wicked is a prequel to The Wizard of OZ and goes through the life of Elphaba who is a nice girl until the disapproval of society turns her Wicked. In this show, Galinda is shown to be the unfortunate "hero" who is stuck with this green "thing." This is the story of how Elphaba becomes the Wicked Witch of the West, and it involves love, loss, hatred, envy and an unwillingness to accept anything that is different

Wicked tells the story of Elphaba, the future Wicked Witch of the West and her relationship with Glinda, the Good Witch of the North. Their friendship struggles through their opposing personalities and viewpoints, rivalry over the same love-interest, their reactions to the Wizard's corrupt government, and, ultimately, Elphaba's public fall from grace. The plot is set mostly before Dorothy's arrival from Kansas, and includes several references to well-known scenes and dialogue in the 1939 film The Wizard of Oz as a backstory.

The Songs

Defying Gravity:

One Short Day:

Popular:

5th GRADE: UNIT 2 - COMPARATIVE & SUPERLATIVE ADJECTIVES

ACTIVITIES:

COMPARATIVE ADJ

COMPARATIVE & SUPERLATIVE

COMPARING PEOPLE

COMPARATIVE & SUPERLATIVE 2

Sunday, 22 October 2017

THE ORIGINS OF HALLOWEEN

Halloween is not exactly a typical holiday. Other holidays, like Christmas celebrate an event. Halloween celebrates a lot of things, including the lives of people who aren't with us anymore.

The history of Halloween is not entirely a clear one. Here's how it started:

Many hundreds of years ago, a people called the Celts lived in Europe and on the British Isles. The Celts believed that the souls of the dead visited Earth on the last day of October. They had a festival in honor of these souls of the dead, and they called it Samhain.

In time, the Roman Empire conquered the Celts and took over some of their beliefs as well. This included Samhain. The Romans combined it with their own festivals. And since the Roman Empire spread across a great part of the known world, the idea that the souls of the dead visited Earth on the last day of October spread far and wide.

Many ideas from the Roman days still survive in the United States and in other Western countries. Halloween is one of them.

But how did we get the name Halloween?

In the 8th Century, the Catholic Church declared November 1 to be All Saints' Day. The church calendar had a number of days honoring saints already. November 1 was picked to be the day to honor all saints who didn't already have a day named in their honor.

And the mass that the Catholic Church celebrated on November 1 was called Allhallowmas. This meant "mass of all the hallowed [saintly people.]" It was commonly called "All Hallows' Day."

And somewhere along the line, the night before became known as Allhallowe'en, which was short for "evening before All Hallows' Day." It was then shortened to what we now call it, Halloween.

One last question: Why do people dress up as ghosts, goblins, vampires, and other scary creatures?

People who started all this Halloween business many years ago believed that if they appeared scary, they would scare away the spirits of the dead who were roaming the earth on All Hallows' Eve. These people also carried food to the edge of town and left it there, hoping the spirits would eat that food and not come raid the village.

Check this video out:

Thursday, 19 October 2017

5th / 6th GRADE: HALLOWEEN IS COMING SOON! - WICKED

Hi guys!!

Halloween is coming soon! Do you like magic and witches?

This school year, we are going to focus on "Wicked, the untold story of the Witches of Oz". We will learn about witches, spells and the origins of the Wicked Witch of the West.

Check this video out and be ready for next week's activities! Hope you like them!