This week’s theme:
Mysterious News… This Week In History
Fact of the day:
On this week in May 1981 Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical “Cats” (based on poetry by T. S. Eliot) first premiered on the West End.
Resources list:
Poem; Card, pens, glue/tape, paper plate; Youtube; Paper and pens.
Activity 1:
Andrew Lloyd Webber’s musical ‘Cats’ (based on poetry by T. S. Eliot) tells the story of a tribe of cats called the Jellicles.
Can you do any actions or act like any of the characters from ‘Cats’ based on their descriptions?
Activity 2:
Make a cat headband. It could look like this or this. Or you could make a cat mask like this. Wearing it, practice acting like a cat; you could try out your cat purrs, tiptoe or prowl like a cat, swish your tail, wash your face with your paws, Miaow, get low before jumping high. Act out all your graceful cat moves listening to this song.
Activity 3:
Try some ‘Cats’ yoga poses. Letters A-L can be seen here and M-Z here. Try spelling with your body using the ‘Cats’ alphabet moves – can you spell your name? Can you spell Purple?
Activity 4:
The musical is based in the poems of T.S Elliott. In the poem ‘The Naming of Cats’, Elliott writes that a cat must have three different names. Read, or ask someone to read about these 3 names here.
What 3 cat names do you have? 1. What is your sensible, normal, everyday name? 2. What is your fancy over-the-top name? You could try using a name generator for this. 3. What is the secret name you belive you should be called, perhaps a name you’ve always liked, or your nickname, or a name that somebody special calls you?
Draw these cats, complete with names and share them with us on our Facebook, Instagram or Twitter or send it to melanie@purplepatcharts.org and we’ll put it online for you! Or you could write out your fancy cat name and decorate it!
What actions would all 3 of your cat aliases do? How would they move? How would they talk?
Activity 5:
Bustopher Jones is described as wearing a “fastidious black coat and white spats”. Spats are shoes often worn by tap dancers. Try out some simple tap dancing moves here. Or try tapping out the beat of this song from Cats on different parts of your body.
Add on Activity:
Lots of snippets from the musical can be viewed on Youtube here.