The
Hairy Man Lives
(grade level PS-3)
Tell the children the story of Wiley and the Hairy Man (Molly
Bang, Macmillan, 1976). Do not show the illustrations. Provide
the children with self-hardening clay or plasticine. Tell
them to use the clay to sculpt the image of the Hairy Man.
Display these in a swamp-like environment in your classroom.
As an alternative project, provide your students with markers
and white drawing paper. Ask them to draw a large picture
of the Hairy Man. Scrap material may be used to "dress"
their creations.
Let's
Be Conjurers (grade level PS-2)
Wiley tricks the Hairy Man by having him change into a variety
of animals, ones so small that Wiley is able to throw the
Hairy Man into his sack. Set yourself up as a conjurer in
the classroom, giving your children the opportunity to transform
themselves into a variety of animals. As Wiley did, begin
with large animals and progress to smaller ones. A suggestion
for ordering your animal transformations: Giraffes, Elephants,
Gorillas, Bears, Alligators, Rabbits, Turtles.
To
prolong the fun, let each child become the Hairy Man and transform
his/her classmates into an animal. This game is played as
follows: Gather the children in a circle. Select
one child as the Hairy Man. To the tune of "Skip-to-my-Lou"
the selected child sings
My
name is Hairy Man
My name is Hairy Man
My name is Hairy Man
And we can all be (name of animal)
All the children move around in the circle as they become
the animal named. The teacher sings to the same tune as the
children move:
You are conjured (name of animal)
You are conjured (name of animal)
You are conjured (name of animal)
By the Hairy Man
The teacher chooses the next Hairy Man and the game begins
once again.
Play
Those Harmonicas (grade level PS-3)
Each child will need: scissors; a piece of waxed paper; a
fine-toothed comb. Directions: Cut the waxed paper so it is
the same length of the comb. Both sides of the teeth of the
comb must be covered. Hold the comb so the teeth are pointing
up. Fold the waxed paper over the top of the teeth. Holding
the comb on both ends, put your mouth against the side of
the comb and blow. Keep the lips slightly parted and blow
air coming from the throat, making a ha-ha sound. (As an alternative
to using a comb, ask children to bring in an empty cardboard
tube.
Put the waxed paper over one end of the tube and secure with
a rubber band. Tunes can be hummed into the open end of the
tube).
Once the instruments are made, encourage your students to
play along and dance to the creative genius of African-American
musicians. Suggested albums to play in your classroom: Charlie
Parker, One Night in Birdland; Count Basie, Afrique; Encyclopedia
of Recorded Jazz, album 5. Many of these and other similar
albums should be available in your local library.
A
Sack of Magic (grade level PS-6)
The Hairy Man always carried a sack with him. Play "Magic
Sack" with your students. Tell the children to imagine a
large sack in front of the room which holds everything that
was in Wiley and the Hairy Man. Ask one of the children
to come up, open the sack and take out something from the
story. The child will then dramatize a short pantomime which
shows the audience which "item" was selected. For example,
if a hound dog is chosen, the child might put a leash around
the dog's neck and lead it to the swamp. The children watching
guess. Whomever guesses correctly gets the next turn. For
younger children, the teacher might whisper a choice to
the child.
Get
Those "Young Uns" (grade level 3-6)
The
Hairy Man Threatens to come for Mamma's young-un. Read stories
from the Anglo-European culture in which parents are threatened
in a similar way. For example: Rapunzel. Retold by Amy Erlich,
illustrated by Kris Waldhers. Dial Books, 1989. Rumpelstiltskin.
Retold and illustrated by Paul Galdone. Clarion Books, 1985.
Focus a discussion on possibilities for this common pattern
in fairy tales.
Puppets
for All
After
seeing The Paul Mesner Puppets production of Wiley and the
Hairy Man, encourage children to create their own puppet
depicting one of the characters from the story. Following
the art project, let children improvise the story. The characters
are: Wiley; Mother; Hairy Man; Hound Dog; and Hairy Man,
transformed into a giraffe, an alligator, a possum, and
a piglet. Some preschoolers may want to use the illustrations
found at the beginning of each chapter to trace for puppet
patterns. To facilitate the creative process, encourage
your students to decorate the patterns adding their unique
interpretations of the character. Older children may design
their own puppets using one of the following simple methods:
Paper Bag Puppets
Approach #1
Tie a string around the middle of a paper bag, leaving just
enough room for inserting the index finger above the middle.
A face is painted on the closed portion of the bag. Decorations
are added with scraps. Dress the puppets. To operate the puppet,
the hand is thrust into the bag up to the neck and the index
finger is pushed through the neck to articulate the head.
Approach #2
Fold the bottom of the sack over one side. Draw a face on
this side with crayons, tempera, magic marker, etc. Scraps
may also be used. Put the mouth on the line where the side
and the bottom of the sack meet. Put your arm in the sack
and grasp the inside fold to open and close the mouth.
Simple Stick Puppets
Draw a figure on poster board and decorate. Attach the figure
to a stick, a dowel, a piece of wire or the like.
Recipes
Prepare a simple African-American treat that Wiley and his
mother may have eaten to celebrate the banishment of the
Hairy Man. Here are some easy to prepare recipes taken from
The Taste of Country Cooking, by Edna Lewis, Knopf,
1976.
Sweet Potato Pie
Ingredients:
1 prepared 9 inch pie crust
2 cups canned sweet potato (mashed)
1 cup sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1 1/2 tsp nutmeg
1/2 tsp salt
3 medium eggs separated (teacher's job)
2 tsp vanilla extract
2/3 cup butter, melted over hot water (teacher's job)
1 2/3 cup milk at room temperature
In a mixing bowl combine potatoes, sugar, spices, salt,
yolks, vanilla and melted butter.
Mix thoroughly. Add milk. Beat egg white until frothy.
Stir into the batter.
Pour batter into pie shell.
Bake at 350 degrees for 40-45 minutes.
Lemonade
2 cups sugar
1/2 gallon water
1 1/2 cups freshly squeezed lemon juice
lemon sliced into thin slices
Dissolve the sugar in water.
Add the lemon juice, a solid piece of ice and lemon slice.
Makes 10 glasses
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