Submitted by Julie Steen; Margo Herman; Dee Szulis
Idea posted November 7, 2003
The Unity Tree is a K-4 musical written by Teresa Jennings.
From Julie Steen
For the beginning when it was raining cats and dogs (first graders were the new dogs and cats arriving via the rain), I had the dogs (boys) and cats (girls) rain in by carrying a balloon and twirling down the middle of the risers (our stage is the choir loft in the church sanctuary). When they got to the bottom, they let their balloon go and it floated to the ceiling. They went to their assigned position on stage. The dogs (boys) and cats (girls) loved the interactive songs - which would put them against each other.
From Margo Herman
I did "The Unity Tree" last year with 1st and 2nd graders, and I would like to do it again this year in my new building. My kids from last year loved it. Because of time limitations and the fact I could not count on full participation for an evening performance, I did some rewriting of the spoken parts. The dogs were my first graders and the cats my seconds. There were four first grade classrooms and three seconds. The lines were said by whole rooms or in some cases the whole grade together. During practice we worked hard on saying the lines clearly and expressively. The kids had a great time during the songs where the dogs and cats were arguing.
From Dee Szulis
I'm also doing "The Unity Tree." I'm making my tree out of foam board and attaching the top of it to the basketball hoop in the gym. For my back drop, I'm painting cats and dogs falling from the sky. We are doing our performance in March, so I'm changing the song "It's Snowing Cats and Dogs" to "It's RAINING Cats and Dogs." In the back drop, I will have some of the falling cats and dogs holding umbrellas.