Study Guide. amphibian in order to move onto the land and talk to the monkey.

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Study Guide This gtudy guide is also available on line at www.hvpuppets.org The story Under the Sea with Silly Jellyfish is adapted from an old Japanese folk tale called The Silly Jellyfish.

amphibian in order to move onto the land and talk to the monkey. In this show, all the characters in the story are played by giant puppets.

1 Study Guide This gtudy guide is also available on line at The story Under the Sea with Silly Jellyfish is adapted from an old Japanese folk tale called The Silly Jellyfish. The king of the dragons lives at the bottom of the sea. He orders Jelly to find a monkey s liver for his fiancée, a beautiful young dragoness. Without one, she says, she will certainly die. amphibian in order to move onto the land and talk to the monkey. In this show, all the characters in the story are played by giant puppets. The Hudson Vagabond Puppets uses several different methods to create and operate the characters of the story. Let s learn about the animals we re going to meet and see how the Jelly sets off by himself floating through the undersea kingdom searching for a monkey, even though he has no idea what a monkey looks like. On his adventure he meets a Blue Crab, an Octopus, a Great White Shark, and a Blue Whale, and each one provides Jelly with some useful information to help him find the monkey. When he finally arrives on land, Jelly has to transform himself into an

2 About the Animals... Jellyfish (Medusa) are known by swimmers everywhere for their potent sting. So watch your step when you are walking on the ocean floor, because their sting is still potent even after the animal has died. There s a lot more to these creatures than meets the foot. Jellyfish come in endless variations of color and size. They move through the water floating on ocean currents. Jellyfish are 90% water, and they have no heart, blood, brain, or gills. They feed on small, drifting animals called zooplankton, using chemoreceptors on their tentacles and small arms next to their mouth to find food and eat. Jellyfish swim by contraction of the muscles around the rim. Most swim slowly and are transported by currents. In Under the Sea with Silly Jellyfish, Jelly sings about how much he likes to float on the currents of the ocean, content to just ride along and see what comes to him. Remora,also known as a suckerfish, is a hitchhiking scavenger of the ocean, attaching itself to large fish with its sucker. When the big fish finds food, the Remora feeds on scraps. The vacuum sucker on top of the Remora s head is made from an adapted fin. It is designed so that the Remora cannot be detached from its host except by swimming forward. No matter how fast its host swims, it cannot shake off the Remora. In our story, Remora is true to his nature, attaching himself to the king without having any ideas of his own. The Blue Crab (Callinectus Sapidus) lives in brackish water (a mixture of fresh and salt water) in sea grasses and seaweeds. The crab s eyes are at the end of long stalks, which allow it to see even the smallest movements in all directions. It has five pairs of legs, the first of which ends in powerful claws that can hold a predator with a painful grip. Blue Crabs grow through an amazing process called molting. They have a very hard shell most of the time. A new softer shell under this swells and hardens in the sea water to a larger size. The old shell begins to crack and break until the crab is able to crawl out the back. A crab can lose one of its legs to a predator and it will grow back next time it molts. During courtship, the male, or jimmy, puts on a fancy dance for the female, waving his claws and feet. He waits for the female to molt. They mate when she is in the soft shell state, and the following summer, two million fertilized eggs are released in to the vast community of drifting plants and animals called plankton. Small crabs do not look like their parents, but they go through a rapid series of molts, every three to five days, until their bodies take shape. Look for the Blue Crab in our production to be playing the castanets!

About the Animals... Octopus (Octopus Vulgaris) is a Mollusk like Clams, Oysters, and Snails. They belong to a class called Cephalopods, which include the Squid and Cuttlefish.

3 About the Animals... Octopus (Octopus Vulgaris) is a Mollusk like Clams, Oysters, and Snails. They belong to a class called Cephalopods, which include the Squid and Cuttlefish. Unlike most Mollusks, the Octopus has lost its shell completely. If an Octopus meets a predator, it defends itself by changing the color of its skin to match the surroundings. It can squirt a cloud of ink and escape backwards by forcing water from a siphon near the head. This is called jet propulsion. An Octopus is very smart, but not a very social creature. Look for the Octopus in our show to be wise, with a shy, reflective personality. It lives in a lair (a small cave, and it spends most of its time hiding out there except when it needs to hunt for food. The eight arms of an Octopus have as many as 24 suction cups on the underside, making it almost impossible to remove it once it has attached itself to an object. In the center of its arms is a mouth and beak. Once the beak has a hold of its prey, the Octopus will inject a nasty poison into its body. This paralyzes the prey and softens it so the octopus can suck the meat into its small mouth. The female Octopus is so devoted to the care of her eggs that she does not eat at all while they are being raised. She lays as many as 45,000 eggs and attaches them to the roof of her den. For 1-2 months, she cleans them with her arms and squirts water over them if necessary. Unfortunately, soon after the eggs hatch, the mother will die. Great White Shark (Caracharodon Caracharis) is easily the most famous of all sharks. It is the largest carnivorous fish on earth today. You can always tell a Great White by its special teeth, if you can get close enough to inspect them! It has a special row of narrow teeth in front of the lower jaw used to grab and hold prey, and serrated triangle shaped teeth in the top row used for cutting. Many other rows of teeth lie behind this one ready to pop into place if one in front is lost. The Great White lives in deep waters over the continental shelf. It glides along the bottom with its white underside hidden against the ocean floor, then grabs its prey from below. The shark carries it deep under water until it bleeds to death, then swallows it whole. Our shark is a bit of a wise guy. Though movies like Jaws have given the Great White a nasty reputation, some research has also shown that they often reject humans as a food source. They prefer fatty energy-rich foods, so a skinny human doesn't even compare to a blubbery elephant seal! The Blue Whale (Balaenoptera Musculus) is, and continues to

About the Animals... be, the largest animal ever to exist on earth. This whale can grow to a length of 110 feet and weigh 190 tons, but on the average it is much smaller.

4 About the Animals... be, the largest animal ever to exist on earth. This whale can grow to a length of 110 feet and weigh 190 tons, but on the average it is much smaller. The head of the blue whale forms up to a quarter of the total body length. Throat grooves allow the throat area to expand tremendously during feeding, and can hold 1,000 tons of food and water. By taking in so much water and filtering out fish and krill with its baleen plates, it can eat over 4 tons of krill a day. Whales are mammals, which means there must breathe air and maintain body temperature in frigid arctic waters. Unlike people, whales are voluntary breathers; the blowhole stays closed unless the whale actively opens it. During diving a reflex response causes the heart rate to slow and shuts off blood flow to the muscles, saving oxygen-rich blood for the brain and heart. When they come up, they remain at the surface for a bit to repay this debt. Whales live in a dark and murky world. In order to find food and avoid obstacles, whales use a system called echolocation. Like dolphins or porpoises, they emit sounds which travel out, hit and bounce back from animals and objects in their path. The very low pitched sounds of the blue whales may travel hundreds of miles through the water, and are also a means of communications with other blue whales. Look for the whale in our production to have a very deep voice! Blue Whales are mostly found in the southern hemisphere, with smaller populations in the North Atlantic and North Pacific. In order to maintain body temperature during their migrations to colder waters (remember, they are mammals, not fish) they have a heavy insulating layer of fat below the skin called blubber. Newborn calves lack a thick blubber layer, so the Blue Whale will give birth in warmer waters and nurse them on a very rich milk which helps them develop a layer of blubber. Because babies may be attacked by sharks or killer whales, many whales appear to cooperate in protection of their young. They live in small groups called pods.

About the Puppets... The Dragon and Dragoness are extended body puppets, in which the puppeteer wears most of the puppet like a suit.

The form is made out of foam rubber covered with quilted lycra which is then painted by an artist. The Jellyfish is made of loops of nylon rod joined together by layers of fabric.

The 40-foot long Blue Whale is a painting that rides on wheels. The mouth is mounted on one of the uprights and is operated from behind by a string.

5 About the Puppets... The Dragon and Dragoness are extended body puppets, in which the puppeteer wears most of the puppet like a suit. The performer wears a backpack with poles extending up and into the head of the puppet. Controls for the eyes and mouth hang down within reach of the puppeteer. The form is made out of foam rubber covered with quilted lycra which is then painted by an artist. The Jellyfish is made of loops of nylon rod joined together by layers of fabric. It rides on the puppeteer s head most of the time, but it can be manipulated to spin, rise, and fall as jelly drifts through the ocean currents. The 40-foot long Blue Whale is a painting that rides on wheels. The mouth is mounted on one of the uprights and is operated from behind by a string. The painted drape is stored accordion style in the wings and folded back again after it crosses the stage. The arms of the Octopus are made from dryer ventilation hoses covered in terrycloth and painted. The head is sculpted from foam and mounted on a piece of wood. The Great White Shark is made from long nylon rods covered with a layer of foam and lycra then painted by an artist. The nylon rods allow the shark to move with the flexibility of a fish and still maintain it s shape. The puppeteer puts the entire shark over his or her head, and the weight of the puppet rests on the performer s shoulders.

6 About the Company... HUDSON VAGABOND PUPPETS, incorporated in 1980 as a not-for-profit company, creates programs designed to fit into the school curriculum as well as to entertain children and their families. Our performers are professional dancers and actors. Clad in black, the puppeteers borrow from the traditional Japanese Bunraku style of puppetry, becoming mere shadows of the larger-than-life figures they bring to life. HVP tours nationally throughout the year and have performed in concert halls, theater, colleges, and major performing arts centers, including Avery Fischer Hall in Lincoln Center, The California Institute of Technology, Brooklyn College Performing Arts Center, and the Luther Burbank Center. Narrated ballets are a specialty of the company. Our puppets have danced with symphony orchestras including The Little Orchestra Society at Avery Fischer Hall, the Phoenix Arizona Symphony, the Wheeling W. Va. Symphony (conducted by Rachel Warby), the St. Louis Symphony, the Detroit Symphony, and the United States Military Concert Band at Eisenhower Hall at West Point. For more information about the company, or to give us feedback on our performances, visit us on the web at

7 Resources for Teachers Books for Kids 1.Sea Critters, by Silvia Earle. National Geographic Society ISBN# Ages 6-9. Combines watercolor artwork and photography.* 2.The Big Blue Ocean, by Bill Nye. Disney Press, 1999 ISBN# Ages The Fish Book, by Christopher Angelfish. Golen Books Pub Co ISBN# Ages A Visit to the Sesame Street Aquarium, by Rebecca Gold. ISBN# Ages Life in the Oceans, by Lucy Baker. Scholastic Trade ISBN# X. Ages The Ocean Book: Aquarium and Seaside Acitivities and Ideas for All Ages, by Center for Environmental Education. John Wiley & Sons, ISBN# Ages Incredible Journey to the Depths of the Ocean, by Nicholas Harris. Peter Bedrock Books ISBN# X. Ages Tabbed pages separate the book by scientific categories.* Websites 1. Website of the National Aquarium in Baltimore. Includes a guided tour for kids, species lookup, games, and a host of images and information.* 2. puffy/puffy.html. Puffy the Puffer s book of Fun Fish Facts. Q/A, Marine facts, Activity Oriented. Grades K A guided tour under the ocean or in outer space designed for kids. 4. DISCOVER/BLUE/index.html. Facts and news about the blue whale. Not specifically designed for youth, but a great resource on the Blue Whale. 5. public.php. Lists public aquariums with address, phone, hours, etc. Perfect for finding the nearest major aquarium for a field trip. Includes links to each aquarium s website. 6. Archive of information about marine life at California Institute of Technology. * Highly Recommended

Whales. Visit for thousands of books and materials. A Reading A Z Level O Leveled Reader Word Count: 1,106

Whales. Visit for thousands of books and materials. A Reading A Z Level O Leveled Reader Word Count: 1,106 LEVELED READER O Written by Vic Moors www.readinga-z.com Whales A Reading A Z Level O Leveled Reader Word Count: 1,106 Visit www.readinga-z.com for thousands of books and materials. Written by Vic Moors