Annie: Ideas for Using this Musical in Your Classroom

Annie is a favorite musical of young and old.  My grandma introduced me to this musical.  Actually, I think I still have the VHS tape with her name on it that she let me borrow many years ago.  Annie is one of the musicals that I rotate and show my students.  As I said in my post about Mary Poppins, I often rotate the musicals that I teach each year so that by the time students leave my classroom they have seen 5-6 classic musicals.  For some students this is the only time that they'll see them.

Annie is a musical that is familiar to some of my students.  They recognize "Tomorrow" but often don't know the story of the musical.  Before we start watching we'll talk about the difference between an orphanage and foster care as most of them don't really know what an orphanage is.  We'll also listen to "Tomorrow" and discuss what the story might be about based on just that song.

I've taken some of my favorite Annie activities and bundled them in a MEGA Pack of activities.  You can get it HERE.  Included in this download are many activities that work for first grade through 8th grade.  I've actually used a few of them with a general music class in high school too.  As music teachers I think it is important to have resources that we can adapt for many grade levels.  I'm going to share a few of them in this post.

In this activity, students are asked to imagine what Annie's day may have been like at the orphanage compared to her days at the Warbucks mansion.  What did she eat?  What did she do for entertainment?  Did the way she was schooled change?  Class time is limited so this is arranged in columns so that it is easy for students to see where the information needs to go and to compare them quickly.

Retelling the story is always an interesting exercise to grade.  Sometimes I'm really surprised at the details students choose to single out and add to this worksheet.  When we work on retelling the story with words and pictures I have them do the first box and last box before filling in the middle details.  In this way, students know what they are working towards and it generally creates a better result.

There are many worksheets for character analysis and identification in this set.  There's a character sheet for each of the main characters.  There aren't any directions on it so you can guide students to complete it to your specifications.  I have students draw the character and then write a short paragraph introducing her to someone who has never seen the musical.  Also included are Venn diagrams to compare characters as well as a character match.

In the character match activity, students are given a brief description of a main character.

We also talk about setting in musical theater and Annie is no exception.  This activity asks students to draw the setting and then write about it.

A color sheet is included for your youngest learners.  I often leave this for a sub and have students listen to songs from the musical.  It is also a great sheet to send home with students.

You can get this MEGA Pack of activities HERE or as part of a Mega BUNDLE of musicals (11 included so far!) HERE.

  

More Resources

THIS resource by PBS is a great way to introduce students to the many jobs in musical theater.  Each position has a short video that describes the jobs.  My kids have really responded positively to seeing that you can work in musical theater and not be a singer on the stage.  Offered by Thirteen.org, THIS resource is great for focusing on Annie in musical theater. Love the new Annie movie?  If you have time it might be nice to do a compare and contrast by showing clips of both movies.  Scholastic has some free printable resources that you may like.  You can find it HERE. I hope that these resources help you explore and celebrate the music of Annie with your students.