I found another gem sitting on my hard drive. The Nutcracker Lapbook never got transferred over to Cynce’s Place.

Here is what I wrote back in 2008 when I prepared it:

I wasn’t sure how to approach this lapbook. Should I do it on the ballet or on the actual story? Or, should I do it on the author of the original story?

Well, I did a search on ‘The Nutcracker Lapbook‘, and came across a lapbook on ballet and a unit study on the nutcracker. So, then I did a search on ‘The Nutcracker Unit Study’. This search brought about many unit studies, free and for sale. Most, if not all, concentrated on the ballet. I wanted to go more with the story.

I came up with a combination of the tale and of the ballet. It is focused on the story itself and how it evolved into a popular ballet today. These include author and composer biographies, country of origin for both the tale and the ballet, and more.

I hope you enjoy your study on The Nutcracker and The Mouse King as I did researching it.

Eventually I would love to witness the ballet in person. Hopefully next year my family and I can go. [We haven’t gone yet. 🙁 ]

The Nutcracker Lapbook
For the Cover, The whole clan from Nutcracker to Mouse King, – I think this coloring sheet makes a great cover. I couldn’t make it for you all because of copyright issues. Save it to your computer, insert it into word and add a title… now you have your cover. 🙂

 

References:

Here is all the information I collected while preparing for this lapbook. Going through it, a lot of the links were dead. Yikes! I didn’t want to go searching for new stuff, so I used the handy dandy archive I wrote about recently to find the dead links, only a few I couldn’t retrieve.

 

Author Biography
E.T.A. Hoffmann – Bullet points of his life
E.T.A. Hoffmann Biography
E.T.A. Hoffmann Biography

Composer Biography
Composer Biography
Classics for Kids biography
Biography on YouTube
A Tribute to Tchaikovsky – In Pictures and Music – YouTube.

History
The history of the Nutcracker Ballet
History of the nutcracker, a tool used to crack nuts.
Another site on the history of nutcrackers, a tool used to crack nuts.

Read the Nutcracker Online
Read the Nutcracker (Interactive)
Classics for Kids tells the story of The Nutcracker. Approx. 6 min.

Find More Books On The Nutcracker HereUnit Studies
Nutcracker Unit Study From Homeschool Share
Study Guide with a recipe for Sugar Plums. Yum!
Study Guide with lots of information. Includes coloring, word search, mad lib and other activities.
Nice source with lots to do in all areas of academics. There are also notebooking pages at the end.

Coloring
The whole clan from Nutcracker to Mouse King. – http://nutcrackerballet.com/montage.htm

Nutcracker Coloring Sheets
http://www.first-school.ws/t/xmas/30g-nutcracker.html
http://www.growley.com/cmas/christmas/color/nutcracker.html
http://parenting.leehansen.com/downloads/coloring/christmas/pages/toy-soldier.htm
http://www.leepublishing.net/nutcracker2.jpg -black and white and a color version to http://www.leepublishing.net/nutcrakercolor.jpg
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/Xmas/color/nutcracker.pdf

Sugar Plum Princess Coloring
Sugar Plum Princess
Sugar Plum Fairy

Nutcracker and the Rat King Coloring
http://danceprism.com/Export4_About_the_Nutcracke.htm

Activities
Maze of Clara looking for her nutcracker.
The Nutcracker Activity Sheets

Crafts
http://crafts.kaboose.com/nutcracker-ornament.html – Nutcracker Ornament
http://www.dltk-holidays.com/Xmas/mnutcracker.html – Toilet Paper Craft

Music
Dance of the Sugar Plum Princess – listen to or download midi file. Also includes a video of the song being played on a pipe organ.
Dance of the Sugar Plum Princess – This is too cool. It is played using bicycle parts!!
http://www.archive.org/details/TchaikovskyNutcrackerSuite – The Nutcracker Suite

Miscellaneous
Find the Nutcracker – The original page doesn’t work, but the Archive has a few of the pictures. These are a lot of fun, especially if your kids enjoy I Spy’s.
Tip: Hold down the ctrl key and press the + key to make it bigger. Print it out if you do not want your kids straining their eyes on the computer.
Some other activities to do while studying about the Nutcracker.

 

Vocabulary

As I was reading The Nutcracker and The Mouse King In Verse, which is included in the download, I came upon some words I did not know what the meaning was, like murther. So here is a list of words I think some kids might ask, ‘What does ___ mean?’. Most, if not all, are taken from Webster’s 1828 Dictionary.

murther – murder
maiden – an unmarried girl or woman
dismay – to affright or terrify
vain – empty, worthless
mend – to repair, to correct
vengeance – The infliction (to apply) of pain on another, in return for an injury or offense.
alter – to change, to make different
fate –  event predetermined, destiny
caressed – Treated or embraced with affection.
weary – tired, fatigued
herald – to introduce
hearth – a fireplace
gleam – to shine, to cast light
carillon – A little bell. Also, a simple air in music, adapted to the performance of small bells or clocks.
traversed – To travel or pass across, over, or through.  To move to and fro over; cross and re-cross.
tattoo – A beat of drum at night, giving notice to soldiers to retreat, or to repair to their quarters in garrison, or to their tents in camp.
wainscot – In building, timber-work serving to line the walls of a room, being made in panels.
quell – To crush, to subdue, to cause to cease.
valor, valiant – courage, bravery
martial – pertaining to war
wince – to shriek, as from a blow or from pain
stagger – to move to one side and the other in standing or walking.
gambolled – a skipping or leaping about in frolic
sweetmeats – Fruit preserved with sugar; as peaches, pears, melons, nuts, orange peel and the like.
placid – gentle, quiet, undisturbed
stolidly – dullness of intellect, stupidity
meandered – to wind or turn in a course or passage
barcarolle – a folk song sung by venetian gondoliers, or a piece of music composed in that style.
ardor – warmth, or heat, applied to the passions and affections
reign – to rule

 

Watch The Nutcracker

Grab some popcorn or the goodie of your choice and enjoy!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cJEdnA5WRLY&feature=youtube_gdata_player

When the kids were younger, we really enjoyed watching Barbie in The Nutcracker.

You can watch the movie and compare it with the Nutcracker and Mouse King and The Tale of the Nutcracker (Penguin Classics). There is a venn diagram in the download to compare the two.

This will be a good time, as with any other Disney movie, to tell of the importance of reading the original fairy tales instead of taking Disney at its word.

Nothing wrong with the Disney movie, but I think the kids should at least have the chance of hearing or reading the stories the way the author has written them.

 

Here are More Nutcracker Movies for you to choose from.
Enjoy,