Children love drama classes!

  This pictures were taken from my drama classes with students in one of the school where I work. Children really enjoy acting out, getting dressed with funny items of clothes. Besides, they learn vocabulary, intonation and pronunciation. Let´s find out about some drama techniques for your lesson plan...

WHY USE DRAMA GAMES OR THEATRE GAMES IN YOUR TEACHING? 

   They are simple, cost-effective way of accomplishing a wide variety of educational goals, not just in theatre class. The games combine elements of creative drama, improvisation, pantomime, creative movement, and storytelling. They develop foundational skills needed in theatre arts that also have tremendous positive effects on literacy development, academic success, and social interaction. The games are easy to integrate with content from other school subjects or content areas. The drama game or theatre game is a versatile teaching tool that reaches multiple learning styles, content areas, age groups, and levels of language and experience.

   Drama education is a powerful teaching and learning tool with profound positive effects on a student’s cognitive, social, emotional, and physical development. The benefits of regular theatre arts instruction spill over into all school subjects and everyday life. Creative drama is sound pedagogy that reaches students of multiple intelligences and different learning styles. It is a multi-sensory mode of learning that engages mind, body, senses, and emotions to create personal connections to the material that improve comprehension and retention.

Here you have some examples: 

ENERGISING: ICE BREAKERS

  Step on toe tag A high-energy game that is self-explanatory! A variation on this – slap back of thighs. 

  Budge Five in a group – four stand on the points of a square and one in the middle – object of the game is the middle person to get onto one of the points. Point players can change places – but they must send a visual or aural message to one of the others before they move – otherwise everyone just runs to the same place making it easy for the guy in the middle! Try to do it fast! It’s quite exhausting so don’t let it go on too long! 

   Melon, melon, melon Give every member of the group a fruit except yourself. The idea is to “catch” their fruit by saying its name (e.g. melon, melon, melon) three times before they can say it once. If you succeed, you become their fruit and they have to catch someone else out. WARNING: 

choose short names e.g. pear or cherry.

CONCENTRATION 

  Count to 10 Rules are: anyone can say the next number 1-10 but if two or more people speak at the same time the count goes back to one again 

   

  Animals (or adjectives etc.) Standing in a circle of about six with one player in the middle. The players in the circle all choose an Animal (or a colour/ a city/ an emotion/ adjective/ adverb etc.) The player in the centre has a rolled up newspaper; when the leader calls out the name of one of the animals (or colour etc.) in the circle, the central player tries to hit that person before they can say another animal etc. in the circle – if they manage to do so before he says his animal then they change places so that the loser goes into the centre and the outgoing “hitter” takes on the loser’s animal name!

IMPROVISATION / STORYTELLING 

    Park bench The first player sits silently on a “bench” displaying as much about his character as he can without verbalising it. The next player joins him and makes a strong complimenting character choice. (A complimenting character may be contrasting or supporting.) The player coming on should make strong character choices as soon as he is off his seat. This means the character should be embodied in his walk, voice and intent. The two characters interact for about thirty seconds and the player that was on the bench first finds a reason to leave. This leaves the second player on the bench alone for a while. The next player creates a character and joins the player that is on the bench. This continues until all in the workshop have done one or more characters. 

   Drawing Magic Pictures Sit in pairs with a large imaginary piece of paper between you. The idea is to draw “everything” you say as you tell a story. Swop over on a signal [given by the teacher]. The game helps to stop the imagination being “blocked” by thinking what you will say next – there is not time for thinking just draw!