Day 8: Readers Theater Performance

There was lots of energy when I walked into their classroom on Performance Day! They were more than excited to show their peers what they had learned and be a part of a Readers Theater for a book many of them had read and loved previously.

My objective was to "Provide students will an opportunity to showcase what they have learned about voice, facial expression and gesture to their peers in a fun way".

Materials: Colored T-shirts, two musical instruments, each students’ part of the Readers Theater

Warm up:

"Zip- Zap-Zop"
We will revisit an old favorite game just to get the kids warmed up and concentrated.

OR "The Princess Pat" - a repeat after me song

The princess pat, (the princess pat)
Lived in a tree, (lived in a tree)
She sailed across, (she sailed across)
The seven Seas, (the seven seas)
She sailed across, (she sailed across)
The channel two, (the channel two)
And she took with her, (and she took with her)
A rick-a-bamboo, (a rick-a-bamboo)
A rick-a-bamboo, (a rick-a-bamboo)

Now what is that? (now what is that?)
Its something made, (its something made)
By the princess pat, (by the princess pat)
Its red and gold, (its red and gold)
And purple too, (and purple too)
Thats why its called, (thats why its called)
A rick-a-bamboo, (a rick-a-bamboo)
A rick-a-bamboo, (a rick-a-bamboo)

Now Captain Jack, (now captain Jack)
Had a mighty fine crew (had a mighty fine crew)
He sailed across, (he sailed across)
The channel two, (the channel two)
But his ship sank, (but his ship sank)
And yours will too, (and yours will too)
If you dont take, (if you dont take)
A rick-a-bamboo (a rick-a-bamboo)
A rick-a-bamboo, (a rick-a-bamboo)

Now what is that? (now what is that?)
Its something made, (its something made)
By the princess pat, (by the princess pat)
Its red and gold, (its red and gold)
And purple too, (and purple too)
Thats why its called, (thats why its called)
A rick-a-bamboo, (a rick-a-bamboo)
A rick-a-bamboo, (a rick-a-bamboo)

Activity: Practice Silently

Because there will not be enough time to run through all the parts of our Readers Theater, I will have each group form a giant circle around the room, standing next to their partner and when I say go, each group will present silently (Partner 1 reading in their head but mouthing the words and Partner 2 making facial expressions or showing us how the crayon feels through body language). Then they will be able to switch.

*This was a little confusing in practice. Next time, even if it uses a little bit more time, I would just run through the whole performance to allow them to practice one more time!

I will then give them a Pep talk about how they are going to do great and how proud of them I am of their hard work this semester!

Performance:
We will perform our readers Theater for another 3rd grade class.

Wrap-up:

I sat down with students and had a small debrief about the experience of performing. Many expressed being nervous and having fun so we talked about how no performance ever is perfect and we can learn each time we perform something we can improve. The students expressed feeling more confident with partners.

Small Evaluations: 

Ask each student the following question: “How would you rate my teaching on a scale from 1-10 and why?” Most of the students kindly gave high ratings and said that I was a fun teacher and they liked learning drama.

This was an incredible experience, not only for me but for the students as well. I was able to teach a few theater concepts, but they also were able to learn about how to work with others, be creative, speak up and concentrate. I learned first hand how important it is to establish well-defined behavior expectations from the beginning and find new ways to get their attention to keep the class period moving along. I learned how smart each child is and how helpful theater can be for students in learning social studies, science patterns or stories in literature. I hope to continue to integrate drama into the classroom!

Day 7: Readers Theater Prep

After practicing many aspects of drama, the students were ready to put all that knowledge into a small performance. I decided that we would do a Readers Theater mixed with some partner acting and do so for another 3rd grade class! The students were eager to get started!

I had three objectives for this lesson:

• Students will prepare to do a Readers Theater for the next week 
• Students will practice their speaking and acting parts with their partner 
• Students will do a quick write-up, “What would one of your crayons say to you?”

Materials: Copies of each Crayon Letters, Crayon Sign-Up sheet

Warm-Up:  “Alien - Tiger- Cow” (Purpose: A fun way to get students comfortable around each other and outside their shell. (7 mins)

1.  Have everyone stand in a circle.
2.  On the count of 3, the players have the choice of being one of three things (like rock, paper, scissors):
ALIEN: they hold their fingers up to their head like an antennae and say “Bleep, bleep, bleep”
TIGER: they throw their hands out like claws and say “Roooar!”
COW: they put their hands on their tummies with fingers sticking out (like utters) and say “Mooo”
3.  On the count of 3 everyone has the choice of being one of these things.
4.  Whichever one of these things is in the minority, those players must leave the circle (i.e. there are 4 aliens, 7 tigers, and 3 cows: the cows are in the minority and must leave the circle)
5.  Continue until there are only 1 or 2 people left.

VARIATION: A different approach to playing this game is for the goal be for everyone to become the SAME character (no elimination).

Activity: 

1. I will explain how the Readers Theater will work: (5 mins)

• As performers we will be on the stage, when we are waiting to come on stage, we are in the “wings”, and where the audience sits
• We will need two things to perform next week: Costumes (a shirt the color of your crayon) and Preparation (we will practice your parts today, but I would encourage you to practice it to your parents before next week)

2. Read “The Day the Crayons Quit” by Drew Daywalt (10 mins)

3. Put people in partnerships and give them copies of their letter (10 mins)

• Draw sticks with names to determine randomly who wants which Crayon
• They divide the reading (Part 1 and Part 2)
• They practice sounding like the crayon would sound (happy or annoyed, etc.)
• They figure out actions or facial expressions (at least 2) to describe their crayon when their partner reads it outloud! 
• Have a few partnerships practice (10 mins)

4. Writing activity - “What would one of your crayons write to you?” (10 mins)

• Have students individually write what one of their crayons might say to them 
• Share aloud in class

SIGN-UP

CRAYONS	Partner 1	Partner 2	Partner 3
Red
Purple
Beige
Gray
White
Black
Green
Yellow
Orange
Blue
Pink
Peach
Narrator
Duncan

Day 6: Character Voices

Now that the students had created characters, I wanted them to have practice acting and speaking as those characters.

My objective was that "Students will increase their confidence in using their voices".

Materials: Crayon book, Powerpoint, Character Sheets on hand

"Rules Song": See earlier lesson

Warm-up:

1. “Name Game Name Game, what’s your Name and what’s your Fame” ...at school? (5 mins)
(used as a quick warm-up for their speaking voices)

2. “Boom Chicka Boom” (5 mins)
(To practice different types of voices) Have students spread out around the room and do a repeat after me song with actions!
Link to Google Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1AQaZwLtcGecbAYz7cWYxzXFqIIUqbV3RvVZmpoW8t2Q/edit?usp=sharing 

Janitor Style: 
I said a Broom Sweep-a Broom
I said a Broom Sweep-a Broom
I said a Broom Sweep-a Mop-a Sweep-a Mop-a Sweep-a Broom

Valley Girl Style: 
I said like boom chicka boom
I said a totally boom chicka boom
I said like boom chicka like rocka chicka like gag me with a spoon

Race Car Style: 
I said a vroom shifta vroom
I said a vroom shifta vroom
I said a vroom shifta grind-a shifta grind-a shifta vroom

Astronaut Style: 
I said a shoot me to the moon
I said a shoot me to the moon
I said a shoot me, blast-me shoot-me blast-me shoot-me-to-the-moon

Baby Style: 
I said a boom chicka boom
I said a boom chicka boom
I said a boom chicka rocka chicka rocka chicka boom

Photographer Style:
I said a zoom clicka zoom.
I said a zoom clicka zoom.
I said a zoom clicka Smile Watch the Birdie clicka zoom.

Thunderstorm Style:
I said a boom crasha boom
I said a boom crasha boom
I said a boom crasha flasha crasha flasha crasha boom

Surfer Style:
I said a dude chicka dude
I said a dude chicka dude
I said a dude chicka wipe out chicka WHOA chicka dude

Librarian Style:
I said a book read a book
I said a book read a book
I said a book choose a novel, keep it quiet, read a book

Underwater Style - finger between lips

Compliment each other!
Link arms with someone close by and march in a big circle in the back of the room.

Activity: 

1. Character Questioning: (10 mins)

• Bring students together in a double circle with partners
• Each student go get their character they created last week
• Explain that you are going to act like your character (facial expression, body language and especially your voice)
• Each minute you will switch off talking with your partner
• Ask a series of questions that they would answer as if they were their character (students try to have a voice that sounds like your character, for example if you are a 50 year old man, try to have a lower voice)
• Rotate in the circle after every question
• Who do you live with?
• What is your favorite activity?
• Where would you want to travel to?
• What is your strength or super power?
• What is your biggest fear?
• What’s your favorite form of travel? Bus, train, motorcycle, car, bike, boat, etc.

2. Character Bus Stop: (10 mins)

• Ask a few helpers * to get 5 chairs set up in the front of the room*
• Bus Stop is an activity where students act out their own characters while interacting with people while waiting for a bus at the bus stop. 
• We will have everyone in groups of two and you will talk with each other about what’s most important to you and try to answer the questions just as your character would.
• Start with a question to the two people on the bench: “When do you think the next bus will come?”
• Answer and respond a few times acting like your character
• Example Questions:
• What is your name?
• Do you ride the bus often?
• How have you liked the weather today?
• Who are your best friends?
• What do you like to do?
• Make sure to ask everyone some questions and be creative with your answers: you are trying to show off your character! 
• Every 2 minutes the bus will come and the partners sitting down will go sit back in the audience as another partnership comes up 

Wrap-Up: In the end, introduce my idea to do another Readers Theater like you just did for a Kindergarten or 1st grade class!

• We are going to do the book: "The Day the Crayons Quit" by Drew Daywalt
• Next week, we will read the book and give people their different parts 
• Create partnerships - during performance one will read aloud using expression, the other will act like that crayon, both will be dressed in their color
• They talk about writing letters so we will practice how to address an envelope 
• We will dress up in our colors and perform our performance 

Day 5: Characterization

Today we moved on to Characters. Character run the show in theater. There are many types of character and each play a role that adds to the story.

My objective was that "Students will learn about characterization and have greater focus".

Materials: Music, Character Creation Sheets, bring random dress-up items

Warm-up: 

Listening Cue: (5 mins) For greater focus

• First, teach students how we are going to gather back together during activities today using music from the Greatest Showman - this will help us get to all our activities today and have more fun!
• Have them listen to the quick 10 second musical phrase from “A Million Dreams” and teach them what is expected: When you hear the music, finish talking with your peers, and quickly sit down facing where the sound is coming from with a quiet mouth. 
• Model HOW
• Have students practice - chat with your neighbor and walk to the back of the room. When you hear the music sit down facing me quiet and ready to listen! 

1. Lion and Lemon Faces: (5 mins)
Have students start by stretching their faces (wide lion face and scrunched up lemon face)
Then ask students to carefully wander around the room listening for how to move:

• Stretch arms above the head
• Touch toes
• Twist torso
• Skip
• Hop
• Start small and grow up 
• Only shake all the wiggles out of your left side
• Only shake all the wiggles out of your right side
• *At the end have everyone wiggle to form a circle and once we have all made it we are going to shake our heads and then sit down

2. “Zip, Zap, Zop”: (7 mins)

• This is a simple theater game that helps test the students’ ability to concentrate and focus
• The first person send the word, “Zip” by pointing it right to another person. Then the next person sends it by saying “Zap”, then the last person who was pointed to send the word “Zop”
• We continue trying to focus on what word is next and being specific when we point and pick who to send it to!
• (Ask for the helpers to show the students an example by forming a group of 5)

Reflection: (5 mins)
Why do you feel it is important to move our bodies?
What did you like about Zip Zap Zop? What can we learn from it?
Who are some of your favorite characters? What make them your favorite? What makes them unique?

Activity: (10 mins)
1. Review Because of Winn Dixie characters and what their personalities are like:

• Opal - who is she and how do we know it? (By their words, actions and sometimes thoughts) what adjectives describe these characters
• Winn Dixie
• The Preacher (Dad)
• Gloria (cute old creepy lady)
• Sweetie Pie Thomas
• Otis
• Miss Fanny Block

2. Character Creation: (10 mins)
With those different characteristics in mind, let’s create our own characters! Every student will get the chance to create their very own character individually
Give them 10 minutes to talk with their peers and determine their very own characters (anything, a robot, superhero, alien, typical 8 year old)

3. How would your character act at a Bus Stop (20 mins)

• Set up five chairs
• Seat the audience
• Divide class into groups of 5 and have each come to the bus stop one at a time and interact with each other, can speak, listen to music, read, talk on the phone, etc.
• 45 seconds for each pair to talk land then the bus comes

Exit Ticket: (3 mins) Have students quickly write on a half sheet of paper:

• What was their favorite part of the drama lesson?
• What did they learn about characters today?

Day 4: Face and Body in Drama

In connection with your voice and gestures, we each have our facial expression and our entire bodies to help us convey meaning to an audience. One great way to give students a small brain break is to participate in the "brain dance". This helps students connect their mind and body and allows them to focus and feel energized. I didn't use that in this lesson, but I wanted to mention it here because it is another small example about how movement can really encourage greater concentration and focus in students.

In this lesson my objective was that "Students will be able to express emotion using their faces and their bodies".

Materials: Instrumental music

Warm-Up: Three Theater Games

1. Explore Emotions on the Face: Students will start by stretching their face muscles by doing two faces lion face (like a lion is about to eat something) and lemon face (puckering).

 - Then divide the class in half and I will call out various emotions, one at a time. I want them to show me what that would look like to them on their faces and whole bodies. Those include emotions like:

• Happy 
• Sad
• Mad
• Annoyed
• Calm
• Excited
• Confused
• Surprised
• Scared 
• Etc.

2. Mirror Mirror - In this warm-up, students will be in partnerships. Their goal is for whoever to be watching not know who is leading the action. Without words students will do random movements with their bodies and the partner must copy them as if they were their mirror. During the game we will switch who leads and try to be the most accurate as possible in copying their partner.

3. Bippety Bippety Bop - In this game, one person is in the spinning with their eyes closed. Once they stop and point to someone, simultaneously the middle person will try to say “Bippety Bippety Bop” before the person and the people at their sides make the elephant formation (a trunk and two ears)
Variation includes washing machine (builds box around middle person and middle person moves arms all around) and car (windshield wipers and two tires).

The students loved these warm-up games which really helped them work with each other, focus on different people and explore what emotions could be shown through whole body expression.

Activity: Each student gets a character notecard and has it taped to their forehead. (It is easier if you have the tape ready or use another way for the students to wear a notecard without them seeing it.) We then do “Party Quirks” where 4 students at a time walk into a party and have to guess who these people are. Students must ask "Yes/No" questions to figure out which character they are.

Once everyone knows who they are, you must find your partner - there are pairs of people

• Harry Potter & Ron Weasley
• Moana & Maui
• Elsa & Ana
• Simba & Pumbaa
• Buzz Lightyear & Woody
• Peter Pan & Captain Hook
• Mike Wazowski & Sully
• Wreck it Ralph & Fix it Felix
• Rapunzel & Flynn Rider
• Elastigirl & Mr. Incredible 
• Hercules & Meg

Then with those characters, have them mix up in front and have them act out how their character would be at a:

• Birthday party
• Funeral
• Rock concert 

Exit Ticket:

• How did you feel you did today? Emoji Options
• Tell me one thing you learned:
• Favorite activity? 

Day 3: Gesture and Story Elements

Today my objective was that "Students will feel comfortable acting out gestures and understanding the building blocks of a story." This is a critical element is theater because telling stories using non-verbal cues are incredibly useful and come naturally to children as they have grown up playing "pretend". In addition, understanding the elements of a story helps us have a good overview of what is needed to create a story and what to expect!

Materials: Rory’s Story Cubes

I began with my made up "Rules Song" like I have each time. Music is a great way to learn and the students picked up on the song very quickly!

"I have rules, yes I do (repeat)" / "I have rules there are 2" (repeat "she has rules there are two") / First comes good attitude (repeat) / Second is not being rude (repeat) /
"R-E-S-P-E-C-T" (repeat) / "That’s Respect that’s what we’ll be" (repeat).

Warm-Up: 
Review: (10 mins) If there are a few groups that want to practice their different voices from the Horton and Mayzie lesson last week, they can come up and perform first. (Limit 3 groups)

Tableau (15 mins) - Comes from the words “tableau vivant” which translates to living picture

Have students come up one at a time and add into a scene or concept. For example, students could be part of the scenery (like a chair) or could be someone who would be there (a grandfather).
Examples:

• What are you doing at the beach?
• Making cookies in the kitchen
• Playing in PE
• In the library
• At a science fair
• Hawaiian Day

Now try again and show an emotion on your face while doing your activity / or do something different in these settings

Teach: (10 mins) Teach the ROOT of a story using Powerpoint and the example of "Cinderella"

R: Relationships to people, places and things
O: Objectives: What does the character want
O: Obstacles: What stands in their way
T: Tactics: How are they going to get what they want

These are the necessary elements of a story; if a story feels too short, boring or slow it might be because one of these elements are missing.
Link to Google Slides: https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1evzaZuIGt7O3zWKCEZSP2_sYM8RB-p3vvwiJx9j5VKU/edit?usp=sharing 

Activity: (10 mins) Come up with a story based on Rory’s story cubes in groups of 3

1. Each group with get one story cube and they will roll in 3X to see which elements they will include in their story

2. Then they will return to their desks and write up a story - making sure it has all the story elements (refer to ROOT).

3. Once they have a story figured out, they must figure out a way to tell the story using 5 Frozen Images (just like Tableau) without words or actions
*Encourage facial expressions and different movements

Perform: (15 mins) We will watch all the different groups and try to determine what their story was about. Ask about the relationships, objectives, obstacles and tactics in each of their short stories.

Reflection: Join as a group and discuss these questions to help solidify what they learned:

• What does a story need? 
• How can we show movement or expression with our bodies?

This was an engaging lesson as students worked together to create very short stories using only their bodies. Drama also lends itself to skills such as cooperation, listening, sharing opinions and being decisive and moving forward with a plan. 

Day 2: Voice in Stories

After discussing with my mentor teacher, I was able to create an outline of how to teach a different acting technique along with curriculum each day in 3rd grade.

So, we started with voice. Voice is an essential element of theater because it helps convey emotion, personality, motivations and dialogue. The ability to speak clearly and express emotion or opinion is important for any child to learn because speaking your mind allows for learning and understanding among parties.

Warm-Up: We began the day with a Warm-Up about Tongue Twisters. I selected five different Tongue Twisters and had students practice "enunciating" those phrases and saying them confidently. We also learned a new vocabulary word that day: 'enunciate'. That meant to speak clearly and pronounce words correctly. In their small groups, I saw them smiling at their silly tongue twisters and sometimes tripping on very similar words. After practicing for a few minutes, they came back together and had some of the members of their group show us a well-practiced tongue twisters. The students loved performing these silly phrases and watching their group members represent!

Examples:
 - Which witch wished which wicked wish? (repeat three times)

 - A skunk sat on a stump. The skunk thunk the stump stunk, the stump thunk the skunk stunk. Which stunk, the skunk or the stump?

 - This black bug bled blue-black blood while the other black bug bled blue.

 - Any noise annoys an oyster, but an noisy noise annoys an oyster most.

 - You know New York, you need New York, you know you need unique New York.

Activity: After a fun warm-up, we reflected on the importance of voice. They said that voice helps us understand other people, that it helps us recognize who is speaking. Based on the inflection, it can help us understand their feelings and so forth. I then pulled out the book, "Horton Hatches the Egg" by Dr. Seuss. I thought this would be a great book to practice hearing and using voice to convey emotions because of the differing characters that appear. As I read the book, I sometimes demonstrated different voices for the main characters, Mayzie and Horton, and the narrator, and then asked for help from two groups: the boys and the girls of the class. Students loved hearing the story of Horton who is asked to sit on Mayzie's egg during most of the year and helping me tell the story.

Practicing our voices can be a little intimidating, so I felt by letting the students practice in big groups of boys or girls they were able to try new things without feeling singled out. We tried high-pitched voices, low voices, annoyed voices, sassy voices, slow voices and fast voices.

After reiterating the power of voice, I gave them one page of the story to practice in partners. They each were given the task to pick one of the characters, Mayzie or Horton, and then to do their voice in a particular way. For example, Mayzie spoke fast and Horton spoke slow; Mayzie spoke in a high pitch and Horton spoke in a low pitch; Mayzie spoke in an annoyed tone and Horton spoke in a sleepy tone, etc. They spread out around the room practicing their lines three separate times to try and see how they could best perform this voice in their own way.

At the end we have two brave groups perform while wearing the hat to represent Horton and a scarf to represent Mayzie. They did great reading their lines and trying out different voices! I also encouraged students to clap twice for the "performers" and to have the performers bow, as if it was a more formal performance. I think providing small scale opportunities to perform helps students have greater confidence in their abilities.