Drama Arts Bridge Scholar: 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)