Creating Drama with 4-7 Year Olds

Lesson Ideas to Integrate Drama into the Primary Curriculum

Miles Tandy, Jo Howell

• Publisher: Routledge
• Year: 2009
• eBook ISBN: 9781135191672
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Education
• Subtopic: Education General

This practical book gives you all the ideas you need to make drama a regular and integral part of your school's curriculum, offering detailed suggestions of drama work for ages four to seven. The teaching units are arranged around four strands: drama for literacy; drama and the whole curriculum; drama film, media, and ICT; and drama for performance. The authors provide a wealth of practical activities throughout. Each unit includes:

• explicit links to the Renewed Framework for literacy and the wider curriculum
• a list of resources needed
• clear learning objectives and outcomes
• steps for teaching and learning including how to modify activities to suit your school
• links to writing
• assessment guidance.

Based on the authors' experience as teachers and in-service trainers, this book provides a Wide range of ideas and activities for inspiring drama across the Foundation Stage and Key Stage 1, and is essential reading for all those interested in bringing drama into their school.

Appendix 1 Drama structures and strategies used throughout the book

Freeze/move

Children ‘free-play’ some action from the story and ‘freeze’ when told to by the teacher. This creates instant images of the story. It can be a really good idea to capture these with a digital camera, either as evidence of what you did or perhaps to illustrate later writing.

Improvising dialogue

Usually done in pairs, the children take roles and improvise the conversation that happens between them. This can often lead to writing, perhaps putting the dialogue into a story, or writing it for a playscript. See, for example, Unit 2F, The First Snow of Winter.

Inventing games

This can be a very effective and playful way of engaging children with the themes and ideas of a story. The ‘pirates’ game, for example, which is played in Unit 1L, A New Home for a Pirate can be easily adapted for another context as in Unit RL, Castles.

Letters and messages

These can be introduced as a way of moving the story on, adding surprise, excitement or tension. See, for example, the note from the princess in Unit RL, Castles or the email from Jim in Unit 1F, Jim and the Beanstalk.

Meeting in role

The children sustain their roles while they meet together and discuss what has happened in the story/drama and what they should do about it. See, for example, Unit 2C, Light and dark, when the animals meet.

Soundscapes

Using their voices, sounds they can make with their bodies, everyday objects and/or musical instruments, children create mood and atmosphere with sound. See, for example, Unit 2L, The Lost Happy Endings, or Unit 1C, The Steel Teddy Bear.

Still images or tableaux

A very widely used strategy in which children make pictures using themselves. These might show people (or perhaps animals) doing something, or they may be more abstract, as in the wood the children create in Unit 2P, A Midsummer Night’s Dream.

Teacher in role

Used in many of the units, the teacher takes a specific role within the drama and engages in ‘live’ action with the children. It is a very powerful strategy from which you can question, challenge and extend children’s thinking and understanding.

Word carpets

Words and phrases developed through the drama are written on scraps of paper and put out on the floor to create a ‘carpet’ of words. These might be used to create a setting, or developed further into mood and atmosphere as in Unit 2L, The Lost Happy Endings. They are very useful resources for later writing.

Writing in role

Children write as if they were characters in the story. For example, they might write letters home from Ted the farmer in Unit 1L, A New Home for a Pirate, or reply to Jim’s email in Unit 1F, Jim and the Beanstalk.

Appendix 2 Further reading to help develop drama in your school

Ackroyd, J. and Boulton, J. Drama Lessons for Five to Eleven-year-olds. David Fulton 2001. Highly practical, detailed and well-structured lesson plans, some for this age group.

Dickinson, R. and Neelands, J. Improve Your Primary School Through Drama. David Fulton 2006. A detailed and uplifting account of how one inner-city primary school placed drama at the heart of its curriculum with remarkable results. Plenty of practical advice and examples.

Winston, J. Drama and English at the Heart of the Primary Curriculum. David Fulton 2004. Detailed plans with thorough underpinning theory. Examples are included for all the primary age groups.

Winston, J. and Tandy, M. Beginning Drama 4–11. David Fulton, 3rd edition 2008. A very practical guide, aimed at those who are new to teaching drama and designed to lead you through the process step-by-step.

Table of contents

• Cover Page
• Title Page
• Copyright Page
• Acknowledgements
• How to use this book
• RL: Castles
• RC: The cycle shop
• RF: Filming a traditional story
• RP: A festival of nursery rhymes
• 1L: A New Home for a Pirate
• 1C: The Steel Teddy Bear
• 1F: Jim and the Beanstalk
• 1P: The King with Dirty Feet
• 2L: The Lost Happy Endings
• 2C: Light and dark
• 2F: The First Snow of Winter
• 2P: A Midsummer Night’s Dream
• Appendix 1: Drama structures and strategies used throughout the book
• Appendix 2: Further reading to help develop drama in your school