“Good picture books deal with big questions and issues that often can be opened up and explored through drama.” (Baldwin, 2008)

In preparation for this weeks drama input, in groups we had to create our own mini drama lesson using the techniques we had learned so far based on a children’s book of our choice.  Half of the class did their lessons this week whilst the rest of us acted as the class, and we’ll switch roles in the next drama input. Each group told a story from a children’s book and then went on to deliver various tasks in relation to the book, such as hot seating, thought tunnels and role on the wall. I think this micro teaching task was useful as it allowed us to see how different people would teach drama and was a good way for us to share our ideas.

This is our role on the wall for one of the other groups micro teaching lesson about a fish who at the start of the story was very self centred, but by the end he turned out to be very kind.

Because it was near Remembrance day, we then went on to talk about how drama can be incorporated into almost any history subject. In our groups we had to come up with a freeze frame or an improvisation to do with WWII, so our group made a freeze frame of children being evacuated and having to say goodbye to their mother. I think this is a great way of integrating drama into other subjects and can fully engage children in the topic.

References:

Baldwin, P. (2008) The Practical Primary Drama Handbook. Sage publications LTD