Pre-school students naturally play in role, often becoming characters from stories they've heard or watched. They role play, re-enact and improvise alone, with siblings and with adults, and some begin to deviate from known stories and create their own. Sometimes they perform, reciting nursery rhymes and performing puppet shows for family and friends.
Adults sometimes join in with this socio-dramatic play, (hopefully enabling it, rather than directing it). Adults can add challenge, for example: having eaten at the child's restaurant, the adult could say their purse has been stolen, so they can't pay. Adults might intentionally slip in unfamiliar, yet relevant words and phrases during the play, such as: ‘can I reserve a table please?’
Early Years classrooms have themed dramatic play areas, for example they can be decorated as travel agents, shops or hospitals. Teachers can often role-play in these areas with students, who often act as adults with jobs to do and tasks to complete.
Whole-class drama games
Before starting whole-class drama with young students, it can be helpful if they have experienced playing some drama games. Games require collaboration and are a form of shared, imagined experience that gets teachers and their classes pretending together. This will hopefully pave the way for more meaningful and sustained whole-class drama experiences.
Some drama games involve imaginary objects; others use real objects as props, to stimulate improvisation. Some focus on gesture and mime, while others require scripted or improvised actions and speech. Below are some game suggestions you can implement in the Key Stage 1 classroom.
The Ball Game
Ask the class to stand in a circle. The teacher calls a student's name and throws an imaginary ball to them. The student catches it, calls another student's name and throws it to them, (and so on) until every student has had the ball.
Extension: Play this game silently so students pay attention to each other's body language.
The Chair Game
Seat the class in a circle with a chair in the centre. In turn, they enter and use the chair, ‘as if’ it was something else, for example a lawn mower. The next student enters, takes the chair, says ‘thank you’ and uses it as something else, and so on.
Extension: Instead of just ‘thank you’, the pair could improvise a conversation before handing over the chair. Instead of a chair, a piece of material, a cardboard box or stick could be used.
Tick-tock
The class are seated in a circle and a ruler is passed around. As each child gives or receives the ruler, they stick to this script:
Teacher, giving the ruler: This is a tick.
Student A, receiving it: A what?’
Teacher, giving the ruler: A tick.
Student A, giving the ruler: This is a tick
Student B, receiving it: A what?
The game continues until the teacher gets the ruler again. They then change its name and pass it on, saying for example: ‘this is a tock’. The class can then begin to get a rhythm going.
Active storytelling
Different active storytelling activities make varying demands on students. Below are a couple to try with your class.
- Individual mime (teacher directed) The teacher tells and acts out a story. The students copy the teacher's actions and join in with repeated phrases in the story (choral speech).
- Individual mime (improvised) The teacher tells a story and the students spontaneously mime ‘on the spot’ whatever is happening at that moment in the story.
- Whoosh! Students are standing in a circle. As the teacher tells a story they move along the circle, signalling to individuals, pairs or groups of students in turn to step forward and re-enact what is happening at that moment. When the circle is full of students performing, the teacher says ‘whoosh!’ and signals for everyone to reform the circle, and then continues the storytelling.
- Follow my leader The teacher leads the class on an imaginary journey (maybe outdoors), linking words to actions. The students follow the teacher and copy the actions in turn, for example: ‘come through the giant's gate …now crawl into the tunnel.’ Students can be invited to take a turn at creating and leading parts of the journey.
- Stepping into picture books The teacher can show a picture and invite students to enter the space and become something or somebody in the picture. In turn they enter and state what or who they are. The teacher can then perform in role after explaining to students that they will become a character from the book for a while and that the students can talk with the character.
- Going to Storyland The class draw one pictorial map of Storyland, adding people and places they might find there. They then stand in a circle and close their eyes. The teacher signals when to re-open them, having arrived in Storyland. Students talk in pairs (and then share) what they can see and hear, and then explore Storyland. They gather and report findings, before leaving Storyland together, as directed by the teacher.