Have you ever had that moment when you walk into a room and start something you think to be cool and exciting, only to realize that you are way more pumped about it than anyone else in the room? Well, that was my life today. See, I'm in charge of the grades 1 and 2 English drama club this semester and I've been planning out lessons for the first two months. I've been looking up ideas and I've been thrilled about the variety of activities that I have prepared for the kids.
Today was the third official club class that I've had, but the first real drama class that I've been able to do due to the schedule in the last couple of weeks. I, being the werido that I am, entitled my class "instant storyteller". My idea was to have the kids listen to instrumental songs, figure out what kind of movie that song would be in, and then act it out. For practice, I played an song and had the class share ideas. It went well, so I decided, "hey, why not make this more interactive starting right now?" I was thrilled that the kids (most of them anyway) were participating and I asked them to act out their thoughts and ideas the next time that I played the song.
Yeah....the excitement died. It was like someone popped a hole in my happiness balloon. I asked the kids to stand, gave the instructions and started playing the music. Blank stares greeted me as the music began playing. I read an article today about how kids will build confidence if their teacher gets physically involved in activities that are more silly, so I went around the room and tried getting the excitement to boil to the surface.
Nada. Zilch. None.
What was wrong?? They seemed so into it and all the sudden they didn't care. I realize that the kids were tired--my club class is in the late afternoon--and they still had two more class periods after that. (On Wednesday, primary school goes until 4:30pm. Asinine, I know.) Plan averted. New plan...but with the same concept.
Since they didn't seem too into the whole kinesthetic deal, how about a writing activity? Still telling stories and being creative (as much as they can in this stifled environment, but that's another discussion...), but without the pressure of movement. I played the song again and asked the kids to give me their ideas about a movie that they would hear the song in and I wrote them on the board. Then we came up with a 5-sentence story using those words as inspired by the music. The story ended up being about a monster and a strange man fighting, hehe.
I played a new song, Protectors of the Earth by Two Steps from Hell and asked the kids to share their ideas again. We boarded words and then I gave each group a paper and pen to write a story. Here are my favorites:
I think we have some playwrights in the making here.
Today was the third official club class that I've had, but the first real drama class that I've been able to do due to the schedule in the last couple of weeks. I, being the werido that I am, entitled my class "instant storyteller". My idea was to have the kids listen to instrumental songs, figure out what kind of movie that song would be in, and then act it out. For practice, I played an song and had the class share ideas. It went well, so I decided, "hey, why not make this more interactive starting right now?" I was thrilled that the kids (most of them anyway) were participating and I asked them to act out their thoughts and ideas the next time that I played the song.
Yeah....the excitement died. It was like someone popped a hole in my happiness balloon. I asked the kids to stand, gave the instructions and started playing the music. Blank stares greeted me as the music began playing. I read an article today about how kids will build confidence if their teacher gets physically involved in activities that are more silly, so I went around the room and tried getting the excitement to boil to the surface.
Nada. Zilch. None.
What was wrong?? They seemed so into it and all the sudden they didn't care. I realize that the kids were tired--my club class is in the late afternoon--and they still had two more class periods after that. (On Wednesday, primary school goes until 4:30pm. Asinine, I know.) Plan averted. New plan...but with the same concept.
Since they didn't seem too into the whole kinesthetic deal, how about a writing activity? Still telling stories and being creative (as much as they can in this stifled environment, but that's another discussion...), but without the pressure of movement. I played the song again and asked the kids to give me their ideas about a movie that they would hear the song in and I wrote them on the board. Then we came up with a 5-sentence story using those words as inspired by the music. The story ended up being about a monster and a strange man fighting, hehe.
I played a new song, Protectors of the Earth by Two Steps from Hell and asked the kids to share their ideas again. We boarded words and then I gave each group a paper and pen to write a story. Here are my favorites:
"Yesterday I see a danger kingdom. There is a dark cave in the kingdom. The king in the kingdom is very angry. There is a big dragon in the kingdom. Then the dragon will eat the kind. And the kind die. The End."
"There is a kingdom. In the kingdom there is a dragon the dragon live in a dark cave. The dragon is strong and angrly. Because he do not have food. So he fly and fly to be a travelling people. The dragon go to danger."
"In a dark night, a travelling man went to a danger kingdom. He saw dragon in the cave. The dragon was angry. The man was strong, but the man was afraid of dragon. So the man be friend with the dragon. They are the best friend ever. The End."
I think we have some playwrights in the making here.
No comments:
Post a Comment