Purpose:
Teaching Tips
These activities may take more than one lesson.
Activity 1: HOT SEAT
Place 3 to 5 chairs at the front of the room.
Ask for volunteers to come and sit in the “hot seats”. Then have the actors (volunteers) bow their heads and close their eyes. Call out a situation, feeling, emotion, or expression (see below for suggestions). Paint the picture with words, and after the count of three, ask the actors to raise their heads with a facial expression that they feel best communicates the given situation, feeling, emotion, or expression. The students freeze their face and bodies so that the class can vote on which actor portrayed the best expression. Repeat this as often as desired. Have the actors that did not win sit down and replace their chairs with new volunteers. Try to get everyone to participate. Be careful that the game doesn’t turn into a popularity game. If one person continues to win, replace all the actors after 3 or 4 situations.
Suggested Situations:
- You just walked into your house late at night and your hear someone upstairs walking around.
- You walked into the house and your mother has just baked some fresh cookies.
- You heard tires squealing and you turn around and there is a dead dong in the street.
- You are taking a shower and you hear a noise outside. You pull back the curtains and there is a peeping tom standing at your window.
- You walk into a public bathroom and the sewer is backed up and over flowing out of the toilets.
- You wake up on your birthday and your mother is holding a sweet little puppy.
- You walk into your kitchen, turn the light on and rats run across your feet.
- You walk outside on a warm summer evening and you see the giant moon just starting to rise.
- You walk into your living room and you see your mother and father kissing.
- You just got a note in class that reads, “Come to the principal's office. Immediately!”
- You are being yelled at by your father for talking back to your mother.
- You just caught your sister stealing some of your money out of your money box.
- You have to go to the bathroom really bad, but you’re in the middle of a pew at a church service.
- You think you see your best friend at a party from across the room but you not quite sure it’s them because the light is so bad.
- You are watching a scary, funny, love, or dumb movie.
- Your are watching your favorite team win / lose the championship.
- You are asked why you got on F on a test by your teacher.
Emotions You Are Looking For:
- Scared
- Fearful
- Delight
- Sadness
- Shocked
- Embarrassment
- Disgust
- Joy
- Happiness
- Freaked Out
- Surprised
- Wonderment
- Awe
- Pain
The two students who did not win sit back on the floor. Try to get everyone to participate. Be careful that the game doesn’t turn into a popularity game. If one person continues to win, replace all the actors after 3 or 4 situations.
Activity 2: MOVING TO A SCRIPT
You will need a big area clear of furniture.
"Everyone needs to find their own personal space in the room. When you find your space I want you to find different ways to move your body staying in one spot".
When they have explored different ways to move through space, get the students to move their bodies though space in different ways.
Suggested movements:
- Hopping
- Tip-toeing
- Running (We discuss this one ahead of time. Running is a legitimate way to move, but not in the classroom.)
- Walking on hands
- Crawling
- Rolling
- Dragging lower body with arms
Part 2) For this second part of the lesson we confine ourselves only to walking. There are many different ways to walk. Introduce the idea that any movement (in this case, the walk) can be changed in a number of different specific ways.
Introduce them one at a time,
Suggested movements:
Change the size of the movement. A movement can be made wider or narrower, higher or lower, deeper or shallower. One can make the walk wider or narrower by widening or narrowing the stance and swinging the arms further away or closer to the body. Once can make the walk higher or lower by walking on tiptoe or slouching. One can make the walk deeper by taking larger steps or swinging the arms further forward and back.
Change the time of the movement. A movement can be made slower or faster.
Change the weight of the movement. Demonstrate by walking how a movement can be light or heavy. (An angry schoolteacher may walk heavily; a ballet dancer may move lightly.)
Change the direction of the movement. A movement can be direct--moving to a specific point without veering off the path--or indirect--wandering aimlessly.
Activity 3: BEAN BAG VOICE PROJECTION
1. Ask each child to look directly at the first bean bag, say their name and the name of their favourite animal.
2. Instruct them to say the exact same things to the second bean bag.
3. Would they speak with the same volume? Of course not - the "person" is further away.
4. When asked to address the third bean bag, they obviously should be projecting their voices as loud as they can.
5. After the entire group has addressed the bean bags, let them know they were really acting in a play just then - reaching the first three rows, the middle rows, and the back rows of the theatre.
Read and Respond
1. Read a story to your class
e.g. Rose Meets Mr Wintergarten, The Recess Queen, The Cocky Who Cried Dingo, We’re Going on a Croc Hunt.
Think-Pair-Share what sorts of facial expressions, body movements and voices they would use if they were one of the characters in the book. Share thoughts with class.
2. Re-read the story. Encourage them to make facial expressions and safe body movements whilst reading the story again. Discuss why they chose certain expressions and movements.
3. Re-read the story with an emphasis on them using voice. Pause at certain parts of the story where they can use say a line from the story and explore using their voice. Discuss why they chose to say the line in a certain way.
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