Abstract

Having good expertise in children’s literature and reading promotion is essential in pre-school teachers’ training. With this purpose, a didactic experience was developed in the subject “reading promotion and drama” of the degree of Infant Teacher Training of the University of Oviedo (Spain). The aim was to apply the knowledge acquired about reading promotion and children’s theatre and to develop professional, literary and communicative competences. The students created and performed several theatrical plays for real children, three to six. Through this experience, the future teachers learned to prepare a performance suitable for preschool children, improved their communicative ability and drama skills –as they used several ways of artistic expression- and increased their practical knowledge about drama education and children’s literature. Although several weaknesses were detected –the volume of work, the high number of students involved and some technical problems-, the experience was very positive and motivating. As a conclusion, doing drama practices as the one described increases the implication of university students, improves learning from a constructivist approach, promotes the development of several competences and prepares future preschool teachers for their professional exercise, as it makes their contact with children possible.