Children’s theatre

Children’s theatre 

Children’s theatre is essential to child development and teaches the child essential skills to use throughout their life. Theatre allows children to branch out and see the world through a different perspective and helps them conceive a new idea, new possibilities, and a new world. Introducing children’s theatre to children at a young age can provide them with beneficial skills such as cultural awareness, patience, build leadership skills, self-confidence, and motivation/ commitment skills. In the classroom, is the perfect place to incorporate theatre into the curriculum as “adapting literary text is a great way to introduce children to an important work of literature and the process of adaption gives them a much deeper understanding of the text than they would get from reading alone” (Bates, p. 70). Children’s theatre also allows students to learn how to express their emotions and voice through the dialogue of a scene. As a teacher, that is going to be one of my goals to create avid and fluent readers. When I was in elementary school, my teacher’s incorporated plays into some of the lessons that we would perform to the class. I enjoyed the plays and skits that we did in the classroom because we were able to take a second away from paper and pencil and get moving around as well as being creative. As an inspiring teacher, I will incorporate children’s theatre into my classroom because of the benefits and the enjoyment that comes from performing. This unit of children’s theatre opened my eyes to how important theatre is on a child’s life and one day I hope to do the same for my future students. I believe that this lesson is important to teach to children because it gives them critical skills that they will need throughout their life.

As a teacher, I plan to use a variety of methods in a week-long lesson to incorporate theatre into the classroom to give the students multiple ways to learn through the different activities that we do during the week. I think that by doing various lessons that incorporate theatre, it will help each student learn better because not all students learn at the same pace or have the same skills as each other. I plan to have the students use the Reader’s Theatre program, act out dialogue from a story, and write dialogue for a scene. I would most likely incorporate theatre into the classroom at a time where the students have been really busy with classwork or standardized testing. I think that doing this lesson after testing would be beneficial to the students because it would give them time to debrief and take a break from a pencil and paper. For this week-long lesson my goals would be for the students to understand the fundamental knowledge of theatre (acting, directing, creating, and voice), develop expressive oral language skills, collaborate and work productively in a group setting, and understand the elements need to create and perform a skit (costumes, actions, and dialogue).

The first thing that I would do to begin the lesson is by asking my students what they know about theatre or if they have every performed a play or skit. This would allow me to know how much the students know or if they have ever participated in theatre. Hearing stories from other classmates experiences may help the students become more aware and participate if they know that some of their classmates have performed. After the discussion, I would provide the students with background information on theatre such as, what children’s theatre is and when and where it began. During this time, I would also show the students some child-friendly performances by students of the same age to have them become more aware and comfortable about what theatre is. To close the lesson, I would let the students play charades using only actions and no words. This activity would allow the students to start using their imagination and creativity by portraying scenes trying to figure out what the person is trying to show or tell them without the use of words.

The next day we would discuss some of the things we saw in the videos that I showed previously. Then I would introduce them to Readers theatre, which is a way to involve students in reading out loud. I would put the students into groups depending on how many characters are in the short script that I gave them. They would then perform the text with their partner(s) without using an action or propts. The students would be encouraged to read dramatically and work on fluctuation in their voice as they read. This activity would help them learn how to read scripts appropriately and play the character accurately. To wrap this lesson up, I would have the students perform their skit to their classmates.

The third lesson that I would do with my students is to have them read a short script, pair them up into groups, assign roles and have them work together to incorporate actions into their story. The students would then practice performing their skit by reading and coming up with actions that fit the dialogue of the skit. After the students practice their performances, they would them perform them to the class. My goal for the practice and performance is to get the students more comfortable with acting and speaking in front of people.

The fourth lesson that I would do with my students is to have them watch a scene from a movie or short video without sound and ask them to write the dialogue for the scene and act it out. This would help the students learn how to write their own scripts to be able to perform like a short play. During this lesson, I would also assign groups and give them a chapter of Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland that they would be required to create a script by adding creative elements to the story and actions to perform.

To wrap up the lesson on children’s theatre, I would have the students finish up their work on their chapter of Alice’s Adventure in Wonderland and start practicing their skits. I would encourage the students to create costumes that would go with their character. The students could wear things that they own to represent the character they are playing, or they could make a costume such as bunny ears, or a hat. To wrap up the lesson I would set aside a part of the day to invite other classes and the student’s parents to come to a play of Alice in Wonderland and have to students perform to an audience the chapters that they were assigned.

There are many activities and lessons that I could do with the students to introduce them to children’s theatre and the benefits it can have on our lives. Theatre makes any lesson in elementary school more exciting for the students and gets them thinking creatively. I believe that introducing children’s theatre is important because it helps them develop and gain knowledge and skills that will last a lifetime.