Creative movement activities are an essential component of drama.
According to Youth Stages, an arts and education organization for school-age children, "Creative drama is an improvisational, non-exhibitional, process-oriented form of drama, where participants are guided by a leader to imagine, enact, and reflect on experiences real and imagined." Creative drama activities for school-age children incorporate storytelling, creative movement, voice and puppetry. These activities promote confidence, imagination, an exchange of ideas and social interaction.
Pantomime
Frame pantomime activities around action. "In creative drama," write authors Janet Rubin and Margaret Dee Merrion, "pantomime is the expression of feelings, actions and ideas ... the body, not the voice, is the instrument of communication."
Children can work in groups to pantomime a single activity such as performing with an orchestra or taking a dog for a walk. Without the use of props or speaking, the actors must use facial expressions and body language to portray the action. The children will exaggerate movement and move in slow motion while the class guesses the activity.
Role Reversal
Brainstorm a list of role reversals and write them onto slips of paper. Consider the children's book "The Prince and the Pauper" as an illustrative example of role reversal.
In a group setting, children are given a card with role-reversal concepts to perform. They will have up to 30 minutes to create a script based on the selected role and jot down dialogue as needed; they can can use props if relevant. The groups will perform their skits, and the teacher and class can provide feedback at the end. Role-reversal skit activities help children work on interactive dialogue, vocabulary and concept building.
First Lines
Generate a list of first lines taken from poetry, age-appropriate books or class-selected readings, and write three lines per card to hand out. Have the children arrange themselves into small clusters.
Working from a card, each group discusses the lines and how they wish to interpret them through play-acting or combine them to create a larger skit. Taking turns, each group will perform their line as a "role" rather than reciting it verbatim to the class. The class can then speculate about the presented material or its source.
Improv with Emotion
"Becoming a master of displaying emotions is essential to growing as an actor," says Bob Bedore, comedian and author of "101 Improv Games for Children and Adults." He continues to say that for beginners, "Each of the emotions should be as big as possible."
Emotive improvisation requires participants to take part in a social gathering. Assign one child as the party's host and the rest of the class as guests. To begin, hand each guest a card with an emotion on it. The first guest pretends to knock on a door. When the host "opens the door," the guest enters, executing the assigned emotion. The moment the host picks up on the emotion, he must mirror it and converse. This pattern continues with each new guest's arrival; all the other guests must also follow along when they determine each new emotion.
