Name Game

This game is a great introduction game for the beginning of the year. Getting students to feel comfortable in your classroom can be difficult but this activity is a good ice breaker to start student bonding. This game is much like a Tribes acitivity but incorporates actions as well as language to define it as a drama exercise.

Students get in a circle and the teacher asks students to think of an adjective that students with the same letter as their first name. For example Chatty Chelsea. The teacher then goes around the circle in about 5 students groupings. After a group of 5 introduces themselves the class will repeat the names with their adjectives all together then continue with the next 5 and so on till the whole class has gone. The class will then review all the names in the circle in a row. Secondly, the teacher will now ask students to add a movement to their name and adjective. For example making your hand talk like a puppet for Chatty Chelsea. Once again the class will follow the same exercise introducing 5 actions at a time until the whole class has introduce their own. Thirdly, the teacher will stand in the middle of the circle and spin around until they stop and point to one of the studnets. The whole class is to then say the persons adjective and name as well as perform their action all at the same time. Many adaptions can be made to this exercise for example the teacher could choose a student to go in the middle and be the one to spin and point. Or the class could play and if someone does the wrong action or says the wrong name they are out of the game until there is one person left with the middle pointer choosing faster and faster.

I will use this game in my future classroom for building classroom environment at the beginning of the year. I think this is a great way to get students relaxed as well as a terrific way for everyone, including the teacher, to learn student's names.

Get In, Do Something, Get Out

This drama activity is great way to add to your language unit. This activity consits of three different scenes which can be usful when wanting to follow a story line or sequence of events.

Firstly, the students begin the activity by creating a interesting way of entering the scene. After giving students time to brainstorm, create, practice and perfect students are then asked to perform an action depending on what story line the class is building on. Once again giving students time to brainstorm, create, practice and perfect. Thirdly, the students now create a creative exit strategy. Students follow the sequence once again of brainstorming, creating, practicing and perfecting then students combine all three scenes together.

Things that the teacher can focus on when doing this activity is asking students to be aware of different heights, directions and speeds. An example of this activity is to follow the fairy tales getting students to enter a castle, do something and exit the castle. The question they must answer is what happened in the castle? For younger students this activity may develop over a few days giving students longer to collaborate and practice.

I will definitly use this in my future classrooms as an extension to my language program. I will build on stories to create deeper meaning to student reading and comprehension. I will also use this activity to allow students to act on their infering skills in the language program.

                                  arrow/star: cpwalker, February 28, 2011

Welcome

Hi my name is Chelsea Walker and I am a student teacher currently enrolled at Brock University St.Catharines campus. I am creating this blog to share my experiences in my drama class with others as a resource for drama activities in the classroom. I will share the activities and how I may use them in my future classroom.

Image: Drama, cpwalker, Feb.26, 2011