Thursday, January 26, 2012

Partnerships with Older Drama Students

Students here at OWS are lucky.  They get to have drama class as a part of their educational experience from Kindergarten through Eighth Grade.  I certainly did not have this opportunity, in fact Drama wasn't offered as an option at my schools until high school.  I hope that I inspire my students to continue taking drama classes or pursue acting once they leave OWS.  To foster this sense of drama being a lifelong pursuit I am partnering with area high schools to bring high school theatre students here to work with my students. 

On Tuesday, students from the Northwest School came out for the afternoon to lead the First Grade students in drama workshops.  The high school students taught games and created frozen picture scenes with the First Graders.  Then they asked the little ones for ideas to add to a play they are writing.  Once the play is finished they are going to be coming back and performing it for us.  It was great fun to see 6 year old and 16 year old students working together!

Next, I am going to have the Improv Troupe from Newport High School come and lead some workshops with the Fourth Grade students during our unit on Improvisational Theatre.

We are just starting this exciting program and I can't wait to see how it expands!