Great Games in K-1 Movement

Kindergarten and first grade students are learning a ton of Great Games in Movement class this month! Games are an important part of the physical education curriculum because they help the children learn movement skills, strategies and cooperation.

The games we are playing are especially focused on developing basic locomotor skills such as travelling safely, dodging and fleeing. These games also help to improve general coordination, agility and teamwork.

Ask your child about the great games Clean Your Room, Houdini Hoops, Fours Corners, Trains at the Station and many more!

Welcome Back!

Welcome back to another exciting year of drama and movement and Open Window School! My name is Lisa Edwards and I am lucky enough to be starting my sixth year at OWS. I teach drama classes to all students in grades K-5 and movement to students in kindergarten and first grade. This is the place to check for curriculum updates, highlights from our different units and any announcements about performances or other related topics.

I will be at Specialists' Night on September 27th to answer all your questions about K-1 movement and if you have any questions about drama class, you can schedule a conference with me during fall conferences, or shoot me an e-mail at lisae@ows.org

I am looking forward to another great year with all of your amazing kids!

Lewis and Clark's Excellent Adventure

As the school year begins to wind down the schedule for the drama department is really ramping up! We just finished two great productions. The second grade show, Every Day is Earth Day featured fabulous singing and acting and a lot of very valuable information about living in an earth friendly way and the Kindergarten Cultural Parade concluded with a great show featuring songs and dances from several different cultures.

First grade is busy practicing for their show all about the weather and fourth grade has just begun to rehearse for their play, Lewis and Clark's Excellent Adventure. Fourth grade is the first year in which the grade level performance is a full length play. This original play was conceived in 2008 and has been performed by the fourth grade ever since. It provides the students with many varied performance opportunities and is just a really fun show to do.

After Lewis and Clark we will begin working on The American Revolution in fifth grade and continue to rehearse for our spring musical, The Wizard of Oz! It's a busy, creative time here in the OWS drama department!

Puppetry and Performances!

We are getting in to a very busy time of year for OWS drama! Most of the grade level performances happen in the spring which means much of our drama class time is spent rehearsing. The second grade show, Every Day is Earth Day is taking place on Earth Day, April 22. For the drama portion of the performance, each class is performing a short play with environmentally friendly themes. The first grade performance will take place on May 6th, and the theme is Weather. The fourth grade play, Lewis and Clark's Excellent Adventure, will be on May 27th and the fifth grade will perform The American Revolution on June 11th. These grade level performances provide all of the students with the opportunity to be part of a play from beginning to end and perform in front of an audience.

In other drama news, kindergarten and first grade students have been learning all about puppetry and creating their own puppets! We began by making simple finger and stick puppets and now the kindergartners are making hand puppets and the first graders, marionettes. They will use these puppets to perform original puppet shows for their classmates.

Happy Hoops in the New Year!

Happy New Year to all! We are starting off the new year with a movement unit called "Happy Hoops." Hoops aren't just for hula hooping anymore. Children can learn about the movement concepts of over, under, around and through with hoops, they can help in developing hand-eye and general coordination by spinning and rolling them and the hoops can also be used as targets to develop more accuracy when throwing or kicking. They are also a lot of fun and provide enjoyable and creative opportunities for healthy movement!

Dramatic Elements

One of the major themes of drama class throughout the years are the dramatic elements of plot, character and setting. Students in kindergarten and first grade learn what plot is by breaking stories down into the beginning, middle and end and then acting them out. Character and setting are studied in a similar manner, using familiar stories to demonstrate the different concepts.

When the students are in second and third grade we look at how the 5 W's (who, what, when, where and why) are related to the dramatic elements. The students participate in a variety of activities in which they must create and communicate different characters, setting, activities, times and motivations.

In the fourth and fifth grade students put all of this knowledge together when we work on Improv. They need to come up with characters, settings, plots and motivations for actions on the spot in order to be successful at improvisational acting. The student at OWS are so creative, which makes watching their improv scenes great fun!

Having a deep understanding of these dramatic elements not only improves the students acting, but also their understanding of what it takes to create a good story or play.

Third Grade Performance

Third grade students will perform Folktales From Around the World tomorrow at 1:30pm. Each class has chosen a folktale from a different country; The Thirsty Frog from Australia, The Blind Children and the Elephant from India and The Grateful Statues from Japan. The students have spent the past several weeks learning the music in music class and rehearsing the acting parts in drama class. We brought both pieces together to create three charming plays.