What's Happening in Drama Class?

Lots! We have been very busy since returning from winter break. Students in Kindergarten and First Grade have begun a unit on puppetry. They had the opportunity to explore my puppet collection and learn how different types of puppets are controlled. Now they are busy making several different types of puppets. They began with simple finger puppets then will move on to stick puppets, hand puppets and even marionettes for the First Graders. They will use their final puppets to create puppet shows to perform for each other.

In Second Grade Drama, the students are hard at work writing plays. Each group was given a story to turn in to a play which will be performed for an audience of their peers upon completion. First, we worked together to make outlines of the important plot points from the story and now the students are working in small groups writing the script. Each group has been assigned one section of the story. Once the script is finished we will choose parts and begin rehearsing. The students will also have the opportunity to design and create sets and props for their plays.

In Third Grade we have been busy rehearsing for the Third Grade Performance: Folktales from Around the World. The show is next Thursday, February 3rd and the kids have been learning their lines, blocking, orchestra parts and dances. They have all put in a lot of work and the show is going to be great!

Fifth Grade students had their last drama class yesterday and it was really a celebration! Since winter break the students had the choice of either writing and performing original plays or making their own modern day film versions of Hamlet. Yesterday we watched the films and the plays and they were all incredible!

Fourth Grade will start to have Drama classes next week...so fourth grade parents keep checking here for information about what your kids are up to.

-Lisa Edwards

Snowflake Dash

Students in Kindergarten and First Grade recently had the chance to participate in the OWS Snowflake Dash during Movement class. The students had the choice of running either 1/2 mile, 15 laps in our gym "track", or 1 mile, 30 laps. I am pleased to announce that all of the students participated and many of them completed the whole mile! They each received a certificate as a reward for this accomplishment.

I hope all of you have fun and active Winter Breaks and I'll see you in the new year!

The Dramatic Elements

One of the major goals of the drama program is for the students to leave fifth grade with a strong understanding of the dramatic elements of plot, setting, character, dialogue, conflict, design and theme. I begin laying the foundation for this understanding in Kindergarten and First Grade when the students are introduced to the concepts of plot, setting and character through a variety of story drama activities.

We start with the Dr. Seuss classic, The Sneetches and Other Stories, because the stories are very popular with the students and really lend themselves well to learning about plot, setting and characters. The students not only have the opportunity to talk about these concepts, they also get to act out the stories focusing on one of the dramatic elements.

In Second and Third Grade the students expand upon their knowledge of plot, setting and character by learning about the 5 W's, who, what, when, where and why, and how each W is related to a dramatic element. In Second Grade, the students use this knowledge to turn well known stories into scripts which they then perform. In Third Grade we spend at least one class on each of the 5 W's and the students are able to see the connections much more clearly. They create short, original scenes with emphasis on either character, setting, plot, theme or time period. Students in third grade also do a set design project.

All of this foundation allows the fourth and fifth grade students to delve in to the more complicated elements of dialogue, conflict and theme. We spend a great deal of time doing improvisational acting in the upper grades and it is clear that their understanding of the dramatic elements is very helpful when doing improv. The students are also able to analyze scripts using their knowledge of the dramatic elements to create incredible and meaningful performances.

Scene Study in Fifth Grade

Fifth grade students just finished doing their first scene studies in drama classes. I chose eight different scenes from several plays either written for children or with characters who are children and assigned the students a scene and a part in that scene. The plays ranged from classics like Alice in Wonderland to more modern plays such as Afternoon of the Elves.

Once they knew their plays, groups and parts the students had two weeks to plan and rehearse their scenes for final performances on the third week. I chose characters for the students that were intended to stretch them because they were very different from the students' personalities. All of the groups created or brought in props and set pieces to use for their performances. Several groups came in costume and some even memorized their scripts.

I was incredibly impressed by the final performances! It was very clear to me that the students really enjoyed this challenge and gave it their all. They are a very talented bunch and I can't wait for our next unit...we are going to be tackling Shakespeare!

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!