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!

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!