Week 5: Drama

This week we learned about combining visual arts into drama and I found that the presentation offered great strategies to incorporate into future drama lessons. The strategies that were discussed in today’s presentation were caption making, masks, soundscapes, connection webs, role playing and tableaux. We began by listening to a read aloud of the very popular story “The Paper Bag Princess” by Robert Munsch. Next in our groups we were provided with a “caption” and we each had to take on a role from the story that matched that caption. After reading out our caption we froze into tableaux.

For the mask activity we were each provided with a princess, prince or dragon mask. I really like how the presenters emphasized that we should turn around to go into character and turn around again to go out of character. In our groups we were asked to have a conversation while taking on the persona of the mask we were provided with. This is a really simple way to connect visual arts with drama because students can be encouraged to be creative with their own mask and then they can make a skit using their masks. Another activity that we did with this story was creating a soundscape that coincided with the beginning, middle and end of the story. This was also a very engaging activity because we had to try to use sound in order to emphasize the plot of the story. This activity provides a beneficial accommodation for blind students as they are encouraged to only use sound in order to bring the story to life.

Following the group presentation, we began to learn about a story called “Giraffes Can’t Dance.” This story is about a Giraffe that liked to dance but all of the other animals taunted and laughed at him for dancing. There were several activities tied into this story that we learned about. For example, Stefanie took on the role as the giraffe and she was placed into the hot seat. The class acted as her family and we asked her questions about what happened when the animals laughed at her. Another really enjoyable activity that we practiced was dancing like a specific animal. In groups of 3-4 we were given a type of dance and an animal. We were asked to dance across the classroom while portraying that specific animal. Chris, Vince and I were chimps that cha-cha and I think that students would really find this activity exciting.