Learning to Give
Teaching Playwriting in Schools
The world is a stage, and so is your classroom! Hone the skills of the next generation of Tony® award winners with a set of exercises, reference pages, writing prompts, and excerpts from famous plays.
Playbooks
Reader's Theater Exercise
Here's a great idea for your Parent/Family Night—host a Reader's Theater! Everything you need to organize the night, as well as a K-3 and a 4-7 script, is provided in the packet.
Playbooks
Reader's Theater Exercise: The Night Before Christmas
Yes, Virginia, there really is a reader's theater script for "The Night Before Christmas." The exercise is a great way to productively channel pre-holiday energy.
Creative Competitions, Inc.
Odyssey of the Mind Curriculum Activity: Fantastic Fairy Tale
Learning about literature can be so much fun; it can also be made more accessible through projects and dramatic play. As they explore theme, character, and setting, the class gets creative and makes a dramatic recreation of a classic...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Dimension Dances
Use dance to help learners conceptualize line segments, rays, lines, and planes. They choreograph dances that show dimensional space. Dancers start by pondering space, point, and lines as the teacher draws them in the air. Each movement...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
When We Are A Story
Drama and story elements go hand-in-hand. Have the class dive into a dramatic play to show character intention, conflict resolution, main events, and the dialogue in a Hawaiian folk tale. They read the story, then group-up to discuss and...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Machines
What do science and dance have in common? Simple machines, work, and force! First, children discuss machines, wheels, inclined planes, and wedges. They create inclined planes with their bodies and make up dances about wheels and wedges....
Curated OER
Character Attributes in Writing
Third graders analyze the importance of characters in fiction writing and performances. For this theatre lesson, 3rd graders identify the important characteristics of a fictional character and how to portray a character through many...
Curated OER
The Hatfield and McCoy Feud
Fourth graders investigate the Hatfield and McCoy feud. In this Hatfield and McCoy feud lesson, 4th graders examine factors that caused the feud. Students also locate on a map where the feud took place, make a timeline of the main events...
Curated OER
Grow a Musical Instrument
Music, culture, social studies, and plant growth all in one! Kids explore the various type of traditional African instruments that are made out of gourds. They then grow their own gourds and use them to create a wide variety of African...
Curated OER
Lesson Plan: Becoming an Animal
The Kwakwaka'wakw are indigenous people from Vancouver Island and British Columbia. The class analyzes a Kwakwak'wakw ceremonial mask, how it was used, and its cultural significance. They then create animal masks representing their...
Curated OER
Character Traits in Fables
Combining art, music, dance, and reading comprehension, this lesson plan is geared to reach all ability levels. After reading a variety of fables and discussing story elements and character traits, class members select a moral to use as...
The Kennedy Center
Fairy Tale Variations
Here are two great lessons that work together and are inspired by the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods. Young writers and actors will retell the story of "The Frog Prince" through games, improvisational script writing, and song....
Curated OER
Lights! Cameras! Action!: Creating a Drama About the Lyme Art Colony
Discuss the lives of artists in the Lyme Art Colony in the 1900s with this resource. Young historians write and perform a short scene depicting individuals who lived in the Griswold boardinghouse, used by the colony artists. They use the...
Curated OER
Northwest Coast Indians: Winter Celebrations Potlatch
Upper elementary learners engage in a study about the Potlatch as a Northwest Coast Indians social custom. Groups of pupils plan their own Potlatch ceremony; incorporating activities and creating gifts much like the ones that the Indians...
Curated OER
Weather or Not!
Young pupils will be sure to love this series of four lessons which deal with the winter season. These cross-curricular lessons cover visual art, science, math, writing, literature, and movement. Absolutely fantastic! The images of...
Curated OER
The Voice of the Individual
Young learners explore the role of the individual within society. They view art work, design calling cards, and display their work. Additionally, learners document an imaginary trip, create sculpted self-portraits, create a class play, a...
Curated OER
A Light in the Storm
Examine the genre of historical fiction while reading A Light in the Storm. They extract events in chronological order to make a timeline. Then, they use information in the book important to the characters to create a presentation of an...
Curated OER
Online —On Stage—and Action
Use your tablets to participate in a culture-sharing project with a class in a foreign country. Your class can communicate and share ideas with a class in another country, swapping information regarding language and culture. Together you...
Curated OER
CREATING A CHARACTER TRAIT MOBILE FROM THE OPERA THE LITTLE PRINCE
Students create a mobile that includes each of the six planets. They list the character traits of each of the characters from the six planets visited by the Prince. They present their project to the class and teacher.
Curated OER
MUSICAL ELEMENTS OF THE LITTLE PRINCE
Learners demonstrate knowledge of musical instruments and the families of the orchestra. They acknowledge different voice types found in opera. Students interpret emotional expressions through listening. They compose sounds to express...
Curated OER
Theatrical Economics
Read then role-play the characters from story of If You Give A Pig a Pancake. Young actors use improvisation and characterization to create the characters from the story. They will also write and role play original version of the story...
John F. Kennedy Center
Harriet Tubman: Retelling History Through Dance and Drama
Scholars listen to several pieces of music in preparation for a discussion about how instruments and lyrics convey emotions. With Harriet Tubman as the focus, small groups create an original song or dance. A reflection piece concludes...
Teaching Tolerance
Artistic Expression Showcase
No one is too young to create a masterpiece. Elementary artists delve into the topic of social justice with original artwork. Scholars keep journals to reflect on their experiences before putting paintbrush to paper. Final artwork is...