When a hiker gets trapped under a one-and-a-half ton piece of sandstone, he is shockingly able to throw off the slab. Because we normally use only one-third of our muscle fibers at a time, the potential for more is available in...

There's no doubt that dramatic play and creative movement are both essential for a healthy early childhood education. Here is a lesson that promotes both. Youngsters think of activities and emotions. The words are written on pieces of...

Young scholars engage in a lesson plan that is about the meaning of a verb or adverb. They perform sketches with the subject matter of the words. The goal is for the actors to show the meaning of the verb or adverb with an action.

Second graders use acting to help them in a prewriting activity to develop a story. In this prewriting lesson plan, 2nd graders form a character map and brainstorm ideas for their story.

Students engage in a lesson that is about searching the attributes of characterization. They practice some of the basic moves involved in acting out a certain character while focusing upon basic skits like "the freeze". The exercise...

Read and act out folktales, fairy tales, or myths from various Asian American cultures with your class. Each group reads a story aloud and then works together to create a short play or skit about the story. Suggestions for stories are...

Marketing, lighting, setting the stage, and a script. It sounds like we're going to be putting on a show! Your enthusiastic young actors research pop culture in all its facets, then set to work to write a polished script and perform an...

Reading is reading, whether it's for drama or English class. Boost reading fluency, accuracy, intonation, and comprehension while fostering creative acting skills. Kids read the provided tale of "The Lion and the Mouse" several times in...

Reader's Theater is a great way to build fluency, intonation, and dramatic flare. The class reads the theater piece, "The New Friends" paying attention to how they express emotion and feeling as they read. They discuss the use of plot,...

Have your learners investigate playwrights. In order to prepare for the final PowerPoint, scholars do online research on a playwright and read a play written by this playwright, focusing in particular on one character in the play. When...

Learners of any age can participate in this imagination and improve development activity. With the use of a small box, they work through a series of questions or situations posed by the teacher. Each group uses the box to create short...

Learners hone their acting and imagination by playing tug-o-war with an imaginary rope. Each group works together and pretends to pull the other group over the imaginary line with an imaginary rope. This could be a good improve warm up...

Kids get up and act! To promote inventiveness, timing, and clowning, they pair up and act as though they are looking in a mirror. Child A does a move while child B attempts to mimic it as closely as possible. This is a fun activity that...

Learners of any age can learn to communicate using gestures and their bodies. They create a pantomime of a specific activity without using any words. This resource includes a link to an Off-Broadway Workshop for kids.

Using various exploratory techniques, young actors work as an ensemble company to devise, perform and evaluate a piece of theatre for assessment. This outline provides an objective and a list of games and activities that stimulate skills...

Even an outline can give you enough information to execute an awsome project. The tasks for each of the seven weeks of this project are defined, as well as the objective and specific content facilitated through the project. Learners will...

Students participate in a role playing activity for the period of one week. They are using dramatic play to illustrate the purpose of the railroad and its relationship to transportation.

What a way to teach the parts of a play! Use Michelle Anthony’s adapted script of Falling for Rapunzel to demonstrate for your young readers the differences between stories and dramas. While no lesson plan is included, the script could...

Spend some time exploring various components of theater such as movement, voice, staging, ensemble, improvisation, characterization, directing, technical elements, and self-concept. They perform in various improvisation exercises and...

Introduce your class to drama! You cast each pupil as a different character from a story you have read. They are given a general outline of the scene, act out the scene multiple times, then discuss the weak and strong aspects of each...

  Double, double toil and trouble; Fire burn, and caldron bubble. Macbeth’s witches provide young actors an opportunity to try their hand at small ensemble acting. Using Act I, scene I of Shakespeare’s play, groups of three take turns...

Seth Green describes his favorite Sesame Street movements and describes how it kick started his interest in acting. You can use this video as a way to begin a discussion about using one’s imagination.

Your intermediate or advanced thespians choose dramatic scenes to perform in duos, small groups, or solo to demonstrate vocal and physical characterization. Use class time to prepare and rehearse. Detailed rubrics work for peer assessment.

Students listen to a read aloud of a storybook focusing the characters and story elements. They decide how to act out the story by deciding on appropriate voices and actions for the characters. They determine lines that would be spoken...