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Rhythm and Improv, Jazz and Poetry
Connect the ideas of jazz improvisation and art to writing poetry. Learners collaborate and write different lines of poetry, imitating the jazz styles of improvisation and freewriting. Take a close look at the poems "Tenebrae" by Yusef...
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Jazz in America
Learners participate in a class discussion about jazz music, compare improvisation with regular conversion, listen to various jazz musicians and compare and contrast their individual sounds.
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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...
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A Musical Composition Experience
Upper graders having skills in music performance will extend their abilities through creative musical composition. They'll use Finale 2000 to explore facets of music composition, they'll then compose a piece for their instrument in C, F,...
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The Box
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...
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Jazz Exploration: A Collage Project
Middle schoolers explore and experience jazz through collage. They listen to improvisational jazz, discuss the origins of jazz, then design and create a collage that shows jazz being played. This project will result in amazing works of...
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Singing: Mi, So, La
Little ones learn the tones mi, so, and la by singing an answer to a sung question. They play a name game to identify beat, then discuss songs with no beat. If there is time during this musical instruction lesson, they dance about the...
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Pantomime vs. Abstract Gesture
Students explain dance as a way to create and communicate meaning and demonstrate the difference between pantomiming and abstracting a gesture.
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Knock, Knock, or Whose Line is it Anyway?
Students compare two versions of Macbeth and participate in improvisational acting. In this improvisational instructional activity, students read and discuss the text before watching two different versions of the film. Students...
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Improvisations
Students perform improvisations in front of their classmates. They have no time to prepare. The object is spontaneity. Their roles and situations are given to them on the spot and they have to react immediately. Students imaginations...
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Drama: Three Words
Seventh graders practice dramatic acting skills, using three words - why, oh, and sorry in different contexts. Working in groups of two or three, they create scenes in which the three words are the only ones spoken and are used to convey...
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Improvising Music
Learners watch "The Greatest TV Moments: Sesame Street Music A to Z" and improvise melodic and rhythmic embellishments for the song "O What A Beautiful Morning" or "Rubber Duckie."
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Lights, Camera, Action...Crossing the Delaware in 9 Scenes
How does reading a drama differ from reading a novel? Middle schoolers become playwrights and explore these differences. After viewing the A&E movie,"The Crossing," groups create stage directions, write dialogue, and design sets and...
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Wax Museum
Student role play as statues in a wax museum while the teacher takes the role of the curator. They stand in a static position until the curator leaves the room. They interact until the curator returns at which point they freeze. Now they...
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Theatre Lesson Plan - Pantomime
Second graders study heroes, inventors, and explorers and role-play as one of the people. In this theatre and history lesson, 2nd graders review the people and their accomplishments using a Promethean flipchart. Students then act out one...
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Body Movement
Second graders interpret and transform drawn lines into locomotive movements. In this improvised movement lesson, 2nd graders draw a line on a piece of paper and use the elements of dance to interpret and transform their draw line into...
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The Art of Improvisation
Learners explore the work of 3 for All. In this performing arts lesson, students watch a video segment about the improvisation group 3 for All, study improvisation, and participate in their own improvisation routines.
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Theatre: Persuasive Explorers
Students act like a famous explorer. In this explorer lesson, students research an explorer and act out persuasive arguments in which that explorer might be involved.
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Theatre: Meaningful Monologues
Students perform dramatic monologues. In this drama lesson, students write their own monologue and perform it in front of their peers.
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Improvisation
Students are introduced to the concept of improvisation. In groups, they practice improvising a different scenario given to them and explore the various ways people communicate with each other. To end the lesson, they reflect on the...
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Prop Stories
Students observe and demonstrate pantomime and improvisation. They define and discuss improvisation and pantomime, then in small groups discuss and brainstorm ideas using a bag of props. Students then create and present a scene using...
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Musical Phrase Completion
Students get to encounter simple musical notations, basic keyboarding and improvisation. Students exercise on creative thinking skills. Students create their own musical notes.
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Digable Planets, K.B.'s Alley When Jazz Meets Hip-Hop
Students explore the musical style of jazz and identify its elements while listening to hip-hop recordings. They select two styles of music and fuse them together in this lesson.
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The Box
Young scholars react to a planned dramatic scenario in which someone is caught red-handed and then they improvise a similar scene based on wither guilt or innocence.