Curated OER
Using Drama to Examine Communities: Walking in Others' Shoes
Encourage your readers to make connections between texts with this resource. After compiling notes for each text read (you choose the texts), groups craft skits in which major characters from each text meet. There is a rubric for the...
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...
Star Wars in the Classroom
"Shakespeare and Star Wars": Lesson Plan Day 11
Class members take center stage as groups perform scenes from Ian Doescher's William Shakespeare's Star Wars: Verily, A New Hope. Actors are encouraged to add stage directions to the script, as well as create costumes and props to...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Imaginary Creatures
Drama and movement are wonderful ways to cover story elements such as setting, character, and descriptive writing. Little ones listen to a poem about imaginary creatures. As they listen, they shape their bodies into what they think the...
Curated OER
Making Cents of Independence
Have your class explore the history of Texas using this comprehensive lesson! They read about Texas' march toward statehood, the Alamo, and more. There is a series of worksheets, graphic organizers, and a rubric which make this activity...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Creating Narrative
Plot, setting, characters, and conflict are common to both drama and narrative stories. Kids create narrated tableaus that show their understanding of the plot, setting, and conflict of a story they've recently read. The lesson plan...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Finding the Main Idea
You can mix almost any subject with an arts curriculum. Find out how to use drama to find the main idea of a literary text. You'll read a story, and then learners will make tableaus showing what happened, or what they think will happen...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Characters from a Box
Character analysis is a skill we use when we read literary works or want to write a good story. Learners will use drama to practice character analysis while focusing on the details that make characters act the way they do. They'll each...
Curated OER
Lots of Lessons from Aesop
Aesop’s Fables offer young learners an opportunity to study figurative language. After reviewing theme, simile, alliteration, and metaphor, model for your pupils how to identify examples of these devices in the fable. Class members then...
Friends of Fort McHenry
Sensory “Star Spangled Banner”
Music can help us to access memories and events in a meaningful way, and Francis Scott Key used specific words to convey what he had seen and felt when writing what would become America's national anthem. Help your class connect to...
Curated OER
Ready, Set, Action!
Fifth graders explore sequential dramatization through children's literature. For this drama lesson, 5th graders act out and record scenes using digital and video cameras. Students create a digital poster using pictures from their...
Smart Museum of Art
The Making of a Superhero
Thor, Loki, Iron Man, and Captain America. As part of their study of Greek and Roman gods and heroes, middle schoolers compare the characters in The Avengers to Greek counterparts. Individuals then create their own superhero,...
Curated OER
Making Cents of Independence
Learners explore the causes and major events of the Texan and American revolutions. Comparisons and contrasts are made between the two revolutionary experiences and applied to the symbolism used on the Texas State quarter.
Curated OER
Literary Terms: Take Me to the Theater!
Take your class to the theater! First graders will examine characters that actors play such a villians and heroes. Then participate in creating plays and performing in them. They will also research what it takes to create scenery, props...
Hawaiʻi State Department of Education
Reporting on History
Have fun with history and turn your kids into news reporters of the past. Each group will research, script, and deliver a news report on a historic event they are studying in class. They'll identify the main characters of the historical...
Curated OER
Mexico
Students complete a unit about the geography and culture of Mexico. They compare and contrast the weather of their own city and Mexico, read books about Mexico, count in Spanish, color in a flag of Mexico and the Mexican Coat of Arms,...
Curated OER
Create a Playbill!
Students examine the variety of elements for a written play and create a playbill. They read about and define literary elements on a worksheet, and participate in a dramatic reading. Each student then creates and publishes a playbill.
Curated OER
Dateline: 442 BC Antigone
Learners create and videotape a newscast about the events that take place in the play, Antigone. They perform scenes describing the main events, the main characters and their conflicts.
Curated OER
Impacting Indiana
Fourth graders become familiar with the culture and history of Indiana. For this James Whitcomb Riley lesson, 4th graders read poetry which includes the dialect of Indiana. Students analyze the poem. Groups memorize and...
Curated OER
Baseball Statistics
Students read "Casey at the Bat" and then use individual player statistics (found through internet research)to determine if their players could be considered baseball "heroes". They must justify their choices for "hero" by creating...
Curated OER
In the Poet's Shoes: Performing Poetry and Building Meaning
Young scholars explore poetry by completing a webquest in which they hear poets reading their own work. Later, they examine the dramatic impact of reading poetry out loud. Finally, they practice reading poetry aloud and performing.
Curated OER
Now You're Speaking My Language; Deciphering the Symbols of Early Civilizations
Young scholars explore early attempts at written language. In this early civilizations lesson, students investigate first attempts at written communication. Among the civilizations covered are Mayan, Greek, and Egyptian.
Curated OER
Press Release
Seventh graders write and publish a press release. In this news writing lesson, 7th graders analyze press releases from various online sources. Students write a press release about a major event in their school.
Curated OER
Singing Along with the American Revolutionary War
Fifth graders read Chapter 12 in their social studies book, as well as trade books, and encyclopedias. They identify major events that took place during the American Revolutionary War. Students create a song (groups of 4-5 people) using...