Educational Objective:Students will understand their expected behavior by demonstrating how they can use movement to have fun while also keeping the class rules.
Materials:
List of rules displayed in an easy-to-understand format
Opener/Class Rules:
Tell the students a little about yourself. Tell the students you will take five questions- anything they want to know about me, but nothing too personal and I’m allowed to not answer the question.
Ask the students: While you are in class, what are the rules that your teacher expects you to follow?
Explain that while you are here, we are going to be doing a lot of activities. That involves moving around, which is why we’ve moved the desks out of the way. But there are some things we need to remember. What are some of the rules you have in your class?
Sample rules to establish:
#1: Stay in the established space.
#2: Be quiet when the teacher is talking.
#3: Be respectful of the teacher and classmates.
#4: Have fun!
Tell these students that we need to remember the rules in order to have the best drama experience we can.
Step 1: Warm-Up
Tell the students we are going to warm up our bodies. Explain they need to keep their feet planted, shoulders square, and not make any noise.
One at a time, have the students shake a certain part of their body, getting all their wiggles out. Repeat with feet, legs, torso, arms, hands, and neck.
Tell them to remember this activity as we will do it when we start every lesson.
Step 2: Name Game
Explain the game: “We are going to do something we always do, which is say our names. But we are going to add some movement to it. So we will go around the circle and say our names, and when you say your name you will also do a movement. Then all of us will say the student’s name and do the movement back. This will also help me to learn your names.”
Explain that this should be a strong movement that everyone can do, and that you need to stay on your feet. Give an example and then give the students a moment to practice their movement on their own.
Go around the circle, having the students demonstrate their name and movement, then having everyone else repeat it.
Go about a third around the circle, then start at the beginning again and see if the whole class can remember the different movements for the students. Then at two –thirds, go back to the beginning again. When you’ve gone all the way around the circle, start from the beginning, then go back the other way.
Students love it if, as a new teacher, you will be able to repeat back to them their individual names by the end.
Step 3: Yes, Let’s!
Explain: “Now that we’ve done some things with movement, let’s use movement to pretend we’re doing some things that we already do in everyday life.”
Stand with your students in a big circle and decide which direction the game will travel.
Explain the rules. Begin the game by inviting them to complete an action, for example, “Let’s wobble like a jellyfish!”.
The rest of the circle energetically reply “Yes, let’s!” and all begin to move like a wobbly jellyfish (staying in one spot, of course).
Everyone continues the movement until the next person in the circle changes the action by saying “Let’s…” with the new action that they want the class to mimic.
The group replies “Yes, let’s!” and change their movement to match the new action.
Continue around until everyone has had a turn changing the action.
Use the “Yes, Let’s” activity to ask the kids to show you what it looks like when they follow the rules. For example, “Let’s show what it looks like when we listen to the teacher” or “Let’s show us being good friends.” This allows us to re-establish the ground rules.
Discuss: How did your imagination help you when you were trying to be something or someone else? How did your body help you become something else?
