1. CURTAINS UP: DRAMA ACTIVITIES IN THE CLASSROOM<br />One bear is playing in the park<br />Children walk around the room while the teacher is saying the chant. When the teacher says STOP, each child asks the child closest to him/her: “What’s your name?” and the other child answers: “My name is…”<br />Role play<br />Prepare two sets of cards. Divide the class into two groups. Each group receives a card with, for example, an emotion word written in it.<br />Children have to go around the classroom and ask each other “How are you? Each child answers and acts according to what is written on his/her card.<br />Sing and act<br />Children sing the song “How are you?” (Super Simple Songs, CD 2, track 2) and perform the actions.<br />What‘s the topic? (Pair-work)<br />Divide the class into pairs according to the topic (e.g. animals, clothes, sports…) and the number of words you wish to introduce. Hang a picture/word card on the children’s back. The picture/word represents the roles each child will play. They can’t tell each other what their colleagues’ picture/word is. <br />XE.g. Child A (it is not important who starts) looks at Child B’s back and mimes what s/he sees in the card. Child B has to guess what s/he is by looking at her/his partner’s gestures (if the card shows a cat, Child A mimes a cat and Child B says “cat”).<br />327279024765Body numbers<br />Children use their bodies to represent the numbers. <br />This can also be done with the alphabet.<br />The alphabet dialogue<br />Children have a pair conversation using only the letters of the alphabet. This can also be done using only vowels/consonants, numbers or you can also ask the children to do it backwards.<br />One stick<br />Children sit in a circle. Put a stick in the middle of the circle and ask: “What can it be?” To support meaning, pick up the stick and imitate using it as, for example, a walking stick. Then, put the stick back to the middle and encourage children to come up with their own ideas. They are not expected to speak at this stage.<br />When ideas get exhausted, encourage children to remember the ways how the stick was used. Let them pantomime the actions and identify the name of the objects. Teach the words by making children repeat them after you. Accompany words with movements. You can also ask children to draw their objects as homework.<br />Mr. Wiggle and Mr. Waggle<br />Useful websites<br />www.eslflow.com<br />www.improvencyclopedia.org<br />www.teachingheart.net/readerstheater.htm<br />www.prel.org/eslstrategies/drama.html<br />www.creativedrama.com/theatre.htm<br />www.learningimprov.com/<br />www.ericdigests.org/1994/drama.htm<br />www.supersimplesongs.com/<br />www.dramaresource.com/<br />http://plays.about.com/od/activities/a/activitylist.htm<br />http://eslsite.com/resources/pages/Resources_and_Teaching_Ideas/<br />http://teachingenglishgames.com<br />Further Reading<br />Read, Carol, 500 Activities for the Primary Classroom, Macmillan Books for Teachers, 2007<br />