So far with my first graders I’ve talked about
storytelling and audience participation, and I’ve talked about dialogue. This
week, I wanted to build on that and talk about movement/characterization. I one
of my elementary education classes we talked about using rhythm/movement, and I
thought that would be a fun way to teach about characters and the way they
might move.
It was a little bit of a funny coincidence,
but when I arrived to teach Carolyn informed me that she had been planning on
reading this very same book with her students the next week. She really liked
my lesson plan, though, and wanted me to move forward with it. It was a great Halloween-themed lesson.
I actually managed to get through all of my
lesson material this time! The students had a great time helping act out the
story with me and then portraying their “characters” at the end. Becky Wallin
was there observing for the day and I had her explore the room as “The Little
Old Lady” and the kids all portrayed their characters and tried to scare her.
They had a good time and they learned about how different types of characters
can move.
The
Little Old Lady Who Wasn’t Afraid of Anything:
1st
Grade Lesson Plan
National
Theatre Arts Standards:
CR.1.1.1.C: Identify ways in which gestures
and movement may be used to create or retell a story in guided drama
experiences (e.g., process drama, story drama, creative drama).
CR. 3.1.1.B: Identify similarities and
differences in sounds and movements in a guided drama experience (e.g., process
drama, story drama, creative drama).
PR.6.1.1: With prompting and support, use
movement and gestures to communicate emotions in a guided drama experience
(e.g., process drama, story drama, creative drama).
Lesson
Objective: Students will demonstrate an ability to use
movement to communicate characters by taking on roles in “The Little Old Lady
who Was Not Afraid of Anything” by Linda D. Williams.
Materials:
●
Space in the classroom for
students to move freely in
●
Drum
●
“The Little Old Lady Who Was Not
Afraid of Anything” by Linda D. Williams
●
Pictures of the characters in “The
Little Old Lady Who Was Not Afraid of Anything.” (one picture of a character
per student, may repeat)
Part
One: Introducing character:
Character Walk:
●
Gather the students around in a
circle and have them give you a sign that they are ready (perhaps have them put
their finger on their nose).
●
When students have completed the
sign telling you they are ready, give them clear instructions about the
activity
○
Before I explain our game, I want
to be sure that we are clear on a few things:
■
As we play and travel around the
room, be sure that your voice doesn’t go above this level (demonstrate
appropriate noise level).
■
You can interact with each other,
but you can’t push or shove each other.
■
Make sure that we are all being
school appropriate
○
Not yet, but when I say “go” we
are all going to walk around the room as a type of character in a story.
○
So, let’s have a practice round.
■
Everyone start to move around the
room like a witch, “go.”
●
How does your witch walk? Does she
walk fast or slow? IS she tall or short? Where is she going? Is she happy about
going there?
●
Call out different emotions you
want their character to incorporate into their walking: Happy, sad, angry,
scared, worried, jealous, etc.
●
Remind students that all the above
questions are answered through their body movements more than their voice.
●
Start adding a rhythm with a drum
and ask the students to adjust their witch walk to the rhythm of the drum.
Change your rhythm up a few times to reflect different feelings.
■
After a little while as witches or
whatever character you choose, congratulate them on doing so well and move onto
another round.
●
Some examples might be: A lion, a
crocodile, a bird, your favorite animal, a dinosaur, etc.
●
Transition/Discussion:
○
Gather students back together in a
semi-circle where they can all see you and have them give you a sign that they
are ready, (Hands on head)
○
How was a witch different than a
crocodile? What does this show us about their character?
○
What changed when you did
different emotions? Why?
○
We’re going to read a story now
that has lots of different and unique characters in it. Ask them to think about
how each one of the characters in this story sound, move, and feel.
Part 2:
Reading:
Before reading the book:
●
Explain that I need help with this
book. We are going to meet some characters in this book that might be kind of
different.
●
So we need to decide how they each
might sound and what they might look like when they are making their sound.
●
When we make sounds and movements
we have to make sure that we only do them when the book tells us to make the
sounds.
●
For example, in this book we have
two shoes that go clomp clomp. How would we show with our body the shoes going
clomp clomp? Now can we say clomp clomp as we do it. Just twice
Questions to ask throughout:
●
How do you think the shoes are
feeling?
●
How is the little old lady
feeling?
●
(when everything is at the door)
What do you think they want?
●
How do the characters feel now?
How is that different from the beginning of the book?
During Reading:
●
As sounds come up in the book,
have the class make the sounds with their bodies or mouths
●
CLOMP, CLOMP: Stomping feet
●
WIGGLE, WIGGLE: Wiggle while
sitting just pants- hands to self.
●
SHAKE, SHAKE: What’s the
difference between wiggle and shake? Shake torso.
●
CLAP, CLAP: well… Clap
●
NOD, NOD: also… nod
●
BOO, BOO: How would a pumpkin say
boo?
Transition:
●
Ok now that we know all about this
story and it’s characters. When Shannon is ready for you we are going to become
the characters in this book.
Part 3:
Character walk about- 15 mins
●
Have them go to their own space
and everyone embodies each character.
●
When ready, have them walk around
as each character as an entire class.
○
For example “can EVERYONE show me
how the boots might walk around, what would they sound like? Etc.
●
Gather their attention again:
○
Now we are going to act the story
out!
○
Give each student a piece of paper
with one of the “characters” from the book on it.That character is the one that
student is going to “play.”
○
Designate a path that the old
woman could walk in the classroom. Divide class into enough groups to make all
of the sounds and place the groups at specific spots along the path.
■
Make sure students know to be
still and quiet until the old lady walks by. They’re hiding!
●
Teacher in role:
○
The teacher as the old lady walks
down the path while keeping rhythm with the drum (or have a kid keep rhythm if
possible). As the teacher approaches a group they use the lines from the book
and the movements established in the previous activity.
○
At the end, as a collaboration
activity have each group become part of the same scarecrow.
■
To help them build the scarecrow
you could ask:
What
order should we put the pieces in to put or scarecrow together? (them give them
a couple of choices, or let them really decide for themselves).
Have
the groups stand in that order in the room. Then ask:
What
is the scarecrow’s job? Do you remember from the story? Can you show me how our
scarecrow scares off crows?
●
Conclusion/Reflection:
○
Have the students sit on the floor
together again.
■
How was this different then acting
out the movements in your seat or by yourself?
■
Did the rhythm make it easier or
harder to be scary?
■
What did it feel like to make the
scarecrow at the end?
