Arts Bridge: Third Visit! (October 6th)

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?