We are learning about PLOT, and how we can build a story together. (And having a lot of fun with masks, costumes, and puppets!)

 Even Coach Hafke can't resist the puppets!

You have to know why a character does what it does before you can bring it to life. 2nd graders are illustrating and digging deep into characters from fairy tales. 

In their classroom students are studying fairy tales, and writing their own mixed up tale. In the drama room, we're taking this a step farther with a character analysis and acting out some mixed up fairy tales of our own.

They did a great job bringing the script "From the Elephant Pit" to life with creative costumes and staging. 2 Clothespins & a scarf makes a great set of wings!

We've been a little MELODRAMTIC this month, that's for sure. Heroes, Heroines, and Villians have been kidnapping & disguising all month. 

5th graders have been doing some wild playmaking with props, set, and costumes. 

It's "Not a Box" ! We turned cardboard boxes into everything we could imagine! Sometimes a simple prop can inspire much more. 

Have you ever discovered what the character's problem was in your book, and convince yourself that you could solve it? That's just what our first graders did! We paused after discovering the problem- and broke into teams to act out our solution. I think the class's ideas were even better than the books!

Every story has a have a problem- and boy did ours! We love playing "Luckily Unfortunately" as we tell a story around the circle- alternating between good things and bad things. Then we put our memory of the sequence to the test by acting it out after. 

We dug deep into the plot of "Snow White & Rose Red" by having all of the characters on a talk show- so we could get the scoop behind the scenes of the story. Actors had to infer and improvise their responses in front of their live studio audience. 

Every story has to have a solid problem, that becomes more complicated to solve. No one knows complications like our 4th graders. They created miserably complicated situations for themselves to act out of!

There's not much more I can teach them about Plot, Ms. Autrey really reviews it all in 5th grade. BUT- We can create scenes based on the MAJOR DRAMATIC QUESTION! Putting the characters needs and challenge in a question form builds suspense and drives the action of the story forward. 

This group of kinder nuggets really love dramatic play centers! Students have been making pizza, healing animals, flying planes, making sandwiches, and throwing birthday parties. I've loved watching how they make connections between the centers and play in the moment. 

1st Graders have made their ensemble strong through team challenges. We've also created our own body bubbles- and gone on a space around us adventure in the classroom.  

2nd grade got to do "The Thing in the Middle of the Room" and the drama survey for the first time! We've built up our ensemble, worked on plot- and got to complete our first specialist workshop. My group created their own shadow puppets to teach others about Monarch Butterfly lifecycles and migration.