Students to discuss:

• where people get their ideas from
• whether they have ever invented a character before
• their favourite animal.

Students to:

• role play their favourite animal, imagining it was like Bear and Chook and could walk, talk and make friendships
• create a drawing or painting of their character.

This lesson is the first in the ‘Creating a play’ sequence. If you intend to use the whole sequence of lessons then the idea of creating a short play should be introduced to students as part of the ‘Before’ activity for this lesson. The completed plays will need to be presented to an audience outside the classroom so you may need to make preparations for a live performance at assembly or plan to produce short videos for publishing on the school intranet.

Students will:

• listen to Emma and Lisa talk about how they take ideas from their real life and put it into their creations
• use their knowledge of a real animal to create a character for their play, engaging with the process of characterisation and creative thinking.

Inspiration and resources for teaching drama can be found on the following websites:

• The dramatic elements page on 'The Drama Teacher'
• Drama strategies page on 'Drama Resource'
• How to Teach Drama: Lesson Plans, Drama Games, Improvisation, and Monologues
• Top 10 Classroom Management tips for Drama Teachers

Students will continue to refer back to their drawing or painting from this lesson. Keep them safe in a work folder or perhaps use this as an opportunity to integrate digital technology by having students scan or photograph their work and save it.

Completing this activity affords students the opportunity to:

• think imaginatively and creatively about familiar topics, ideas and texts when responding to and composing texts (EN1-10C)
• respond to and compose a range of texts about familiar aspects of the world and their own experiences (EN1-11D)
• make artworks in a particular way about experiences of real and imaginary things (VAS1.1)
• convey story, depict events and express feelings by using the elements of drama and the expressive skills of movement and voice (DRAS1.2).