@The Arts Unit Creative Classes

Train adventures

Develop expressive skills through familiar characters and movement

Student drama resource developed by The Arts Unit

Kindergarten, Year 1 and Year 2 drama

What will I learn?

You will:

  • explore elements of drama to create characters

  • develop expressive skills through movement and voice

  • perform familiar characters

  • respond imaginatively.

Before you begin

All aboard! I hope you have lots of energy today and are ready to discover more about drama and how to express yourself as a character!

You'll need:

  • space to move around safely

  • paper, pencils

  • camera or phone.

Cartoon of children smiling while riding in a golden steam train.

  1. Watch

Verbal instructions – Task 1

Duration: 00:32

Task 1

Watch the video 'Train Ride' by Greystanes Public School from the 2018 State Drama Festival.

State Drama Festival 2018 – Train Ride

Greystanes Public SchoolDuration: 04:50

2. Explore and create

Task 2

Explore the 5 characters by looking at the video and these images below.

Create each character using your body and face.

Remember to think about:

  • how they stand

  • what their face looks like

  • how they move

  • how they sound.

Tip: Looking in a mirror can help you to see how you change your body as each character.

Ask someone to take a photo of you as each character to share with your teacher.

Smiling princess in pink dress with a crown, holding a blue bird

Happy princess

Cranky-faced train conductor pointing in a bossy manner.

Cranky train conductor

Strong pirate standing with hands on his hips with a parrot on his shoulder. He wears a red coat and pirate hat and has a pegleg.

Strong pirate

Curious gorilla with its arms and legs on the ground. Its eyes are open wide.

Curious gorilla

Happy clown dancing with his hands in the air. Clown has a wig, red nose and patterned outfit.

Crazy clown

Photo credit: Anna Warr

Task 3

Now we are going to bring each of the characters to life!

Move around the room acting like each character and wave or say hello to someone as each character.

Think carefully about how the princess or pirate would wave hello!

Task 4

Choose your favourite character and act like they did in the play.

Remember what each character was doing in the video:

  • the princess was playing a tambourine

  • the pirate was singing

  • the gorilla was dancing

  • the clown was doing tricks

  • the train conductor was being cranky.

If you would like to pretend to be more than one, that's great!

3. Respond

Task 5

In the performance, the students on the train created an ending for the story.

Using your imagination come up with a different ending to the story for the characters.

Share your ending with someone else.

Task 6

Draw a picture of one of the characters and write a sentence about where they are going on their train.

For example: The clown was going on the train to the circus.

A student drawing of a clown with a train in the background. The clown has a red nose, curly hair and their yellow clown costume has three blue buttons down the middle. e.

4. Extension activities

Extension task

Watch and listen to 'The Train Ride' story below, which the 2018 State Drama Festival performance was based on.

Find a friend and sit in front of a window, pretending you are on a train. Talk to each other about the different things you can see out of your train window.

Draw a picture of some of the things you saw out of the window on your pretend train ride.

The Train Ride

Duration: 03:18

Well done!

You were a fantastic train adventurer!

We hope you enjoyed your train ride.

You have completed this @The Arts Unit Creative Class.

Cartoon of a train worker smiling while giving a 'thumbs up!'. They are wearing a train hat, a scarf and overalls.

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Third-party content attributions


  • State Drama Festival images, 2018, photographer: Anna Warr.