Cool Theater for Cool Kidz

Day 1: June 11th, 2025

Our class had a great first day! We got to know each other by introducing ourselves and making name posters, which are now hung up on our classroom door. We also established our classroom rules, and learned some of our daily theater warm-ups. Finally, we practiced showing emotions using only our body language.

Day 2: June 12th, 2025

Today, we played more theater games, such as "Elephant Airplane" and "Name Game". We also played "What Are You Doing?", where actors get to act out different animals for an audience. Our class showed a lot of creativity with the ways that we acted out these silly parts.

We also auditioned for a part for the fairy tale plays we will be doing. Parts will be received and scripts will be taken home tomorrow! Everyone did an awesome job with their first time reading lines for many different possible roles. I know they will be excited to learn what parts they got!

Day 3: June 13th, 2025

Today, the actors and actresses received their roles! We did a read-through of each play, focusing on reading the lines with emotion. We also continued to practice body language by playing charades.

Everyone has been given a role for one of two plays, as well as a script to practice their lines. Scripts were sent home with the actors and actresses today for them to practice. Please take care of them, and have your child bring their script to each day of class moving forward!

I would like everyone to try their best to memorize their lines by Monday, June 23rd (or earlier, which is even better!). This is the week of open house, which is performance day. It might sound intimidating, but it is very doable!

(Narrators are not expected to memorize all of their lines. However, if they want to try to do so, that is awesome!)

Memorization Guide:

1. Start by memorizing one line. Then, stop and do something else. 

2. Come back in ~30 minutes. Rehearse your one memorized line, and then memorize one more. Then stop, and come back later.

3. Practice your two memorized lines, and add in a third! 

4. Repeat this process as needed.

General Tips for Memorizing: 

• Practice a line at a time. Do not attempt to memorize everything all at once. 

• Practice in short, ~10-minute bursts. Then take a break. It does not need to take over your life.

• Practicing before bed is a great habit. The memory is retained even better when you do this.

• Utilize the downtime in your day. The more repetition, the better!

I understand that this is the first time being in a play for almost everyone, so if complete memorization doesn't happen, reading from a script or having lines fed to them onstage will be an option.

Please remember that students will need to bring a lunch to school for our extended day trip to Big Marine Park on Wednesday, June 18th. 

Have a great weekend, everyone!

Day 4: June 16th, 2025

Today, we learned a new theater game called "Kitty Wants a Corner". We also began practicing our plays! We began "blocking", which means we started learning where to go on stage as we act. I can tell that many of us have already begun practicing our lines, which is awesome. The kids worked very hard at staying focused and following along until it was their turn to speak or come onstage.

Day 5: June 17th, 2025

Today, we acted using finger puppets, which are simply eyes worn on your hand. We practiced different ways of making the puppet speak, making it show different emotions, and we had fun acting out our plays using them! The actors and actresses were allowed to keep these and take them home, so they can have fun making their own shows at home now.

Our extended day trip to Big Marine Park is tomorrow. Our field trip bus will be departing from school at 8:45 am, and our class will be at the park from 10 am - 1:20 pm. Pickup will be at 2:30 pm, just for this extended day.

Please make sure to have your child bring a lunch tomorrow! I will not have extras, so it's very important that everyone brings their own for lunch time. Water bottles and sunscreen will also be helpful! It should be a lot of fun.

Day 5: June 18th, 2025

Our class had a very fun time playing at Big Marine Park! We also went to the beach and looked for seashells, and had a picnic lunch outside. It was a good day off from all of our hard work at practicing our shows.

Day 6: June 20th, 2025

Today, we continued to practice creating new scenes with our imagination. We also created our own hand puppets! These will stay at school over the weekend so we can use them next week, and then they will be taken home.

Day 7: June 23rd, 2025

Today, we practiced our plays without our scripts, as well as the addition of props. Our class did awesome with their memorization! Now we can focus on acting, pronouncing our words, and keeping up the pace of the play.

Unfortunately, I don't have specific costumes for the kids to wear on Thursday. Our costumes for Thursday evening will be your child's "fancy" clothes. Your child can dress up in their nicest clothes for their performance. If I have a specific color I would like him or her to wear, then I have already contacted you. If I did not contact you, then any dressy clothes will look great for the show! Just please make sure there are no graphics or words on the clothing.

We will be performing for some of the other project SEEK classes on Thursday, June 26th and Friday, June 27th, so your child can wear their fancy clothes to school on these days as well if they would like, though it is not essential.

Day 8: June 24th, 2025

Today, we continued to practice our plays. We worked extra hard on speaking right after our cue lines, in order to keep the play moving without any pauses. We all showed great improvement at this during our second run through! 

(My previous update said that we're performing for other classes on Wednesday. This was a mistake, sorry about that. I have corrected that post.)

Day 9: June 25th, 2025

Today, we put the finishing touches on our play before our big performance tomorrow! We also worked hard at making beautiful backgrounds for our respective plays. 

I think you will really enjoy watching what they have been working so hard on these past few weeks. Remember, performers are called at 5:15 pm at North Branch Middle School for open house tomorrow, June 26th, so that we may begin our plays at 5:30 pm. We will meet in our classroom, which is where we will be performing. If your child doesn't already have a specific costume here at school, they can dress nicely for their part. Please look forward to it!

Day 10: June 26th, 2025

Today, our class did an amazing job with our very first performance for an audience of other Project SEEK kids! Some were nervous at first, but everyone ended up having a lot of fun once the shows began. I think they really enjoyed having all of their hard work pay off with this big audience laughing and responding to their shows.

I'm sure that tonight's shows will be even better! Performers are called at 5:15 pm at North Branch Middle School for open house today, June 26th, so that we may begin our plays at 5:30 pm. We will meet in our classroom, which is where we will be performing. If your child doesn't already have a specific costume here at school, they can dress nicely for their part. See you then!

Last Day! June 27th, 2025

We had a very fun last day of performances. We did our shows twice for two different audiences of Project SEEK classes! We also played outside at the end of the day to celebrate all of our hard work.

There were some tears during this last day, as some of us were very sad to say goodbye to our friends. I will certainly miss this class too, and it really was a great three weeks. Everyone showed meaningful growth in their performance abilities, and I had a lot of fun getting to know them and giving them an opportunity to try new things through acting.

I hope our Cool Theater class was nothing but a positive experience for your child! Have an awesome rest of your summer, everyone!