Dreading drama.

I was booked to teach an early primary class and I was sort of dreading it.  It was on a day when they usually have drama and some of them really look forward to it but my drama resources were getting a little thin...  I was dreading having to skip it or repeat some of my old lessons with a new spin.

I was elbow deep in the dinner dishes when my 3 year old daughter walked up and tried to hand me a pair of scissors and something she printed out from the NickJr website.  It was from one of those flash games that keep her entertained while we are all busy doing adult things.

It was an Olivia cutout (from the children's show of the same name) with a ball gown and tiara to cut out and dress her up with.  I sent her to my husband who dutifully cut it out and assembled it for her and she was happy.  5 minutes later she turned up with it again and I thought "Oh no, she's going to keep printing out the same thing, make us cut them out and stick the dress on until she's got an army of Olivias.  I'm going to have to wake up tomorrow and go out and get a new printer cartridge." 

"Daddy will cut it out for you".

Again my husband dutifully cut it out for her, assembled it and stuck on the dress and tiara.  The third time she just went straight to my husband who again picked up the scissors.  Then something unexpected happened.  He said "Oh wow bubby!  Pirate Olivia!  AAAAArrrrrggghhhh me maties!"

Wait... What?

I dripped dishwater and soapsuds over into the lounge room and sure enough, there was Olivia in a ballgown, Olivia in a tutu and now Olivia in a pirate outfit.  Over the next hour she also got Olivia in a geisha outfit, a space suit complete with bubble helmet, a painters outfit complete with beret and an Egyptian pharoah costume.

What I didn't realise is that it also prints out backdrops like a stage, a desert, the beach with a sailing ship and others as well as other fun things to go along with it like a dog, a camel, a treasure chest, a piano and many others..

Costumes?  Props?  Stages? That sounds an awful lot like there's a drama lesson in there somewhere!

http://www.nickjr.com/kids-games/oliv-dressup-with-olivia.html

Wow, classroom resources can appear when you least expect it!  What a marvellous idea!

I printed out an Olivia with costume, covered Olivia with a blank piece of paper, scanned it and had my husband add in a "person" outline in Olivia's place so the students could draw in their own actors.

I printed out all of the stages, and most of the props until...  well..  I wasn't wrong about going to buy a new printer cartridge in the morning!

Most surprisingly the kids picked up a lot more about drama than I had expected them to.  I got asked all sorts of questions I should have prepared myself for!

"What's the person called who looks after all the costumes?"
"Who moves all the things on the stage when it changes?"

and the like.  I also got some great comments like

"Wow, real people must have to change clothes really fast!"
"Actors need to know a lot of stuff besides the words."

as examples.

If you do this I do recommend taking in a few of the Olivias.  It helped them make some great leaps between what happens on TV or the stage and Drama giving them that direct example.

Regards,

Mel.