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Explore the various types of school drama theatres, including Proscenium, Black Box, Thrust Stage, In-the-Round, Outdoor Theatre, and Amphitheatre. Each type offers unique advantages and settings for educational performances.

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Additional Resources on Drama Techniques

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Additional Resources on Drama Techniques

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Find more information and tutorials on using drama techniques like Mantle of the Expert and hot-seating in the classroom at DramaResource.com.

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Drama Strategies

Drama strategies - also known as drama techniques or drama conventions - are the everyday tools of the drama teacher. They help to develop enquiry skills, to encourage negotiation, understanding and creativity. They can enhance performance skills such as character development and storytelling and be used across the curriculum to actively involve students in their own learning.

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Drama Strategies Drama strategies - also known as drama techniques or drama conventions - are the everyday tools of the drama teacher. They help to develop enquiry skills, to encourage negotiation, understanding and creativity. They can enhance performance skills such as character development and storytelling and be used across the curriculum to actively involve students in their own learning.

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Watch a recorded performance of 'Hamlet' and hold a classroom discussion on its themes, characters, and language.

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Explore a virtual tour of the Globe Theatre with your students, learning about its rich history and significance in the world of drama.

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Drama Toolkit: Script Templates and Storyboards

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Drama Toolkit: Script Templates and Storyboards

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Downloadable toolkit including templates for creating scripts, developing character profiles, and planning storyboards for drama sessions.

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Gain insights from an experienced drama teacher who discusses the importance of creativity in education and shares tips for new teachers starting out in drama education.

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Spotlight on Drama Technique: Forum Theatre

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Spotlight on Drama Technique: Forum Theatre

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Forum Theatre involves students acting out a scene with solutions to social issues. This technique allows exploration of different perspectives and encourages critical thinking and empathy.

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Start with a circle and pass an imaginary energy ball around, changing its shape and size. Encourage students to use movement and sound to express how the energy feels.

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Create a scene where students role-play as customers and waitstaff in a restaurant. Focus on using polite language and expressions, providing them with key vocabulary and phrases.

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Sample Lesson Plan: Improvisation Skills

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Sample Lesson Plan: Improvisation Skills

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This lesson focuses on developing improvisation skills through exercises such as 'Yes, and...' and quick-thinking scenarios. Objectives include enhancing creativity, encouraging teamwork, and boosting confidence.

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Collaborative Drama Projects and Initiatives

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Collaborative Drama Projects and Initiatives

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The Drama Online Library offers insights into collaborative drama projects and guides for involving different communities.

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Subscription Required

The content on this page is not part of your subscription. To see previews of the content, uncheck the box above. Contact your library or administrator to find out more about what your institution has access to.

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Subscription Required The content on this page is not part of your subscription. To see previews of the content, uncheck the box above. Contact your library or administrator to find out more about what your institution has access to.

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Challenges and Solutions in Teaching Drama

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Challenges and Solutions in Teaching Drama

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TES (Times Educational Supplement) shares articles and discussions on overcoming common challenges faced by drama teachers.

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End of Term Drama Summer Challenge | Teaching Resources

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Ideal for the last lesson of term! Students to apply all they have learnt throughout the year in a series of fun, fast, group challenges where they devise a short pi

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Visit TeachThought for comprehensive guides and tips on assessment practices specifically geared towards educational settings.

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by Judy Willis M.D., M.Ed., radteach.com & Terry Heick

Most teachers and current textbooks offer varied approaches to the material to be learned so the teaching can be brain-compatible with the varied student learning styles.

It is only logical that respect for these individual learning styles be incorporated into assessment forms and out-of-the-box assessment strategies teachers should know and use when appropriate. For example, teachers responsive to interpersonal learning styles find cooperative group work a way to pull in those learners as well to give students with artistic, computer, dramatic, or organizational skills the opportunities to enter the learning experience through their strengths and interests

It follows that assessments should also provide opportunities for each student's unique learning style to access his or her highest performance success level. A variety of assessment forms and some student choice can bring students to the assessment with less anxiety and increase the positive learning experience as well as provide the opportunity for them to demonstrate what they know (as opposed to what they don't know).

Examples include:
Option 1: Open-Book & Take-Home Tests
This one is fairly straightforward-allowing students to use resources to create responses to assessment questions. For obvious reasons, many teachers shy away from open-book tests: The answers are all 'right there' in the book and it can seem to teach students to use books instead of their brains.

However, open-book tests can function as a powerful scaffold for more challenging assessment forms, providing a starting point for assessment of standard mastery (i.e., what they can do with the 'answers' at their fingertips).

See also Types Of Assessment Of Learning

More importantly, it can allow for higher-level assessment. Books and other digital resources at home give them access to lower-level information (stuff they can Google or ask a friend), but not the higher-level thinking that requires them to synthesize disparate facts and perspectives to construct new knowledge.

This is where the shift of assessment of learning to assessment for learning can begin.
Option 2: Student-Made Tests
These are assessments that they prepare and the teacher can alter them so the answers are not just memorized. For example, in history after studying the different agricultural products in the northern and southern colonies, the self-test questions a student writes might be:

What were the crops from the colonies in the north and from the south?

How are the climates, land, and water supply different in one northern city and one southern city?

When the teacher rewrites the question it could prompt more analysis and executive function connections if it is rephrased: "Give an example of how the climate, water supply, and soil influenced the agricultural products in one northern and one southern city during the Colonial Era." In this example, the teacher knows that the student has reviewed the facts necessary to make the higher-level connection and analysis and therefore has the tools for successful higher-level thinking.

How My Students Create And Study For Their Own Exams
This is the process I use for student-created math final exams in my classroom. Your process may differ depending on grade level, content area, or other local concerns.

1. I give the structure for the tests students are required to create such as, "Include 15 calculations and 5-word problems with 2 from each of the 10 subsections of the chapter"

2. I make a copy of each test and change the numbers, but not the structure of the equations. They knew I would do this and that the numbers will be different than the ones they used

3. Students are assigned homework to make practice tests on their own, using the template of the test they created and changing the numbers themselves

4. In class, for further review, students exchange their practice tests with partners for study and to the confirm accuracy of their answers (as I don't have an answer key to all of their self-created tests)

Option 3: Project-Based Learning!
Projects (pre-approved by the teacher) that demonstrate comprehension or mastery of the material covered in the unit can be ideal assessments.

They can become the packaging that connects the newly learned patterns of knowledge to related, previously stored knowledge. To see if the project assessment achieves this end, consider the questions:

Does this assessment examine understanding and not just rote memory?

Is the student called upon to think during the creation of the project?

These projects can include skits, posters, oral presentations, debates, papers, or demonstrations that assess understanding apart from rote knowledge. For some units, the projects can be done in pairs or groups, as long as there is a means of assessing each individual student's participation in the final product. This could be through verbal interviews with students individually after the completion or presentation of the project.

See also The Real Problem With Multiple-Choice Questions

A project example for a unit of study of modern Europe would have students select a country and simulate travel to that country including finding out how to get passports and visas, what the passport oath is, what clothing to bring, what hotels are near the important historic or cultural places they plan to visit, the money exchange rate, a budget, location of cities to visit along their travel route through their country, useful phrases to know in that language, cultural behaviors appropriate to that country, items they might expect to find on menus.

They might also create a menu, a travelogue, cook a meal, or prepare a 'scrapbook' with pictures from the Internet and descriptions of their responses to 'visits' they made to these places.

If standardized testing is of critical importance, each unit can include a test using the form they will experience during state testing. However, letting them know that their grade will be calculated weighting equal or even greater percentage on the more authentic assessment will reduce test anxiety and show them that higher level thinking and reasoning are valued more than rote memory in the big picture, but that they must be prepared to be successful on all types of assessments.
Option 4: Written Response-Or Rather, The Pre-Writing
I almost didn't include this one because it's one teachers have used for eons-the short answer, the open-response, the essay, etc. These forms can also be guilty of assessing the students' literacy skills and use of the writing process as much as they do mastery of standards.

But the writing process imposes a cognitive load on students few other assessment strategies and forms are able. It requires students to grasp a purpose and an audience, pre-write their ideas, craft a compelling argument that demonstrates a position, and then revise their writing for power and clarity.

That's a lot of steps for growing thinkers who can often get lost in the steps between the prompt and handing it in.

So for struggling writers-or even the 'distinguished' ones-grade the pre-writing. Accept concept maps, diagrams, charts, and other forms of pre-writing as at least preliminary evidence of understanding. This part can even be done on an exit slip on the way out of class and returned the new day with a green light ( go for it), yellow light ( with this change, you can proceed), or red light ( we need to talk) feedback systems.
Option 5: Student-Created Questions As Assessment
The kinds of questions students ask about a topic, standard, or idea can be more illuminating than a dozen traditional multiple-choice questions (and that's the point of assessment strategies -to provide data to revise planned instruction, yes?)

So, take a topic-government for example. Which questions imply understanding, and which do not?

What is government? (Nope.)

What kind of government do we have? (Buzz. Try again.)

Why do we need government? (better, but need more here.)

What are the strengths and weaknesses of various forms of government? (Now we're talking.)

Historically, what government forms are the most enduring, and why? (A good one too.)

Given current cultural trends, what kind of governments might we expect to see 200 hundred years from now? (Eureka! Understanding!)
5 Out-Of-The Box Assessment Strategies Every Teacher Should Know; image attribution flickr user vancouverfilmschool

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5 Out-Of-The Box Assessment Strategies Every Teacher Should Know

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by Judy Willis M.D., M.Ed., radteach.com & Terry Heick Most teachers and current textbooks offer varied approaches to the material to be learned so the teaching can be brain-compatible with the varied student learning styles. It is only logical that respect for these individual learning styles be incorporated into assessment forms and out-of-the-box assessment strategies teachers should know and use when appropriate.

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Explore resources for effective classroom management at Edutopia, offering valuable insights and strategies for educators.

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When students explore content using dramatic scripts, they can make gains in reading fluency and comprehension, while having fun.

These days, many teachers struggle when their tried-and-true pedagogy, developed and refined over years of practice, doesn't translate to distance learning. Many are embracing the disruption brought about by online learning to familiarize themselves with flexible methodologies that work well in that context, including arts integration strategies. Those that borrow from the dramatic arts, such as readers theater and teacher in role, can be particularly effective.

These engaging approaches have been around a long time, and they encourage interaction and collaboration and make content accessible for multiple levels of learners, from emerging readers through high school seniors. They can also inject a much-needed dose of fun into online lessons.

Student Engagement With Readers Theater

Actors/readers use scripts in presentation, and memorization is not prioritized.

Actors/readers are stationary and do not use theatrical devices (e.g., no staging, scenery, props, lighting, or costumes).

Nuances of the story are communicated primarily through vocal expression.

Scripts are prepublished, widely available, and intended for repetitive use.

Readers theater includes the following elements:

By following a script, students are in a constant state of decoding, and as members of an interdependent ensemble, they are responsible for following their script closely and anticipating their own speaking role, thus increasing focus and engagement.

Readers theater scripts are designed to be read and reread multiple times, making their use in the online classroom particularly beneficial for second language learners or other students working on decoding and fluency. Repetition increases retention for all student participants.

In many ways, readers theater is an ideal arts integration distance learning strategy because it's not constrained by the trappings of a typical theater performance (props, costumes, memorization, and the like), and many students' home learning space can become a stage.

For example, I recently worked with the teachers of rising first graders who were in virtual summer school; there were serious concerns that for these students, the last months of kindergarten had been so challenging that they were losing interest in or even regressing in reading. We created a short readers theater script that delivered content about the happy face spider ( Theridion grallator, native to Hawaii). The script included a solo speaking line for each student, opportunities for gestures that physicalized their understanding and were visible from the cameras, and humor.

Over the course of several weeks, students performed the script multiple times, building retention of the content and reading fluency. A final Zoom performance demonstrated the students' advances in their reading levels, as well as their joy and confidence in what they had learned.

The literacy benefits of readers theater are many: Students read more quickly and with greater fluency, and demonstrate greater reading comprehension. There are also indicators that students who participate show increased focus and motivation in school, a greater sense of purpose in their learning, a more positive attitude toward reading, and increased confidence-all of which translate to happier students and more joyful learning environments.

One of the greatest strengths of readers theater as an online teaching strategy is its adaptability. Chances are, no matter what you're teaching and at what level, there's a script available; shared online teacher resources often include scripts and templates. A quick internet search for "readers theater scripts" and a grade level will yield free resources, too. Many educational publishers also offer scripts (see this guide).

For teachers looking to take readers theater to the next level, writing their own scripts is an option. By authoring a script, a teacher can tailor a differentiated line for each student participant, crafted to meet their reading level or to include sight words. Reluctant readers can be paired with a partner to build confidence and fluency, and the content of a script can be adapted as student understanding grows. Students can also be taught to write their own scripts and thereby build their writing skills.

Educators Invite Participation by Teaching in Role

Teacher in role is a similarly engaging instructional strategy that has long been used in educational theater but is becoming mainstream. With in-role teaching, a teacher/facilitator assumes the role of a character in a story or of an expert on a given subject.

Students research a story or subject and are invited to participate in a conversation with the teacher/facilitator, asking questions born of their research. While participating in the conversation with their teacher/facilitator, students are also placed in-role as researchers, thus upping their investment in the drama.

Teachers can enhance the online learning experience by using a simple prop or costume if they like, but the primary objective is to remain faithful to their role and while in conversation with students.

An example: Eighth-grade students are immersed in a unit on the American Civil War; they assume the role of historians invited to a function where they hear a talk given by Gertie, Harriet Tubman's adopted daughter, played by the teacher. She shares a firsthand account of her mother's life, and the historians ask her questions.

When you deliver instruction in a novel way, as with readers theater and teaching in role, students can become more engaged and experience an esprit de corps: Likely they will be proud that they collaborated to understand an idea or concept through the entertaining conversation, dialogue, and interviewing.

As with most new skills, the more you live with these integration strategies, the more a part of you they become. In the end, whether you decide to try readers theater or teaching in role, the goals are the same: catching the attention of your online learners and making your life as a teacher more joyful.

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Strategies From the Dramatic Arts Can Enhance Student Engagement

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When students explore content using dramatic scripts, they can make gains in reading fluency and comprehension, while having fun. These days, many teachers struggle when their tried-and-true pedagogy, developed and refined over years of practice, doesn't translate to distance learning.

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Organize school exchange programs, engage communities through theatre projects, conduct themed drama weeks integrating other subjects, and utilize digital platforms for online collaboration.

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Common Challenges and Solutions in Drama

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Common Challenges and Solutions in Drama

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Engage students by incorporating diverse activities, use puppet shows for shy students, and manage large classes by breaking them into smaller groups. Overcome resource limitations with creative use of available materials.

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Develop rubrics for creativity, participation, and communication. Use checklists for skill observations, reflective journals for student self-reflection, and encourage peer feedback sessions.

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Establish clear rules, such as respecting space and listening. Rotate roles regularly to keep engagement high. Use non-verbal signals like hand gestures for smooth transitions and implement behavioral cues like clapping or songs.

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Elements of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Rehearsal Room Approach

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Elements of the Royal Shakespeare Company's Rehearsal Room Approach

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The Rehearsal Room Approach by the Royal Shakespeare Company includes key elements such as:
1. **Active Exploration:** Students engage with texts through performance, using movement, sound, and gestures to explore meanings.
2. **Character Analysis:** Actors and students dissect characters to understand motivations and relationships.
3. **Collaboration:** Encourages teamwork and communication, essential in understanding the dynamics of a play.
4. **Creative Interpretations:** Students are prompted to think creatively in presenting scenes, exploring alternative outcomes and viewpoints.
5. **Reflective Discussion:** Post-performance discussions to encourage reflection on insights and experiences.

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Rehearsal Room Approach by Royal Shakespeare Company

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Rehearsal Room Approach by Royal Shakespeare Company

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Discover the Royal Shakespeare Company's 'Rehearsal Room Approach,' which emphasizes the use of rehearsal techniques in classrooms to enhance the understanding of Shakespeare's works. This approach involves engaging students actively with performance-based activities, using methods actors utilize during rehearsals to deepen comprehension and enjoyment of the texts.

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We use the same techniques to teach Shakespeare that RSC actors use in the rehearsal room

What are rehearsal room approaches to Shakespeare?

There are direct parallels between teaching and learning in the classroom and the way that plays are developed in the theatre. The process of rehearsing a play is collaborative. As a group, the actors and director will make choices about the interpretation of plot, characters, themes and language of the play. They also explore the key themes and dilemmas that are present in the text.

Rehearsal room approaches focus on:

Establishing the world in which the story is taking place

Telling the story

Discovering the characters

Exploring the language

Read example classroom activities
How will rehearsal room approaches benefit my students?

Rehearsal room approaches can help students of all ages and abilities unlock Shakespeare's language.

This way of working can produce sophisticated analytical responses, both verbal and written, challenging the most able learners as well as motivating the most reluctant.

We've found that using techniques from our rehearsal room has many other remarkable results:

Improved experiences of, and opinions about, Shakespeare

Directly impacts on attitudes to learning and school in general

Improves student confidence

Develops language ability

Helps young people to express themselves and their ideas more clearly

What's the evidence?

In the most comprehensive research study of its kind, the Royal Shakespeare Company, Tate and the University of Nottingham have joined together to examine the benefits of taking arts and education seriously.
Find out about #TimeToListen
Following work undertaken by The University of Warwick, we now have robust research that indicates the positive impact our way of working with Shakespeare has on young people, their teachers, schools and wider community.

The findings show that rehearsal room approaches to studying Shakespeare can significantly improve student language skills and acquisition. In particular, some of the schools surveyed reported increased SATs and GCSE English scores.
Read the RSC Schools Survey Final Report
You can also explore our series of classroom case studies. A group of teachers were asked to record the changes that happened in their classrooms as a result of their work with the RSC and their regional theatre.

You will find reports of improvements in pupil progress and attainment, examples of how teachers supported colleagues to adopt new approaches to teaching Shakespeare and discoveries about the wider impact of our work on parents and the local community.
Read Classroom Case Studies
How can my students experience rehearsal room approaches?

Below are all the ways in which teachers and young people can work on Shakespeare using rehearsal room approaches.

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RSC Education | Rehearsal Room Approaches to Shakespeare | Royal Shakespeare Company

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We use the same techniques to teach Shakespeare that RSC actors use in the rehearsal room There are direct parallels between teaching and learning in the classroom and the way that plays are developed in the theatre. The process of rehearsing a play is collaborative.

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The Educational Theatre Association: Advocacy and Resources

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The Educational Theatre Association: Advocacy and Resources

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The Educational Theatre Association offers a wealth of resources for teachers. Explore their insights into drama advocacy, teaching standards, and professional growth opportunities.

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Educational Theatre Association (EdTA) members are actively involved in more than 5,000 schools and communities. We have recognized and honored more than 2.5

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Drama Education Resources from The Drama Teacher Chronicles

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Drama Education Resources from The Drama Teacher Chronicles

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The Drama Teacher Chronicles provides blog articles, lesson plans, and teaching strategies essential for drama educators. Visit their website to access a wide range of resources.

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Theatrefolk - The Drama Teacher Resource Company

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Theatrefolk - The Drama Teacher Resource Company

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Exploring Drama in Education: Insights from the National Theatre

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Exploring Drama in Education: Insights from the National Theatre

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Explore valuable educational resources and teaching guides from the National Theatre in the UK. Visit their website for high-quality content designed to enhance drama education.

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Bring drama to life in your school with National Theatre Learning's nationwide programmes, including teacher CPD, discounted tickets and online resources.

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Processed Drama Lesson: Learning Peter Pan

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Processed Drama Lesson: Learning Peter Pan

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Lesson Objective: Explore the themes and characters of "Peter Pan" through processed drama.

**Warm-up Activity:** Imagine flying to Neverland, with students acting as if they have just arrived.

**Activity 1: Hot-Seating Peter Pan Characters**
- Students choose characters (Peter, Wendy, Captain Hook, etc.) and answer questions from others about their experiences and feelings.

**Activity 2: Creating a Scene**
- Students in groups recreate key moments such as 'Meeting the Lost Boys'.

**Reflection:** Discuss what was learned about the story and characters.

**Script Example for Scene:**

**Scene - 'Meeting the Lost Boys'**

Peter: "Welcome to Neverland, Wendy! These are the Lost Boys."
Wendy: "It's wonderful to meet you all. What's your favorite game here?"
Lost Boy: "We play 'Pirate Attack' and pretend we're pirates sailing the high seas."
Peter: "But remember, Wendy, you must always be on the lookout for Captain Hook!"

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Processed Drama in Science: Water Cycle Adventure

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Processed Drama in Science: Water Cycle Adventure

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Students become elements of the water cycle (clouds, rain, rivers). Each step is dramatized with movement and sound, allowing students to experience and understand the cycle's process in a dynamic way.

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Processed Drama Lesson: Historical Exploration

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Processed Drama Lesson: Historical Exploration

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Create a dramatic moment from history, such as a Roman marketplace. Students role-play various characters, including merchants and citizens. Through interaction, they learn about trade, culture, and daily life in ancient Rome.

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Processed Drama Lesson: Environmental Awareness

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Processed Drama Lesson: Environmental Awareness

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Start with a dramatic scenario like a forest under threat. Students improvise roles as animals, conservationists, and loggers. Facilitate discussions and decision-making in role to explore environmental impact and solutions.

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Add recommendations for further learning, such as 'Theatre in Education' courses and professional conferences for networking and skill development.

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Describe case studies where drama was successfully integrated into curriculum subjects like Science and History, such as using mini-plays to illustrate historical events.

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Include specific examples such as 'Character Hot-Seating' for exploring character development, or 'Freeze Frames' to assist with storytelling and narrative understanding.

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Join this Facebook group for drama teachers to connect with peers, share ideas, and get inspiration for your drama-infused English lessons. It's a great place to ask questions and learn from experienced educators.

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Log into Facebook to start sharing and connecting with your friends, family, and people you know.

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This book by Alan Maley and Alan Duff is an excellent resource for teachers new to using drama in language teaching. It provides a range of activities and theoretical background.

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Drama Techniques in Language Learning offers a large selection of techniques for use at all levels which focus learners' attention on communicative tasks or activities. These involve the whole personality of the learner and provide real reasons for expressing feelings and opinions. The techniques require no special training and can easily be introduced into normal course work. This greatly expanded highly successful edition provides: advice on using the techniques in the classroom; 150 ideas for interesting and productive fluency practice; clear instructions for the teacher; and detailed cross-referencing between exercises.

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Drama Techniques in Language Learning: A Resource Book of Communication Activities for Language Teachers (Cambridge Handbooks for Language Teachers)

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Drama Techniques in Language Learning offers a large selection of techniques for use at all levels which focus learners' attention on communicative tasks or activities. These involve the whole personality of the learner and provide real reasons for expressing feelings and opinions. The techniques...

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Explore this website for a variety of drama games suitable for elementary students. It offers step-by-step instructions and tips for implementation in the English language classroom.

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Written by Cassie (Teach Starter)

Are you an upper elementary or middle school teacher looking out for some new drama teaching ideas? Did you see our last post about Drama Activities for K - 3 students and wish there were a few more challenging ideas there for your class?
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Well, wish no more!

These eight activities in the K-3 Drama post are definitely suitable to use with your upper elementary or middle school class, and I would encourage you to have a look at them if you haven't already. The K-3 games are excellent for introducing and extending student understanding of the basic elements of role, voice, and movement, and are important prerequisite activities for these slightly more challenging drama lesson ideas.

The concept of this approach to drama for kids is quite simple:

With that in mind, here are eight more classroom Drama activities you can add to your repertoire straight away.

1. One Word Story

Create a whole-class story in this imaginative drama activity that is for practicing individual and group focus.

1. Students sit or stand in a circle.

2. Establish who will begin the story and which direction the story will travel (clockwise or anti-clockwise).

3. The first person begins the story by saying a single word e.g. "There".

4. Whoever is next in the circle says another single word that makes sense following the previous word e.g. "was".

5. Continue around the circle, with each person saying a single word with the aim of building a coherent story.

When using this as a general drama activity, you could use one of the Teach Starter widgets as a prompt for the story. The Vocabulary Word of the Day spinner has dozens of word lists you could draw from, the Visual Writing Prompts Widget provide perfect One Word Story stimulus, and the Random Sentence Starter spinner is a really fun way to kick-start your students' imagination!
Layer in Context:
Connect this drama activity to content from a unit, text, or topic you are currently exploring with your class. Establish with the class a few broad "key features" the whole class story needs to have. For example, if you are exploring food and nutrition in a Health unit you could agree upon the following aspects of the story:

a specific character or characters (e.g. a boy named Lashon, and a cookie that comes to life)

a specific place (at Lashon's house)

a key word or phrase ("Eat me!")

It is important not to get too detailed when establishing the key features of the story (e.g. you might not articulate a specific problem or conflict that has to happen), as you want your students to be able to shape and guide the story in an imaginative way.

This activity can be played without context for a fun, classroom brain break that explores many of the elements of drama including situation, role, relationship, voice, tension, and mood (as the students will likely create a narrative that touches on each of these). Or you can use it as an imaginative way to reinforce key concepts from, and students' understanding of, any topic you have been exploring with your class.

Use visual prompts such as cards from a relevant word wall, a projected avatar of the specific characters, or create some custom labels with the character names, words, and places that work with your current units.

2. Human Knot

Working collaboratively is an important part of assessment in the Drama standards, as well as being a foundational skill for life. This fun game helps students to build awareness and understanding of group-work and is a great way to introduce the concept of 'ensemble' (a group who work together to create).

1. Break students into small groups (4-6 students per group is a good start).

2. Students form a circle in their group.

3. Walking to the center with hands outstretched, students each grab two hands (however, it cannot be the person next to them, nor can they grab both hands from the same person).

4. Students 'untie' their human knot, without ever letting go of any hands.

5. When a group has finished untying their knot, the whole group sits down.

Encourage students to work slowly and carefully, with an awareness of how their movements affect others in the knot. Some knots are easy to untie, and others take a lot of communication and negotiation!

Increase the complexity of this ensemble building game by asking students to complete it in silence, by making the number of students in each group larger, or by trying to untie a whole class knot!

3. Shazzam!

An absolute favorite of mine, this is a drama game for kids that works with a concept similar to "Rock, Paper, Scissors". It is fantastic for exploring role, voice, movement, tension, and focus. In "Shazzam!" the three characters and parameters of play are:

wizards beat knights by casting a magic spell over them

giants beat wizards by stomping on them

knight slay giants with their magic sword.

Students enact each character in the following way:

wizards step forward with one leg, push both hands forward as if shooting a magic spell through their hands, and shout "Shazzam!"

giants stamp their feet and say "Fee! Fi! Fo! Fum!"

knights pull an imaginary sword out of their belt and shout "En garde!".

Play "Shazzam!" as a whole group game, following these directions:

1. Split students into two even groups, standing in two parallel lines.

2. Have the groups face towards the center of the space.

3. The teacher counts down from ten to zero.

4. Each line quickly huddles in a group and decides which of the three characters they will be during this round.

5. By the count of zero students must have returned to their straight line, facing their opponent line.

6. On zero each line enacts their chosen character and the 'winning' line is decided by the above parameters (wizards beat knights, giants beat wizards, knights slay giants).

Play round after round, keeping the pace up and keeping a tally of each team's number of winning rounds. The first team to ten are the winners!
Layer in Context:
To adapt this game take elements, concepts, characters, or ideas from any topic and create three "characters" and parameters that suit.

Specifying characters from a familiar narrative explored in Reading class will encourage students to use voice and movement to create a role. It will also explore the relationship between the characters. The game itself requires both group and individual focus, and creates amazing tension!

If in Science class you are looking at Renewable Energies, students could be the sun (standing like a star jump and saying "Ahhhh!", a solar panel (standing stiff like a board and "buzzing"), and electricity (arms outstretched towards opponents and saying "zap!"). In this version,

The sun beats electricity because it is renewable.

Solar panels beat the sun by capturing its power.

Electricity beat the solar power by using its power.

4. Zip, Zap, Zoom

Speaking of zaps, "Zip, Zap, Zoom" is another great collaborative game that teaches focus. Students "pass the energy" around a circle, using an action and variety of vocal commands. In the traditional game, students stand in a circle and send the energy around the circle saying either Zip, Zap, or Zoom.

"Zip"sends the energy in a clockwise direction

"Zap" sends the energy in an anti-clockwise direction

"Zoom" sends the energy to someone across the circle

Students cannot do more than one Zap or Zoom in a row (they must be broken up by a Zip)

Every command is done with an action - the easiest being to clap and point to the person the energy is being sent to.

5. Twenty-One

"Twenty-one" is one of those drama games that get even the most fidgety of students concentrating with laser focus.

Sitting in a circle, students attempt to count to 21 in a random order, without two or more people speaking at the same time. One person begins by saying "one", then another person says "two".

Continue the group count until you reach twenty-one. If more than one person says a number at the same time, the count begins again.
Change the Content:
This game can be used with any familiar content that has a sequence. For example:

skip counting (e.g. threes, sixes, eights, etc.)

using the alphabet

musical scales or "Do Re Mi"

counting in intervals with units (e.g. in tens, and dollars/cents 10¢, 20¢... $1.20).

6. Body Sculpture Olympics

Also known as "10 Second Object", this activity gets students using their bodies to create freeze frames (like a real life frozen image) that depict an object or a situation. Use this activity to talk about how we can communicate meaning through movement.

1. Break students into small groups.

2. Call out an object or scenario (such as the North Pole, peacock, at the beach, washing machine, etc.)

3. Count down from ten to zero

4. While you are counting down, students have to create the object, character, or situation using their bodies.

5. When you reach zero, shout "Freeze!"

6. Give each group a thumbs up or thumbs down depending on if they have represented the stimulus in a way that makes sense.

7. Continue, keeping the pace up to ensure students are engaged and thinking on their feet!

You can decide on a "scoring" method that feels right for you (such as giving scores out of ten or choosing one winner per round), or you may prefer not to "score" at all, and just use the activity as a confidence and group awareness building exercise.
Layer in Context:
"Body Sculpture Olympics" can be adapted as a Drama activity linked to most any content at all. Simply create a list of characters, situations, or objects that are related to a familiar topic. Or better yet, let the students create the lists.

This activity means students use movement and space to establish a dramatic meaning (they communicate situation, role, and relationships through their frozen image).

7. The Expert

This activity is great for older students, using both their prior knowledge of a topic and their imagination. It requires students to use role, relationship, situation, voice, and movement to create dramatic meaning.

1. Break students into small groups (3-4).

2. Allocate a letter to each student within the group (i.e. every group will have a person A, person B, etc.).

3. Call out the letter of the person who will be 'The Expert' first.

4. Announce the topic that the Expert specializes in.

5. The Expert must speak with authority about the topic for an agreed amount of time (e.g. 30 or 60 seconds).

6. The teacher counts down from three to begin the time and calls "Stop!" when time is up.

7. The teacher then announces which letter/person will go next, and the new topic of expertise.

What makes this game extra fun, is that there is only one rule - the expert can never stop talking, even if they run out of facts well before their time is up. Students should just keep talking, making up anything at all about the topic, no matter how absurd or far-fetched.

Not all drama is based on fiction! This activity is a great way to explore how drama-makers (playwrights, actors, dramaturgs, directors, set and costume designers) can play with the ideas related to a "real" topic in order to create an artistic, symbolic, absurd, or stylistic representation of it through Drama.
Variations:

Play as a whole class with one Expert up the front.

Allow the "audience" to ask questions of the Expert to help prompt them if they get stuck.

Create a panel of Experts, with two or three students in front of the class discussing their topic of expertise.

Add simple props or costumes such as a coat, glasses, or other items to help students with their 'expert' characterization.

Layer in Context:

Choose topics that are connected to content you have been exploring with your class. They could be related to anything at all, from Science and Math to Humanities, Social Sciences, Sports, or Music.

Have each student in the group play a character from a text or narrative they know. Give a situation from the text as a prompt for the character to talk about for their allotted time.

8. Mirror, Mirror

In this activity, your students will continue to build confidence in using their body ( movement) to create a role and communicate meaning.

1. Students break into pairs.

2. Allocate, or let students decide who will be A, and who will be B.

3. On the teacher's signal, student A begins to move very slowly.

4. Student B has to copy the movement exactly as if they are the reflection Student A sees in a mirror.

5. Continue for some time, and then swap, having Student B lead Student A.

Encourage students to move slowly, with the aim being that anyone watching the pair wouldn't be able to tell who is leading the movement and who is following.
Layer in Context:
Add complexity to this activity by layering in one or more elements of context. This turns "Mirror, Mirror" into a tool for exploring the content from another key subject area in a completely different way - a fantastic way to cater for kinesthetic, social, verbal, and auditory learners.

Role - Ask Student A to take on a specific role or character. This can be from a familiar text or can be any role from a relevant context, such as a scientist or a construction worker.

Situation - Specify the situation that Student A is in, for example setting up an experiment, or building a new road.

Time & Place - Give students details about a specific time or place in which they are - this will change the actions and movements they enact.

Atmosphere - Explore this more challenging element of drama by providing students with a mood or emotion as a prompt for their movements.

You can add just one of these contextual elements, or multiples - each will support students in the creation of different moments of dramatic meaning.

There you have it! Eight more ideas to help you think about Drama for kids.

There are definitely more detailed ways you can explore dramatic theory with your upper elementary or middle school class, however, I hope that these activities have provided you with a comfortable way to introduce Drama skills and terminology into your classroom!

Drama Games for Kids - Printable Activity Cards

To get you started, we've created a set of 17 Drama Games for Kids activity cards! Simply download, print out, and laminate the cards for use when you need a Drama lesson warm-up idea, or a brain break for your students.

You can also get more ideas for Drama activities for elementary students in our blog post "Drama Activities for K-3 Students". Don't be swayed by the title - these Drama activities are suitable for students of all ages!
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Drama for Kids - Games and Activities for Years 4 - 7

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Written by Cassie (Teach Starter) Are you an upper elementary or middle school teacher looking out for some new drama teaching ideas? Did you see our last post about Drama Activities for K - 3 students and wish there were a few more challenging ideas there for your class?

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Incorporate drama into other subjects. For science, act out the water cycle. For history, create tableaux of important events. This interdisciplinary approach reinforces learning across the curriculum while practicing English.

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Make grammar practice more fun with drama! Create short skits that focus on specific grammar points. For example, use a 'time machine' scenario to practice past tense, or a 'fortune teller' activity for future tense.

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Bring English literature to life through drama. Have students act out scenes from stories they're reading in class. This helps with comprehension and makes the reading more engaging and memorable.

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Puppets are a fantastic tool for storytelling and character creation. They can help shy students feel more comfortable speaking English. Use simple sock puppets or finger puppets to retell familiar stories or create new ones.

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Role-playing is an excellent way to practice language in context. Create simple scenarios like 'At the Restaurant' or 'At the Doctor's Office'. Provide key phrases and vocabulary, then let students act out the scenes in pairs or small groups.

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Start your drama lessons with warm-up exercises. Try 'Mirror', where students pair up and mirror each other's movements, or 'Zip Zap Zop', a fun word game that improves focus and energy. These activities help students relax and prepare for the lesson.

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Understanding basic theatre terms is crucial. Some key terms include: stage directions (upstage, downstage, stage left, stage right), props, costumes, script, dialogue, and monologue. Familiarize yourself with these to effectively communicate with students.

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Incorporating drama in English lessons can greatly improve students' language skills. It enhances vocabulary, pronunciation, and fluency while also developing listening and speaking skills in a fun, interactive way.

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Drama in education is a teaching method that uses dramatic activities to enhance learning. It involves role-playing, improvisation, and other theatrical techniques to help students understand concepts, develop language skills, and boost confidence.