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Movement Stories for young children

7 Aug

Name: The hungry tree.

Age: 5+.

Minimum number of participants: 3+.

Resources needed: Clear space.

Procedure: This is an excellent introduction to role play and improvisation. The teacher tells the children the following story and they have to improvise the movements in the story

The teacher gets the children to imagine they are an adventurer who wants to go on an adventure. They pack up their bags. Teacher asks what they need in the bags. Children answers are usually water, sandwiches, sun cream, and sunglasses etc.  The children mime putting all their essentials into their bag. The teacher says imagine you are walking quickly because you are so happy to be on your adventure. You come across a mountain and decide you should climb it. The sun is getting hotter, hotter and you are getting tired, very tired, very, very tired. You wipe your brow to show how tired they are. You begin to climb slower and slower. You are very thirsty. You take out your water. You drink your water. Put it back in your bag and climb the rest of the way up the beanstalk. Eventually you get to the top. You are exhausted and very hot and very hungry. You decide it time for your picnic. You see a lovely tree and you go and sit under the shade. You eat your picnic and go for a nap. Then suddenly you wake up and see the tree moving towards you. The tree grabs you and you realise it is a very hungry tree and wants to eat you. You scream. You struggle. You fight the branches but you are getting weaker and weaker and then suddenly the tree stops fighting for a moment. You get your chance to get away. Quickly you grab your bag, run to the beanstalk and quickly go down the beanstalk. You get to the end you can the hungry tree running after you. You run all the way home. Lock all the doors and hide under the table.

Name: Toy shop.

Age: 4 years +.

Minimum number of participants: 4+.

Resources needed: Clear space.

Procedure: This is another fun role-play. Everyone sits in a circle the teacher tells them that they are going to imagine that they are toys in a toy shop. They must choose what toy that they want to be. Talk about if the toys came alive how they would move and how would they talk? Then get each one to find a space and they must move around like their toy and then they freeze. The teacher becomes the toy maker. She spends all day making toys. The toys must keep very still. At night when the toymaker goes to bed all the toys come out to play. All the students move around like their toys. The toy maker hears some noise in his toyshop. The toys hear his footsteps and they get back into their position and freeze. The toy maker checks to make sure the toys are all right. He then leaves and all the toys come out to play again. Each time the toys hear the toymakers footsteps they must return to their places and freeze.

If you want  more movement stories for young children please go to

Drama Start Kindle Edition

Drama Start Print Copy

For more Mime and Movement ideas buy Drama Start Two Drama Activities and Plays for Children (ages 9 to 12) at amazon.com or amazon.co.uk or if you can buy the kindle version from amazon.com or amazon.co.uk

NEW Drama Activities, plays & monologues Ebook for young children (ages 3 to 8)

25 May

‘Drama Start’ is a collection of drama activities, including games, role playing ideas, action poems, plays and monologues, suitable for children between the ages of 3 and 8. It can be used in Early Years’ settings or in primary schools, up to and including second class. This book is also suitable for people working with children in any setting where drama is used such as community groups, out of school care facilities, therapeutic group work and so on.

The book is accessible and easy to follow.  It is divided into three parts – Drama Games, Plays and Monologues. Each section provides educators/teachers/leaders with a variety of creative and imaginative ideas for stimulating drama activities in many different settings.

Part One: Drama Games. There are nine different categories in this section. . Each category, for example warm-up games, listening games, states the main benefit of the games it features.

Part Two: Plays. It is a selection of plays for young children all based on well-known children’s stories. Each play is between five and ten minutes long. They have all been adapted to suit the various needs of the class/group.  The plays use a lot of repetition so it is very easy for young children to learn their lines. The cast list is flexible – more characters can be added and existing characters can be changed or omitted.

Part Three: Monologues . It is a selection of monologues for very young children. The monologues can be used for drama examinations, competitions, performances or they can just be done for fun. The monologues also help the children to get into different roles and to use their imagination. In addition they stimulate children’s creativity.

Available from the following

Smashwords.com

Amazon.com

Amazon.co.uk

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Drama movement games – Part 2

19 Nov

Name: Cat and mouse.

Age: 4 years +.

Required number: 10+.

Requirements: Clear space.

Procedure: All children are in pairs. One child is cat, one other child is mouse, and all others stay in pairs, arms hooked together. Cat chases mouse; when mouse is caught then mouse becomes cat and vice versa. However, mouse can escape chase by hooking into any pair of other players. At that point the player at the other end of the pair becomes cat and the cat becomes mouse.

 

 

Name: Magic Box.

Age: 3 years +.

Required number:  2+.

Requirements: Clear space.

Procedure: This is a fun mime game. Everyone sits in a circle. Ask the students can they see the box in the centre of the circle. Ask them what colour is it?. What shape is it? It can be a different shape and colour depending on where you are sitting in the circle. This is because it is a magic box. The teacher goes in first and opens the box and takes out an object. She then mimes the object and the class must get what object it is. When the students guess what object it is the teacher puts the object in the box and closes it. Whoever guessed correctly takes a turn at taking something out of the box.

 

Name: Captain’s coming.

Age: 4 years +.

Minimum number of participants:  3+.

Resources: Clear space

Procedure: The teacher can be the captain or one child is chosen to be the captain. The captain calls out orders to the rest of the children who are the crew. If a child does not follow an order correctly s/he is out. !

Orders                                     Action

Bow                                          run to the left side of the space

Stern                                        run to the right side of the space

Port                                          run to the left.

Starboard                              run to the right

Man overboard                   lie on back and swim

Submarines                           lie on back and stick one leg straight up.

Man the Lifeboats               find a partner, sit together, and row!

scrub the Decks                   children crouch down and pretend to clean the floor with their hands.

Climb the Rigging                 children pretend to climb a rope ladder.

Captain’s coming                  children salute and shout out “Aye Aye Captain”

Man Overboard                     children on their backs waving legs and arms in air as they drown.

Walk the Plank                       children have to walk in a perfect straight line one foot exactly in front of the other with arms outstretched to the sides.

Captain’s daughter is coming.     everyone curtseys

Hit the Deck                             children lie down on their stomachs.

 For more Mime and Movement ideas buy Drama Start Two Drama Activities and Plays for Children (ages 9 to 12) at amazon.com or amazon.co.uk or if you can buy the kindle version from amazon.com or amazon.co.uk

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Why Movement?

25 Oct

The following are two movement stories you can use with young children.

Excerpts from Movement Stories for Children Ages 3 – 6
by Helen Landalf and Pamela Gerke

Excerpt from introductory chapter “WHY MOVEMENT?”

WHY MOVEMENT?
Movement is the currency of life. Even when our bodies are at rest there is movement in the slow rise and fall of our breath and the coursing of blood through our veins. We move to survive, to learn, to discover where we end and the outer world begins.

Young children, in particular, have a nearly insatiable desire for movement. Witness the desperate striving of a toddler to take his or her first step, the breathless, active bodies of children on a playground, or the constant squirming of students confined to desks, and you will see how powerful the drive toward movement can be.

But, all too soon, we expect children to suppress the urge to move-to sit still, be quiet, stop fidgeting, pay attention. Many educational systems, in particular, seem to operate from the viewpoint that unless children are sitting still, solemnly facing the teacher, they are not learning.

Fortunately, educational researchers are beginning to discover that nothing could be further from the truth. With the publication of Frames of Mind, Howard Gardner’s groundbreaking work on the Multiple Intelligences, new interest is being focused on the “Kinesthetic Leaner” – the child who actually learns best through movement.

Not only kinesthetic learners, but all students can derive numerous benefits from the use of movement as an educational tool. Body awareness, coordination, flexibility, and spatial awareness are some of the physical skills a child gains through movement. A child’s cognitive skills develop through vocabulary- building and creative problem-solving, while his or her social/emotional self grows through cooperation with others and a growing sense of self-esteem. The very functioning of the brain itself is enhanced through repetition of specific developmental movements. Movement truly fosters the development of the whole child: body, mind, and spirit.

 

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