A Year Long Bundle of Drama Activities

A year long bundle of drama fun! Drama circles! Readers' Theatre scripts! Creating props! Number drama circles! Taking action! Skills development! They bring out the risk taking, creativity in all kids and everyone has so much fun! These activities are easy to prepare, making your life so much easier to plan your drama learning experiences. You will find close reading, mindfulness activities, taking action, maths reviews and something for all of the main holidays! Winner! This resource has you covered!

Drama circles: These printable cards are just some of my drama circle activities that I use to reinforce the growth mindset process, thinking skills and other skills such as cooperation, social and communication to name a few. One card begins the round and each child has to act out the instructions on their card, following on from the previous card. It is great for literacy centers activities as well as cooperative group work. Fun for 3rd-6th grade. Each set has their own instructions.

There are numbered cards to help keep the younger kids on track and there are cards without numbers which I have used with my 5th graders to add rigour to the activity. Each set of drama circle cards has a theme. They help to develop a growth mindset and how best to develop confidence in our own abilities as a learner, recognising that we have to start somewhere and it has a lot of reflection as well as humour included. This a great prerequisite to taking action too.

Simply gather the children into a seated circle, shuffle the cards and distribute a card to each child.

• The start card leads the way and the children have to read their own instructions on their card and then listen and look for actions and words from the acting of each person so that they know when to take their turn.
• This is developing listening and observational skills as well as communication, presentation and thinking skills.
• Not every card requires speaking; some ask only for miming.
• The cards marked with a star are more wordy and better to use with higher level readers. I usually review the card with those kids who struggle with reading prior to the circle.
• The drama cards can be used within a whole class scenario or smaller groups, where the children are given several cards to read and act from.
• The concept of drama circles is a great ice breaker or a fun review of the IB skills and attitudes.

Readers' Theatre Scripts with Props: These are hilarious! Bring out the creativity in your young actors all year long with these fun scripts for reading and fluency. Complete with fun props, which are entirely optional, you could have a full blown Oscar worthy performance! With hats, ears, speech bubbles and puppets, let the children decide how to perform the tales. Perfect for literacy groups with 8-12 in the cast.

The script is designed for 3rd-5th grade. With a focus on traditional stories, poems and songs, these drama scripts will reinforce the children’s understanding of different genres of literacy as well as reinforcing reading fluency.

The performances take approximately 12 -20 minutes once rehearsed. The props are easy to print and go, with simple preparation involving nothing more than construction paper, scissors and glue.

• Back to School & Making Friends Drama Circle
• Rocks Star Learner's Mindset Drama Circle
• No Bullying In Our School Drama Circle
• Number Talk Drama Circles: Place Value/Number Sense
• The Strange Tale of Paddy McMouse Drama Circle
• Peter & the Wolf Readers' Theatre with Props
• The Gingerbread Man Readers' Theatre with Props
• The Teddy Bears' Halloween Picnic Reader's Theatre with Props
• Pilgrims in a Pickle: A Thanksgiving Tale Readers' Theatre with Props
• The Tale of the Giant Snowman Drama Circle
• The Nose Glows: The Tale of Rudolph Readers' Theatre with Props
• When Santa Got Stuck Up the Chimney Readers' Theatre with Props
• The End of Another Year Drama Circle

Bring these highly engaging and funny activities into your classroom through drama and enjoy the kiddos’ creativity for the whole year and watch them thrive!

You can find more ideas and inquiry based activities on my blog at www.pypteachingtools.com

Enjoy!

~ Susan Powers