It is hard to believe that the first semester of the 2019-2020 school year has come to an end! Here is an update of what we've been up to at Orrington:
0 Comments
Now that we are in the depths of winter, with record breaking cold temperatures, here is an update of what we've been up to in Creative Drama. Hopefully, it will leave you with a warm and sunny feeling!
At Orrington:
Students have been immersed in sensory based drama. Sensory based drama is framed by a journey story. Journey stories we have explored are; taking a trip to the beach, going camping or to a farm or the zoo, exploring outer space, meeting community workers, a pirate adventure, playing baseball, catching the Gingerbread Man, becoming super heroes, and traveling under the sea. The drama work is sensory based in that it offers experiences that engage multiple senses in a meaningful way for each student. Students from Northwestern University's SeeSaw Theatre group have visited Park to work with several classes during the fall and winter. 3rd and 4th grade students from Orrington School also visited students from three Park classrooms during Drama class. The 2018-19 school year is off to a wonderful start. Here are highlights from September and October:
Time flies when you're having fun! Here are the winter Drama highlights:
The 2017-18 school year has gotten off to a wonderful start! Here are a few highlights from Orrington and Park:
Happy Valentine's Day! My heart is full of pride for the creative drama work that has been happening at Park and Orrington! It's hard to believe that we have just passed the 100th day of school (February 7th) and when I look back on all that the students have achieved I am excited to see what will happen during the remaining months of school.
The Winter Sing was a hit! The combined efforts of the Drama Club, Chorus and grade level singers resulted in an evening full of snowmen revealing the secret of exactly what they do at night and sweet voices raised in song. The Drama Club is currently working on dramatic adaptations of Mo Willems stories which will be performed for the kindergarten classes in March. Orrington students have been immersed in social issue dramas. Grades 4 and 5 focused on the Eve Bunting story Smoky Night (about the L.A. riots in 1992), grade 3 examined Angela Johnson's picture book The Leaving Morning, and the primary grades created pantomimed and improvised responses to The Colors of Us and Zero. Other primary grade story dramas included Click, Clack, Moo and The Mitten. All students have continued to develop the drama skills of transformation, pantomime, improvisation, character development and scene building. Park students have participated in sensory dramas. Using props, video, music, instruments and movement we created; an ocean adventure, animals in a rainstorm, an incredible car wash, character transformation with scarves, and a drama about playing in the snow. SeeSaw Theatre players from Northwestern University continue to participate in interactions with different classes. Their excitement and energy is contagious! We are so lucky to have the opportunity to work with them! The first months of the school year have been magical. Students at Park have experienced dramatizations including; creating a pirate adventure and a circus, adaptating the story Goodnight Gorilla, creating original character scenes, improvising the World Series, adaptating the stories Turkey Trouble and Snowmen At Night. Enrichment Fine Arts, a collaboration between Art and Drama, gave students the opportunity to create an adaptation of the story The Very Hungry Caterpillar including costume pieces and props. Students used the following Drama skills; wearing costume pieces, using props, pantomime, improvisation. Transition students worked with SeeSaw Theatre out of Northwestern University. Once a week SeeSaw actors visited Park School and explored a process drama with the students. It was great fun!
Students at Orrington have been busy examining social issues through the lens of two picture books, King Bidgood's In The Bathtub and Fly Away Home. We used narrative pantomime and improvisation to dig deep into the content of these books. Intermediate students also created original scenes and multiple image tableaus based on Fly Away Home. Primary classes also participated in a process drama which revolved around solving the problem of the discovery of a strange object in Evanston. They were so imaginitive when creating submarines for their under water exploration! Third grade tackled the wonderful story Liza Lou and the Yeller Belly Swamp by Mercer Mayer. They developed scenes and began to focus on audience expectations and peer evaluation. Fourth and fifth grades created original scenes which focused on character development and answering the 4 essential questions of Who? What? Where? Why? Drama Club students have been working hard rehearsing their interpretation of the story Snowmen At Night and will share this work during the Winter Sing Performance. What an exciting start to the school year! I am thrilled to be back as the Drama teacher at both Orrington and Park schools. We have been incredibly busy over these past seven weeks. Primary students at Orrington have been working with a partner to create adventures with puppets. This has been a lot of fun for everyone! They have practiced staying in personal space and explored slow motion movement, pantomime, and tableau.
Intermediate classes have developed scenes incorporating improvisation and pantomime. This required small group ensemble work - having the willingness to accept others ideas, saying "Yes...and!" rather than "No...but". Students are learning to provide verbal feedback to their peers focusing on what they see, hear, notice, wonder - not just on what was funny or what they liked. They must identify specific dramatic skills and how they were used. Drama Club is meeting on Wednesday mornings before school. This special group will have the opportunity to perform during the Winter Sing in December and at the MLK Celebration in January. For the Winter Sing, we will create a dramatic adaptation of the picture book Snowmen At Night by Caralyn Buehner. Drama Club students will rehearse and perform poems for the MLK Celebration. I hope families can attend these events! Park School students have taken magic carpet rides during Drama. These trips transport us to different places, imaginary and realistic. We have landed on a Pirate ship, joined the crew, and completed tests of bravery! Classes visited a city in the clouds and created what it would be like to go there. We also created characters using fabric with different textures, colors and designs as our costumes. Using our character ideas, we developed scenes. We will continue to use the magic carpet to travel to new places. SeeSaw Theatre of Northwestern University will visit Park school every Monday afternoon to interact with students. The first interaction will be sensory based and students will have the opportunity to work closely with actors from the theatre group. It should be a wonderful experience! Time flies when you're having fun! This year has passed so quickly and I have enjoyed every moment. I am so fortunate to teach at two incredibly different and wonderful schools. The work we have done in Drama, like any artistic expression, was not always neat and tidy. Our classes were full of noise, movement and exploration. Process Drama is a work in progress with children exploring new ideas, characters and situations. I hope each student ends the year with the willingness to try your best, try new things, work together and accept ideas of others. I am very excited to continue working with your children next year! Have a great summer!
Orrington students have been busy playing theatre games (wax museum, bus stop, freeze and exchange, and prop transformation... just to name a few. All grades explored African folktales through narrative pantomime and improvising scenes. For the remainder of the year, all grades will focus on dramatizing multiple versions of fairy tales and/or greek myths. It will be an exciting few months!
Park students have explored many stories and created a few using props, music, movement and sensory experiences. We have just completed a three week process drama focused on catching a leprechaun and, yes, we found a pot of gold!!! It was so much fun creating disguises and magic wands to help us find the leprechaun! |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. Archives
January 2019
Categories |