Activity Ideas for Drama at Key Stage 2

Key Stage 2Activity Ideas for Drama

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The Northern Ireland Curriculum for Drama at Key Stage 2 states that pupils should be enabled to:

• develop their understanding of the world by engaging in a range of creative and imaginative role-play situations;

• explore a range of cultural and human issues in a safe environment by using Drama to begin to explore their own and others’ feelings about issues, and by negotiating situations both in and out of role;

• develop a range of drama strategies including freeze-frame, tableau, hot seating, thought tracking and conscience alley; and

• develop dramatic skills appropriate to audience, context, purpose and task by exploring voice, movement, gesture and facial expression through basic exploration of a specific role, and by structuring dramatic activity to make meaning clear for a chosen audience.

As pupils progress through Key Stage 2, they should be enabled to:

• explore issues creatively through use of Drama;

• explore voice, movement, gesture and facial expression through basic exploration of a specific role;

• structure dramatic activity to make meaning clear to a chosen audience;

• use Drama to begin to explore their own and others’ feelings about issues; and

• negotiate situations, in and out of role.

The ideas in this booklet are an introduction to these requirements. They will help you to develop your own ideas and gain confidence in teaching Drama at Key Stage 2.


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Suggested Warm up Exercises

Movement

Ask the children to:

• stretch as high as possible on their toes and to the right and left;

• tense their hands, arms, chest, stomach, bottom, legs, feet, neck and face and then release the tension slowly and repeat;

• circle hands, arms, shoulders, neck, ankles, knees and thighs;

• build up a movement sequence to music using a beat of four;

• step to the right for four beats and then to the left for four;

• repeat, adding a clap, stamp or both; and

• repeat by circling the steps, sliding or hopping to build up the sequence.

Facial Expression


• pretend they are chewing, blowing a bubble, peering through a window, looking in the mirror or worried;

• become very angry and then slowly change to smiling;

• pretend to be very surprised and then become shy; and

• be arrogant and then about to cry.

Breathing

Encourage the children to:

• breathe in slowly through the nose for a count of four, hold the breath for four and breathe out slowly through the mouth for a count of ten; and

• increase the exhalation to a count of fifteen.

Explain the position of the diaphragm during inhalation and exhalation. Ask the children to pretend to:

• blow up an imaginary balloon;

• slowly blow bubbles or a windmill and quickly blow a whistle; or

• blow out a candle.


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Voice


• breathe in for a count of four and then sing Ah on one note;

• repeat with different sounds such as Oo, Ee, Ay;

• begin with an Ah sound and change it gradually to a hum on one breath;

• speak the articulation scale (below) as fast as possible and backwards, then as a witch, a giant, in an American accent or a whisper; and

• speak the vowel sounds loudly and clearly.


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ARTICULATION SCALE

Consonants give clarity and distinctness to speech.

(Breathe in and speak each sound clearly – repeat, changing tone and pace.)

B

D

F

H

G

M

N

P

T

W


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VOWEL SOUNDS

Vowels give music and carrying power to speech.

Breathe in and speak each sound from top to bottom

Zer Mer MerM

Zay May MayM

Zee Mee MeeM

Zih Mih MihM

Zah Mah MahM

Zoh Moh MohM

Zoo Moo MooM

Zaw Maw MawM

Zow Mow MowM


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Drama Strategies at Key Stage 2

FREEZE-FRAME

A freeze-frame is a still image created by stopping the action of a drama, in the same way that you can pause a film to see just one still frame. You may ask your pupils to reflect on the significance of the particular moment in the drama so that they can decide when to stop the drama to create a freeze-frame.

TABLEAU

A tableau is a symbolic still image that represents and may comment or reflect on the essential nature of a situation, relationship or incident. Pupils could create a tableau of a washing machine, winning a race, celebration, war or suffering. A tableau is similar to a painting as pupils create it from a blank canvas.

HOT SEATING

One pupil takes on a role of a character to answer questions from the rest of the class. Those asking the questions could also play a role. The character may be real, fictional, historic or even an object such as a volcano, house or heart.

THOUGHT TRACKING

In their roles, pupils express what they are thinking or feeling at a given moment in the drama. Other pupils may add what the character is thinking or feeling at that moment.

CONSCIENCE ALLEY

This is a type of thought tracking. Pupils form two straight lines facing each other. One pupil, in the role of a character, moves between these lines. Each pupil in the lines expresses a thought or feeling as the character. Lines can include any number of pupils. One line can express positive and the other negative responses. Other members of the class could take on the roles of reporters or observers.


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Suggested Lesson Ideas for Drama at Key Stage 2

Lesson 1 Using Story Structure and Interview Skills

Background

Ask the class to clear a space in the centre of the room by moving tables and chairs to the sides. Then ask them to stand in a circle. Lead the children in a physical warm up, stretching and circling their limbs and body. Use the articulation and vowel scales included with the Warm Up Exercises as a vocal warm up.

Learning Intentions

We are learning to:

• develop whole-class storytelling and sentence structure;

• develop interview skills;

• take personal responsibility for work with others and evaluate our own contribution to the group (Working with Others); and

• experiment with ideas and questions (Being Creative).

Success Criteria

Pupils can:

• work effectively as a class by listening to each other and answering questions;

• work effectively in pairs using appropriate and imaginative questions and answers in role; and

• recognise the importance of their role to the success of the group activity.

Resources

Articulation and vowel exercises

Stories such as Jack and the Beanstalk

Video clips from news programmes

Set 2 Thinking Cards: 2.06 – Getting Organised and Making Plans


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Introduction

Use the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria to introduce and discuss what the children are going to learn about and what they should be aiming toward to be successful. Include the Thinking Skills and Personal Capabilities (TS&PC) in the discussion, so that the children are aware of the skills or capabilities they are using and developing.

In the activity, each child takes on a different role in the group.

Ask the children:

• What is important when working together as a group?

• How should you behave when working in a group?

Recap the story of Cinderella. Talk about the format of news programmes. Focus on headlines first and then examine the details followed by an interview.

In the activity, ask the children take on roles such as newsreader, interviewer or character linked to the story, so they need to have a clear understanding of what each role involves.

Lesson Development


• introduce themselves by adding an action word beginning with the same letter as their own name, for example Jumping John or Wobbling Wendy;

• introduce the person next to them, giving them an imaginative occupation, for example this is Susan and she is a Lion Tamer or this is Michael and he is Rock Star; and

• sit in a circle and tell the story of Cinderella one sentence at a time and then one word at a time, adding ‘full stop’ and ‘new sentence’, when appropriate.

Then ask the class to form groups of three or four. Give each group the Thinking Cards and ask them to use the questions to plan their activity. You could select some questions from the card and use these to prompt the children to think about how they are going to organise and plan the activity.


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Ask each group to choose a different scene from the Cinderella story, for example:

• the invitation;

• the fairy godmother;

• the ball;

• midnight;

• fitting the shoe; or

• the prince and Cinderella’s wedding.

Then encourage each group to think of a headline for their chosen scene, for example:

• Royal Invitations Cause Chaos! or

• Mystery Girl Leaves the Ball at Midnight!

Ask each group to decide which member will adopt the role of newsreader, interviewer or other character. Encourage them to structure a scene from the headline to camera, add some further detail of the story and then conduct an interview on location with a character.

Give the children time to prepare their news item. Encourage them to formulate questions and answers and use different accents for effect.

Plenary

Ask the children about the importance of sentence structure, open questioning and clarity of speech. Encourage the groups to analyse each other’s news items in terms of interest, characters and engaging an audience as well as the importance of working together.

Ask follow-up questions such as:

• What made the news item interesting?

• Why do some questions stimulate a better answer than others?

• What makes a good question?

• How did you feel when presenting your news story to the rest of the class?

• How well did your group work together?

• Which part of the activity did you most enjoy?

• Which part made you really think?

• If you were doing this type of activity again, what would you do differently?


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Lesson 2 Use Tableau and Thought Tracking

Background

Ask the class to clear a space in the centre of the room by moving tables and chairs to the sides. Then ask them to stand in a circle. Lead a physical warm up by encouraging the children to stretch and circle their limbs and bodies. Then use the articulation and vowel scales included in the Warm Up Exercises for Key Stage 2 as a vocal warm up. Ask them to say different phrases such as Good Morning, Good Afternoon or Good Evening, using different tones, volume and pace.

Learning Intentions

Pupils are learning to:

• develop the use of tableaux and thought tracking to deepen their understanding;

• use their own and others’ ideas to locate sources of information (Managing Information); and

• communicate with a sense of audience and purpose (Managing Information).

Success Criteria

Pupils can:

• work effectively in groups to research and manage appropriate information for their tableau;

• present a tableau to the class about Victorian life; and

• use thought tracking to communicate feelings as their character.

Resources

Vocal and physical warm up activities for the whole class; and

Online access to information about The Victorians, including family life, social conditions, occupations, wars of the period and new research in medicine and photography.

Introduction

Use the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria to introduce and talk about what the pupils are going to learn about and what they should be aiming toward to be successful. Make sure that you include the TS&PC in the discussion, so that pupils are aware of the skills or capabilities they are using and developing.


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Ask the children questions about their knowledge of The Victorians, such as Oliver or Queen Victoria, before they start their research. Use connected learning from their knowledge of other themes. Make sure the children have access to computers and understand strategies of tableau and thought tracking.


• What can you tell me about life in Victorian times?

• How might your life be different if you lived then compared to now?

• How can tell me how to create a tableau?

• Who can tell me what thought tracking is?

• Have you used these techniques before in your Drama lessons?

• What will you need to do to make sure your group works well together to create a tableau?

Lesson Development


• walk around the space and change direction in different ways, for example slowly, hopping or shuffling;

• form groups of various sizes, moving around the classroom and making different shapes, in preparation for working in groups of 4–6;

• research The Victorians and select appropriate information;

• create a tableau of a Victorian family about to have their photograph taken at home for a particular reason, for example:

– the father or son might have returned injured from war or be about to leave;

– someone may have a new baby or job;

– someone has died; or

– someone is leaving for India;

• use only one chair per group and no props or costumes to create the tableau; and

• give each member of the group a name, a relationship in the family and an understanding of how they feel and what they are thinking as the photograph is taken.


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You should act as the photographer, counting to three before creating a flash and puff of smoke to take the Victorian photograph to frame as a special commemoration for the family. Make sure that each group creates a tableau and holds the stillness of the image for a few seconds.

Ask each member of the group to give their name and express their thoughts as they pose for the camera. Help the children by modelling some thoughts for them.

Plenary

Ask the groups to look at each other’s tableaux, saying who the characters are and what their relationship is in the family.

Ask questions such as:

• What makes a good photograph in terms of balance and levels?

• What thought tracks were good and why?

• How did your group go about selecting appropriate information?

• Which part of the activity made you really think?

• What did you find difficult?

• How did working as a group help to complete the activity?

• How did the tableau communicate the story of the family situation?


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Lesson 3 Using conscience alley and speaking in role

Background

Ask the class to clear a space in the centre of the room by moving tables and chairs to the sides. Then ask them to stand in a circle. Lead a physical warm up by encouraging the children to stretch and circle their limbs and bodies. Use the articulation and vowel scales included with the support as a vocal warm up. Ask them to say different phrases, such as Good Morning, Good Afternoon or Good Evening, using different tones, volume and pace and changing facial expressions, for example from angry to sad, thoughtful, frightened or arrogant.

Learning Intentions

Pupils are learning to:

• develop the use of conscience alley to express thoughts;

• learn from and value other people’s ideas (Being Creative); and

• develop confidence when speaking in role.

Success Criteria

Pupils can:

• use the conscience alley to explore and express the feelings of a character;

• use their own and others’ ideas to create a diary entry; and

• develop a short monologue that they confidently speak to camera or to the class.

Resources

Vocal and physical warm up exercises, including articulation scale for clarity and vowel work for projection;

Extract from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne; and

A camera for recording short speeches.


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Introduction

Use the Learning Intentions and Success Criteria to introduce and talk about what the pupils are going to learn about and what they should be aiming toward to be successful. Make sure that you include the TS&PCs in the discussion, so that pupils are aware of the skills or capabilities they are using and developing.

Discuss World War II with the children as a background to the story. Encourage them to research information relevant to the story of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas and make connections with other areas of learning.

Ask questions such as:

• What do you already know about World War II?

• Who can tell me anything about the story of The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas?

• Where is the story set?

• What does the word conscience mean?

• Can anyone describe using a conscience alley in class before? How did it work?

• How do we share ideas using a conscience alley?

Lesson Development

Ask the children to sit in a circle as you read a short extract from The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas (pages 47 and 48, when Bruno questions his father about missing Berlin). The extract includes details about Bruno’s friends and grandparents and the activities he is now missing.

Set up a conscience alley with Bruno and his father and five or six pupils on either side. Ask the rest of the class to act as recorders.

• A pupil in the role of Bruno’s father says ‘Go to your room’, in a gruff voice, and a pupil, as Bruno, begins to walk down the alley.

• Pupils say a thought, as if they were Bruno, from the right side and then the left side, as Bruno proceeds down the alley. Bruno cannot pass a pupil in the alley until they speak, loudly and clearly.

• The recorders record a thought from the alley and add a thought of their own.

• Then they collect and share the thoughts using the whiteboard.


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• Each pupil, in the role of Bruno, writes a diary entry using any of the thoughts they have shared.

• Pupils work in pairs to record each other speaking their thoughts from their diary entry to camera. They can then play the recording for the class. Alternatively, some pupils might want to recite Bruno’s speech to the class.

• You can repeat this strategy using a different extract and different pupils.

Plenary

Ask the children to explain how conscience alley works most effectively. Encourage them to discuss what makes a good speech and the qualities needed to engage an audience. They include aspects of vocal range, use of emotion, choice of language and use of facial expression. Use a range of extracts to develop conscience alley as a strategy to develop writing and speaking in role.


• What did you notice happening when the conscious alley worked well?

• What was missing if the conscience alley activity didn’t work so well?

• What are the characteristics of a good speech?

• How did you feel when you had to speak to camera or in front of the class?

• What part of the activity did you find difficult? Why?

• What did you learn from this activity?

• How did the conscience alley activity help you to write a diary entry as Bruno?

• If you had to write a diary entry without doing the activity first, how would it have been different?

• How does hearing what other people think help you?


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Additional Ideas for Drama at Key Stage 2

Learning Intentions Activity Development Assessment

Developing group work and making decisions

Using pictograms and tableaux

Ask your pupils to:

• form groups by shoe size, eye or hair colour;

• rank order by house number or height;

• choose a day, season or colour they like and justify their choice;

• divide into four groups and create a tableau depicting a season by, for example, making a snowman, building sandcastles or collecting leaves;

• listening and negotiating positions in rank order

• justifying decisions

• working in groups and understanding tableau

• discussing activities

Developing whole-class work

Using movement and sound

• become parts of a moving machine one at a time, adding actions and sound effects;

• engaging in a whole-class activity using voice movement and sound

Developing narration and story structure

Using interview and report

• tell a story such as Jack and Beanstalk, with each pupil adding sentence at a time;

• make a news report at the end of a chosen story and include interviews with different characters;

• thinking and speaking in logical story order

• taking on the role of newsreader, interviewer or character

• write headline for story


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Developing spontaneous speech

Using mime and tableaux

• introduce themselves with an action beginning with first letter of their name, for example jumping John and class responds spontaneously;

• introduce the pupil beside them with an action, for example Julie the tap-dancer or Bill the lion tamer; and

• create a tableau, in groups, of a book, film or musical, asking the rest of the class to guess what it is.

• engaging in actions

• understanding alliteration

• working together to create a tableau

• asking appropriate questions

Develop status in group work and respond in role

Use rank order and hot seating

Ask your pupils to:

• take on roles from a story and, in groups, organise themselves from, for example, youngest to oldest or richest to poorest;

• introduce themselves as characters from a story and, in role, answer questions from another group;

• negotiating their position in a status line

• asking appropriate questions and respond in role

• writing a diary entry as a character at the end of the story

Develop spontaneous speech in conversation

Use improvisation in pairs or groups and use digital camera

• work in pairs to develop a conversation, starting with an opening line that you provide such as ‘could I borrow …’, ‘would you like to buy …’ or ‘have you seen ...’;

• create a family photo or tableau, in groups of four to six, at, for example, a wedding, graduation or award party, which comes to life with conversation;

• engaging in pair and group work

• developing characters

• speaking in role

• discussing family occasions

• photographing and discussing other groups’ tableaux, adding a speech bubble to the digital image


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Developing whole-class activity, pair and team work

Use voice, movement, and facial expression– use newspaper reports

• set up two football teams, for example, blues and reds, and create a football pitch, goalposts and supporters with a pupil acting as a football moving between goals and pupils reacting in full voice or slow motion, silently or with gestures; and

• interview the players, manager and supporters before and after the match for a local newspaper.

• engaging with an activity

• using appropriate voice, movement and facial expressions

• using appropriate questioning and answers

• writing a short newspaper article

Developing character and writing in role

Using improvisation and script writing

Ask your pupils to:

• imagine a natural disaster, for example an earthquake or flood, has hit and their school is a refuge;

• take on roles of doctors, nurses, victims, reporters and aid or social workers and present a short TV programme with a brief script;

• speaking and moving in role and develop short improvisations in groups

• developing character and responding to situation

• taking part in a television news programme

Develop character and thinking skills

Using freeze-frame and thought tracking

• use a newspaper article, for example a murder enquiry, shooting or accident, to create improvisations and freeze-frames;

• take on roles in freeze-frames and improvisations to tell the story;

• thought track all the characters;

• using appropriate language for various characters

• discussing a story and sequence of events

• thought tracking characters


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Developing movement and rhythm in pairs

Using mime and music

• use their whole body to explore levels and shapes;

• in pairs build a sequence of moves;

• use different rhythms to present the movement sequence, for example fast, jerky, balletic or slow;

• demonstrating a range of movements

• working in pairs to develop a movement sequence

• responding to rhythms

Developing creative language

Using thought tracking

• create an improvisation of a road accident, in groups of 4–6, including roles such as drivers, victims, passers-by or paramedics; and

• develop a freeze-frame at some stage and express their thoughts in their role.

• negotiating roles and developing story

• working in groups

• using thought tracking effectively

• writing their thoughts in a diary entry as a character

Developing creative thinking

Using conscience alley andwriting in role

Ask your pupils to:

• tell a story and stop at an interesting moment to discuss what might happen next;

• take part in a conscience alley activity, each speaking a line from the story;

• adopting a role and speak thoughts of the character at a given moment

• using conscience alley

• writing in role

Developing melodrama

Using FASfreeze, action, sound

• discuss stock characters such as villain, hero, soldier, queen, magician, clown or dancer;

• make a waxwork of different characters with exaggerated moves and voice;

• adopt chosen roles to create a tableau, using freeze, action or sound in a scenario;

• moving and speaking as different characters

• recognising terms of comedy and tragedy

• using appropriate voice and movement

• creating a melodramatic scenario effectively in groups


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Develop a range of different voices

Using accents • experiment with different accents, after researching them online;

• speak a given line using the accent of a character such as an American tourist, a German spy, a Cockney salesman or an Irish football fan;

• work in pairs to create an improvisation using accents;

• using accents effectively

• working in pairs to create a short improvisation

Developing decision making

Using hot seating • create a desert island scenario, closing their eyes to develop the scene and choosing three objects to have with them;

• move around the class as individuals looking for resources, for example water, shelter or firewood; and

• hot seat each other about the situation and future.

• engaging with the activity and work independently

• responding to questioning

• writing a diary entry to include thoughts and feelings

Developing script and group work

Using tableau and thought tracking

Ask your pupils to:

• create a tableau, in groups, of a school trip to the seaside, a funfair or the zoo;

• use FAS – freeze/action/sound – to develop improvisation and structure into a short scene;

• thought track at specific moments;

• thinking creatively

• working in groups

• speaking in role

• using thought tracking appropriately


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Developing positive and negative thoughts

Using conscience alley and diary entry

• tell the Cinderella story and stop the action as she leaves the ball;

• discuss Cinderella’s situation from different perspectives;

• take part in a conscience alley activity with positive and negative thoughts;

• discuss outcomes and repeat with other characters such as the prince and use other stories;

• engaging in discussion and understanding the difference between positive and negative thoughts

• using conscience alley, write a diary entry on returning home as Cinderella or the prince

Developing opinions and justifying ideas

Using hot seating • explore stories from history and myths and legends;

• take on roles from a story such as Theseus or the Minotaur and, in groups, devise open questions to ask the characters about their decisions;

• answer in role and justify their ideas;

• listening carefully to story and in groups add opinions

• creating and ask appropriate questions

• sustaining a role to answer questions

Developing observation and pair work

Using sculpting, waxworks or mime

• begin with ‘mirror image’ strategy in pairs: A leading B;

• A then sculpts B into a character statue, including facial expression; and

• guess the character through questioning – reverse A and B.

• concentrating on movement and observation

• working effectively in pairs and take direction

• responding appropriately to questioning



Developing language and alliteration

Using caption making

Ask your pupils to:

• explore current affairs or news items such as sport, music, politics, disasters or media;

• create a tableau or freeze-frame showing a news event;

• add a caption using alliteration;

• working in groups and discussing a range of news items

• creating a group tableau

• understanding alliteration

Developing language and headlines

Using group work and tableau and headlines

• explore a topic such as Victorians or Egyptians, choosing a specific moment such as discovering penicillin or an Egyptian Prince’s tomb;

• create a group tableau reflecting the discovery;

• write a headline for the image;

• working effectively in groups and make decisions

• creating a group tableau

• writing an appropriate headline for the tableau that others might guess

Developing listening skills

Using telephone conversations

• sit in a circle to tell a story, one word at a time;

• work in pairs, sitting back to back to tell a story;

• create a conversation to tell someone about something they overheard;

• listening and responding appropriately

• engaging in storytelling and pair work

• creating an appropriate and effective telephone conversation

Developing character and sustained role

Using teacher in role

• explore a topic such as Vikings, with the teacher adopting the role of Chief Knut;

• prepare for a raid as Vikings, for example gathering food, preparing weapons, packing boats and selecting warriors; and

• evaluate their task in role before the raid.

• exploring a topic and engaging in questioning and discussion

• taking on a role and developing a story or improvisation

• responding to teacher in role

• responding to questioning in role

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Activity Ideas for Drama at Key Stage 2 - CCEA

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