Drama at Olives

Drama at Olives

For two consecutive Fridays, two standards at Olives took part in drama workshops during an hour and a half block of creative arts.  As we had both studies drama a lot at home, Amy and I took charge in an attempt to get the children involved with acting.  This proved to be a challenging task. Without any clear idea of what to expect, we decided that the best introduction to acting is always to play some drama games.  We chose a variety of games that would be fun and hopefully engage the children, while helping them to embrace acting, and generally make themselves look a little bit silly.

Volunteers Carla and Nick with Students from Standard 5 and 6  

Standard 5 and 6 were split into groups and reassured that it was just playing games; they quickly became engaged and enthusiastic.  Most of the children enjoyed playing Sheriff, Wink Murder and Zip, Zap, Boing.  When it came to improvisation, the kids got into the swing of it, becoming lions, football players and all types of people.  By the end of the lesson there was definitely a good atmosphere and many of the children were disappointed when we had to stop. 

Students enjoying the drama games

 

When the time came to plan for the next creative arts lesson, we were confident and promptly taught our fellow volunteers some games that we felt the children would enjoy.  These covered everything from warm-ups to improvisation to focus games.  Armed with a variety of games, a schedule so the groups would not bump into each other, and high hopes, we started creative arts with standards 3 and 4.

The best laid plans of mice and men...this time we were not so successful.  Standards 3 and 4 were able to participate in some games; my group were very good at an activity in which they walked around the space modifying their movements depending on what I told them,  but we all ended up playing one of their favourite games Duck, Duck, Goose and various clapping games.

Volunteer Amy with Standard 3 and 4

 All in all, most of the children enjoyed at least some of the activities and even if our plans didn’t quite work out, just having some fun with the kids outside of the classroom was worth the effort.
 

Volunteers Jenny Lloyd and Amy Morgan

Drama at Olives