It’s that time of year when veteran teachers everywhere keep their eyes glued to their televisions and entertainment magazines. Why? To scan for the names of former students when the Oscar nominees are announced. Or am I the only one who does that?
To be honest, I didn’t employ nearly as much dramatic play or classroom theater in my time as a teacher as I had wished to. Bringing dramatic play into the classroom was something many of my own teachers had done quite well. Everything from weekly fake news broadcasts to long-form playwriting as reading comprehension test to videotaped Parent Night welcome message from Johnny Carson and Ed McMahon–we got plenty of opportunity to learn and ham it up.
Think beyond holiday pageants. Do you find the time to work dramatic play into your lessons? And if so, how often? I’d love to write a whole teachers’ resource guide about dramatic play in the middle grades. Share your ideas here!
One year I found a cute activity in a book that had 3 students sitting on chairs in the front of the classroom. The student in the middle was the protagonist from a classroom reading assignment, the student on the right side was a good little angel, suggesting good ways for the character to solve a problem. The student on the left was a bad little devil, encouraging the character to make bad choices. The students then took a few minutes roll playing a given situation, from the book, or hypothetical. It was really fun and creative.
Hey Josh Duhmel (sp) was from our School District!! His mom also taught in the district and his younger sister went to our school. Josh once came and taught our 4th graders how to dance. This was when he was a soap opera star on All My Children.
Josh has returned to our city many times to help out. He came and did a fund raiser when parts of our city flooded. Fergie and her group did a concert too.
I think dramatic play is one of those teaching practices, that takes a lot of trial and error, and a willingness to accept a lot of failure. I see it done best, when teachers get their classes together, and have each other to lean on.
We love doing dramatic play! We have a musical where they have a stage, fake microphones, instruments, and spot light. We also have bakery, pizza shop, farmer’s market, and ice scram shop. There are so many things you can do in the dramatic play area for preschool.