The first film aims to get teachers started with using classroom drama activities. The context is exploring folk and fairy tales using simple drama strategies.
The video
1. Beginning a drama
Drama workshop leader, Richard Sumitro, introduces the film, which follows a P4 class (children aged 7 and 8) and their teacher in Glasgow as they work their way through Session 1 of Framework 1: The Enchanted Forest.
Session 1 of the framework provides a simple sequence of drama activities that a teacher new to drama could use to explore traditional stories and folk tales. In the film the pupils:
- Explore typical stories set in a forest - a place of enchantment and transformations
- Embody the characters and settings of our version of the story Rumplestiltskin
- Act out the story as a whole class
- Explore children’s personal responses to the story.
The drama strategies demonstrated in the film are:
- Stop and Go: pupils begin by following simple instructions - 'Stop!', 'Go!', etc - and develop this to showing still pictures of key features of the story; either the characters, settings or other elements of the narrative
- Story Whoosh: the teacher reads the text of Rumplestiltskin aloud with the class; pupils take it in turn to show key moments from the story, sometimes adding dialogue, before they are 'Whooshed!' back to their seat by the teacher.
More information on the drama strategies used in the film can be found in Framework 1 and in the Teacher Notes. Use the Framework to deliver the drama, which references when to incorporate or share the additional resources linked below.
Duration: 14' 29"
Resources
The framework pdf documents include hyperlinks to the individual resources. For best performance it is strongly recommend that you download the framework pdf and then open it using a suitable program - such as Acrobat - rather than using the framework in your browser.
Framework 1: The Enchanted Forest. document
Drama activities exploring folk and fairy tales. Accompanies Film 1: Beginning a drama.
Teacher Notes. document
Offers an overview of the content of the resources and more detail on the drama strategies included.
Resource 1: Stop and Go - prompts. document
A series of prompts teachers can use when running the 'Stop and Go' section of Session 1.
Resource 2: Story Whoosh - 'Rumplestiltskin' document
The text of our adaptation of 'Rumplestiltskin' to read aloud during the Story Whoosh.
Resource 3: Teacher in role - script. document
A series of questions the teacher can ask pupils as part of Session 1.
Resources 4, 5 and 6: Music tracks. audio
Three contrasting pieces of music to underscore the Five point narrative
Resource 7: Six part story method - template. document
A template you can use with pupils to help them plan their own stories.
Related resources from BBC Teach
Our animations of well-known traditional stories:
Jack and the Beanstalk - for KS1
Little Red Riding Hood - for KS1
Tiddalik the Frog
Anansi and the Moss-Covered Rock
Lakshmi and the Clever Washerwoman
Audio resources offering traditional stories (told by famous voices) with drama activities to join in with:
KS1 Drama: Traditional Stories
