Drama Activities for K-6 Students: Creating Classroom Spirit

(Paperback)

Publishing Details

Classifications

Physical Properties

Description

Here, the authors provide dramatic strategies accompanied by age-appropriate stories and poems from around the world that address such issues as sharing, caring, cooperation, consequences, and bullying in order to create a positive classroom environment.

The students' enactments take them to different lands around the globe, back into time, and into their very own neighborhoods. The varied theatrical forms included in this bookpantomime plays, shadow theater, living newspaper, story theater, museum theater, and creative tableausspan the full spectrum of current drama used in the classroom.

To help students create their own variations of the stories with their own dialogue, the authors provide easy-to-follow structures. The framework of Warm-up Development, and Wrap-up, allows teachers and students to discover challenging inquiry and writing techniques and participate in mind-opening discussion and enrichments that can be applied across the curriculum. All activities were designed to promote a deeper sense of trust, mutual respect, and pride in working together.

This book will be a most welcome addition to a teachers' "must have" list of practical books for the classroom.

Visit our website for Sample Readings including a full table of contents!

Reviews

This practical text provides helpful hints and resources, as well as a strong focus on content, in order to augment a K-6 liberal arts education. This book is most helpful for undergraduate preservice elementary education majors, and classroom teachers who want to enhance the imagination of their students. Highly recommended. * Choice Reviews *
If you and your students want to experience the world of creative drama and relate it to reality, this book is your best investment. It is filled with challenging and practical suggestions for invigorating the classroom and the lives of your students. What a delightfully dramatic way to explore positive, peaceful social values! -- Sally-Anne Milgrim, professor of English education, Hunter College
This readable resource offers practical tips that would enable a beginning teacher to get started successfully and provides a wealth of ideas that will enrich the repertoire of the experienced teacher. -- Roberta Devlin-Scherer, professor, educational studies, Seton Hall University
It is refreshing to read a text, the basis of which is an age-old belief in the power of the arts to release the imagination of children, coupled with content that is superbly chosen for its relevance to their needs in today's world. -- Jerrold Ross, PhD, dean emeritus, the School of Education, St. John's University, NY; chair, Arts Education Committee, Department of Education, New York City Public Schools
Drama Activities for K-6 Students successfully weaves the art and practice of classroom drama with rich, substantive content for today's children and their teachers. -- Johnny Saldaa, Arizona State University
More than ever, teachers across the country are facing classroom management issues and students acting out in negative and often disturbing ways. There are few creative drama books on the market that address the needs of elementary school teachers in this area. Your book is greatly needed. -- Nellie McCaslin, renowned professor and author of Creative Drama in the Classroom and Beyond
The large variety of drama activities with easy-to-follow guidelines makes this book an especially useful resource for teachers and parents. -- Coleman A. Jennings, professor of theatre, University of Texas, Austin
There is nothing more invigorating and beneficial for elementary school children than creative drama...This book is a wonderful and inspiring manual for all those concerned about developing the liberal arts when children need them the most. -- Jack Zipes, University of Minnesota and general editor of The Norton Anthology of Children's Literature
An exciting holistic approach to teaching and learning drama. -- Mark Berman, former playwright-in-residence and faculty member of Penn State and Florida State Universities
A must for the classroom teacher as well as the drama specialist. * Nystea Chronicles *

Author Bio

Milton E. Polsky is the cochair of the UFT Players (United Federation of Teachers), an organization that has produced many of his plays. He has taught creative drama at New York City public schools and New York University, the City University of New York, and Hofstra University. Dr. Polsky is a recipient of the Rod Marriott Award for Outstanding Lifetime Achievement in Theatre Education, presented by the New York State Education Association. Among his many popular books are Let's Improvise, You Can Write A Play, and Celebrate Your School Namesake.

Dorothy Napp Schindel is the director of DramaMUSE Associates, a company that creates interactive theater productions and drama-based programs for museums. Her book Pioneer Journeys: Drama in Museum Education (co-authored with Jennifer Fell Hayes) is a recipient of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education's Distinguished Book Award. Author of articles, director, scenic designer, educational theater specialist, and award winning visual artist she has taught at all levels, from kindergarten through college, and has worked in regional and off-Broadway theaters.

Carmine Tabone is the director of the Jersey City-based Educational Arts Team and an adjunct faculty member at New York University in the Program in Educational Theater. He has served as a board member of the American Alliance for Theatre and Education and as a regional governor for the Children's Theatre Association of America. Author of numerous articles, Carmine has conducted workshops for young people, drama leaders, teachers, librarians, and parents in New Jersey public school classrooms and at regional, national and international conferences.