Drama / Roleplay Camp - Elementary

[jglide]

Here is a play from teachingenglishgames.com.  Other plays on the site cost money and I can't vouch for them.  This was is really simple and easy - good for the little ones.

[strangeconceits]

heya, i'm also doing plays for winter camp, elementary (grades 4-6)

i found an amazing source for free scripts for children, easy to modify if needed. i personally have to teach about ten different plays and this site has over 300. I've only looked at a few, but they seems to be decent lengths (1-2 pages) with many topics. this is where all my material will come from, most likely.

http://www.kidsinco.com/complete-list-of-playscripts/

[H.W.]

I don't see a thread for this, so here is what I have so far.  I have scripts for grades 3-5 but no one is signing up for 6th yet so I am re-writing it to feature fewer characters.  Was aiming for 12-15 possible roles in each play with the narrator role filled by a teacher (at least at my school it would have to be).  The the other file is of four very short scripts for grades 1-2.  I also wrote some songs, which only need tunes, which should not be too hard.  All these stories are public domain so feel free to use them and change them as you please.  The only thing that I don't own is the character SpongeBob from one of the grade 1-2 scripts, but I wrote the words myself. 

[mteacher]

Wow, great thanks!!! :)

[wheyguk]

Hi all

Here are my materials for the roleplays/storytelling lessons I will be doing this year. I made most of this except the Whose dung is this stuff.

Fighting!

[wheyguk]

http://www.youtube.com/v/THmHFHBWQZc

[mod edit: removed excess code]

[anigerla]

Not sure whether this goes here but similar theme:

[H.W.]

and here is the sixth grade script, pared down to 9 roles, or fewer if you double up a bit.

[teacher_del]

Thanks for the scripts.  I hope to use them sometime next year. 

As for grade 6, they're going into middle school next year, so parents with any money whatsoever push them into hardcore hagwon over the winter break.  I have one sixth grade student in my winter camp.  One. 

[H.W.]

Haha last count same for my sixth grade camp.  Most of these kids' parents in my area don't really have money, so you'd think my camp would be a bigger draw.  I had 67 grade 1-2 applicants and they had to add an extra class (fine, mo' money fo' me) and have a lottery to exclude 22 kids!!!  My co-teach told me that the parents of the grade 1-2s want to expose their kids to a native speaker, and at 10k won they thought it was a good investment, I guess not so much for my 6th graders :(

[elizabethnoelle11]

wow one!! i thought my 8 students for 6th grade camp was bad... that kid should be fluent by the end of camp:)

doing a play with my 1st and 2nd graders (elem) which could be disastrous. someone shared this script with me here on waygook so I will also share it on this thread as well!

[H.W.]

Yeah I feel you on the 1st and 2nd graders...my short role-plays already feel kind of ambitious...but we shall see. 

Check out this website for awesome drama games, many of which seem already tailor-made for ESL use...and many that aren't can be modified.  I am definitely excited to use these games.

http://www.childdrama.com/lessons.html

[ucla_all_the_way]

Great idea HW.  When I was brainstorming ideas for my winter camp I thought about trying to do a drama/acting camp but I couldn't really hash things out.  This will help a lot next  year for my summer camp

[H.W.]

ALways glad to help, Fellow Explorers  ;)  Especially considering all the help I get on this site.

Here are my 10-day outlines for 3/4 camp and 5/6 camp...they split grades and went based on English level (which they told me at the last minute LOL, but it actually makes planning easier, so it's not a complaint.)  The outlines are pretty much the same, except I changed a couple activities to ones that I really wanted to do for 5/6 because they can handle it better.  Most of the drama games are taken from my own memory or from the link I posted earlier...truly a treasure trove of great drama games that work for ESL.  Any questions at all you can email/PM me or ask in the thread, I will be back periodically, esp. to let people know how it went!

[H.W.]

here is a ppt. of the Snow White role-play I am doing with grade 1-2.  I have not animated it yet, but it's got all the lines.  It might need some Korean added to it.  I will add the other ppts once I finish them and any updates by editing this post.

[Ectofuego]

attempt number 5 to offer stuff

This board only allows certain formats than when you try to fix it it said that I already posted, which it didnt show a post.. arrg.  Here, have this.

I have many more dramas and workbooks associated with them

[kerks]

I did a summer Theater camp and my kids loved doing warm-ups- tongue twisters, character games, etc. It really helped them forget to be scared to speak English and our script work went much better once we started class with these.

[H.W.]

Here's a progress report after 2 days.  I have discovered that my students are really a lot lower level than I realized and I realized that reading out loud is really difficult for some of them.  This should not have been a surprise, since I remember now that in high school when we would read out plays in class there were always some native speaking students who stumbled, read robotically and mispronounced words.  I should have known better.  I chalk this one off as a rookie mistake, and I will adjust my plan.  I am going to de-emphasize the performance aspect, and I will make it more about process than product.  I will give the more confident students a chance to perform short scene snippets as they please on the final day, but I will not force any students who do not want to, although I will porbably make them all sing the songs together...

I am not at all discouraged, as I made this plan with contingencies and have been prepared all along to change as I go.  I am going to focus more on games to encourage free speaking, physicality and humour.  I am going to reduce the amount of time in my planned schedule devoted to rehearsing scenes, but there will still be some rehearsal.  I think the scripts could have worked really well with slightly higher level students, but only a minority of the kids at my school have set foot inside an English hagwon, so the third and fourth graders especially are swimming over their heads....I have to say they are still trying really hard.  I am so proud of them. 

All that said, I have some students that are reading really easily and fluidly and are loving their roles.  I threw in words like "stupid", "ugly" and "crazy" so they are having lots of fun with that.  I also have a male Cinderella, stepsister and stepmother...the boys are getting wonderfully goofy, so that's good.   

Sorry I guess that's a really long update but I thought it would be worth sharing my field tests with you.  I have learned that flexibility is just as important as planning. 

[elizabethnoelle11]

Hey everyone,

These are the plays I eventually ended up using, thought I would share since everyone was so generous... Used a lot of the suggested and made them a little better I think, thanks again everyone for the help!!

[AnnieMarie]

I adapted this play for my lower level students to practice during camp and preform at parents day. It was nice!