October 6, 2011
Introduce your children to roleplay with this fun adaptation of Grandmother’s Footsteps, which doubles up as a fun game for Halloween!
Don’t worry if you’re not interested in ghosts and ghoulies – this activity can be adapted for all sorts of topics.
Begin with the children spread out across the hall in their own space. Suggest a type of spooky character, like a witch or a ghost, and ask them to strike a pose in that character. Get them to try out a few different ones. Then extend this by getting them to walk around the space as each character, calling out what you want them to be. Encourage them to think about how their character would move. You could even ask them to display different emotions – a happy ghost, an upset witch etc!
When they’ve got the hang of this, ask them to pick their favourite character to be. Then choose one pupil (or yourself!) to stand at one end of the room, and the rest of the class at the other. When the lone person is facing the wall, the children have to creep forwards across the room in the style of their character. The lone person can turn around at any time, at which point everybody must freeze. If anybody is seen moving by the lone person, they’re out! The winner is the person who can reach the other side of the room without getting caught.
Top tip: Set the scene by encouraging the children to imagine that they are moving through a forest with twigs and leaves on the ground – they have to move slowly and quietly so as not to get caught. This should stop them running towards the other end of the room!
You can adapt this game for almost any story that you are studying. The main objective is to encourage the children to use roleplay to imagine how different characters might look and behave.
For more drama games and ideas, book a Freshwater drama INSET for your school.
Categories: Freshwater Theatre Company News
Posted by: admin @ 4:34 pm
September 2, 2011
Have you got a new class this year? Or maybe you just need a reminder? Learn all your pupils’ names quickly and easily with this versatile name game. It’ll also help any new pupils to feel included and confident.
Get the class to stand in a circle.
Tell them that they must introduce themselves to the group in an interesting way. Depending on the age group, you could ask them to think of an adjective to precede or follow their name that starts with the same letter, like Super Sara or Jumpy James!
If they’re not quite ready for alliteration, ask them to use a gesture or movement to go with their name. Or why not combine gesture and alliteration?! Then go around the circle so everybody introduces themselves.
Afterwards, you could ask each child to repeat one of the other children’s gestures that they can remember.
For more drama games and ideas, book a Freshwater drama INSET for your school.
Categories: Freshwater Theatre Company News
Posted by: admin @ 4:05 pm
June 3, 2011
This game is great for a whole class of children, and will get them concentrating as well as having lots of fun. It can be adapted in so many ways, and lends itself really well to teaching languages. You can even take it outside into the playground if the sun’s shining!
Get the children to stand in a circle. You can begin the game by imagining you have hold of a ball of any size - football, golf ball etc. Show with your hands and body how large and heavy it is. Then, call someone’s name across the circle and pretend to throw the ball to them. The same sized ball must be caught as is thrown. The catcher then throws the ball on to somebody else. As the pace of the game picks up, you can have several different sized imaginary balls going at once!
There a many variations of this game – perhaps you could give everybody a number instead of their name, and the children must say the number of the person they are throwing to in French. You could also use it to help build sentences in languages: the thrower might say “Bonjour John. Ca va?â€, and then when John catches the ball, he says “Oui, ca va, merci Sally.†Simply adjust the complexity of the sentence to fit your children’s level, and encourage them to be creative with their answers.
For more great drama activities, book a Freshwater INSET for you and your colleagues.
Categories: Drama Activities
Posted by: admin @ 2:50 pm
May 5, 2011
Get your children using their bodies and voices to explore different environmental scenes and compare the levels of pollution. It can easily be adapted to suit a range of topics, or you can just play for fun!
Split the group into two halves. One group is the ‘landscape’, the other the ‘soundscape’. First, give them a healthy environment scene such as a meadow, a forest or by the sea (perhaps encourage them to think of a cliff or somewhere that is not populated by humans). The landscape group must create a tableaux of the scene, using their bodies to create a ‘frozen picture’. The soundscape group must make the accompanying sounds.
Next, swap the groups over so the landscape group become the soundscape group, and vice versa. This time, ask them to create a tableaux of a polluted environment such as a motorway, airport or city centre, or a forest being destroyed. Once again, the soundscape group provides the appropriate sounds.
Encourage the children to think about the different sounds they hear, perhaps looking at why you might not see very much wildlife at an airport or on a motorway.
This activity can just be used for fun if you give random scenarios, or perhaps to bring scenes from a play or a book to life.
For more drama ideas, book a Freshwater INSET for you and your colleagues.
Categories: Freshwater Theatre Company News
Posted by: admin @ 11:26 am
April 1, 2011
You will probably need to be in the hall or a similar large space for this game.
Get the group to sit in a circle. Choose a pupil to be the farmer.
The farmer must walk around the outside of the circle and touch each member of the group gently on the top of the head, saying “lamb” for each one. Each lamb bleats when it is touched on the head!
When the farmer decides, they can touch a group member gently on the head, but instead of saying “lambâ€, they say “wolf!â€. The person who has been designated as the wolf must get up as quickly as possible and try to catch the farmer before they get back to the wolf’s place in the circle and sit down. Both the farmer and the wolf must run all the way around the outside of the circle, not cut across the middle.
The wolf then becomes the farmer, or the farmer remains the farmer if he/she gets caught by the wolf.
For a variation, get the children to stand up in the circle and hold hands. One child is the wolf and another the lamb. The wolf starts outside of the circle and the lamb on the inside (in the ‘pen’). The group must help the lamb by lifting their arms to let it in or out of the pen, and hinder the wolf by lowering their arms to stop it from getting to the lamb. The lamb can only stay inside the pen to the count of 5 at any time.
For more drama activities, book a Freshwater drama INSET.
Categories: Drama Activities
Posted by: admin @ 6:10 am
March 24, 2011
We’d really like to hear what you think of our website.
All you have to do is fill in this short survey, and you could be the winner of a 20% discount on your next booking of up to 3 drama sessions!
Click here to be taken to our survey.
Thank you so much for your time.
Categories: Freshwater Theatre Company News
Posted by: Freshwater Theatre Company @ 6:10 pm
March 23, 2011
Want to find out more about what London theatres can offer your school? Come and join Freshwater and a host of other theatres at Education Live on Tuesday 5 April from 5 - 7pm. You will get the chance to chat to theatre professionals face to face, take part in two taster workshops and will receive a ticket to see a major West End show that night!
For further details and how to book please click here.
Categories: Freshwater Theatre Company News
Posted by: admin @ 6:38 pm
March 16, 2011
We’ve heard that some of you are planning a cross-curricular topic in celebration of Prince William and Kate Middleton’s wedding on Friday 29th April, so we’ve created a brand new workshop, ‘The Quest for… A Royal Wedding’!
The Knight of Knowledge will take the children on a journey through the ages to learn about the Kings and Queens through the ages and the traditional of street parties, with a focus on this particular romantic event.
We’ve still got some slots available on Tuesday 26th and Wednesday 27th April, but this workshop will be available all year around and is perfect if you’re studying the Royal Family or Kings and Queens of the past.
Click here to read more about our ‘Quest for Knowledge’ drama workshops, or contact us for further information.
Categories: Freshwater Theatre Company News
Posted by: admin @ 10:12 am
March 3, 2011
Making Rain is great for getting the children to focus, as they must concentrate, listen and respond to what is going around them – and it saves your voice.
It could be developed as a behaviour management technique to get the class to be calm after breaktime.
Sit in a circle. The teacher begins to ‘make rain’ by rubbing their hands together, and the children follow. To make the rain louder, tap your knees with your fingertips, then gently pat your thighs, and pat harder to make the rain louder. The children should imitate your movements.
Reduce the sound as the ‘rain shower’ passes, so you are back to rubbing your hands, and then silent.
Encourage the children to think about how the ‘rain cloud’ has been blown along towards you, and then away as the rain dies away again.
Hopefully you won’t need to use your voice at all as the children will be concentrating on listening to the ‘rain’, and then you should get a beautiful moment of hush once the rain has stopped!
For more drama ideas and activities to use in your classroom, book a Drama INSET session with Freshwater Theatre Company.
Categories: Drama Activities
Posted by: admin @ 5:40 pm
February 4, 2011
Freshwater Theatre Company has been delivering high quality workshops and shows to support the foundation and primary school curriculum for fifteen years.
We are looking for an intern to work in the office in East London for 2 days per week for a period of 6 weeks, to support the Business Development Officer and General Manager in research and development initiatives, as well as general administrative tasks.
You will be a motivated, resourceful, friendly and confident person who is very competent using MS Office, internet and email applications. You will be responsible for a development project which will involve researching a potential new market, as well as gaining experience in general administrative tasks such as filing, invoice chasing and telephoning schools.
You will gain invaluable experience in the administration and operation of the theatre in education sector, plus a working understanding of our company.
This role would suit someone who is looking to gain some concrete and very useful experience in arts administration and organisation and who can commit to two days per week for a period of approximately 6 weeks.
Please note that this role is office based and does not involve practical experience in leading workshops or acting in shows.
To apply, please forward the following materials to ellen@freshwatertheatre.co.uk by 4pm on Wednesday 16th February:
Cover letter detailing why you would be right person for this position and what you will gain from the opportunity
CV (with names of at least two references and their relationship to you)
The position is due to start around 1st March, and you must be available to interview in the week commencing 21st February.
Categories: Freshwater Theatre Company News
Posted by: admin @ 4:46 pm
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