Parent Magazine St. Johns September 2019 | Page 16

• Role Plays
Role playing games give kids
practice in “being” someone else.
There are hundreds of ways to
begin—scenarios to act out, themes
to guide the dialogue, choosing
animate or inanimate characters,
using verbal or non-verbal
responses. Here is an example of a
role play game children love. Bus
Stop: one child sits at the bus stop
and another joins the first. Both
have chosen secret roles and speak
to one another in character. All
playing try to guess their identities.
• Improvisation
In the world of drama,
improvisation is a form of live
theater in which plot, characters
and dialogue of a scene or story are
made up in the moment. The entire
activity is spontaneous. Often the
topic is suggested by an audience
member and the actors take it from
there. Each performance is unique.
Improv can be a bit intimidating for
those new to it, but improv games
can take the fear out of the process
through exposure and a “no fail”
attitude.
In improvisation games for kids,
the leader selects players, and they
draw a topic or scenario from a
basket. There is no right or wrong,
just responses. Skills will improve
with opportunities to take part in
the game. Children will become
more and more comfortable with
quick responses and actions. Improv
is often funny because of the
surprising responses.
• Pantomime
Pantomime exercises are non-
verbal responses to prompts. They
make for great drama guessing
games and practice in thinking
16 | S T. J O H N S parent M A G A Z I N E
creatively. If the prompt is office
work, the player must think of a
way to portray that, possibly by
typing on a virtual keyboard or
making copies at a virtual copy
machine. If the topic is jungle, the
actor might act like a monkey.
There are literally hundreds of
theater and drama games. Check
the resources below to find the
right ones for your children.
Try Puppet Theater
Sock puppets, paper puppets,
wooden spoon puppets, paper bag
puppets—kids love to make and
use puppets to tell their stories.
Turn over a table and crouch
behind it or cut out the back of
a cardboard box and you have a
puppet theater. Write your own
script from a favorite fairy tale, folk
tale, myth or legend. Or write a
script using family members as the
characters.
Puppet theater extensions make a
great response to a story book that
is the current favorite. Children also
enjoy writing the exploits of their
favorite superhero. The choices
are endless as long as you see the
opportunity to guide your children
toward a hands-on response to
something they know, love and are
excited about.
Skits
You’ll remember skits from summer
camp days. Skits are short dramatic
responses to some topic or scenario.
Write your own or purchase skits
from one of the resources below.
Retelling Stories
If you’ve read my book,
Homegrown Readers , you’ll
know that retelling stories is
one of the best ways to increase
reading comprehension. The
process of remembering the
beginning, middle and end of a
story, mentioning details about
the characters and setting and
explaining the resolution of the
story are skills that ensure a good
understanding of the story content.
Oral tradition stories make good
retells.
Retells can be done with a bit
of flair and become a form of
theater. Have your children take
turns telling the same story. See
who remembers a new bit of
information or who can embellish
the character. Change the ending
of the story. How would that affect
the entire story line?
Reader’s Theater
Reader’s Theater, or oral
interpretation, is a kind of drama