Curated OER
Mirror Exercise
Kids get up and act! To promote inventiveness, timing, and clowning, they pair up and act as though they are looking in a mirror. Child A does a move while child B attempts to mimic it as closely as possible. This is a fun activity that...
Curated OER
Tug of War Exercise
Learners hone their acting and imagination by playing tug-o-war with an imaginary rope. Each group works together and pretends to pull the other group over the imaginary line with an imaginary rope. This could be a good improve warm up...
Primary Resources
Drama Warm Ups and Circle Games
Circle games, energetic games, calming games, exit games. Whether used as ice breakers, warm ups, or exit strategies, or used in drama classes or content areas, the 28 games detailed in this packet deserve a spot in your curriculum library.
Illinois Elementary School Association
Improv Exercises
Here's an eight-page packet that describes 70 different improv activities to use as warm ups for drama classes.
Curated OER
Pantomime Exercise
Learners of any age can learn to communicate using gestures and their bodies. They create a pantomime of a specific activity without using any words. This resource includes a link to an Off-Broadway Workshop for kids.
Learning to Give
Teaching Playwriting in Schools
The world is a stage, and so is your classroom! Hone the skills of the next generation of Tony® award winners with a set of exercises, reference pages, writing prompts, and excerpts from famous plays.
Curated OER
Theatre: Exploratory Techniques
Using various exploratory techniques, young actors work as an ensemble company to devise, perform and evaluate a piece of theatre for assessment. This outline provides an objective and a list of games and activities that stimulate skills...
Fluence Learning
Writing About Literary Text: Pygmalion and Galatea
Is it crazy to fall in love with your own work, or is that the purest love of all? Compare two renditions of the classic Greek myth Pygmalion and Galatea with a literary analysis exercise. After students compare the similarities and...
New York City Department of Education
Theater Units for Lower and Upper Elementary Levels
Introduce middle schoolers to playwriting and the elements of drama with a six-session storytelling unit that encourages kids to expand their acting and writing skills. The 12-page packet includes overviews of the lessons, assessment...
Judicial Learning Center
The Judge and the Jury
Unless you are a lawyer, you might not understand just how unrealistic Law and Order and other legal dramas actually are. Here's a great resource to help scholars of criminology gain a more realistic perspective. The lesson outlines the...
Curated OER
Act it Out
Students discuss racial stereotypes. In this racial stereotypes instructional activity, students develop a character from information given to them on an index card. Students give their character a race different from their own and...
Curated OER
English Vocabulary Skills: AWL Sublist 8 - Exercise 5a
For this online interactive English vocabulary skills worksheet, high schoolers answer 10 matching questions which require them to fill in the blanks in 10 sentences. Students may submit their answers to be scored.
Curated OER
Co-Operation: Drama
For some schools, character-counts lessons are a big part of the curriculum. This resource focuses on following directions and the importance of being a cooperative team player. Learners role-play a variety of situations by being...
Curated OER
Alicia Keys, Songs in A Minor
Need a musical instructional activity for your drama or performing arts class? VH1 has put together a really neat instructional activity, in which learners use biographical information about Alicia Keys to write and perform a one-act...
Curated OER
The Nature of Chemical Change: Acting Out An Example
Students illustrate the molecular nature of matter and show that chemical change involves alteration of molecules.
Curated OER
A Midsummer Night's Dream
You might not be able to put a girdle around the earth in forty minutes but you can generate interest in A Midsummer’s Night Dream in that length of time. As an introduction to Shakespeare’s comedy, pairs of students assume the roles of...
Curated OER
Verb Tense Exercise 12
In this verb tense worksheet, students fill in blanks with the correct tense of verbs in parentheses, using simple past, present perfect or past perfect. A reference web site is given for additional activities.
Curated OER
Drama: Inferential Thinking
Students anonymously answer a set of questions listing favorite activities and preferences. They exchange papers and attempt to determine certain characteristics of their "mystery" classmate.
Curated OER
Rhythmic Expression
Students discover movement and expression to music/sound through a series of teacher-led exercises and role plays. This lesson is ideal for the middle school drama class with possibilities for adaptation to any level of drama or general...
Curated OER
NOT WASTING
Students brainstorm and analyze creative ways to not waste materials and recycle more as an individual. The theory and importance of conservation is also stressed within this lesson plan. In addition, silent sitting is exercised, story...
Curated OER
Self-acceptance
Young scholars assess the importance of acceptance of self and others via the development of self-worth and the looking for the good in others not the bad. They explore the task of looking at the world through the eyes of others. In...
Curated OER
Respect for Animals
Students discuss importance of acting responsibly when caring for pets, reflect upon quote, "All Living Beings Have the Right to Respect and Kindness," read story Anastasia Wants a Rabbit and answer comprehension questions, role play...
Curated OER
Exploring A Streetcar Named Desire
Students investigate the dramatic elements of a Streetcar Named Desire. In this drama lesson, students explore the theme of the Tennessee Williams play as they read the play and watch performances of some of the acts. Students then write...
Curated OER
Measure for Measure: Are You Talkin' to Me?
Young scholars rehearse and perform an exchange from act three, scene two of the play, Measure for Measure, in pairs. They read the lines from the point of view of a different character in the play, and perform for the class.