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May 30, 2008

Curriculum Spotlight: Kindergarten 5-30-2008

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The Drama of Kindergarten
Shericka Hodges 

I am sure we all agree that the Kindergarteners never fail to amaze and surprise us. It has been a joy to work with such a dynamic group of kids. It is so wonderful to sit in the front row and watch them grow in confidence as learners. The social atmosphere in our kindergarten classroom promotes risk- taking and the ability express all kinds of ideas. As a former theatre major, I know that the opportunity for children to creatively express what they learn is key to their emotional, social and academic maturity.

Since we are studying a unit on prehistoric animals, specifically dinosaurs, the children were given the opportunity to show what they have learned!

Without warning, we decided to discuss with them several theatre terms: cast, plot, theme, and setting. After 10 minutes of conversation we randomly split our class of 24 students into 4 groups. Each group was given exactly 10 minutes to come up with a short play, and 2 minutes to perform it in front of their peers. They had to listen to each other’s ideas, assign characters, decide a plot, setting, and finally come up with a title. Yes, 10 minutes to create and 2 minutes to perform!  Smile


The titles were: “Dinosaur Chomp,”  “Dinosaur Land,” “The Road Runners” and “Dinosaur Trouble.” Two groups decided to do a play that could explain why the dinosaurs went extinct. One child played an exploding volcano! What an imagination! They also came up with the idea to have a narrator. We didn’t even discuss that! Surprisingly, not all the plays had ferocious meat-eating dinosaurs; one play had friendly dinosaurs that liked to play and sleep in the sun! Some dinosaurs had special defensive moves like Anklylosaurus, who used his bone-crushing tail to save his plant-eating buddies. The students figured how to put this together in a very short amount of time and even came up with the idea of using a narrator, which was a great way to handle the time challenge. As I ran around to each group informing them of how much time they had left, it was fun hearing all their ideas.

They had a great time and worked amazingly well together. Steve and I were excited for them and amazed at the level of skill they showed. These are among the many moments that make teaching so much fun. I hope to continue creating this lively space for the kindergarteners to discover their endless learning possibilities.

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