Applying Our Learning In The Classroom: Grade 5/6

Today we had the experience to go into a grade 5/6 and grade 11/12 classroom to teach different improv warm-ups and activities. We did a lot of fun activities that Tara and I tried in our own learning experiences, and the kids had a blast. I learned in my internship that drama is one of my favourite subjects to teach, and by teaching improv games today it reinforced my love of the arts in schools.

With the grade 5/6 class, we did a number of activities including

1. Mirror – students had a partner and mirrored what the others were doing.
2. Falling – students had a partner and were asked to fall into their partners arms.
3. “Yes, And…” – with this game we were able to play it in a circle.
4. “Fortunately, Unfortunately” – the students to wonderful with engaging in this game. Like “Yes, And…”, this game worked significantly better in a large group as opposed to in pairs.
5. “Darling, I Love You”

Here are some pictures from our drama experiences in the grade 5/6 classroom:

As a closing activity, Mrs. Baade had the class write in their journals about what they liked about the improv activities and what they had learned. Tara and I then responded to the students’ journal entries. This was a fabulous idea, incorporating Language Arts into the Arts Education lesson. Here is a preview of the letters that the students wrote to us in response to our improv lesson and my response back to them.