2 days ago we had 6 kids joining our special spring program, Creative Drama!

The program was originally planned for 5 days, but instead we had everyone come in for a day and we created a story within 3 hours.

Check out what we did!

春休みのプログラムはクリエイティブドラマ！

もともと5日間の開催予定でしたが、急遽予定を変更して1日のみの開催となりました。

６名の異年齢の子どもたちと私で

３時間という短い時間の中でストーリー作り、発表しました。

何ができたかな？

We played some warm-up / drama games in the first hour so that everyone could be comfortable with me and the group.

- passing claps, sounds

- chants in different emotions

- vocal warm-ups

- balancing games

Pictures are children balancing cups on their heads while walking, crawling and skipping.

最初の１時間はシアターゲームをたくさんやりました。

写真は子供達がチームに分かれてコップを頭の上にのせ、バランスを保ちながら歩いたり、スキップしたり、ハイハイをしている様子です。（笑）

Then we talked about our favorite stories. I gave two examples of made up stories and asked which one they liked. The first story went like this...

1) Once upon a time, there was a cat and a dog. One day they had breakfast together and went to sleep.

The second one went like this...

2) Once upon a time a girl who lived with her grandmother heard a sudden noise in her room while she was sleeping. She then looked out the window but nobody was there. As she went down the stairs she saw her friend on the doorstep and she asked if she could come in as she was being chased by a wolf.....

I asked what the difference was between the 2 stories. The children thought about it and discussed it. We talked about events and problems that could make a story fun and exciting.

So, what would our story be like?

I also read an Ukrainian folk story to discuss characters and events.

I brought in lots of props for the children to help them create a story. The children also brought in some costumes and clothes and we had everything on the table. The children soon had an idea of what they wanted to be.

We had....

a princess fairy, a cat, turtle, singer, a man and a boy.

We looked around the room and out the window to see what the first scene could be. This is the hardest part but when we saw some graves outside, one boy suggested that we could be in a "funeral" - which everyone agreed with!

What an unexpected suggestion!

So from then the story continued....

Once upon a time, there was a funeral going on for their beloved friend Michael. Everyone missed him so much. The singer played some music for the funeral on his harmonica and after that the princess fairy suggested they fly to the sky to find their friend. While they were flying, they met a witch who wouldn't let them go past unless they could answer a riddle. When the magic had gone, all the characters fell to the ground and they landed on Michael's house. The witch tried to stop them by giving them another riddle but they were able to answer and found Michael watching TV in the living room. They were surprised! Then Michael gave them a box with a letter inside which said that they had travelled back in time so that they could save Michael. THE END

ストーリーを面白くさせるためには何が必要か話し合いました。

2つのストーリーを子どもたちに聞かせ、またウクライナの民謡童話の読み聞かせをした後にストーリーには「出来事」や「問題」などが含まれると、よりストーリーを面白くさせることを伝えました。

では、私たちのお話はどうしよう？

机の上に沢山の小道具を乗せ、子どもたちは衣装やパペットを使い自分のキャラクターを作りました。

最初のシーンを作るのが実は一番難しい。

教室の中や外をみんなで見回していたところ、お墓があったので、1人の男の子が

「お葬式はどう？」と💦

予想外なシーンを提案してくれました！

ストーリーはこうなりました。

ある日、プリンセス妖精、猫、亀、男の子2人(ジョンと歌手の男の子)が仲良しだったマイケル君のお葬式に参加していました。歌手の男の子はハーモニカでお葬式の音楽を演奏し、みんな悲しんでいました。

プリンセス妖精はみんなに提案します。

「みんなで空を飛んでマイケルを探しに行こう！」

そして、妖精が魔法を使い、みんなで空を飛び探し始めます。すると、魔法使いと出会い、なぞなぞを解かなければ通らせてくれないというのです。

なんとか正しい答えを出し、先に進みますが急に魔法が解け、みんな地面に落下。。。

落ちたところはマイケル君の家でした。

中に入ろうとすると魔女にまたなぞなぞを出されます。またまたなんとか正解し、リビングに行くとマイケル君が！

みんなびっくりします。マイケル君はみんなに箱を開けるようにお願いし、開けてみるとそこには手紙が入っていました。

あなた達は時を旅しました。マイケル君が明日死ぬ前に助けてあげて

その手紙を読んだみんなはマイケル君を助けることにしたのです。

子どもたちの創造力は予想以上なものでした。

Their creativity was amazing.

Drama is a really effective method to develop children’s language skills, team work, concentration, listening skills and creativity. And this time, children were challenged to utilize their creativity to create a story within the short time.

演劇は子どもたちの言語力だけでなく、チームワーク力、集中力、リスニング力そして創造力を伸ばすのに最も最適です。今回は短い時間の中でいかにストーリーを作り上げられるか？創造力を発揮できる機会となったでしょう。