Getting on and Falling Out

Getting on and falling out

Year 3/4 Unit: The Saddest King

Drama Objectives (from Drama in Schools 2) Literacy Framework Objectives Making – Explore problems in an imagined world and To present events and characters through dialogue to make up plays from stories or other stimuli. Use engage the interest of the audience. dialogue in existing texts as well as create their own. To use some drama strategies to explore stories or Performing – act out improvised dramas and existing issues. scripts, creating characters that are clearly different from themselves. Responding – make simple connections between the drama they experience and their own lives. SEAL ‘I can’ statements I can tell when I should share a worry I can choose when to show my feelings and when to hide them. I can tell if I have hidden my feelings. I can choose to act assertively. I can express myself assertively in a variety of ways.

Resources Key Vocab ‘The Saddest King’ by Chris Wormell Storyteller, performance, drama faces, mantle of the Drama sack – cloth to use as teacher in role. expert, Role, Still image, improvisation, hot-seating, Emotion masks if possible, otherwise paper masks with thought-tracking

HIAS Healthy Schools website Getting on and falling out – Natalie Smith, Uplands Primary School 1 happy/ sad/ angry etc faces drawn on. Crown

Teaching Sequence

1. Establish rules for drama and stopping signals. 2. Practice ‘drama faces’: Put on your drama face and show me how you would look if you were happy/ sad/ cross etc. emphasise that drama faces may be exaggerated, so that an audience can tell quickly what the character is feeling. 3. ‘Wake up the dragon’: Chn must say ‘Wake up’ to the imaginary dragon, in the manner you tell them e.g. cross/ cheery/ quiet/ frustrated etc. 4. Imaginary present: Pass round a real or imaginary box. What present would make you happy? What is in the box? 5. What present would you give to the person next to you to make them happy? 6. Show the front cover of ‘The Saddest King’. Discuss why it might be called that. The king looks happy on the cover. 7. Role on the wall of the king: Outline of a man. Put everything we know about him inside the outline (not much at the moment), and questions you would like to find out around the outside of the outline. 8. Read up to P4. Build a Magic Gateway in to the land where everyone is happy. What do you see as you walk in to the land? On the signal, freeze in a pose which shows something you might do in the land. Teacher thought tracks some pupils in their still image. Now ask ch. to move slightly so that they are interacting with someone near to them. Thought track again.

2 Getting on and falling out – Natalie Smith, Uplands Primary School HIAS Healthy Schools website 9. Read Up to P8 (the law is that everyone has to be happy). Does it make a difference if you have no choice in being happy? 10. Next page – small boy is crying. Who is he? Why is he crying? Role on the wall if wanted. 11. Mantle of the expert/ Super-helpers: Children in role as the villagers. A meeting has been called to discuss the boy who is crying and to try to help him. Teacher enters in role as the boy’s teacher, who is worried that he is looking sad in class. Chn discuss ideas to help the boy. 12. Read the next pages to show what the villagers do, up to the guards taking him away. In pairs, one be the boy, one be the king. Improvise what might happen when the boy meets the king. Teacher to pick a good pair who really think about the characters and what might happen. 13. Forum Theatre using example pair. Watch the pair, what happens when they get stuck? If you can see a way of solving the problem put hand up and then come in and replace one of the actors. Can the class come up with a genuine solution to the problem? 14. Back to the book. What would the boy be feeling when he talks about his dog. Use drama faces. 15. Read that the king is wearing a mask. Bring out a selection of emotion masks. How does your body change when you put one on? Does it make any difference to the way you feel? 16. Now quietly, eyes closed, to yourself think of a time when you might really want to hide your real feelings. Eyes closed but hand up to volunteer answers. 17. Discuss when you might ‘wear a mask’ to hide your real feelings? Still images in groups of 3/4 of times when you might be sad, or cross, but cover it up. When tapped on the shoulder show the drama face your character is really feeling. 18. Read about the King’s dog. Add to the role on the wall about the king. What do we know about him now? Have we answered some of our questions? Are there any more questions we might want to ask? 19. Read about the king ripping up the decree. How would you feel if you were one of the villagers? Use drama faces.

HIAS Healthy Schools website Getting on and falling out – Natalie Smith, Uplands Primary School 3 20.Now re-visit what you would see if you walked in to the village and thought track. How is it different? Which version of the village would you rather live in? 21. Read the end of the story. Exit through the Magic Gateway. 22. Take off ‘drama faces’. Cool down activity – describe a relaxing voyage.

4 Getting on and falling out – Natalie Smith, Uplands Primary School HIAS Healthy Schools website