Connecting drama experiences to the curriculum

I've been thinking about how valuable of an experience going into role is and how it connects to building social and emotional skills among children in our classrooms today.  From what I can see, when a group of students and their teacher go into role it creates an environment where students are able to deepen their self awareness and in doing so strengthen relationships among themselves.

McLeod (1988) refers to a definition of role creates that creates a more defined understanding of how valuable role playing is as a means to "see the world from another perspective".  I believe that there are more and more of my students who have difficulty seeing things from another person's point of view. 

Dorothy Heathcote shows how collective drama works so well in classroom settings.  It is an incredible way to meet many of the social emotional deficiencies that we see in our students today.

Gratitude

After the holiday season

thoughts of gratitude have arisen in my mind.

I read this article and I can't stop thinking about it.

click on this link and it will take you to the article...it's worth reading!

Gratitude

I've been working hard to model this for my students and I've been trying to create opportunities for my students to engage in acts of gratitude.

We began the day on Monday by gathering in a circle.

The students gently held hands with one another and I asked them to, without talking, look carefully at one another and acknowledge how fortunate there were to be part of this group of students.

I asked them to show their appreciation for one another by smiling at one another and continuing to hold hands in a gentle and caring way.

Later that morning we made banana bread together and before we ate it we thought about what we had all done to contribute to the making of the bread.

The children started thanking one another for the delicious banana bread!

So beautiful.

We wrote a letter to the substitute teacher thanking her for the things that she had taught the students while I was on my educational leave.

Today they decided who they would write a thank you letter to and tomorrow they will write their letters.  One little boy asked if he could decorate his letter to make the receiver feel MORE happy!

The plan for Friday is to make things that can be given as a small gift to a friend or family member.  

These children are building a strong sense of gratitude and so am I!

Leave a comment and tell me what you are grateful for and who you teach gratitude to your students and or children.

Warmest wishes,
Angela