Week 5 "Bringing Puppets to life"- Drama workshop

 

I want to go to the ball!!

 

In today’s workshop (11.4.13) we were assigned to perform our critical Moment scene of our chosen Fairy Tale. My Group and I chose the scene of Cinderella wanting to go the ball, were she is watching her step sisters and step mother get ready. Poor Cinderella is all dressed up thinking she’s going to the ball. During our workshop we were given the opportunity to create our puppets through the use of materials such as, newspaper, net, balloons, elastic ties, etc. Before we begun making our puppets we wrote up a short script to use when performing our Scene. I created and improvised on being Cinderella where I used a balloon to form her head, a blue net as her dress and string and her hair. This workshop allowed my group and I to focus on the movement and voice for each character, the relationship between the characters which can be seen in the video (hate, evil and jealousy relationship) and the manipulation of the elements of drama- TENSION was used in our video where were able to demonstrate the relationship between Cinderella and the evil step mother

As a Pre-service teacher allowing students to perform their critical moment scene allows students to explore how puppets are brought into life within a dramatic context, where they are allowed to further work with their voice, movement and improvise. Students become engaged and feel a sense of appreciation .Through this experience, as a future teacher, I now believe that puppets are a great way to stimulate children’s imagination and build the confidence of the most reluctant students. They are also an effective interactive way of introducing the concept of narratives to students who may need more practical means of engaging with stories (Greensmith, A. 2012).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z08titE6s1A&feature=youtu.be



This is the script that my Gorup and I came up with when performing our critical moment scene of Cinderella- its a 30 second script

Greensmith, A. (2012). Puppets in education. The Creativity Institute. Retrieved on April 11, 2013 from: http://www.creativityinstitute.com/puppetsineducation.aspx

Week 3 "Cinderella Storyboard" - drama Workshop

In today’s workshop (21.3.13) we created a story board of a critical moment of the our chosen Fairy Tale Cinderella. As a group we come up with the narrative and drew pictures of what is happening in each picture and scene of the story. As a group we presented our Critical Moment scene of Cinderella to the class were we also play build and improvised each section of the story. As a pre-service, getting students to write up a story board of a critical moment of a chosen Fairy tale is a task that I would get students to do as it is engaging, fun and students work collaboratively and get the opportunity to improvise, explore status and point of view in role and get into persona.    

Role-play activities that involve students stepping into the characters shoes and some improvisation encourage students to develop their imaginations and express their creativity allowing them to look at stories and ideas from new perspectives. It is also engaging for students and helps to develop communication skills as they cooperate with peers (Rogers, S & Evans, J., 2008).




Rogers, S. & Evans, J. (2008). Inside Role Play in Early Childhood Education: Researching Young Children’s Perspectives. London: Routledge.

Week 2- Drama Lecture

Media Arts- Linking to Drama

In today’s lecture (15.3.13) we looked at the critical moments of a fairy tale, elements of media Arts and what makes a good story. What makes a good story? We focussed on Tension, Characters, Setting story structure (Resolution, coda). We also explored the elements of Media Arts which was useful as it allowed me to further reflect on my Fairy tale video and think about the elements during the making of my Fairy tale video and how those elements are to be incorporated in the scene of my fairy tale video. Victoria demonstrated a critical moment of “Little Red Riding Hood” with Patrick, were they chose the scene were the little red hood was heading to her grandmother’s house and the wolf (Patrick) was following little red riding hood and asking her questions to find out where she was going. Victoria also used a piece of material pretending to be little red riding hood (puppet). In relation to my teaching practice, I will ensure students are provided with the structure that will help student and empower them- where I will teach students to communicate through stories

Week 1 "Fairytales" - Introduction Lecture

                                              

  Fairy tales

 

“If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to more intelligent, read them more fairy tales” (Albert Einstein)

In todays Introductory lecture ( 8.3.13) we started off with a brainstorm of all the different Fairy Tales everyone in the course could think of. Victoria Campbell explained that the creative Arts unit is going to be focusing on the theme of fairytales, were we were assigned to think of a fairy tale (Cinderella) and form into a group and choose a critical moment of the fairy tale and create a still Image. My group and I chose the critical moment where Cinderella Leaves the ball at 12 , where I pretended to me Cinderella, where the rest of my peers pretended to be the Clock, Prince, Carriage and  fairy godmother. During the lecture we look at what are fairy tales? The types of fairy tales and how they have been modified to the original fairy tale and what they meaning of purpose of it. Victoria read the the true story of the Tree little pigs to further show how Fairy tales have chnaged in todays world (Fractured Fairy Tales). We also explored a range of different fairy tales showing the original fairy tales and pictures of how it has been modified to the "Present" time were we were able to look at how these changes are trying to convey a different meaning to the original fairy tale.