{"id":5147,"date":"2021-01-19T16:56:02","date_gmt":"2021-01-19T21:56:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/numbertwopencil.org\/?page_id=5147"},"modified":"2021-01-19T16:57:02","modified_gmt":"2021-01-19T21:57:02","slug":"readers-theater","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/numbertwopencil.org\/?page_id=5147","title":{"rendered":"Readers\u2019 Theater"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

In my experience teaching pre-school and elementary school children, I was delighted to put together many plays<\/strong> for children and their families, as well as concerts. When you take into account the children\u2019s ages, you discover at least three possibilities.
You can:
1. You can buy<\/strong> a reader\u2019 theater script for many subjects and books;
2. You can take a book<\/strong> and transform<\/strong> it into a script, with dialogues, and
3. You can, with older children<\/strong>, support students in writing their own script<\/strong> on a subject of their own choosing. It is challenging, but so rewarding for older children. The writing process requires a strong commitment to structures from the major theme designed with the whole class to individual acts developed in smaller groups. Students will write many drafts before acting out the final polished script.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here are three examples<\/strong> of plays:
1. For 3-4 year-olds<\/strong> in a preschool environment, What Makes a Rainbow?<\/span> by Betty Schwartz;
2. For 5-6 year olds<\/strong> in a kindergarten environment, Chrysanthemum<\/span> by Kevin Henkel; and
3. The Mayflower Adventure<\/span> created by students in a fourth grade class<\/strong> at a private school.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Things you need<\/strong> to think about:
1. Script with dialogues<\/strong> for narrator(s) and actors.
2. Costumes<\/strong> that can be as simple as a mask or as refined as an entire outfit.
3. Set<\/strong> as simple as a chair or as elaborated as a cardboard boat and sail.
4. Rehearsal<\/strong> periods when students learn to project their voices so the audience can hear them. You can also use microphones.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With students old and young, I use lots of tape<\/strong> on the stage floor to help students remember where they need to stand. Also, with older students, I highlight<\/strong> the part in the script a student has to remember and say.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In my experience teaching pre-school and elementary school children, I was delighted to put together many plays for children and their families, as well as […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-5147","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/numbertwopencil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5147"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/numbertwopencil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/numbertwopencil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/numbertwopencil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/numbertwopencil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5147"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/numbertwopencil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5147\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5152,"href":"https:\/\/numbertwopencil.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/5147\/revisions\/5152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/numbertwopencil.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5147"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}