Let's start with the basics...
What EVEN is Drama Time anyways?
*Drama Time is a weekly activity that usually lasts 30-45 minutes.
*It consists of engaging GAMES and PREDICTABLE ROUTINES
*It can meet the needs of all your students by addressing a huge RANGE of SKILLS
*You can do it in INCLUSIVE (or reverse inclusion) settings
*These activities and this product can last you ALL YEAR LONG.
Tell Me What it Looks Like in More Concrete Terms?
*Student sit in a circle on carpet squares (or assigned spots)
*Using a visual schedule (included in the product), the class works their way through the listed activities. This product comes with 18 ideas of activities, but you can definitely add to them as you go. You don't need to do all 18 activities each week. In fact, most likely you will only do 5 or 6 per week.
*A typical drama time in my classroom always starts with a body warm up and a game reviewing emotions (called Drama Mask Drawer). Then, each week I would pick a couple of games from our repertoire to play, introduce a new game, and end with a cool down game.
*Through the games, students work on a variety of skills (more on that below) in a fun and engaging way.
The visual schedule can be folded up and stored in a binder for easy organization (along with all the other materials/visuals in this product!)
What Skills Can Drama Time Address?
*Social Skills
*Imitation Skills
*Motor Skills
*Play Skills
*Following Directions
*Expressive Language
*Vocabulary
*Taking Turns
*Winning/Losing
*and MORE
The chart to the right is a list of skills each game targets that is included in the product.
What Comes in this Product?
*Directions for set up
*Visual schedule
*Lesson plans for 18 games/activities
*All visuals required for the games/activities (including visual directions, choice boards, sentence strips, communication pictures for non-verbal students, and more)
*Data Sheets
All the materials can easily be stored in a binder for quick, easy access and organization!
What are the Games/Activities In this Product?
I will give you a list with brief descriptions in this post, but there is much more info in the product.
1) Warm Up: Warms up bodies, minds, and voices with this routine warm up
2) Drama Mask Drawer: Works on reviewing emotions and practicing what they look like
3) Follow the Leader: Works on motor imitation skills
4) Yes It Is: Take a random object in your classroom and have kids take turns pretending it is something else to work on developing play and imagination skills.
5) Present: Students pass around an empty box or gift bag and have to choose a gift they want to get and then act it out
6) Go To Sleep: Students lay down and "sleep" until the teacher wakes them up and lets them know what emotion/animal/sport/etc. they are going to act out
7) Emotion Dice: Roll the included dice to find out which emotion you will act out
8) That's so Rude: Practice the "rude way" and "right way" to interrupt
9) Bunny Bunny: Practice conversation skills of facing another person and eye contact while saying goofy messages.
10) Listening Game: Students have to listen very closely as their peers answer basic questions...because they will all be quizzed on them during the game!
11) Telephone: Old classic game...pass a message around the circle by whispering.
12) Magic Wand: Students take turns changing each other into different things.
13) Red Light Green Light: Old classic game... run when it's "green light", and stop when it's "red light." Included visuals also allow for working on learning those community signs!
14) Hokey Pokey: Old classic song...with visuals included to help students work on right/left and body parts.
15) Duck Duck Goose: Old classic game...with visuals to help our non-verbal students participate!
16) Hot Potato: A spin off of the old classic game where students pass a potato around in a circle. In this game, we work on pretending the potato has taken on a different attribute (hot, tired, sticky, etc.). So if it is a hot potato, we pass it quickly around, but if it is tired, we will treat it very delicately and maybe rock it to sleep during our turn.
17) Song Ideas: A list of good songs to incorporate into Drama Time
18) Book Ideas: A list of ways to incorporate books into Drama Time
One of the things that stands out most to me about this product are all the visuals that come with it to support your students in being successful with learning these games. Do you ever have a day where you want to whip out an old classic game like Red Light Green Light, Duck Duck Goose, or Telephone? Worried your students wouldn't grasp it right away without additional visual support? This product provides support for old classics like these in addition to new games you have never have heard of!
For example, the game Telephone comes with visual directions as well as sample messages students could say when playing.
And here is an example of the visuals that come with this product for Hokey Pokey
Here are visual examples for the games Go To Sleep and The Listening Game
This visual is perfect as a reminder during drama time for appropriate behavior, but can also be used in the classroom for generalization to other times in the day.
If you have ANY questions about this product, please reach out and email me as I have a special place in my heart for Drama Time and think it is something that should be implemented in all classrooms!
And check out these posts for additional info on Drama Time and more specifics on the activities/games:
http://autismtank.blogspot.com/2012/12/drama-time-set-up.html http://autismtank.blogspot.com/2012/12/more-drama-games.html
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