Research documents that the arts boost learning, build confidence, and motivate students to participate in class. How do we keep the performing arts alive in this era of increased accountability and decreased funding? Rekha S. Rajan sets the stage for a creative and practical solution with detailed, concrete examples of how to integrate the…

This performance guide is designed for teachers to use with students before and after a performance of "Lyle, Lyle, Crocodile," a musical based on the books by Bernard Waber, with book by Michael Slade, music by David Evans, and lyrics by Mindi Dickstein. The guide, called a "Cuesheet," contains four activity sheets for use in…

This teaching resource provides practical information and activities for involving elementary students in storytelling arts projects. The projects are designed to encourage experimentation with dramatic communication through gesture and body language while wearing masks, manipulating puppets, and moving interactive scenery. Ten chapters are…

This document features a curriculum guide for the development of K-6 theater course outlines. The guide establishes three major goals for drama/theatre education and the concepts pertinent to each goal. The objectives relevant to each concept are identified and stated in behavioral terms. For each objective, student experiences pertinent to that…

This performance guide is designed for teachers to use with students before and after a performance of "The Nightingale," a dance-theater performance conceived and choreographed by Dana Tai Soon Burgess, written and directed by Mary Hall Surface, and adapted from the story by Hans Christian Andersen. The guide, called a…

This book brings new life to the study of social studies by integrating the tools of creative drama and theater tools like pantomime, movement, improvisation, scripted drama, oral interpretation, debate, public speaking, readers theater, storytelling, and the many other ways the body or voice can be used to creatively communicate ideas to others.…

This manual is designed to provide creative drama ideas and strategies to teachers of elementary school children with deafness. The purpose of creative drama is to provide opportunities for students to create, share, and explore their ideas. Students also learn to work together, in small and large groups, to portray scenes or stories. The manual…

How did the bee get his bumble? How do birds get their feathers? Why is the bluebird blue? Curious first through fifth graders want to know how and why things happen! Judy Wolfman has created 40 Readers Theatre scripts based on imaginative and creative porquoi stories that stem from multicultural folktales as well as Native American Indian legends…

Presents a hands-on lesson that can integrate the use of makeup with studies of the history of Halloween; the history and practices of the theater; Native American or African tribes and their use of paint, makeup, and masks; and the history, skills, and makeup of clowns. (MDH)

This book summarizes itself as "A collection of excerpts from children's literature on themes related to the United States Constitution scripted in Readers Theatre format for elementary school students." It is based upon the belief that an integrated curriculum that correlates content and skills is most appropriate at the elementary…

Intended for elementary school teachers, this short pamphlet describes the processes involved in executing a readers' theater. Much easier to implement than dramatic performances, reader's theater is seen as part theater and part oral interpretation. As outlined in the pamphlet, the procedures for implementing readers' theater in the classroom…

This elementary core curriculum is written to communicate what students are expected to know and be able to do in dance, music, theater, and visual arts in the state of Utah. The curriculum provides the basis for professionalism and accountability for teachers, and defines the expectations and achievement standards for students. The Utah core…

Suggesting that Readers Theatre is a simple, effective, and risk-free way to get K-8 children reading, this book provides strategies, organizers, and scripts that can be used as is or as models for readers' own scripts. The book provides ideas for planning and organizing Readers Theatre; oral interpretation; connecting Readers Theatre to…

Readers theater is a storytelling device that stimulates the imagination and promotes all of the language arts. Readers theater is an oral interpretation of a piece of literature read in a dramatic style. It involves and motivates students, energizes the language arts program, and stimulates learning. Geared for children in grades 1-4, this book…

An activity book to help elementary teachers and students explore the environment offers information and questions about spaceships; an ecology primer and poster with questions; information on animal adaptation with poster and questions; ecological and dramatic arts projects; a script for performance; and suggestions to make Earth Day celebrations…