Physicality

Warm-ups are a great way to get students’ bodies and minds ready for drama class, especially if they have been sitting in other classes all day. Warm-ups get students into the creative mindset necessary for experimentation, risk-taking, and artistic play. Here are three warm-up games that will get your students moving. They’re also great to use in a rehearsal setting before transitioning to blocking, choreography, and character development! 1. ShakedownThis warm-up gets students moving while helping them to learn each other’s names. When you introduce yourself to a new person, you would usually say hello and shake hands. In Shakedown, you introduce yourself, but don’t shake hands. Choose a Caller (could be the teacher or one of the students) and have your students spread out around the room. The Caller announces a way of moving around the room (creeping, tiptoeing, dancing, leaping, shuffling, crawling, etc.). Have the students move around the room in the manner that the Caller specifies. When the Caller yells “SHAKEDOWN!” have the students quickly get into pairs with whoever is closest to them at that moment. Have the Caller yell out the name of a body part. The student pairs will introduce themselves to each other (“Hi, I’m Amy.” “Hi, I’m Jonathon.”), then shake the body part announced by the caller and say “Nice to meet you!” It’s going to be hard to keep the giggles at bay when students shake each other by the shoulder, calf, toe, or thumb! Play multiple rounds. With each round, make sure to move in a different way around the room each time and have the Caller yell out the name of a different body part for the students to shake. 2. Numbered BodiesYou may know this warm up as That Atom Game or Mixer. Numbered Bodies starts the same way as Shakedown–assign a Caller who announces a method of moving around the room. Have the students move around the room in the manner that the caller specifies. Have the Caller yell out a number and a body part–for example, “THREE ELBOWS!” Students then need to assemble in groups with the correct quantity of body parts touching each other as quickly as possible–in this case, three elbows. But wait! There are two different methods of assembling body parts. The first way, “The Creative Method,” allows a variety of assembling. For example, for “THREE ELBOWS” you could have three students touch one elbow each; OR you could have two students assemble, with one student using one elbow and the other student using two. The second way, “The Elimination Method,” is stricter. It allows the exact number of people, each one using just one body part. This method is useful if you want to make the warm-up a competition. This game is played in multiple rounds, with different ways of moving around the room, and various numbers and body parts being assembled–four pinkies, five knees, seven heels, three shoulders, etc. You are only limited by the number of students in your class! Warning! Be sure that students are not launching themselves at each other when assembling, and do use caution with body parts chosen. (NOTE: This is the reason why I avoid calling “heads” in my classroom, because it always leads to clunked noggins.) 3. Numbered TableauxNumbered Tableaux starts the same way as Shakedown and Numbered Bodies. Assign a Caller who announces a method of moving around the room. All the students move around the room in the manner that the Caller specifies. The Caller calls out a number, and students must assemble themselves into groups of that number with whoever is closest to them. The Caller then announces a simple tableau scene that the students must create within three seconds. Once each tableau is complete, have the students freeze in that position for at least 10 seconds. Next, have the Caller announce a new way of moving around the room and start again with a new number and tableau scene. Suggestions for simple tableau scenes: • Scenes from the show your class is currently studying or producing (students get to play all the parts they normally don’t play) • Scenes from fairy tales and nursery rhymes • Scenes from famous movies • Scenes from school (taking a test, playing a sport, doing a science experiment that goes wrong) • Scenes from life (shopping, going to the beach, running a race, playing with a pet) Each of these warm-ups suggests students move around the room in a specific way. Download our action verb sheet, cut the words up into slips, toss them in a bag or hat, and pull out a slip at random to determine how students will move.

Have fun with the five senses! Students write a different header on five different pieces paper: 1. Sight (objects) 2. Sound 3. Smell 4. Touch (Textures) 5. Taste Go through the headers with the class and give them an example for each. Then have students create an their own examples for each sense. For Sight , come up with five objects. (e.g. car, stapler, trash can, sandbox) Sound is self-explanatory as is Smell – five sounds, five smells. For Touch , have students come up with five textures. (e.g. fuzzy, smooth, rough) For Taste , they can use food or drinks. But also encourage them to think outside the box. Perfume, for example, has a taste. Once you go through each sense once with your students, give them a few minutes to come up with their own. Five minutes tops. Next, tell your students they are going to be writing short scenes (10-15 lines). Each scene will have two characters and take place in one location. Brainstorm with your students on different types of characters and different locations. Put these on the board for students to choose from. Students start with the Sight page. They write their first scene using the objects example as inspiration. All five of their examples must make their way into the scene somehow. Students move on to the Sound page. Write a short scene using the sound examples. Next the Smells page. What kind of scene can they write inspired by smells? And then the Touch Page. What kind of scene can they write inspired by the textures examples? What do those textures represent? Are they characters? Are they indicative of a location? Lastly the Taste page. Write a short scene inspired by the taste examples. Discuss the writing afterward. Which sense was easiest to incorporate into a scene? Which sense was hardest? Would it be easier to combine senses rather than to limit a scene to just one sense? How does exploring the senses help in your future writing?

This week on Spread the Love we talk about Drum Taps – adapted by Lindsay Price from Leaves of Grass by Walt Whitman. Filmed live on location at Old Fort Erie.

This week on Spread the Love we talk about Beauty and the Bee by Lindsay Price.