Last month I posted about an opportunity for a halloween drama task where students used their short stories to make them come to life in our classroom. I wrote about the success of it and the interest amongst all the students in grade eight. So of course when the holidays rolled around again, I posed the same question to the grade eights in my class. Who would like to make a holiday drama task again? They all wanted to and so we started planning our drama shows. I highly recommend this to anyone wanting to teach drama in a super fun way next December!
Step 1: Invite students to meet together after school to write ideas for a holiday show. My committee agreed on two separate shows. They wrote two stories that are separate loosely based on Home Alone called “Ken’s Alone” and another showed called “A Christmas Twist” based on The Grinch. They worked hard to create two scripts in five days.
Step 2: Have interested students take scripts home over weekend to prepare and have auditions the following week. Students should read out parts that they are interested in.
Step 3: Have script writing committee vote and cast the parts in their shows. My students were super easy as most of the students who auctioned were the twenty students who were apart of the script writing committee. It was great to see the respect when one student would turn to the other that auditioned and would say, “Would you like that role?” and they would decide between the two of them who would get the part. For larger roles, we did a hands up way of voting. Nobody was upset and everyone that wanted a part, got a part.
Step 4: Have students sign up for the leads of each committee. We now are creating committee heads such as: lighting lead, music lead, costumes lead, hair and makeup lead, props lead, set lead, advertising lead and food sales lead (for food sales during the performances). Tomorrow, those committee leads will meet with their committees and will be able to come up with a plan to meet our goals by show day.
Step 5: Plan a dress rehearsal and a performance date. We will have more rehearsals and then a final dress rehearsal on Monday, December 16th. We will make sure everything that needs to be ready is done by then. Our show date is Wednesday, December 18th. We will be performing on the stage for everyone in the school on that date.
Step 6: Advertise the show. Have students write announcements, make posters and let all staff know about the show date. Make sure the gym and stage is available for the show dates.
The best part of this project is that it is in the student’s hands so any stress I have had before about shows or projects being ready has left as it is their project and it will turn out the way it should turn out. The amount of effort that this group of students put in is the way that it will turn out. Of course we are using this is a large drama mark so I am sure they will work very hard on it as I have already seen large amounts of effort and leadership. I look forward to sharing the finished product results with everyone!
Happy Holidays 🙂
