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[yortikins]

I'm teaching an Acting class right now in an after-school program that's posing a bit of a challenge. I have 9 students. 4 of them are in 1st grade, 1 is in 2nd, and 4 are in 4th grade. There's such a vast difference in the developmental abilities between the 4 older kids and the 5 younger ones, that I've had a hard time finding activities that

Comments

[snorkmaiden]

Perhaps you could work with the group to do some sort of storytelling set up? Maybe the older kids do vocal storytelling and the younger ones act it out?

[hanamizuki]

Unfortunately, I can't offer any personal experience with this situation as far as theatre goes, but this is a classic ballet recital problem. Every year we used a different standard story (Pinocchio, The Little Match Girl, The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe...) and have the little ones play the "setting" (kids in a village, animals in a forest, etc), then the older kids could be the principals. I'm sure that kind of format could be easily adapted to a theatrical showcase.

Hope that helps, and good luck!

[amberjel]

You may be able to adapt a fairy tale or a collection of them so that as crankykitten suggested, the older ones could narrate the majority of it and the little ones could have one or two lines. You could also ask the kids for ideas... give them some credit...maybe the older ones can help the younger ones like mentors... or all of them maybe able to help you think of a story to tell

Good Luck (I'll look through my games collection to see if I have anything that could help you out)
Amanda