Bring the Drama Llama !!

 Now initially this might start off sounding all about us adults however excited adults with new learning = exciting  classroom experiences !   

So what was this new learning ?  

You may have heard of or come across ‘process drama’.  Unlike traditional drama, process drama isn't about memorising lines, wearing costumes, or always necessarily performing on stage for an audience.  We were lucky as a staff to join one of our neighbouring schools in some professional development around Process Drama.  We were able to immerse ourselves into the experience of creating a world and ‘owning and living’ in what we had created.  

Our learning experience was a fusion of science and the arts.  The science absolutely sat within our hopes and dreams for Sustainability and our Whetukairangi Curriculum, which was exciting to think about.  It opened our eyes to some different contexts and approaches we could take to engage our students in drama across different curriculum areas.  There were so many links to oral language, writing, Positive Education, maths in mapping and perspective.  The opportunities that we could see were so exciting.  

So what did this actually look like: 

Teachers around a giant bit of paper drawing and creating a land including everything we thought was important and fun to have. We had to think about inhabitants, infrastructure and general survival.  We thought about all of the things we had to enjoy in life, hobbies, sports and special places that we frequent.  We thought on a serious note about power sources, health and safety and education too.  

By the end,  we had a super creative yet somewhat unrealistic land that was surrounded by ocean.  Every single landform known to man as well as a variety of public transport and systems were included !  We were totally invested and owning this land. 

There were no scripts or rehearsals. Instead, we worked together to create an imaginary land, creating our own story.  From this came big ideas to explore, problems to solve and perspectives to be considered.  

We were faced with a real problem.  We had run out of power.  There were varying degrees on different parts of our island but we would soon have none.  Smog and pollution were setting in and this was not looking good. We each chose a role of a person from this land and we had to stay in character pushing our perspectives and what we thought was important.  We had to make decisions for our people.   This was the interesting part and this is where the drama came in. As we went our story evolved. 

We completed activities like - staying in character but being in a cafe.  What was the conversations being over heard ? 

We had to front up and be problem solvers at a meeting called by the Mayor in response to their letter explaining our situation. 

Then came the science -  What was possible ?   We were presented with different strategies or approaches that had worked across the world.  Solar energy, wind power, recycling and reusing, matauranga and ancient wisdom.  We could have kept going for hours. 

This was our first session.  Excitement set in for us as we thought about how we could use this method for our arts celebration.  It is not a science focus but an imagination focus.   We are excited to see where this takes us but so far we feel as though this could be more authentically child centred and built around their stories.  

In process drama, children don't just listen to a story—they live it.  We will be taking ours a step further and adding music, dance and movement.

So what now ? 

• We are there to help guide the students into their imaginary world as a character.  

• We are there to facilitate discussion, group themes and of course help add the lights, camera action part of it. 

• We are there to help them create their messages and stories.   As we watched and observed our artists at work yesterday we soon realised that our next step would be 

For our Junior students, storytelling can sometimes feel abstract when confined to pencil and paper. Process drama gives children an experiential foundation before they ever pick up a pencil.

1. Building Narrative Structure: By acting out scenarios, students physically feel the rise and fall of a plot—identifying the beginning, encountering a problem, and working together toward a resolution.Developing Character Depth: Instead of just naming a character, children become them. They practice empathy by asking: How does this character walk? What are they feeling? What choice should they make next?

2. Expanding Vocabulary and Oral Language: Children hear and use new descriptive words naturally within the context of the drama. Speaking in role builds confidence in expressive language and storytelling.

3. The next part is telling our story through music, dance and movement.   

Connection to the NZ Curriculum

Oral Language - Students practice listening actively, expressing ideas, and adapting their voice for different roles and audiences during imaginary play.

The Arts (Drama - Developing Ideas) Children initiate, develop, and structure ideas in drama, using movement, gesture, and voice to express feelings and tell stories.

Movement and Music - We take on our messages and think about what they would sound like and feel like.  How would things be moving and changing over time and situation ?  This won’t be the end of the learning…..

There is Positive Education galore.  We will  be able to step into another person's shoes, become more self-aware of our bodies and space and our group collaboration skills. Our children will have contexts to negotiate solutions together and plenty of fun doing it.  We will be forming new connections too.  You will see us working together to take risks with movement and sound and we will be making sure we let each other shine !   We showed great flexibility when someone else drew in our perceived space and we were ok knowing there is no right or wrong and no single ownership.

What is it?

 

"I got the Power"

We have been exploring our Learner Attribute - I am Powerful.  Our Learner Attributes are student-centered attributes that were designed to develop skills, attitudes and attributes neccessarty for success across academic and social-emotional learning.  

Our Learner Attributes focus on empowering students to take ownership of their learning and growth:

SO what are these Learner Attributes ? 

• I am a thinker

  This one focuses on both creative and critical thinking. Students are encouraged to build knowledge, engage in cycles of inquiry, ask big questions, and develop a growth mindset.  This recognises all types of thinking as well as the thinking process. 

• I am connected

  This attribute helps us create and nurture a strong sense of belonging, whānau/community engagement, and environmental awareness.  This means Students learn to collaborate with peers across age groups.  This ahppens naturally in the ways we work but also during times like whānau groups.   This is also about connecting and learning about our cultures, ethnicities and histories.  

• I am powerful

  This encourages learner agency, self regulation and building mana. Students learn to recognise their personal character strengths and strengths in others. This means they will be able to contribute positively to all groups they work in.   We were able to come up with 29 words that we could use instead of 'powerful' and these all came from our kids. 

I am a goal setter

This one focuses on independence, reflection, and goal setting. Students  participate in tracking their progress, talking and sharing their learning in a variety of ways.  It is great to see and hear our kids leading conversations about their learning steps like they will do,  during our up and coming Learning Celebrations.  These are celebratory but also future focused.  We try really hard to keep goals measureable and achieveable but lofty and exciting at the same time !  Goal setting happens in the academic and social and emotion spaces - across the whole curriculum. 

Maths Momentum !

 

We have had a great sunny start to Term 3.  We have launched straight into maths looking at all the things we need to know about numbers. We are focusing on how numbers work well together in teams.  

Suz's maths group has been looking at compatible numbers and Algorithms.  We have also had a refresh with tidy numbers and how to use them in our problem solving strategies.  We used our hundereds boards, Numicon blocks and place value blocks to explore and make compatible numbers to 100.  Our compatible numbers were 2 digit team players that made 100.  We know that the 2 numbers in the ones column need to equal 10. 

  

We have also been learning how to use an algorithm to solve problems. We are following these rules below to help us with the process.  We have had to use all that we know about place value. The hardest thing for us to get our heads around is when we have to re-group because we have made 'a new group of 10'.  

Hayley's maths have been learning about spider and fly and how to use this simple concept to get around a 100s board.  They have also been looking at place value and the make up of numbers so that we can use this knowledge to solve bigger problems. 

How you can help at home : 

1. Help read and write 3 and 4 digit numbers.  
2. Find teams of compatible numbers for different tidy numbers.  (A tidy number is a number that ends with 0)
3. Read letter boxes and add 2 together using an algorithm. 
4. Practise skip counting from all different numbers.   FOr example count in 10s starting at 12.  

Check out the website on your school report.  This has lots of ideas for maths at home.  

To support maths learning at home :

Hato Hone St Johns in Schools

Don't go breakin' ma heart.......I

Using kind words sometimes requires teaching children how to be kind and respectful, tolerating and accepting others differences.  Sometimes this even means giving them the words but a lot of the time it is about emotional regulation.  Naming emotions, sitting with them or asking for time and space is all part of this learning.  We all know that it is easier said than done in the heat of the moment.  

We have done 2 tasks this week that have been fabulous illustrations of this concept.  The first one was using a tube of toothpaste and getting kids to squeeze a bit out as an example of an unkind comment.  The purpose of this activity was to show kids that once something leaves your mouth and makes its way into someones ears it has a lasting impact on how someone feels.   We could not get all of the toothpaste back into the tube.   This was a strong visual message for our kids.  

Basically in a nutshell, you can't ever take words back. The kids had some really interesting perpsectives on forgiveness and apologies.  These are all good after the fact but the 'even better if' is thinking before we speak.  This is also the hardest thing to master.  

.  

 

No matter what strategy we used we could not get that toothpaste back in.

The second task we did was the heart activity.  We poured all of our time and energy into creating a heart  with all the things that made us special, that made us feel good about our selves.  This was to demonstrate how much time it takes to build confidence and self esteem.  

                     

Part 2 of this little experiment was scruching our heart up into the tiniest smallest ball.  This is what happens to someones heart when we choose not to encourage and support each other.  These are mean words on statements that others feel 'small'.  These are not always intentionlly mean comments but they still have an effect on how someone feels.  

When we unscrunched our hearts we noticed that we could not get rid of the wrinkles.  This is a little bit like remembering a negative comment.  

The wrinkles are visible !  At Worser Bay School we believe in building each others mana by focusing on the 'we' rather than the 'I'.  Our Flourish Model focuses on all the aspects to be our best selves. 

                                

   

Music and Movement Breaks