A flower story

    Using drama activities has clear advantages for language learning. Drama activity can be very useful in order to develop students’ communicative competence. These activities would help them in the development of oral communication skills and reading and writing well. In addition, drama activities can involve children at many levels, not only on the linguistic one but also on the kinesthetic, logical-mathematical, spatial, musical, personal, interpersonal and even naturalistic intelligences. I want show a task which engages most or all of the intelligences. I think that  is a interesting activity to do in class. Maybe you can use it with your students!

     We can take a real plant with a flower to class. We introduce the students to the story of a plant and some specific vocabulary about that, so that they became familiar with it and they could use it appropriately.

    We draw the picture of the plant on the board and ask: what’s this? (a plant/ a flower) We can ask: where do flowers grow? (a garden ,a park).We can point and say the names of the parts: roots, stem, leaves, flower. We can tell pupils that plants begin as a seeds. We point to the seed and ask: What helps seeds grow? (Sun and rain).We tell pupils to stand up. We explain that they are seeds growing into flowers. We ask pupils to copy us. We crouch down and we say slowly: start to grow up and up to the sky. We stretch up and stand on our toes. We hold our hands together at eye level. We say: The sun shines (open fingers a little), the rain falls (open fingers more), and the sun comes out again (open hands and fingers to represent the flower). We say: It’s a beautiful flower.

    We read the flower story: One day, a little bird drops a seed in a garden and flies away. Soon roots begin to grow. Then the seed begins to grow. It grows up and up and up to the sky. The sun shines, the rain fall then the sun shines again. A flower opens. The Little bird flies back to the garden. It looks down and sees the flower. It’s beautiful.

    We can draw a time line on the board. We can show what happens in a story on a time line. We point the beginning of the line (the past), we point to each step (the end of the line is the present).Students can draw a time line about the flower story.

    Once we make sure that all the students had comprehended the story and learn some vocabulary. We divided them into groups. They can mime the story. Pupils mime actions of the bird, the seed, the sun and the rain. Once each team had their characters assigned, students can write their scenes and dialogues. They need a text easy for them to remember when they perform it. So they can improvise the dialogue in case they got blocked when performing the play.

    Through all these activities, children may discover different styles and registers which are very different from their everyday speech as well as the use of verbal and non verbal devices. Drama activities can provide students with an opportunity to use language to express various emotions, to solve problems and to make decisions. Students can improve self confidence, use of language, vocabulary and a good capacity for cooperative work in the classroom. Children learn to use language effectively and creatively while they are experiencing different points of views. Drama activities are a highly valuable as well as an instructional tool. Approaching learning in this manner allows a wider range of students to successfully participate in classroom learning.