Drama is central to life and learning at Holy Trinity and Silas. On this page you will find a selection of games, stories and call and response chants that you can use at home. Children will be familiar with many of these, though I will try to add in some new ones from time to time!

New News. Summer Term 2

June 2020

As with the latter part of last half term, most of my postings will be for individual classes and you will find them on Purple Mash. I will, however, be putting new stuff here from time to time. Like now! Scroll down to ‘Stories‘ to find a new recording of ‘Three Wishes‘!

Hello and Welcome!

Monday March 23rd

An old favourite….

Children, you all know Grandma, Grandma – but parents might not! Try this all together…..

Friday June 5th

My Shakespeare Dance Workout – try it now!!…. and a word about The Primary Shakespeare Company.

I recently recorded a special warm-up based around characters from Shakespeare’s The Tempest. This is for the online resources which The Primary Shakespeare Company have been sharing with schools across the world. Try it for yourselves right here……

The Primary Shakespeare Company(PSC) is a charity that we set up back in 2009 to share the arts-centred approach to learning that we have at HTSS with other schools. This summer, we were due to run performance projects with over 50 mainstream primary schools, and four schools for children with Special Needs. Over the Easter Holidays, we’ve been busy creating an online resource which is now open to everyone – please feel free to use it – and share it! You’ll need to sign up when you first use it – but this is only so that the charity can report to funders how many people use the site. It’s totally free.

Competition Winners!

Monday April 6th. Thank you to all the children in Year 3 who sent me stories. I LOVED reading them and the standard was very high. This announcement is late because I had such a hard time choosing between them! I have, at last decided on a winner and that winner is….. (drum roll please)…. Freya. Many congratulations, Freya. Joint runners up were Darcy and Georgia, and George’s entry is highly commended. Here’s a video of me reading Freya’s thrilling story:

Activities:

Monday March 30th

This call-and-response game is great at the start of the day. It’s even better if everyone at home joins in!

Monday March 30th

X Marks the spot is a storytelling exercise that was taught to me by Jan Blake, one of Britain’s best storytellers. You can find out more about her at https://thechildrensbookshow.com/artists/jan-blake. This activity is probably most suitable for Y3 upwards – but there’s no age limit, and younger ones may also enjoy it.

Hey Mr Miller Wednesday March 25th

Here’s another call-and-response chant that will get voices and bodies moving and is also suitable for all ages. The Mr Miller in the title is Glen Miller, who was a famous band leader in the 1930s and 1940s. If you want to cheer yourself up even more, listen to some of his greatest hits, like ‘Chattanooga Choo-Choo’ or ‘In the Mood’!

Once you’ve learnt how to play this game, try substituting other animals or beings for Alien, Tiger and Cow. Try and invent a version based on the characters in The Tempest: Prospero, Caliban and Ariel, for example. Let me, or your class teacher know via Purple Mash if you managed it.

Though it says that this game is for 3, 4, 5 and 6, younger children may well enjoy this game too. Challenge yourself to get faster and faster without making a mistake. Could you extend this game so that it became 1-10? What move would you do on 9?

Stories

Below, you’ll find a new story Three Wishes, which I’ve just recorded (w/b June 1st). As well as this, you can also listen to Red Jacket Parts 1, 2 and 3 and The Blue Cap – with the original ending, and Everett’s very inventive alternative. Here, you can also listen to some lovely readings from Mr McIntryre.

Blue Cap part 2: Everett’s tale!

As it says above, this is part 1. Part 2 will be here on Wednesday April 1st.

…..and, as promised, here it is. The third and final part will arrive next week!