The First “Play” Meeting

The discussion at Morning Meeting on Monday centered on the annual Pre-K play.  Each year, the children draft, revise, revise, and revise again a script for our end of the year play.  Introducing the idea today, we asked the children what they knew about plays.

TO:  People wear clothes and they dress up.

DK: They act out.
 
JW: Play is like you are playing with a toy.
 
JJ: You go on a stage.
 
SC: Maybe it could be puppet show.
 
SB: You need to make the decorations and pick what actor you want to be.
 
OA: Sometimes there are seats for people to watch and sometimes there are not seats.
 
JJ: There might be music.
 
AJ: You can sing songs.
 
SM: You can dance.
 
AH: They could dance.
 
Mrs. Forst: The people who do this are called actors, right? What are they trying to do?
 
JW: They pick toys for the sharing bag and you can bring it in. If it is different you can bring it in the sharing bag.
 
HP: I saw one called the Lion king. it was about lions.
 
JJ: I saw Cinderella.
 
TO: I saw the Nutcracker but there is no story. there are bad mice and bad rats.
 
AH: I saw the Little Mermaid. She got legs and she could swim up but the mermaid king didn’t want her to go up there.
 
DK: I saw a king mice in the Nutcracker. He fought with the boy.
 
AJ: I saw Apollo the movie.
 
JW: It was morning when I went to the Lion King. I saw lots of animals.
 
AR: I saw frozen.
 
Some of the children had solid preconceptions about the concept of “a play”.  As we progress with this project, all of the children will gain a clear understanding of the process.  
 
For any of you who are new to our play writing project, it might be a bit different from any other school play you’ve had experience with.  Most significantly  the story is created completely by the children.  In the beginning, they tend to create mini-stories that only involve their own characters of choice.  As we progress through the drafting process, some of the stories will evolve to include other children and characters.  Through reading and storytelling, we provide them with many examples of story structure.  One of our goals is to guide the children to recognizing the basic plot line inherent in all fiction: character introduction, problem, solution, ending.  However, with each class group, the final iteration of our play is always a surprise.  We will post the drafts here for your perusal and enjoyment.
 
Each child will be able to change his or her character and the story line until the beginning of Spring Break.  At that point, we will begin preparing for the final version of the play.  When we return from break, the children will make costumes, scenery and any needed props.  The final performance of the play will be presented in May.  
 
 

3 thoughts on “The First “Play” Meeting

  1. I enjoyed looking around your blog. You have alot to offer. We also have a class performance. it’s alot of work for us and them, but in the end it all comes together and they are proud of the accomplishment.

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