‘Tis The Seasons for Fall Festivities and Theatrical Expression

Fall Is Here!

Wow, I really cannot believe it is already the middle of October. This month carries us into a busy and festive time of year. I love all of the seasonal celebrations and strive to bring them into the classroom in a variety of ways. We have added quite a few new art activities including leaf rubbings with watercolor and crayons, cutting and gluing a jack o’ lantern, and an activity for folding and gluing paper triangles. We have also started celebrating Halloween by singing some new songs and reading stories with this theme. In our afternoon group, we have started doing more drama, including acting out some of these Halloween stories.

Theatrical Expressions

My love for working with children began when teaching drama at a children’s theatre in Seattle. I loved using our imaginations to transform the world around us, create characters with our bodies and voices, and play theatre games. I still love all these things and so enjoy bringing my theatre background into my work as a Montessori guide. During my Montessori training, I was thrilled to learn how much drama is used by the teacher. We use drama in our affect as we entice and inspire children to choose activities from the shelf. As children progress into reading, we invite the children to use their acting skills to show the meaning of verbs and the comprehension of sentences. It is also such a great way to channel and express emotions. Theater games are amazing for developing teamwork within a group. These types of games also help develop physical control of the body and the understanding of keeping space around the body. One game we play is called Magic Rocks. In this game, the children come to life and create frozen statues of characters from stories. I encourage them to use their whole body and face to bring this character to life in their physicality. The children love it! I am so excited to help bring out their theatrical expression. 🙂

Song to Share