Strand: Drama to explore feelings, knowledge and ideas, leading to understanding

Strand Unit: Exploring and making drama

The child should be enabled to

• use the ability to play at make-believe to enter fully into participation in drama
  moving from a game with blindfolds into a drama about children who were struck blind by the wicked witch
  create circus acts for the circus owner who has lost his/her circus acts, and which must be good enough to fool the cross king or queen
  react as one of a group of snowmen or snowwomen playing, singing and dancing while people are asleep, and who is told by Jack Frost that the sun will soon be here
• use his/her emerging awareness of the differences in people in order to begin to develop an understanding of the relationship between role and character
  increase audibility and volume when talking to the man at the toll bridge who is hard of hearing
  play out the scene where a dealer convinces Jack that he should sell the cow he loves for a bag of beans, exploring what kind of person the dealer is and what kind of person Jack is
  in an alternative working of the same story, play out the scene where Jenny meets the giant’s wife for the first time and the giant’s wife tells her about how hard the giant is to live with
  take a role in a ‘presentation’ for people from China who want to see what life is like here in Ireland
• experience how context is built and a drama reality created through the use of space and objects
  set out different objects to represent aspects of the room in which the camogie or football team meets
  use various objects to signal the different individual compartments in the rabbit warren
  a scarf round the neck is taken as the royal robe, which passes from the king or queen to the pauper when they want to exchange places for the day
• experience how the fictional past and the desired fictional future influence the present dramatic action
  the knowledge that the princess has been imprisoned in the castle and the children’s desire to get her out make them negotiate with the gatekeeper
  because the shepherds and their wives have been warned that innkeepers are likely to exploit them, they treat this innkeeper warily
  the animals, knowing that some of the wilder animals have eaten smaller animals, go to Noah to ask him to devise the ‘Rules of the Ark’
• develop the ability to help maintain the focus in the dramatic action
  focus on helping to solve the mathematical problems the gatekeeper sets
  how can we help the peacock who has lost the ability to spread his tail?
  the capital letters and small letters are arguing with each other but have to bury their differences when they hear there is a computer coming who wants to make them his/her slaves
  mar bhall den ghrúpa atá ag iarraidh an mhuc dhraíochta a fháil ón bhfeirm, ceistigh an bhean a bhfuil mioneolas aici ar obair na feirme
• begin to see how tension adds to drama the suspense that ensures the interest of the participants
  decide with the group whether to give a man directions to the church and what he wants to do there
  in the same drama, decide whether to tell the garda that we gave him directions to the church
  in a drama about friendship and exclusion, see how the group behaves when somebody new joins them
  céard a tharlaíonn nuair a chasann an garda a labhraíonn Gaeilge ar na páistí agus iad tar éis an chathaoir a thógáil amach as an teach.

Strand Unit: Reflecting on drama

The child should be enabled to

• use reflection on a particular dramatic action to create possible alternative courses for the action
  out of role, speculate whether the drama might be more exciting if the ball goes into the river and is taken away by it
  in role, decide how to teach the frustrated frog to calm down
  write a short account of what he/she thinks the animals should do if they want to avoid being caught by the hunter
  the teacher in role (as Noah) and the animals draw up a list of suggestions on how to calm the giraffe and save the Ark, after the giraffe has put his foot through the hull
• experience, through drama, the relationship between story, theme and life experience
  examine the question of bullying through a reworking of ‘Jack and the Beanstalk’ or ‘Jenny and the Giant’s Wife’
  use reflections on stories gathered from his/her grandparents to lead to a drama about buying a house
  without knowing sign language, think about how to communicate with a person who cannot hear or speak
• share insights while experiencing the drama or insights that arise out of the drama
  reveal whether he/she suspected that it was the man posing as the lollipop person who had robbed the church
  in the context of a drama that uses a reworked Little Red Riding-Hood story, speculate whether there is any time when it is right to talk to strangers
  make a picture-sequence, frieze or model to record or interpret what happened in the drama.

Strand Unit: Co-operating and communicating in making drama

The child should be enabled to

• develop, out of role, the ability to co-operate and communicate with others in helping to shape the drama
  help set up an obstacle course in which the different elements represent the various hardships the shepherds might have encountered in going to Bethlehem
  in a drama about space travel, decide whether we should stop to research what Mars might be like in reality before moving on with the drama
  listen and contribute when the teacher asks for help in recalling and recording key moments in the journey of the Ark before the animals reach the new world
• develop, in role, the ability to co-operate and communicate with others in helping to shape the drama
  discuss and decide whether we should take the road that leads high into the mountains or the one that leads down to the water
  as members of a picnicking group, make suggestions about how the group should go about finding out, without arousing suspicion, who owns the clothes and belongings that have been found
  decide from an old map which direction we should go in search of the treasure
• develop fictional relationships through interaction with the other characters in small-group or whole-class scenes as the drama text is being made
  as a peasant woman, try to sell your produce in a market-place full of robbers and tricksters
  as a donkey, try, through physical and vocal communication, to make known to your masters how you feel about being pushed up a rocky mountainside
  as one of a group of starving refugees, try to communicate your anger at those who are preventing you from entering the wheatfield
  as a shepherd, try to get your scattered sheep into the pen without becoming too cross with them
• re-enact for others in the group a scene that has been made in simultaneous small-group work
  as part of a drama on an encounter with a giant, show how you think the huge key should be lifted up to the lock so as to open the door
  in a randomly selected group of three, show for the class the scene in which the donkey is helped up the rocky slope
  in a randomly selected pair, show how you might convince your mother to let you go to the woods.