Final Performance!

I'm going to be honest, I was a bit nervous for our final performance because Mrs. Larsen got sick with the flu and had to get a sub, so it was all up to me to make sure the performance went smoothly! It was a big job, but I was very excited it turned out as well as it did!

Thankfully, the substitute was wonderfully enthusiastic about our performance and was able to help get all our costumes and props ready for the performance. We headed down 15 minutes early and even got a chance to do a quick run-through for each of the plays so the kids could get a quick refresher on their blocking! 

They did a wonderful job. The parents and the four second-grade classes who came were absolutely thrilled by the kids' performances. Here are a few pictures from our Anansi performance:

And here's a few from the Twelve Dancing Princesses:

One of my second-graders wanted to introduce the show at the last minute. How cute!

And here are the videos of the two final performances!





Thanks to Mrs. Larsen and all her wonderful students. I had so much fun and learned so much!

Props and Final Blocking

Today I introduced "Props" to the second graders and I showed them the props I made for our shows. I didn't spend a lot of time on them because props are pretty straightforward and we needed lots of time to review the two shows we've been working on.

It has been since before Christmas since we've had a chance to run through the shows, so we needed a good long refresher today. Plus we got to actually perform them for the rest of the class on the stage!

We cleared up our blocking (since the space is MUCH larger on the stage than in the classroom) and made sure everyone remembered their lines.

Here's a few pictures from the Anansi group today:

And here are a few pictures from The Twelve Dancing Princesses:

I was actually REALLY impressed with how the two performances went today. The kids were very attentive and I'm always impressed with how much of the story they remember! They even reminded me that I forgot to say one part of the story!

I think it really helped that they knew their peers were watching their performance. It helped them focus and not talk when it wasn't their part. My theory worked! Performing really helps them focus!

Week 8--Storytelling

This week I decided wanted to implement some of the feedback I got from Doug Allen when he came and observed me last week. So I started by moving the desks in the room out of the center of the room so we would have more space to work in. I also thought this would help the kids by changing up our regular routine with something a bit different.

Once we had the desks moved, I separated the class into their two different groups. On opposite sides of the classroom I had 2 posters waiting where I instructed the children (before we separated) that we were going to write/draw the story from the following week on the poster.

I had the kids raise their hand and say what came next, and if it was right, they got to come write it on the poster (but they only had 10 seconds to do it). The rest of the group and I would count down from 10 so the kids had something to do while waiting.

Here's what they came up with:

 Mrs Larsen's group had to have 2 different posters because they drew so big.

After we got the whole story on the poster, we started acting out the story and I wrote down the people who were in charge of narrating the different parts of the story. We almost got through the whole story before our shortened time today was up.

I was very lucky to have Becky there with me today to observe and she helped me recognize that I need to be more authoritative when I'm working with the kids. Some of the kids in my group seemed to be testing me to see how much they could get away with and I needed to be more strict with them.

I learned today that I'm a bit too nice sometimes and I need to make sure that the students know that I'm in charge and they are expected to behave.

Becky also brought up the point that part of the problem is that the room is so noisy in trying to work with two different groups. I'm going to talk to Mrs. Larsen and see if we can find a different space for the kids to work in during this time. It's hard for the kids to concentrate when the other group is making noise too. Sometimes it's even hard for me to think! So I'll see what we can do for next time.

We didn't get to the "Talking Sticks" this week. Stay tuned for next week when I'll bring those out!