Drama Curriculum: Ages Six to Nine

Drama Overview

Alongside the other areas of the creative arts, drama is integrated into the Montessori curriculum for children aged from six to twelve years. Here are some examples of ways drama is used across the Montessori curriculum.

The Montessori grace and courtesy lessons are presented and practised in the form of role-play. Children ‘act out’ effective, and less effective, ways of managing social situations. Through role-play children learn, for example, how to communicate in the classroom without disturbing others, how to ask for help, how to invite someone to join a group and how to answer the telephone.

Drama plays a key role in several areas of the language curriculum. For example, reading commands are games in which children act out what they have read. In other words, drama is used in the service of enhancing reading comprehension. In the Montessori grammar games children act out the meaning of variations in grammatical structures, in this way, learning the effect on meaning of even the slightest variation in grammatical structure. Through work with reading commands and grammar games children connect language and intentional movement.

The Montessori language curriculum also includes interpretive reading cards. Activities with these cards contribute to the drama curriculum for several reasons.

• They involve movement and require cooperation among the members of the group.

• They can be interpreted in a number of different ways, depending on answers to questions such as the following:

  • What happened before the small scene on the card?

  • What are the relationships between the characters in the scene?

  • What might happen next?

• They can be used for dramatic reading as well, helping the children discover the importance of articulation of meaning, character, emotional content, mood and intent through variation in the use of the voice and various speaking techniques, including:

  • loudness/softness

  • tempo

  • intonation

  • rhythm

  • emphasis

  • character: accent, dialect, style of speaking

  • articulation and enunciation

Children’s independent work in subjects such as history, science and music, often lead them into preparing and performing their own simple dramatic productions. For example, in Science, groups of children act out the movement of particles in solids, liquids and gases to build greater understanding of the three states of matter, or they might prepare a dramatisation of the water cycle. Other excellent sources of material for plays include:

• fairytales and folktales from different cultures

• legends and myths

• timelines of human beings, fundamental needs of different cultures, including the children’s own culture

• adaptations of professionally written plays, musicals, operas and operettas

• scenes performed in a language other than English

• dramatisations of biology, history and geography charts, for example the leaf as a food factory

Children learn specific interpretive or performance skills during drama ‘games’ introduced as part of a particular area of study, not as isolated instruction in drama. They put together small skits, scenes or dramatisations as their interest dictates. The children may also be involved in a play for the whole class, reflecting the work of the class. The children are involved in the writing and staging of scenes, music production, scenery, props and costumes. During projects of this kind the whole group collaborates to achieve a single goal, building community, self-discipline and a realisation of how important every detail is in a group venture on this scale. Individual children may participate at different levels, depending on age, level and interest. Through involvement in the staging of dramatic performances children experience all of the aspects of a complex creative process and come to understand the time and effort required. They also come to appreciate the work involved in theatre productions they attend during excursions and going out activities. Ideally, children of this age, who are interested in what happens behind the scenes, should have opportunities to visit back stage and to talk to actors, directors and those involved in staging the production.

Many drama activities can be incorporated into the physical education programme. These include theatre games, role plays and exercises that involve movement, cooperative effort, spatial orientation, coordination, body awareness, breathing techniques, improvisation and mime. An example of this is ‘mirroring’, where two children stand face to face. One child initiates the movements and one follows, mirroring the movements of the leader. Interpretations of music may also be done in this same context or during music lessons in the classroom.

Whole class and school dramatic and/or musical productions are also often developed and performed to celebrate special events (e.g., Children’s Day, graduation). Children play key roles in all aspects of these productions, from inception to performance.