Starring the First Grade
by Dana Epley
December 01, 2009
Silver Lake first graders have just completed a unit in reading about animals, both tame and wild. As a culminating activity, they prepared and performed a Reader’s Theater play entitled “What Will I Be?“. Reader’s Theater is a performance activity with a simple format. Scripts are used so no lengthy time is spent on memorizing lines. Readers’ Theater promotes fluency and expression as a result of repeated reading.
The play students worked on was about a zebra that was living in an Animal Park. He thought that the homes of some of the other animals seemed to be better than his so he went visiting. After visiting the countryside to see the bird, the pig, the duck, and the rat, he discovered that his home really was the best one for a zebra. In the end, he returned to the Animal Park where his old friends and a snack were waiting for him.
First graders were assigned parts and spent a few days practicing them. The also drew scenery to enhance the play. Finally the big performance day at school arrived. They were very excited! They presented the play two times: once to the kindergarten and once to the second grade. Special guests included a few of the available elementary staff members. On Monday, October 26, first graders were able to “take the show on the road” by performing for the residents at Grandview Manor in Campbell.
First graders were very excited about the opportunity to try their hand at acting. They practiced diligently and the finished production went very well.
