Drama Lessons for the Primary School Year: Calendar Based Learning Activities

A year of drama – ready to use schemes at your fingertips.

• 25 topical schemes of work
• 100+ drama lessons

'This book really will offer some new and exciting ideas for teachers to teach. Even teachers who enjoy their job often complain that they become stale after teaching the same things every year. They look for new ideas that will reignite their enthusiasm. I think this book could offer some sparks'

Jo Howells, English Advisor, Warwickshire Educational Development Service

Looking to engage, enthral and educate your pupils in timely and topical drama- based activities?

In need of dynamic and inventive cross-curricular exercises for single lessons, extended units or school assemblies?

From the September blues of change, through Great Fires, Guy Fawkes, Antarctic penguins, Rainbow Fish and Chinese Walls to Mandela’s mighty day, this book offers a fascinating array of lives to be lived and journey’s to be made.

Drama Lessons for the Primary School Year will enable teachers to develop their expertise and confidence in order to create active and imaginative schemes of drama for the classroom. It offers a programme of ready-to-run workshops linked to specific dates in the calendar and specific themes into which teachers can readily dip on a regular basis. The first section uncovers the author’s own creative processes in generating drama experience and offers it to the reader in a set of simple, practical steps. The rest of the book is a wide-ranging compendium of schemes of work attached to specific calendar dates throughout the school year. These detailed drama lesson plans can be run as ‘one-off’ workshops or can be used by teachers as a basis for creating their own drama-led curriculum experiences. The book offers a practical structure to support these new creative planning tasks.

This indispensable resource is for all Primary teachers looking for inspiration in developing effective drama sessions, exploring kinaesthetic learning, and developing creative cross-curricular approaches to their teaching.

John Doona is a qualified advanced skills teacher with a wide experience of secondary and primary drama practice, a visiting lecturer in drama at the University of Chester, and a professional writer; with dramatic work broadcast on Radio 4 and performed by the Royal Court Young People's Theatre and elsewhere. His previous publications with Routledge include A Practical Guide to Shakespeare for the Primary School.