Drama and the Human Body..
Bringing Dramatic Arts into Science is a great and engaging way to get students to remember important facts and information. One activity that I LOVE doing with students is "You Cant' Take Me". There are a variety of ways to play this game, but I did this activity with my grade 8 students and they were still engaged, excited and happy to be including drama into their science lesson.
Below is one variation of the drama activity that I have done with students in the past to help them
realize that all their body parts and organs play a crucial role in their body and this then extends to a lesson on taking care of their body.
Parts of the Body Variation
Instead of a room in a house, the "place" is the human body, and each student becomes a different body part. For example, one student might become a nose, another a lung, another a foot, and so on. (I have never had difficulty with students choosing "inappropriate" body parts, but of course that's something to watch, and if you have a group you think is inclined that way, it is probably best to nip it in the bud and specifically forbid "inappropriate" responses.)Teacher says, "Wow, this person's body is SO complicated! I don't think we need all these parts. I think I'm going to take THIS part away."
From here the game is played exactly as in the basic game. Students must think of reasons that their particular body part is important. A nose: "If you take me, you won't be able to smell the flowers!" A foot: "Without me, you'd have to walk on your hands!" A heart: "If you take me away, how will you get your blood to your body?" An ear might say, "How could you hear anything?" but one once said to me, "If you take me away, your hat will fall down over your eyes and you won't be able to see!"
Usually this works best with the whole class at once, rather than broken into groups, but a more advanced class could be divided into groups according to kinds of body parts--one group could be internal organs, one bones, and one muscles, for example.
In its simple form this variation works even with pre-Kindergarten, yet is challenging enough for much older students. (https://www.childdrama.com/lpno.html)
Some more Science and Drama ideas:
- Here is a great link that shows how a class acted out skits based on the different parts of a solar system! http://www.udgamschool.com/skit-on-solar-system
- acting out the water cycle
- acting out animals in a specific habitat (wildlife)
- Move/ act like an animal cube
Until next post, keep the acting up!
Emily
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