#foundationprep

[kidsmartnola]

Foundation Prep Kindergarten, Drama & Social Studies Ms Odile / Ms Overton

In Ms. Overton’s class, students learned about the process of electing officials for representation. They explored the feelings of those involved in the process and the responsibility of elected officials once they are elected.

In order to deepen student understanding, Ms. Overton used read-aloud stories based on the election process. For this particular class, we read ‘Duck for President.’ We used our growing skills in improvisational drama to create stories based on characters and scenarios in our story. At the end of class, students reflected on which character they would vote for and why using examples from the story and from our improvised scenes.

[kidsmartnola]

Foundation Prep Kindergarten, Drama & ELA Ms. Odile / Ms. Hansen

How do we write a true story in Kindergarten?  Ms. Hansen’s students at Foundation Prep have been practicing writing by telling true stories.  They are discovering how to make them clear and readable by visualizing, drawing and adding details. 

When Ms. Odile and Ms. Hansen got together, they led the students to strengthen their writing and bring it to life through Pantomime. 

Students first focused on adding details to their individual stories.  They drew and wrote down words to go with their story.  Some students shared their work with the class.

We then split up into pairs and the students decided whose story they were going to tell through Pantomime.  Ms. Odile and Ms. Hansen encouraged creativity through their body and facial expressions, as well as a clear beginning middle and end.

The class culminated with a performance of their true stories, like the time one girl really wanted the last piece of birthday cake, but alas her friend ended up with that delicious cake.  We all experienced their feelings through their silent storytelling and through their writing...

[kidsmartnola]

Foundation Prep Kindergarten-1st grade, Theatre & Science Ms. Odile / Ms. Overton

Ms. Overton’s Kindergarten and 1st grade students have been learning a series in science of animals ‘two by two’.  They are learning about the different body parts and life cycle of each animal.  This past week we were looking at water snails. During our arts integration session we used pantomime to create snail characters.  We embodied the different qualities of the snail and how they interact in different setting, particularly the ‘glass aquarium’. 

Slowly we are understanding how to tell stories with our body, facial expressions, and movement while deepening our science lesson.

[kidsmartnola]

Foundation Prep 3rd Grade, Theater Enrichment Ms. Ferdinand

Today’s Goals: build ensemble, use face, voice and bodies to express emotion

We built “emotion machines” at the end of our 1st class together. The 1st image shows their sadness machine.  The students were working to:

1. make a sadness movement and sound that repeats 2. interact with each other like parts of a machine 3. put their bodies at varying levels (high, medium, low)

In our 2nd class, students looked at the picture from 1st class and shared what they saw.  “Da’naja looks like she’s about to cry.”  “Ty looks suspicious.”  “Grayon looks like she’s choking Da’Naja”  “Everybody’s doing something”

I noticed that students only identified one person from the image (Da’Naja) with the intended emotion: sadness.  We worked to create another sadness machine today.   What differences do you notice?