PictureBook Plays

Using your face when you act out a story helps share the story with your audience. You can practice using your face, and exploring emotions with your students.

• Have everyone sit in a circle. If you like, you can start by reading a picture book about emotions, or just hop right into the game.
• Start with a feeling that everyone knows, like happy or sad. Make a happy face together. Make a sad face together. Make a silly face together.
• Talk about the different parts of your face, see if you can engage your nose when you make a sad face. How about your forehead? What does your forehead do when you’re sad?
• With older children, or if this is a repeat game for you children, try “passing” your face around the circle. One child makes a sad face to the person to her left. He makes a sad face to the person to his left. And so on around the circle.
• Played with repetition, children will begin to find new ways to express emotions with their faces, and will also begin to pass more varied emotions.

Children already play pretend so it’s easy to include theatre in your everyday routine: Add a costume bin to your classroom or playroom. Put in several (not too many, it can be overwhelming) pieces of cloth and a couple articles of clothing and maybe even some shoes.

Put it out and see what your child does. You don’t need to put on a play, tell a story or perform, just dress-up together. Feel the different textures. Wear things in different ways. You don’t HAVE to put a shoe on your foot!

Try wrapping the pieces of cloth around you in different ways. One piece can be a dress, a cape, wings, a veil, a hat, and even a horse.

Follow your child’s lead. You can encourage this by asking open-ended questions like, “What happens next?” “How shall I wear this?” “I want to be a sea horse, help me dress up.”