West End in Schools Blog
The West End in Schools blog, providing theatre in education and literacy related resources, news, comment and, we hope, inspiration to primary school teachers.
In Part 3 of our Guide to Teaching Shakespeare, we look at getting children up on their feet and performing the bard’s work. From character statues to character creation, here are some exercises and activities that you can use in the classroom, differentiated for different ages.
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You’ve told, read, re-read and re-told your story. Everyone knows what’s happening. (Finally!) Great.
Safe with an understanding of the overall story from a narrative version, it’s time to transfer your students’ knowledge to a script version and discover how Shakespeare really brought his stories to life.
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Our advice when it comes to teaching Shakespeare in primary schools is to tell a story, break it down and get physical with it to bring the drama to life. In this blog series, we break down each of these points in turn to provide ideas and suggestions for how you can deliver them in our own classroom. To get us started, Part 1 focuses on telling the story.
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Inspiring children to bring books to life with dance is one of our favourite things to do at West End in Schools. Just last week we gathered some of the country’s most talented dancers in one room, to work through the choreography for our Bringing Books to Life dance workshops in primary schools. We spoke to a few of our regular West End in Schools choreographers to find out more about their work with us to inspire children to dance.
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It’s sometimes hard to argue the ‘why’ for something as intangible as storytelling, let alone prove that the benefits are real. In a school context, especially compared to subjects such as science or maths, why should we spend time imagining something that was made-up instead of learning facts?
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Books provide young people a window into a new world, they unshackle the imagination and promote the thought that anything is possible. World Book Day, is on a mission to give every child or young person a book of their own. It is a celebration of books, authors, illustrators and imagination!
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At West End In Schools we have lists (long, long lists) of poems we love, but we’ve whittled it down to just five, and this year we’ve been working on transforming these five fantastic rhymes into specially created drama workshops.
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To celebrate Roald Dahl Day and the 102nd anniversary of one of the most phizz-whizzing writers of all time, we have compiled a list of our top five easy ways to get creative with Roald Dahl.
Read MoreDo you like Gobblefunk? We love it!
From Oompa-Loompas to Snozzcumbers the invented language of Roald Dahl (Gobblefunk) demonstrates the fun that can be had by playing around with words and letting language loose!
Read MoreThere is no better feedback than spontaneous reactions from an honest audience! That’s one of the things we love about working with children...
Read MoreRoald Dahl Day is on 13th September and 2016 marks 100 years since his birth!
Now is a great time to inspire yet another generation of children with the wonders of Roald Dahl’s work. Our Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and The Enormous Crocodile dance workshops are currently ‘flying off the shelf’!
We asked a few of our performers to tell us how Dahl inspires them. Here's what they said...
Read More“I really enjoyed the way they got through a important lesson to us by acting it out, making it fun and letting us join in! Using popular books and well known stories it was amazing for everyone.”
Cerys, Year 4, Archibald First School.
Read MoreAlmost every school does the ‘character costumes for World Book Day’ thing. And we love it! But we also know of some other ways to showcase the brilliance of books in schools…
Read MoreThousands of schools, families and organisations take part in Shakespeare Week every year. In 2016 Shakespeare Week celebrates 400 years of Shakespeare’s creative legacy and it looks like it’ll be busier than ever.
Read MoreWelcome back! Our cast and creators are thrilled to be back for another school year full of learning, literacy, arts and fun - and so our new literacy musical, Back to Before, is in rehearsals this week!
Read MoreA theatre in education company visiting primary schools with West End actors. Book us for school pantomimes, dance workshops, musicals about books, Shakespeare and writing workshops.
West End in Schools | Strand, London, England, WC2R 1LA