North View Residency

North View

To kickstart our residency at North View Elementary, we began by establishing an overarching theme of elements of nature to theatre and dance activities. Each lesson was separated into water, land, and air. Before we started diving into specific elements, our first day consisted of activities such as name games and ensemble building. In order to better know our students, we let them hold onto “passports” as a way to track their travels through the world. On day one, they drew their dream destination and later explained that location to the class and why they wanted to travel there. 

Following our ensemble building day, we began to tackle movement through water centralized activities with the students. We separated them into small groups and had them each build an underwater animal. Within this activity, they created a sea creature and decided where it would live, how it would move, and what it would look like. This helped them build a character and planted the seeds for story building. On the next water day, the students played a game where they built a story as a group. Each student offered one sentence to help the story move along. This activity challenged them to introduce new characters, plot points, and learn about story structure. Following this activity, they continued to explore creative movement with these new character options in mind. The space was very open allowing for creativity to flow and new ideas to be shared.

The next theme we focused on was land based locations. Day four found us in the desert exploring different desert creatures, how they move, and different modes of desert transportation. After exploring these elements, we created pantomime stories in small groups. The students got to work in their small group to build the story and present it with pantomime to their peers. The following class period transitioned into the forest where we explored how a variety of forest animals could travel across the room. Our land based theme ended with a character game of Night At The Museum where students were encouraged to become one of the creatures they explored previously during the game. 

The final theme focused on air/space. On day six, we began with a game that explored sound, character building, and team building. We worked to build machine parts to create an imaginary helicopter as a group. Next, we broke into small groups to create a bird and write a short story on where our bird was traveling. Our students then used another group’s writing to pantomime the story, and we did an informal showing of their work. The next day we explored space. We explored how our movement would change on various planets, as they all have different gravitational pulls. On planets with a stronger gravitational pull, the students experienced heavier, slower movement. On planets with a lower pull, students could move lighter and freely. We finished this day breaking into small groups and writing a short story about a planet we spent a day on. We acted these stories out for each other, which allowed the students to explore performance. 

Student Testimonial: 

“Working with the students of North View Elementary School was such a wonderful experience! I was able to gain practice leading the classroom, while having the support of my classmates. The residency also allowed me to take the knowledge we learned throughout the semester, regarding teaching pedagogies, curriculum development, and arts integration, and apply it in the classroom setting. Throughout the eight classes, we were able to see the students grow as artists and individuals. We watched them gain confidence performing in front of their peers and grow as an ensemble. One of the most rewarding moments was when one of our students, who was more reserved, thanked us for making a program that allows her to have a safe place to play and create through theatre and dance. This comment was a beautiful reminder about the importance of the arts in education.”