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The Praise Factory is a six year, multi-age children’s systematic theology curriculum for elementary school children. It is comprised of 104 key biblical truths -- called "Big Ideas"-- divided into 16 units, common to a systematic theology. These biblical truths expand the children’s understanding of the same 12 big questions and answers used in the two preschool curriculums and add four additional big questions and answers. Within each 3-week Big Idea, there is an Old Testament, New Testament and Church History/Missions story presented. Each week’s curriculum includes 8 different activities to reinforce the Big Idea concept and story. |
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Objectives The goals of the Drama group application activities are to help the children better understand the main points and meaning of the story; and, to think about how it applies to the Big Idea. The Plan-a-Play discussion should help the children make an understandable drama presentation, as well as help them understand the significance of the story, themselves. The discussion, rather than a polished dramatic presentation, is the main point of this activity. Drama Group Snack-time Discussion Time Emphasis The Drama Group snack and discussion time is spent on discussing the story in preparation for creating the play. Note on ACTS PRAYER ACTS Prayer time is very brief for the Drama group because so much time is needed to prepare for the play. The Plan-a-Play Story Guide For each Big Idea story, we have created a Plan-a-Play Story Guide that breaks the story into its building blocks of time, location, setting , characters, beginning, middle and end, theme (how it ties in with the Big Idea), and title. see the Plan-a-Play Story Guide for Big Idea #1, Week 1 pdf Speaker Sheets For each element on the Plan-a-Play Story Guide, there is a corresponding Speaker Sheet. The leader guides story discussion by following the numerical sequence on the Plan-a-Play Story Guide and fills in the children's answers on each corresponding Speaker Sheet. At the end of discussion, assign a "Speaker" for each Speaker Sheet to introduce the play during Closing Large Group Time by reading the group's answers off of the Speaker Sheets. The leader keeps the "Our Story: Beginning, Middle, and End" sheet to guide the children through their play. Copies of the Speaker Sheets are included in the Reproducible Masters section at the back of the Teacher's Binder, Appendix G. see the Beginning, Middle, End Sheet.pdf A Final Note on Speaker Sheets Many teachers find it helpful to fill in the Speaker Sheets before the session, yet still leading the children through them in the same manner. This allows the teachers to crystallize their own understanding of the story, print the answers more neatly, and save time during discussion. You can always supplement your answers with their comments. Practicing and Putting on the Play Preparing the Play Depending upon the story and the abilities of a group, the leader may choose anything from a complete narration of the story as the children mime the plot, all the way to letting the children act out the whole story with little intervention (the latter being a VERY rare occurrence!!). More likely than not, you will need to be the lead narrator, providing a spoken commentary while the children pantomime the story, except for a few key lines. This allows you to direct the children as they act, keeps you basically in control of the children's actions (built in cueing), and allows you to give a meaty, understandable play without working on lines. Use the "Our Story: Beginning, Middle, and End" Sheet to guide your children through their play. Assign narrator parts and character parts and guide the children through their introduction (using the Narrator Sheets) and their play (using the Our Story: Beginning, Middle, End Sheet). Try to run the "play" twice, if time allows. Using Costumes/Props/PVC cube Each child has a costume/prop to represent a particular character in the story. Don't worry about too much authenticity. This is far more an exercise in imagination than anything else! With a little creativity, a PVC cube (see link below) can be transformed to be any number of stages: everything from a cave to a television set to a house. If using costumes and props, wait to hand those out after you have practiced the play. Sample Sessions from CHBC: Preparing for Story Telling and the Drama Group Sample Session from CHBC: Telling the Story, BIg Idea 1, Week 1 Sample Session from CHBC: Practicing for the Play Sample Session from CHBC: Putting on the Play
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Drama Group