Lesson video

Hello! My name is Adam and I'm here to do some drama lessons with you.

This is unit one, lesson one: An Introduction to Story Telling Through Drama.

Now, in addition to being a drama teacher, I am also a professional actor which means I create plays in theatres.

And I am going to teach you some of the things that I do when I'm working on a new play.

Are you ready to have a go? Then lets begin.

What is a story? That's what we're going to be looking at today.

We're also going to be looking at how stories are different in drama.

We're going to create characters and we're going to preform those characters at the end of the lesson.

Do you have a favourite story? Is there a film you love to watch? We love stories and we love to tell them.

But, in drama, rather than reading a story, we preform it! Actors like me, become the characters and we speak the words and do the actions which all help bring the story to life.

We're going to learn some new Star Words today.

I am an actor, which means I create the characters that you know from your story.

When I become that character, it means we preform, we bring the character to life on the stage.

And that is called putting on a play.

The style of performance that we're going to use today is something called, Mime.

Mime, is when you pretend you have things in your hands that you're going to preform with.

And when we preform, often we like to have an audience, which is somebody to watch us and more importantly, to applaud at the end.

Before we get started, there is something I need you to do.

I need you to stand up and make sure that the space around you is clear of all furniture so that you can move freely without bumping into anything.

Pause the video and then press play when you're ready.

Today's story is about baking.

Do you like to do baking? What's your favourite thing to bake? I bet you love to eat the things you bake, don't you? I know I do.

I love baking cakes, and pies and tarts, and I know two characters who love tarts.

Particularly jam tarts, one of my favourites.

Here they are.

This is a Queen of Hearts, who loves to bake tarts.

And the Knave of Hearts a naughty little boy who steals them, and runs away to eat them all by himself.

Should we find out a little bit more about these two characters? Okay.

Today's story is a nursery rhyme, called the Queen of Hearts.

Maybe you've heard of it.

This is the first part.

Try to read along if you can.

The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts all on a summer's day.

So, we know who this story is about, The Queen of Hearts.

We know what she's doing, she's baking some tarts.

And we know when she's doing it, on a summer's day.

These are what tarts look like.

They look delicious.

Jam tarts are my favourite.

Now I've stood up and I've got lot's of space around me, so I'm not going to bump into and furniture and it means I can move freely and do the rest of this exercise.

Have you done that? Good.

What we are going to do is we are going to pretend to make our jam tarts.

We are going to use something called, Mime.

A mime is when you pretend to have things in your hands which you might call props in a theatre.

So things like a big ball of pastry dough and a rolling pin.

So we're going to put our pastry onto our work counter, we're going to get our rolling pin, and we're going to squash it down and then roll it out.

Rolling out your pastry, making it all flat on the work counter.

That looks good enough.

I'm going to put my rolling pin away and I'm going to pick up a pastry cutter.

I've got a circular one with little crimps around it.

And I'm going to cut out some pastry cases for my jam tarts.

Put that away, and pick up my piece of pastry, can you see that? Very good.

And you're going to put it into my tart tin.

Try saying that three times fast.

Tarts tin, tarts tin, tarts tin.

It's quite complicated.

And I'm going to push it down into the tin, making a nice deep dish.

And now I need my jam.

Ah, here we are.

I've got a big jar of strawberry jam.

One of my favourites.

What is your favourite jam? Very good.

You need a spoon, and you get a big spoonful of jam.

It tastes delicious! Don't take too much, you'll ruin your appetite.

Lets put some jam into our tart tin.

I'm going to pretend that I've done some more as well, so I'm going put some more in there, and this one needs a bit more, and one last one.

I think that's enough.

I'm going to leave the spoon there, maybe I'll have a little bit more later.

I'm going to put that down, I'm going to pick up my tart tin, and I'm going to put it into my oven.

Do you see how that works? I'm miming rolling out my pastry and making my jam tarts.

Why don't you have a go at making your own mime of making your jam tarts? Pick which jam you want to do, maybe you're going to stat by making your pastry and mixing your flour and butter together, mixing in some water, making the whole thing from scratch.

Its entirely up to you.

Its your mime.

Pause the video, give it a go and when you're ready to carry on, press play.

Welcome back! Here is part two.

Again, read along if you can.

The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts and took them all away! The Knave is a sort of a naughty child.

We know that because he's just stolen the tarts! Lets have a go at bringing that to life.

So we've made out jam tarts, they've come out of the oven They smell amazing! But they're too hot to eat.

We need to leave them there for a while to cool down.

But our Knave, our naughty child doesn't care about that, he's going to come in, and he's going to take those tarts and steal them all away! So, I know you don't know what a naughty child is.

Neither do I.

But lets have a go at making it up.

Use our imaginations, see what we come up with.

So our Knave is going to come in, he's going to see those tarts, they look good.

Perhaps look around, make sure nobody is watching.

Take those tarts, maybe there's a bit of a giggle, And he's going to steal them all away.

Can you have a go at doing that? Press pause, do your mime and then press play when you're ready to carry on.

So lets just have a quick recap before we carry on.

Our Queen, has been making some jam tarts.

She's put a lot of effort into that, and I think she has quite enjoyed herself.

She put them in the oven, and then went off to maybe have a nice cup of tea whilst she waits.

She took the tarts out of the oven, left them there to cool, and the Knave came along and stole them! How do you think the Queen feels now? I don't think she's going to be very happy, do you? How do you think the Knave is feeling right now? Perhaps these are things we can think about when we're doing our mime.

How our characters might be thinking and feeling.

How happy the Queen might be at making her jam tarts.

Maybe she's singing a little song, she's dancing away to the radio.

Perhaps the Knave is just really hungry and thought he wasn't going to get any food today and then he saw the jam tarts.

Its entirely up to you.

These are your mimes.

You can do whatever you want! If you want to have another go, pause the video.

Otherwise lets carry on and meet our next character.

Lets move on and introduce you to the third character in our rhyme.

This is part three.

Again, read along if you can.

The King of Hearts, he missed those tarts, and told the Knave right off! Here, we have the King, and I think he's a little bit disappointed that he's not got any tarts to eat.

But he's told off the Knave for stealing them hasn't he? Lets have a look at that in action.

So, what is your King going to be like? Is your King a happy king? Is he a sad King? Is he an angry King? You decide, its your king.

You can make him however you want.

I'm going to have a hungry king.

His tummy is rumbling, he's got a napkin tucked into his collar so he doesn't get jam all over his nice clothes.

He's got his fork and his spoon ready to tuck in, but they're not there.

Um, they're not here.

The Knave is stealing them, I can see him running through the kitchen! I'm going to go and tell him off and get my tarts back! That's my mime.

What's your mime going to be? Press pause, give it a go and press play when you're ready to carry on.

Its time for the final part of our rhyme.

Again, ready along if you can.

The Knave of Hearts brought back those tarts, and vowed he'd steal no more.

So, you decide how you're going to do it.

Bring your tray of tarts back to the queen.

But think about, how is the Knave feeling? Is he still hungry, has he eaten any of the tarts? Are there some missing? You decide.

There's no wrong answers with this.

You can do whatever you want, its your story.

You give it a go.

I've given you the basic actions, you fill in the rest.

Pause the video and give it ago and press play when you finish.

We've now completed the whole of the nursery rhyme, The Queen of Hearts, well done.

You have done so much work today.

Very well done indeed.

You've started to act, you've created three different characters and you've started to create all of the different actions that happen in this nursery rhyme.

Well done! I'm going to read out the whole of the poem again for you.

Feel free to press pause between each verse and act it out again.

If you want to, go and grab someone that you live with and get them to watch, they can be your audience.

The Queen of Hearts, she made some tarts all on a summer's day.

The Knave of Hearts, he stole those tarts and took them all away.

The King of Hearts, he missed those tarts and told the Knave right off! The Knave of Hearts brought back those tarts, and vowed he'd steal no more.

Very good.

Just time to recap everything that we've done today.

We've looked at what stories are, and how they are told differently in drama.

We've looked at characters and started to create some characters through still images and movement and mime.

Finally, we've preformed.

We've brought the nursery rhyme to life using our bodys and our voices.

We've told a story through drama.

Congratulations on finishing the first lesson of this unit and I will see you again for another lesson soon.

Goodbye!.