I teach gifted and talented but I also teach enrichment. One of my 3rd grade enrichment groups had been asking if they could perform a play. We had been reading several plays and they thought it would be fun to actually perform one. So, I decided "what the heck" it would be a fun adventure. We read several plays so that we could choose one. A wrench was placed into my plans when my group grew. I looked over many of the plays we had read, searched my inventory of plays only to discover none of them had enough characters giving each student equal or at least desired stage time.
After giving it some thought I decided we needed to write our own play. This way my students could choose the amount of stage time each would receive and create their own story line. So now to the beginning of the project...
The first step was to come up with characters. I had each student create the character they wanted to be in the play. This step was easy because they all have very strong ideas.
Step 2 was to create some plots. I had each student create a beginning, middle and end. Once this was complete we went over their ideas and voted on their favorite beginning, middle and end. The kids had a lot of fun with this part.
The third step was the most detailed and took the longest but was a lot of fun. We began writing the script. I summarized the plot, then each student began talking as I wrote. It took several days to complete this process. After each draft writing was complete I would type it up, we would read it and the kids would add more lines to their story to make it more interesting. I did make suggestions as we wrote the play, edited so the story line was organized in some areas. It was a collaborative effort between teacher and students. One I will cherish and gladly do again.
Finally the play was complete, Attack of the Sharktopus was born.
Attack of Sharktopus play
+Attack of Sharktopus
+Guided play writing