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Mapping a shared imaginary environment

Subject area: Literacy and Drama

Lesson number: 1 of 2

Suitable age range: 9–11 years

Resources needed: Small pieces of coloured paper, large sheets of plain paper, coloured pens and crayons.  Tables and chairs are moved to the sides of the room.

Expected timings: 1 hour lesson

Expected outcomes:

• The creation of a shared imaginary environment.
   
• The exploration of descriptive techniques.

Details of activity:

Ideas generation and drama warm-up: (10 minutes) In a circle begin by all performing the sentence ‘On our imaginary island there is …’.  (This can be replaced with whatever imaginary environment you are making i.e. ‘In our imaginary medieval castle…’)  A member of the group is then invited to offer a suggestion accompanied with a sound and action, e.g. ‘On our imaginary island there is … a giant erupting volcano’.  This is then performed by the entire group before another participant is invited to offer a new idea.  The group then start from the beginning and perform the original idea followed by the new one.  Each time a new suggestion is offered the group have to remember and perform all of the ideas together in order.

Drawing ideas: (15 minutes) Using the small pieces of paper and coloured pens the children are invited to quickly sketch one object, thing or area that they think would exist on our island.  It might be inspired by one of the ideas in the warm-up game or it might be something new.  After quickly drawing the images, the children are then asked to write the noun at the top of the piece of paper e.g. volcano, and then add adjectives around the edges to describe their particular drawing, e.g. ‘ginormous, rumbling, red hot’.

Mapping the world: (10 minutes) All pictures are then placed in the centre of the room and the children are invited to move around and look at the images.  The teacher facilitates a group discussion to re-imagine the classroom space as a giant map and each drawing is placed somewhere on the map.

Physicalising and describing the place: (25 minutes) Explore together how we can describe our amazing island to other people? Identify the key areas on the island that the children are interested in exploring further and work in small groups to create the areas physically using their bodies (you could add materials and props if available).  After creating a frozen image, the children are asked to bring their area to life with sounds and movement when the teacher interacts with it.  As the teacher or volunteer visits each area, describe together:

• The sounds – are there any onomatopoeia words?
   
• The movements – what verbs and adverbs would you use to describe the area’s movement?
   
• How it felt to be in this space – feelings and emotions – leading into similes and metaphors. 

The teacher or the students from each group make notes about all of these descriptions on big pieces of paper.

Follow-up work: This session can lead into another literacy session where the children can use the descriptive techniques explored to describe their world.  This could be a stand-alone description or it could form part of a story opener.  The drama leads onto the development of characters who exist within this world. Adventures and experiences can then be explored through drama.