Lesson Notes By Weeks and Term v5 - Grade 3

Lesson Video

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Performance objectives

• Participate in simple drama activities.
• Create simple rhythms using your body.
• Combine simple movements into a short dance.
• Work together in groups to create a short scene.
• Show emotions using movement and sound.

Lesson summary

This week in Creative Arts, we will explore drama, music, and dance! The arts allow us to express ourselves in unique and exciting ways. We’ll be focusing on creating simple performances and exploring different ways to use our bodies and voices to tell stories and make music. Learning about drama, music, and dance is important because it helps us develop confidence, creativity, teamwork skills, and appreciate the diverse cultures of South Africa. Imagine using your voice to sing a traditional song, acting out a story about Nelson Mandela, or dancing to the rhythm of marimba music! These activities connect us to our heritage and help us understand the world around us in new ways.

Lesson notes

Drama: Telling Stories with Actions and Words Drama is about acting out stories and situations. It’s about using our bodies, voices, and imagination to bring characters and scenes to life. In Grade 3, we focus on simple drama activities like role-playing, mime, and creating short scenes.

Role-playing: Pretending to be someone else, like a doctor, a teacher, or even an animal! You use your voice and actions to show who you are pretending to be.

Mime: Acting without using any words! You use only your body movements and facial expressions to tell a story or show an action. Think of someone pretending to be stuck in a box - they use their body to show they are trapped without saying a word.

Short Scenes: A short story acted out by a small group of people. It usually has a beginning, middle, and end.

Example: Let's pretend we are at the market. One person can be the vendor selling fruit, and another can be a customer buying fruit. The vendor can use their voice to advertise their fruit ("Fresh apples, only R5!"), and the customer can ask questions ("How much for the bananas?"). This is a simple scene with a beginning (customer arrives), middle (customer buys fruit), and end (customer leaves).

Music: Making Sounds and Rhythms Music is all about sound! We can make music with our voices (singing), with instruments, or even with our bodies (body percussion). Rhythm is the pattern of sounds and silences in music.

Body Percussion: Using our bodies to make sounds. Clapping our hands, stomping our feet, snapping our fingers, and clicking our tongues are all examples of body percussion.

Simple Instruments: Instruments that are easy to play, like shakers made from empty bottles filled with rice, drums made from buckets, or xylophones made from different sized bottles filled with water.

Rhythm: A pattern of sounds and silences. You can create a rhythm by clapping your hands in different patterns. For example, clap-clap-pause, clap-clap-pause, or clap-clap-clap-clap.

Example: Let's create a rhythm using body percussion. We can clap twice, then stomp our feet once. Then, repeat. Clap-clap, stomp. Clap-clap, stomp. We can also try to make the rhythm faster or slower.

Dance: Moving Our Bodies to Express Ourselves Dance is about moving our bodies in different ways to express feelings or tell a story. We can move slowly, quickly, smoothly, or sharply. Different types of dances exist in South Africa, reflecting diverse cultures and traditions.

Movement: How we move our bodies. Walking, running, jumping, swaying, shaking, and turning are all examples of movement.

Expression: Using our bodies to show how we feel. We can show happiness by smiling and jumping, or sadness by drooping our shoulders and walking slowly.

Steps: A sequence of movements that create a dance. Simple steps can include stepping forward, backward, sideways, and turning.

Example: Let's create a simple dance. We can start by stepping forward twice, then stepping backward twice. Then, we can turn around in a circle. Repeat. This is a simple dance sequence. Combining Drama, Music, and Dance We can combine drama, music, and dance to create a performance that tells a story using actions, sounds, and movements.

Example: Think about the story of "The Tortoise and the Hare." Drama: We can act out the roles of the tortoise and the hare, using our voices and actions to show their different personalities.

Music: We can create a slow, steady rhythm to represent the tortoise, and a fast, hurried rhythm to represent the hare.

Dance: We can create slow, deliberate movements for the tortoise, and quick, jerky movements for the hare. By putting these elements together, we can create a dynamic and engaging performance that brings the story to life! Guided Practice (With Solutions)

Question 1: Imagine you are a seed growing into a plant. How would you use your body to show this through mime? Describe the movements you would use.

Solution: Starting position: Crouched down low to the ground, curled up in a ball (representing the seed).

Growing: Slowly begin to uncurl, stretching your arms upwards and outwards, as if your roots are growing into the soil and your stem is growing towards the sun.

Reaching for the sun: Reach your arms high above your head, stretching and swaying gently to show the plant growing taller and moving in the breeze.

Commentary: This exercise encourages creative expression through mime, focusing on how body movements can tell a story without words.

Question 2: Create a simple rhythm using body percussion. Write down the sequence of actions you will use.

Solution: Clap your hands twice. Stomp your right foot once. Click your fingers once. Repeat.

Commentary: This exercise focuses on creating a simple rhythmic pattern using different body percussion sounds. Learners should be encouraged to vary the sounds and create their own unique rhythms.

Question 3: You want to show you are happy through dance.