Posted in Closure activities, Creative Visualisation, Drama for children, drama for kids, Drama strategies, Endings, English as a second language, Movement activities, Relaxation activities for kids, Relaxation games

Closure/Relaxation Activites

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Relaxation is very important in Drama. The following activities will enable children to reduce stress and to help them release mental, physical and emotional tension. A relaxed body also leads to good voice production – benefiting all aspects of the voice such as pitch, pace, pause, inflection and projection.

Game: Be a waxwork
Minimum number of participants: 2
Resources needed: Clear space
Instructions: The children must imagine that they are a waxwork in Madame Tussauds’ Museum in London. Everyone can decide which very famous person they want to be. The children get into position and then the leader walks around looking at the waxworks and tries to guess who is who. When she has guessed everyone there is unfortunately a fire in the museum and all the waxworks melt slowly to the ground.

Game: Smoke in the chimney
Minimum number of participants: 2
Resources needed: Clear space
Instructions: The children imagine that they are smoke rising from a chimney. They move, undulating slowly. They stretch their bodies as much as they can and then they finally relax.

Game: Puppet on a string
Minimum number of participants: 2
Resources needed: Clear space
Instructions: The children imagine they are puppets with strings attached to their shoulders that someone is pulling from above. The leader tells them that they are being pulled up and their limbs fly out in all directions. Even the feet can be pulled off the ground at times. Finally the strings are cut, and the body relaxes.

Game: Floating tongue
Minimum number of participants: 1 (and the Leader)
Resources needed: Clear space
Instructions: The children are told to hold their tongues out of their mouths. They must make sure that their tongues don’t touch any part of the mouth. Then the leader tells them to clench their jaws and relax them slowly. After that they let their tongues completely relax. They should do these five times.

Game: Lion’s roar
Minimum number of participants: 1
Resources needed: Clear space
Instructions: Each child imagines that s/he is a mighty lion with a loud roar. But the roar is bottled up inside the lion. S/he should stand up like a proud lion; scrunch up his/her face and hands, ready to let the lion’s roar go. Then the leader tells them to take a deep breath and let the roar out. Tell them to stick out their tongues and hold their arms and hands out in front of them as they roar.

Game: The rock
Minimum number of participants: 1 (and the Leader)
Resources needed: Clear space and chairs
Instructions: Each child sits on a chair with knees bent, feet firmly on the ground and back straight. The leader tells them they are rocks embedded in the sea. They should feel the cool and refreshing sea water against them. Tell them to take a deep breath of sea air and let it go gently, imagining the sound of seagulls in the distance. Tell them to breathe in and out slowly and gently, feeling each breath with their whole body. When their bodies are completely relaxed, gently tell them to slowly open their eyes. Have them discuss how this felt.

Game: Happy place
Minimum number of participants: 1 (and the Leader)
Resources needed: Clear space, mats
Instructions: The children should lie down on mats and close their eyes. Tell them to imagine they are in a place where they feel happy and safe. Tell them to think about: what they see; what they hear. Tell them in their happy place they should feel safe, peaceful and relaxed. Tell them to put their left hand on top of their right hand and that when they do this in future, they will go back to their happy place. Then gently ask them to slowly open their eyes.

Devise your own closure activity a and post in the comments. For more closure or relaxation activity click on the link below.

Posted in Creative Visualisation

A Creative Visualisation for children – Under the Sea

Coral and fish

 

This is a creative visualisation for children but before you use it make sure they don’t have a fear of water!

You lie down on the floor and relax….. Don’t hold your breath. Breathe in nice and slowly and then breathe out nice and slowly……. Breathe in and out gently and calmly…….. Now you are floating on the water. You are bobbing up and down. You look around and you are in the middle of the ocean. You feel safe and calm. You gently float up and down…… up and down…. up and down…….up and down ……up and down.

You see a mermaid swimming along side you. She is a beautiful mermaid and she has a stunning sparkling tiara on her head. She is a princess mermaid. She takes your hand and you go underwater with her. You can breathe easily underwater. You feel relaxed and safe with the mermaid. You swim down towards the sea bed. As you slowly go down you see multi coloured fish swimming in and out of the coral and hiding in and under the rocks. The fish are all different colours red, orange yellow, green, blue, violet, and indigo, they look like a moving rainbow. You see all types of underwater animals such as turtles, whales, crabs, lobsters eels and sea urchins. All the sea creatures smile at you. They are all really friendly towards you. You smile back.  You feel safe and happy.

You reach the sea bed and you walk along it. You feel like you are walking on a cloud. You gently float up and down…. up and down.  The princess mermaid wants to take you to her palace. You swim towards the palace with the mermaid. She holds your hand and guides you gently towards the palace gates. There is an octopus guarding the gate. He opens the gates for you and the princess mermaid. He is very happy to see you. He has a very kind face. You are amazed because you have never seen such a magnificent palace. It is made out of gold from top to bottom and it is cover with diamonds, emerald, rubies and other precious and semi precious stones. The whole palace is sparkling.  You feel really excited to be here.

You swim into a big long hall there are beautiful paintings of all different types of sea creatures on the wall and the wall is covered with amazing sapphires. You look around the palace. You feel so calm and happy here. You reach the end of the hall you go into a large courtyard. You see mermaids playing; they are happy, smiling and laughing. They see you and the princess mermaid they call you in to play with them. You look around the courtyard it looks like an enchanted place. There are beds of the most beautiful flowers all over the courtyard. The colours of the flowers are strong and vibrant. Everyone is happy and free. They are playing with a ball. One of the mermaids throws the ball – you jump, you jump higher then all the other mermaids and you catch the ball. You float gently back down towards the sea bed. Everyone smiles. You smile back. You feel so happy and relaxed here.

You are taken to meet the queen mermaid. She is in a massive hall. She is sitting on the most beautiful throne you have ever seen. It is made out precious gemstones. It is really shiny. She smiles at you and she looks really happy to see you. She takes your hand and guides you into a very large dining hall where there is a very long table. On the table is the most delicious food you have ever seen. It is all your favourite food. You are so happy and you sit down with the queen mermaid and the princess mermaid. The chair is huge and is very, very comfortable. You eat the delicious food and you feel satisfied.

You swim with the mermaid who guides slowly up the stairs of the palace. You reach the top of the palace. You can see all of the sea bed and all the beautiful colours of all the sea creatures. They are all playing with one another. You feel so calm. The mermaid smiles at you and then she dives down towards the sea bed towards a group of oysters. She comes back and she shows you a pearl. You then dive down towards the oysters. The oysters look so happy to see you and they open their shells with a smile. You take the pearl and swimming slowly up to the top of the palace. You dive down again and collect another oyster. You dive again………….. and again………. and again………… The princess mermaid gives you a pearl to keep. You put it in your pocket. You are so happy you can take the pearl home with you.

You wave goodbye to all the mermaids and the queen mermaid. The princess mermaid takes your hand gently and you both swim slowly towards the surface of the water. As you swim towards the top you see all the rainbow fish, you wave at them. Just as you get to the top the princess mermaid smiles at you and lets go of your hand. She then swims towards the bottom of the ocean bed. You smile and wave goodbye. You look up and can feel the nice warm rays from the sun as you break through the surface. Then you float on the ocean. You slowly bop up and down…….. up and down ………….up and down. You feel really relaxed…………… Now slowly open your eyes slowly. Whenever you want to return to this feeling of happiness put your hand in your pocket and gently rub your beautiful pearl