April 23, 2010
One natural phenomenon that has had a lot of press in Europe and around the world lately is the eruption of Iceland’s now famous Eyjafjallajokull volcano - try pronouncing that one! We spent a good twenty minutes trying to find a YouTube video that would reveal this to us but found that most of the posts were more amusing than educational.
The volcano’s eruption has prevented many teachers and support staff from returning from their holidays for the start of the summer term, which is probably a lot less fun than it sounds!
The Quest for Volcanoes & Earthquakes is a new cross-curricular workshop that we developed last term and is now available all year round. Read more about our Quest for Knowledge workshops or email us to check availability.
Categories: Freshwater Theatre Company News
Posted by: Freshwater Theatre Company @ 10:18 am
April 19, 2010
How would you and your pupils like to see the London 2012 Olympic Park before the rest of the world? Well, Freshwater can offer you just that!
We are delighted to have teamed up with the London Wildlife Trust to offer a winning combination of drama workshops and practical outdoor activities at The View Tube, a brand new education centre. With spectacular views of the Stadium, Aquatic Centre and the rest of the Olympic development site, it’s the perfect place to get your pupils (and yourself!) excited about the 2012 Olympics.
As well as taking part a Freshwater drama workshop overlooking the stadium, the children will also get to explore the local area and learn about the Olympic Park - it will surely be an experience that your pupils will remember for many years to come.
Click here or email us to find out more about our Olympic Day Out.
Categories: Freshwater Theatre Company News
Posted by: Freshwater Theatre Company @ 11:43 am
We’ve got the Olympics on the brain with launching our workshops at the View Tube, the new education centre on the Olympic Park. With this in mind, here’s what the Olympic boroughs have to say about our cross-curricular drama sessions:
“I was really pleased and surprised at how much the children remembered about our work on India.”
Mr Sims, Timbercroft Primary School, Greenwich
“Provided us with great ideas which we can incorporate into lessons - keep the children focused!”
Kellie Ryder, Vicarage Primary School, Newham
“Teachers motivated and keen to explore the techniques with their class - especially good at motivating staff at the end of a long day.”
Jenny Saidi, Thomas Buxton Infant School, Tower Hamlets
“Fun and exciting! Very well led and structured. The children wanted to do even more drama!”
Christina Savva, London Fields Primary School, Hackney
“Children loved it and were engaged throughout! Very impressed with the performer and her skill with the children. It was perfect – great vocabulary and history links.”
Shaun Harris, Chingford CofE Infant School, Waltham Forest
We’ve teamed up with the London Wildlife Trust to offer drama workshops overlooking the London 2012 Olympic Park! Click here for more details.
Categories: Freshwater Theatre Company News
Posted by: Freshwater Theatre Company @ 11:41 am
Revive your class’ concentration with this energetic game.
Zip Zap Boing is lively, fun and adaptable – and guaranteed to refresh the children’s focus in those afternoon lulls. You can try it out in different languages too.
1. Get the children to stand in a circle
2. Each word – ‘zip’, ‘zap’ or ‘boing’ – is called out in conjunction with an action:
Zip – swinging the arms to the left or right and pointing in that direction to pass the ‘ball of energy’ to the next person in the circle (depending on which way the ‘current’ is being sent around the circle).
Zap – bringing the hands together and pointing the index fingers at a person who is not directly next to you – sending the ball of energy to them. They then zip the current to the next person in the circle.
Boing – facing the person who has passed the ball of energy to you, lifting up both hands to head height and wobbling around like jelly. This reverses the current back the opposite way.
3. Send the ball of energy off around the circle – “Zip”! The children then pass the current to the next person in the circle by zipping, or they might decide to zap it across the circle, or boing it back the other way. However, you can’t return a zap with a zap, or return a zap with a boing!
4. The aim is to get the current going as quickly as possible, so concentration is vital. If you say the wrong word with the action, you’re out!
The words can easily be interchanged to fit with the topic of the class, or even changed into a modern foreign language. Perhaps ‘zip, zap, boing’ become ‘bleu, rouge, vert’, or ‘eins, zwei, drei’? Linking words with actions has proven to be a very effective way of learning MFL.
For further detailed ideas, book a Freshwater Drama or MFL INSET training session for your school and you will be given a toolbox of ideas to develop drama learning techniques in all areas of the curriculum.
Categories: Drama Activities
Posted by: Freshwater Theatre Company @ 11:41 am
April 13, 2010
We had a very busy end to the Spring term here at Freshwater, not least with hosting our ‘Teaching MFL through Drama’ Inset workshop. The session was a great success with teachers from across London joining us for an evening of fun and creativity, and leaving with some very useful ideas for teaching languages (if we do say so ourselves!)
Keeley Donati from Chingford Hall Primary School told us: “I already plan to use some ideas this week. When’s the next one?!”
If you’d also like to know when the next one is, or to find out how we can deliver an MFL Inset session at your school, click here or e-mail us.
Also last term, we were very pleased to be invited to appear at the CILT Annual Conference for Merton and Kingston, where we performed our MFL Storytelling for 70 teachers (some of whom showed off their acting skills when they took on roles in The Three Little Pigs)! We were very lucky to meet so many teachers who are passionate about languages, and hope to be visiting their schools in the coming months.
If you’re hosting a languages day this term, get in touch to grab your ideal date for our MFL Storytelling – we’re filling up fast!
Categories: Freshwater Theatre Company News
Posted by: Freshwater Theatre Company @ 1:33 pm
