WORKSHEET ACTIVITIES

SUITABLE FOR ACTING, MUSICAL THEATRE AND SPEECH AND DRAMA

Effective storytelling connects to the meaning of anything you perform, giving your audience something to really relate to. This activity sheet will help you develop your storytelling skills on your own, with your family or even with your friends on a video call.  There are lots of options, so you can split the tasks up and try them over a few days. 

LEARNING OBJECTIVES OF THE SESSION

To:

• warm up the articulators
• use the voice effectively
• create stories
• be imaginative in storytelling
• connect storytelling and characterisation vocally and physically
• be more confident in telling stories and speaking aloud

WARM UP EXERCISES AND ACTIVITIES

(10 minutes)

There are lots of simple exercises here to warm up your voice and body.  If you haven’t been physically active today then you can use them to get you going and increase your energy.  It’s a good opportunity to get your whole family involved. 

Try them all and then concentrate on the ones you enjoy and then you can build your own warm up from this menu.

FACE, TONGUE & JAW

• Stick your tongue in and out 6 times to stretch the tongue.
• Smile and pout x 6.
• Circle your tongue slowly 4 times right 4 times left with mouth closed.
• Chew an imaginary piece of toffee. Use all your jaw and imagine what it tastes and feels like.
• Have a little laugh to yourself to think about opening the vocal folds.
• Laugh out loud with control, use the whole face, then silently whilst thinking about how it feels.
• Scrunch up your face tight, then open with mouth open saying ahhhh! Scrunch close, open ahhhh.

BREATHING

• Breathing in for 4 counts and out for 8 counts. Keep shoulders relaxed and feel the breath down into the abdominals.
• Breathe in for 4 and out for 8 counting aloud, 12345678.
• Any variation on this to start to feel the breath filling the lungs without tension and breathing out with control. Imagine you have a balloon in your abdominals and when you breathe in the balloon expands and when you breathe out it deflates.

VOCAL - VOWELS

Working through the following vowels sounds add a physical action and send it back and forth to your partner. Ee Ay Ah Oh Oo Aw i.e Eeeeeeeeee with an arm(s) action (circle or similar).

PING-PONG CONSONANTS

• Using consonants each person choosing a consonant to strengthen articulation i.e.
  Person 1 - PppppppppppP
  Person 2 – BbbbbbbbbbbB
  Person 1 - TttttttttttttttttT
  Stress is on the first and last letter and this is done until you run out of consonants. Pace is key and have fun with it.
• Try adding a consonant to the vowel sound and change the consonant i.e Mee, May, Mah, Maw, Moh, Moo Tee, Tay, Tah, Taw, Toh, Too.

TONGUE TWISTERS

• Say the tongue twisters slowly at first to get used to them and then quickly up to 6 times in succession.
  a. Red Lorry, Yellow Lorry
  b. Red Feather, Yellow Feather
  c. She sells seas shells on the seashore
  d. Unique New York
  e. Peter Piper Picked a Peck of Pickled Peppers.
• Why not write your own tongue twister…then teach it to each other?
• Try saying a tongue twister with emotion, sad, happy, excited…you decide.
• Try to say the tongue twisters quietly, then loudly.
• Have a competition with each other and see how many times you can say the tongue twister with clear diction and breath control.

PHYSICAL

Check the space for hazards and make sure there are no vases you can accidentally break before you start.

1. Put your right ear to right shoulder and roll your chin down and forward until to the left ear meets the left shoulder. Roll back the other way x 3.
2. Shrug your shoulders up, down, then roll them forward and backward.
3. Swing your arms in a circle in one direction, then the other, then in opposite directions - one forward and one backwards (this one takes some concentration!)
4. Do some star jumps to get your whole body going x 6
5. Roll your body down to the floor with your arms out stretched and then back up again very slowly. It’s a good idea to softly bend your knees to avoid injury unless you’re super flexible! 
6. Shake everything out to release any last bits of tension in your body.

EMOTION, CONCENTRATION AND FOCUS ACTIVITIES

(5 minutes)

Choose one of these each time you do the worksheet. 

THE TELEVISION GAME

In pairs, choose one person to lead the game and pretend they have the remote control for the television. Ask the other person to visualise the television. It is up to the person with the remote control to change what’s on the screen i.e. it is a scary film, a happy programme, a funny cartoon and the reaction changes with each change of emotion or imaginative image.

CONVERSATIONS

Using either fruit, vegetables or favourite foods have a conversation using a range of emotions and only the words i.e. apples, bananas...happy, sad excited. Each participant chooses a different word which means this could be extended to ‘I love apples’ with a response of ‘I hate apples’. The natural extension of this is ‘Why do you love/ hate apples/bananas’.

TELL ME ABOUT...

• Your favourite book, holiday, food, to a time limit - 30 seconds.
• Thee fun facts about yourself. Make sure you introduce who you are first i.e My name is...and I'm...(age) - time limit 60 seconds.

STORYTELLING (MAIN ACTIVITY)

(15-20 minutes)

This is the main focus of the worksheet and these activities can be repeated and split over several days or sessions.  It's a good opportunity for you to reflect on how things are going and what you want to change or do differently. Once you are confident with an activity then you can show your performances to family and friends – in person or over a video call. 

1. TRADITIONAL STORIES

Using a traditional fairy story such as the story of The Three Little Pigs, narrate the story reading it aloud but also acting it out. The more fun you make this the better. The actions can be done by both participants and this will support learning both vocally and physically. Start to think about how the pigs are portrayed? What characteristics do they have? What does the wolf look and sound like? What do the houses look like?

2. BUILD A STORY

Each participant starts a story with one word at a time i.e.
Person 1. Once/ One
Person 2. upon / day
Person 1. a/as
Person 2.time/ I

The aim is to build a story very simply and quickly, thinking about how the story is made exciting or fun and the type of characters you might introduce? As the activity becomes easier to do you might decide to be the narrator (He/She) voice or first person (I). The possibilities are endless.

3. STORYBOX

1. Make a box of words and use them to cre- ate stories without preparation, whatever comes out of the box should form the basis of the story. Have fun at challenging each other with this and add a time limit. You have 1 minute starting now...

2. Write your stories down and act out the story.

3. You should think about who you are in the story and how you are showing the charac- ter, mood and meaning.

4. Record your stories on a phone...they might be useful to use in your mime scenarios.

5. Try to perform the story as the narrator or the characters, changing voices.

6. When you’re happy with your story – show it to your family and get some feedback from them.

Make the stories simple as you develop your storytelling skills, then try them in different ways. Try to be the narrator or tell the story from one of the characters in the story perspective.

EVALUATION

(5 minutes)

RECORDING PROGRESS

Write down your answers to the following:

• What have I learnt today?
• What did I do well today?
• What do I want to improve for the next session?
• What did I enjoy and why did I enjoy it?
• How will I improve what I did today?
• I will do this by...(date)

Then get your parent or guardian to sign it.  If you keep that going over a few days, before you know it, you will have started a drama workbook which charts your progress. 

Access Trinity Anthology online for poems, stories, monologues and a whole host of resources to support your independent sessions.