BACK TO SCHOOL DRAMA: 3 weeks of fun!

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30% OFF! This Back to School Drama Middle School no-prep bundle provides weeks of entertaining activities. Your grades 5-8 students will have fun, but be challenged too. There’s plenty of variety. Readers’ Theater, speaking ( briefly) to the class, warm up scenes, journal entries, games- phew! Students will be kept students busy and engaged. At the end of these exciting activities they will be energized for an amazing year in drama with you. The journal has so many entries (50 unique topics) that it can be used for months, so this bundle is definitely a gift that will go on giving!
Back to School Readers’ Theater Mystery for the Whole Class
Back to School fun for the whole class! The Back to School Mysteries readers’ theater script will entertain your grades 5-8 students and require them to perform inference tasks to solve clues. There is also a one page exercise session in the middle of the script, led by Phys Ed student teachers Mr Trainer and Jim Shortz. This is the ultimate brain break to beat all brain breaks! The script is designed for TWENTY SIX readers! For the first week of the year, it is a great idea to keep all of the students together in one place and foster classroom community, rather than dividing into smaller reading groups. Each of the students has at least two individual speeches to read, and everyone is kept busy reading the frequent EVERYONE responses together. For classes smaller than 26, give students two roles. For larger classes, divide the roles of the teacher, Ms Taken, and each of her student teachers into two parts.
This funny and engaging story has two mysteries. The first one your students need to work out is which students are not telling the truth about their holiday experiences. After that brain limbering, they proceed to the main mystery: the accidental destruction of the teacher’s Back to School gift and how two students help Ms Taken to discover who the culprit was. Written questions and two additional Back to School activities will keep your students busy long after the script reading has finished.

Back to School Middle School Speaking Topics
These 32 back to school Middle School speech topics are real crowd pleasers. Speaking for a minute on these fun impromptu topics about their holiday will introduce the idea to grades 5-8 students that they need to be active contributors in your ELA, drama or public speaking class! A small peer feedback handout is included – ‘Two terrifics and a tweak’ – so that students can give each other both positive feedback and one suggestion for any future public speaking opportunities.

Drama Riddles Team Game This grades 5-8 brain teaser riddles activity is a chuckle-a-minute team game that uses the rules of charades, but is a hilarious mixture of acting and drawing. Some students will pick a card that tells them to act out the answer of their riddle to their team. Some will pick a card that tells them to draw the answer. Some lucky students will select a card that allows them to choose whether to act or draw
This is how it works
1. A student goes to the front of the room and takes a card from the top of the face-down stack on a desk. They read out the riddle on their card. They can repeat it ONCE if asked.
2. They act or draw the answer, depending on what the card instructs them to do. They have 30 seconds. Sounds can be made, but neither actors nor artists can use words.
3. The other students in their team have 3 tries to guess the answer.
4. If the team doesn’t get it right, then it goes over to the other team who has one guess. The other team can only take 15 seconds.
5. If any of the team members get the right answer, the team does a high-5.
SET UP
Cut up the 30 cards or ask a keen student to do so. If you can laminate them, they will last for dozens of fun classes.
START UP
Divide the class into two teams facing each other. Shuffle the cards and put them face down on a desk at the front of the room. Select a confident student to go first.

Drama Journal: 50 Reflection Prompts
These 50 unique drama journal prompts will provide a fun, but quiet, reflective end to your drama or theater class. Grades 5-10 students will be challenged to examine their personal experiences during the class, to reflect on wise words by actors, and to ponder on their relationship with drama, past, present and future. A simple rubric is included at the end of the resource to allow you to grade the journal for completion marks if you wish. Please note that the journal prompts are designed for students in general drama courses, not those taking the subject at a high technical or academic level; no specialist vocabulary is included.
How these journals can be used
There are two topics per lined page, so you can simply print off the sheets and distribute them. Alternatively, you could write the topic on the board and students could answer in an exercise book or an electronic device. 

Drama Warm-Ups
These NO PREP drama role play warm-ups take your Middle School students through a dozen fun scenes. They audition for their favorite band, they have a school sports day, a snow day- all seriously good fun! You read out the script that prompts the students – each scene has 10-14 separate actions – and watch the fun take place! In some of the scenes they are themselves; in others they switch from one character to another. In one scene they are even famous athletes, such as Simone Biles and Michael Jordan. In a couple of scenarios they are animals. Most of the scenes require only miming, but some require sounds (such as animal noises) and brief exclamations like “YEAH!” “OUCH!” and SWEET!” The scenes encourage them to let their imaginations roam, while providing vigorous warming up for your drama class!
Some scenes require some interaction with other students, such as building a snowman together. In some scenes they have to guess what another student is doing- what birthday gift they are opening, for example. Most scenes will take about 10-12 minutes each from beginning to end, or more if you have a particularly enthusiastic class. Fun, fun, FUN!
SCENE 1: At the Beach
SCENE 2: Auditioning for your Favorite Band
SCENE 3: School Sports Day
SCENE 4: Feeding Time at the Zoo
SCENE 5: Birthday Presents!
SCENE 6: At the Pet Shop
SCENE 7: Greeting Time
SCENE 8: Kindergarten Recess
SCENE 9: Snow Day
SCENE 10: Classroom Chaos
SCENE 11: Dreams of Sporting Glory
SCENE 12: Ship’s Ahoy!

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