The Motion of a Story

Kids use motion to make the characters and plot of stories come alive. Photo courtesy of Libby Marsh
Kids use motion to make the characters and plot of stories come alive. Photo courtesy of Libby Marsh

By Libby Marsh

Are you tired of book reports? If you can’t get into what you’re reading, you can use
movement to liven up your reading and put yourself in the shoes of a character.

Here’s what you do:

• Choose a book
• Find five important events that happen in the book
• Find five friends or classmates
• Brainstorm what each event would look like
• Pose your friends in a frozen tableau (a living picture) of each event
• Once you have practiced each tableau, try to transition between each scene
• Use slow motion, turning, rising, and walking to move between scenes in the book
• Pay attention to when you are standing still and when you are moving to understand how the events are  connected
• Have a narrator read excerpts from the book
• Set this to music or perform it in complete silence for your class

Hopefully this example will work for you or will spark another idea in that creative mind of yours! Go for it and have fun!

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