Engage your students by giving them a whole day to understand and perform a play.
The specially commissioned piece of storytelling theatre tells the true story of Khayzuran and Zubaidah from the Golden Caliphate of the Abbasid dynasty of Baghdad. These two amazing women and this period of history inspired the Arabian Nights. The play recreates and debates their achievements.
Students will be encouraged to develop storytelling theatre skills such as:
Students will be encouraged to develop storytelling theatre skills such as:
- physical theatre
- sound
- narration
- addressing the audience
- prop and person transformation.
‘Personally I really enjoyed this activity because I didn’t (before today) enjoy acting, however, now I really enjoy it and hopefully will be able to do this again. I will remember the shape making because it tested how well you can use your props. It was my favourite part because it showed how imaginative you can be.’ Year Six Girl Stonelow Junior
The approach is ‘knowledge rich’ as it includes:
• script based work
• lots of learning about meaning and grammar in a practical way
• learning about storytelling theatre
• learning the true stories of two largely unknown women from the early history of Islam
• learning about the ‘Arabian Nights’
• and it is full of interesting language.
• script based work
• lots of learning about meaning and grammar in a practical way
• learning about storytelling theatre
• learning the true stories of two largely unknown women from the early history of Islam
• learning about the ‘Arabian Nights’
• and it is full of interesting language.
‘I learned that four members in the team can turn out to be one camel under monkey. I love the story of both Queens, Khayzuran and Zubaidah. I will remember using props to create things like a road, a monkey and camel because it was really really hard.’ Year Six Boy Firs Hill Primary School
‘It was brilliant to see the children who are sometimes insular and quiet, decide they would become confident and clear through the medium of drama.’ Niall Hope Year Six Teacher Firs Hill primary school
The day also encourages students to develop their:
- creativity
- working with others
- confidence.
‘The creativity and imagination was unusual and new. They had a chance to shine and they all did. They also built confidence.
The features of the day that were particularly successful were:
The features of the day that were particularly successful were:
- the props warm up - excellent at bringing out creativity
- short creative performances and sharing the differences
- group work - collaboration lovely to see
- everyone joined in and had a part
- children discussed heroism, purity and nobility
- the structure of the day was very effective, kept interest and built to an end goal.
The day can be adapted to be suitable for any group from Key stage I or 2. Key stage I and lower key stage II will have the story read to them and join in by acting it out using props as you can see below:
‘I thoroughly enjoyed it all and so would struggle to identify one particular part as a favourite. I like the idea of teaching children about history involving other cultures and religion.’ Georgina Mosley HLTA Bakewell Infants
