Session Five
Children’s Club
Lesson Plans
Standards, Outline, and Materials
Inspired by the book: The Giraffe Made Her Laugh by Rozanne Lanczak
Art Standard: Acting– Children will assume roles and use variations of locomotor
and non-locomotor movements and vocal pitch, tempo, and tone for different
characters.
Literacy Standard: Children will use gestures to enhance delivery while speaking
Outline for Children’s Club:

8 minutes
Warm-Up Activity (Word Toss!)

30 minutes
Book Activity (From the Page to the Stage)

7 minutes
Closing Activity (Read Aloud – What Will I Be?)
Session Set-Up: Children will need to be able to form a circle as well as sit in a
group facing the teacher with room to move around.
Session Materials:
• Book: The Giraffe Made Her Laugh
• Book: What Will I Be?
• Sentence strip and yarn (one strip per child and one 12 inch piece of yarn
per child) to make character labels
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Title of Warm-Up Activity: Word Toss
Length of Time for Activity: 8 minutes
Format of Activity: This is a circle game used to bring a group together.
Note to Teacher: Warm-Up Flexibility - You need to “read” the groups energy and
dynamic right from the start. In order for the group to settle into the lesson planned,
they must be brought together as a group and calmed. It is important to be familiar with
all the activities ahead of time. If a group seems overactive, allowing them to exert
energy with a physical activity is a great way to start out.
Materials: none
Directions:
1. Ask the children to stand in a circle.
2. Tell children that they are going to do an activity
called “Word Toss.”
3. Ask the children to show you what it looks like to
“toss” something. Provide modeling and assistance as
needed.
4. Ask the children to show you what it looks like to “catch” something. Provide modeling
and assistance as needed.
5. Tell the group that they are going to take turns pretending to toss and catch
something while calling out words – so they are “tossing” and “catching” words.
6. Inform the children that you are going to do a performance for their families in a
few minutes so you want them to “toss” words that are animal names.
7. Instruct the group that when it is their turn to “toss” a word, they must look at the
child they are throwing the word to.
8. Explain to children that when they “catch” the animal name, they must then think of
another animal name to “toss” to someone else.
9. Continue the process allowing many children to have a chance to toss and catch the
animal name words.
Florida Institute of Education at the University of North Florida ©2009
Title of Warm-Up Activity: From the Page to the Stage
Length of Time for Activity: 30 minutes
Format of Activity: Children should be seated on the floor facing the teacher with
room to move around.
Note to Teacher: Prepare character labels before beginning the activity. Character
labels can be created by writing the character names (cat, cow, sheep, snake, giraffe,
and queen) on sentence strips and attaching yarn to both ends of the strip so that it can
be hung over a child’s head. There should be one queen, one giraffe, and multiple cats,
cows, sheep, and snakes.
Materials: The Giraffe Made Her Laugh, prepared character labels (described above)
Directions:
1. Show children the cover of the book The Giraffe Made Her Laugh. Say, “What do
you think the queen sounds like?” (Allow children to laugh!)
2. Say, “The title of this book is The Giraffe Made Her Laugh. I am going to read
this book to you and every time you hear the words ‘The giraffe made her laugh’
you can laugh.”
3. Read the story aloud and allow/encourage children to laugh.
4. After reading the story, ask the children the following questions. If the children
struggle to recall the answer, provide assistance by showing them a story page.
a.
b.
c.
d.
What
What
What
What
did
did
did
did
the
the
the
the
cat do? (The cat just sat.)
sheep do? (The sheep went to sleep.)
cow do? (The cow took a bow.)
snake do? (The snake baked a cake.)
5. Tell the children that you are going to read the book again and this time they
should act like the characters. For example, when you read, “The cow took a bow”
they will all stand and take a bow.
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6. Reread the story and allow/encourage character imitations to take place.
7. After the re-read, explain to the children that they are going to act out this story
for their parents.
8. Choose one child to be the giraffe and one child
to be the queen. Allow the other children
to choose their character – cat, cow,
sheep, or snake.
9. Give each child a character label to hang
around his/her neck.
10. Discuss the process of preparing to act out a story. Tell the children that you are
going to read the story one more time and they should pay close attention to what
their characters are doing.
11. Read the story one last time and give the children time to study their characters
and imitate their characters on each story page.
12. After the re-read and play practice, take the character labels from the children
and ask them to sit back down.
13. Talk with the children about roles in a play and the importance of everyone
participating. Explain that each character is important.
14. Describe for children the role of the characters, the narrator, the director, and
the audience.
a.
b.
c.
d.
Characters – act out the story; who the story is about
Narrator- tells the story when the characters are not speaking
Director- tells the characters where to stand and how to act
Audience- watches quietly and responds to the show and claps at the end
Florida Institute of Education at the University of North Florida ©2009
Title of Closing Activity: Read Aloud (What Will I Be?)
Length of Time for Activity: 7 minutes
Format of Activity: Children should be seated on the floor facing the teacher with room
to move.
Materials: none
Directions:
1. Show children the cover of What Will I Be? as you share the title of the book and
explain that it is about children pretending to have important jobs when they grow up.
2. Read the book and encourage the children to imitate the characters in the story.
3. Explain that they are acting but that one day they could really have that job.
4. Discuss with children other jobs they could act out.
5. Demonstrate the role of a chef and then ask the
children to copy your movements.
6. Invite the children to take turns demonstrating different jobs while allowing the
other children to imitate.
Florida Institute of Education at the University of North Florida ©2009
MODIFICATIONS: How will the activities be modified for
various ages - 5 and up (5-8 years, 9-12years)?
Warm-Up Activity: Word Toss – vocabulary
children use could be expected to be more
sophisticated; older children should be expected
to think of a word more quickly than younger
children
Book Activity: From the Page to the Stage –
children could be encouraged to use more
complexity by adding dance movements or
rhythm with sound effects for each animal, such
as, “The cow took a bow, took a bow, took a bow,
bow, bow.” Allow one older child to be the narrator who reads the story
aloud during the play.
Closing Activity: What Will I Be? Read Aloud
– older children should be expected to
demonstrate more specific and complex
imitations of job characteristics.
Florida Institute of Education at the University of North Florida ©2009
DRAMA and STORYTELLING
Glossary of Terms
Creative dramatics— A form of play that asks children to use movement, mime, and dialogue to answer
dramatic questions or solve dramatic problems.
Pantomime (mime) – Telling a story without words but by using movement and facial expression.
Improvisation—Making up dialogue and/or movement without any planning, thinking fast on your feet.
Leader—The person who sets the rules, teaches the games and side-coaches giving structure to the
group.
Side-coaching— instructional phrases encouraging the players to be involved which are called out as the
group is engaged with an activity. It helps the student to learn how to listen without stopping the
momentum of the game.
Player—A person who is participating in the creative play. Term used instead of actor.
Narrator-- The person who tells a story with expression in their voice.
Audience— A group of people who watch and listen to the story or game being shown by a troupe of
players.
Director—In more formal theater settings, the person who interprets the play or story and oversees
everything the actors do.
Making the invisible, visible—By using pantomime and focus, the player shows an activity or uses a
make-believe prop in a specific way so that the audience can see that which is not there.
Playing area—The space where the players move in. There should be a definite perimeter to help define
the area.
Prop—A tangible object used by the player to help tell the story.
Setting the Stage—Getting ready by pre-placing props and furniture needed for the story ahead of
time.
Open Up-- In order for a player to be seen by the audience, the player must open up his body like a
book. Also, called “cheating”. This encourages the player not to be in a profile position but rather to
face out in a natural manner.
Terms about the Stage
Backstage - The space behind the playing area where actors enter and exit from.
Upstage - The part of the playing area in the rear.
Downstage - The part of the playing area that is closest to the audience.
Florida Institute of Education at the University of North Florida ©2009
The modules presented here were funded in part by the Office of Postsecondary
Education, U.S. Department of Education as part of the Virtual School Readiness
Incubator Project, the Department of Health and Human Services, Administration
on Children, Youth and Families as part of the Early Learning Opportunities Act/Bringing
Education and Support to Teachers, Parents and Children (ELOA/BEST) Project, and the
Florida Institute of Education at the University of North Florida. These prototype materials
are still in development and refinement and should be used with this caution in mind.
The content of these modules does not necessarily reflect the views or policies or imply
endorsement by the U.S. Department of Education, the Department of Health and Human Services,
and/or the University of North Florida.
Florida Institute of Education at the University of North Florida ©2009