During the space topic the children were asked to create their own aliens. To help them to visualise these creations they worked in groups of 3 to physically create their alien. This was done in the hall where there was plenty of space for them to move their creature. They were then questioned in role of the alien about appearance, size, smell habits.

Then they had to go back and draw and write about their aliens. Click here to go to Space Travel pages.

Children were read the story of Dick Whittington. Teacher used the part of the story when Dick meets a man on a haycart. The children discussed what the man might ask Dick. The teacher went into the role of Dick. They then asked him questions. In pairs the children took the parts of the two characters and they made up conversations which were shown to the class.

The children followed this drama work with writing from Dick Whittington's perspective.

Children were read the story of Romulus and Remus. The drama work included Teacher in Role as a journalist, acting out the story and Hot-seating the characters, culminating in a trial during a Philosophy session.

In other drama sessions children were citizens of Rome and Gladiators. They were sent a letter by Claudius ordering them to build a city in Caister in Norfolk. They had to subsequently research Roman cities and design their own. They made a large scale map of their city in the hall. They made a ship out of stage blocks and chairs, sailed to Caister and built their city in the following drama sessions.

In other work the children were Celts and had to explore what it would be like to have the Roman army coming in. They had to look at organisation and leadership. This led to written accounts from the Celts' point of view.

The children were told the story and acted out the events. They climbed the beanstalk and discovered what was there. They built a castle with the teacher's help and used this as a role-play area. They re-told the story and wrote about different aspects. The teacher went into role as Jack and answered the children's questions. They created art work from their drama experiences.

The children were told the facts of the first man to walk on the moon and saw television footage of the time. The teacher then put the children into roles of astronauts and journalists and set up a press conference for the astronauts Armstrong, Aldrin and Collins to "tell the world " what it was like to be on that mission. The children who were journalists questioned the astronauts (who were swapped around through the course of the drama) to find out as much as they could about the Apollo 11 mission.

In a later session they constructed the Apollo 11 out of chairs and tables in the classroom and the teacher talked through the take-off landing and return to Earth. The children took on the role of astronauts and acted out the story.

The children later wrote letters from Neil Armstrong's perspective and retold the story in words and pictures. Click here to go to Space Travel pages.

The children were told the story of Guy Fawkes and saw a video. They were then asked to 'act out' the story to remind themselves of the story. They were then divided into small groups to devise a plan to get the gunpowder into the cellar. This was not performed to the rest of the class but the teacher went from group to group eavesdropping.

A group of children went into the role of judges and half of the rest of the class had to plead the case for the Catholics and the other half for the protestants. Finally the judges had to give their verdict.......

Children built a town in the hall using stage blocks and chairs. This had to be done using their knowledge of Egyptian towns. The children went into role as a Council in order to decide what they needed. During the drama sessions a letter arrived from the Pharaoh ordering them to build a tomb. They designed a tomb and made a huge wall display in the classroom. This drama work led to fiction and non-fiction writing including a leaflet on "How to Make a Mummy". The drama was an integral part of the work which included Art and DT projects.

These are a few of the contexts in which we have used drama. In some classes it is used occasionally, in others it is a thread that runs through the topics being studied. We have already seen how it can improve our children's creative writing by giving them 'first hand' experience of character and plot. The children have come truly involved in their writing and the quality is rising. Children certainly love doing it. They often ask to explore texts by hot-seating or interviewing. The children remember factual events with clarity and use this knowledge in their work.

This is only the beginning, but already every teacher has seen the purpose and power of this kind of drama in developing our children's thinking, problem-solving and creativity across the curriculum.

The teachers each took a different part of the Nativity and explored the events with the children using Context Drama. Click here to see the script that the children 'wrote' in these sessions.