This activity consists of spontaneous role-play in response to a story, i.e. the teacher reads a story, and the children act in accordance with what is happening in the story.
There are five male characters in the story and nine females. Before the lesson, you will need to ask for volunteers who will act and organise who will take the roles of each character. Explain that you will be telling a story, and when they hear their character’s name, they should stand up and act according to what is happening in the story.
The characters are as follows:
Male Characters… Zeus, Hermes, Polydectes, Perseus and Acrisius.
Female Characters… Danae, Medusa, Gray Women (x 3), Nymphs(x 2), Athena and Andromeda.
The story, about Perseus and his adventures, can be found below. Read the story to yourself a number of times first, and use the sheet as a prompt during the lesson (the story is not meant for reading out to the children). Because of the number of characters involved, reinforce the links between characters, and repeat what the characters are doing.
After the role-play, there are a number of possible activities which the children could do:
- Write the story down from memory.
- Write the story using notes written on the board by the teacher as a reminder.
- Make a storyboard which tells the events of the story. A storyboard template is available below.
- Make a class story which tells the events, with each child writing one part of the story.
