Theater arts 6th grade?

Question

My son has a 6th grade theater arts class. Unfortunately my son has a little ADD, and does not always get instructions down.

He came home and said that his homework is to “Make up 5 jokes that you can mime”

I asked- what? “Like stuck in the box” or “Walking against the wind”

He said no- like “Why did the chicken cross the road” or “knock –knock, who’s there?”

And he has to act it out without any words.


Does this sound right? Has anyone ever heard of this exercise? Give me an example of one? I am trying to figure out how this works.

No!! he does not have a clear example! knock-knock jokes is what is was thinking of doing- not what the teacher told him.

I asked him if the teacher gave him any examples.

he said "not really"

He always gets homework instructions completely messed up. He claims no hand outs are given, and gives some really weird verbal instructions, and then after the work is turned in I find a crumpled paper at the bottom of his bag and the instructions are no where near what he said they were.

I just was trying to figure out how 'off' he was

going to repost this. I will reward when yahoo lets me.

Answer 1

I'm an adult and I would find that hard to do. I'm sitting here right now trying to think of something and I can't so I can't imagine a sixth grader doing this, maybe he misunderstood a portion of the assignment? Other wise I'd have to go in to that teacher and ask for some examples, let see how he does !!! P.S. and I'd make sure he did five examples !!!!!!

Answer 2

It sounds like the teacher has his or her own way of getting the kids into an acting exercise. Why not? Can you imagine kids getting excited about doing mime these days? It is a clssic discipline though so you never know, but since your son has clear examples of the jokes I would tend to believe he has the assignment correct.

Do you have anyway of getting in touch with the teacher or anyone else in the class to confirm the assignment before doing any further working on it? Regardless, in the end he will have a mime presentation for class, right?

Good luck :-)

Answer 3

This is a very good exercise for building improv and imagination skills. You need both to be a good player. We would do very similar exercises in my actor's guild along with miming common cliches or sayings. Theatre is very good for children with ADHD because it engages their bodies AND their minds. Just let him do his thing and don't worry about it. If he's not doing something right, the director I'm sure will help him out.

Answer 4

heres a joke. the commas represent a differnt caracter. ex. joke: knock knock, whos there, boo hoo, boo hoo who, dont cry its just a joke. thers the joke. now what your son would do to mime it isfirst knock on an imaginary door then turn arond and pretend to look supprised like whos there and maybe put his ere on the amaginary door then go so on and so on. but he probly wont be able to talk depending onif his teacher really means mime or skeek and act mime

Answer 5

UMMM. no maybe he has to see a "diffrent" teacher, or hes trying 2 pull one over on you?


Good luck!

Answer 6

he's likely talking approximately pantomime. you may desire to act out a scene employing no words. The training are actually not sparkling yet i think of it means to act out a short scene it fairly is humorous.

Answer 7

i guess the teacher just wants them to learn how to show expression first! that's my guess and that sounds right.

Answer 8

tell him to just go up there and stare. that assignments makes sense.