Drama Start: Exploring Emotions: Drama Activiites, Movement Stories and Plays for Children
Drama Start: Exploring Emotions is a practical and inspiring resource for educators, early years practitioners, and drama teachers working with children aged 4 and up. This comprehensive collection is filled with drama games, movement-based storytelling, short plays, and extended workshops, all designed to help children safely explore and express a wide range of emotions in a playful, imaginative, and creative way.
The book is carefully divided into clear sections, making it easy to use in both structured lessons and spontaneous sessions. It begins with a series of drama games that build emotional awareness, listening skills, cooperation, and expressive movement. These activities give children the tools to recognise and communicate their feelings while fostering empathy and collaboration in a supportive environment.
A unique collection of movement stories follows. These short narrative journeys are told through guided actions, gestures, and role play, helping children expand their emotional vocabulary and use their bodies and voices to express inner states such as joy, sadness, anger, pride, and fear.
The second half of the book provides a variety of emotion-themed plays and process-led drama workshops. Some focus directly on single emotions, encouraging children to embody and reflect on feelings like jealousy, loneliness, excitement, or calm. Others use classic tales with strong emotional messages, including The Ugly Duckling, The Lion and the Mouse, and The Crane and the Peacock, to explore themes of belonging, kindness, resilience, and empathy. Each play is written with flexible casting and adaptable staging, making them suitable for both large and small groups.
Throughout, the emphasis is on child-centred, process-led practice, ensuring that drama is not about producing a polished performance but about offering children the chance to imagine, create, reflect, and grow. Activities are easy to follow, require minimal resources, and can be adapted for a wide range of ages and abilities.
With its balance of structure and open-ended play, Drama Start: Exploring Emotions provides teachers with a ready-to-use toolkit to nurture emotional wellbeing, creativity, language development, and social interaction through drama and movement. It is an essential companion for anyone seeking to support children's emotional growth while keeping learning joyful, engaging, and meaningful.
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