Integrating Drama and Art 

into Counseling Lessons

August 25, 2010

by Danielle Schultz

    I enjoy integrating drama and art into my counselling lessons as much as possible.  In the following post I detail some lessons I facilitated and where to get more ideas!

    When I was working at the charter school, I ran an after school club about tolerance and respect.  We did many activities, but my favorite was reader’s theater, a dramatic reading of a story in script form.  The story we used was Crocodile and Ghost Bat Have a Hullabaloo:  An Australian Tale of Name Calling from Teaching Tolerance.  The students created their own characters for the story out of construction paper, crayons, and googly eyes.  I also had them create mosaic style scenes by using cut up construction paper.  The students loved this activity!

    After the students felt confident reading their lines, we took our show on tour to kindergarten, first, second, and third-grades.  The students were excited to share their work and the story with others; the younger students enjoyed hearing and seeing it!  I included pictures of Crocodile and Ghost Bat that the students created.

    Teaching Tolerance also has a script for a Pourquoi of Prejudice titled Why Frogs and Snakes Never Play Together - also written by Jeff Sapp.  A pourquoi is a fictional story that explains why something is the way it is.  I would like to use Why Frogs and Snakes Never Play Together in the future.  As part of the lesson, students can create their own ending for the porquoi.

    I really enjoy integrating art into my lessons too.  I utilezed another great Teaching Tolerance story, Papalotzin and the Monarchs:  A Bilingual Border Tale.  As part of my lesson, students colored paper butterflies.  A cheap and easy way to make this activity is to use coffee filters to make butterflies.  I have created coffee filter butterflies in the past by using markers and a spray bottle instead of paint.  Students enjoy this activity and no two butterflies look exactly alike.

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