Conveying emotions with UKS2 through Art and mirror mime drama
I love pinterest and whilst looking on some boards today I found this idea based on the picture of the Mona Lisa , which someone has used to portray feelings and emotions.It inspired me to explore emotions through Art , Drama and creative outcomes!
Mona Lisa and feelings
With Year 6 in French, Spanish and German this half term we will be exploring personalities. I think the idea of assuming the character of people in famous pieces of Art and then exploring how they might look if they were angry , sad, happy , bored, friendly etc adds an exciting and creative dimension!
Here's what we will do .....
1. Find art that contains portraits of people
Again whichever language you are using this French pinterest board will help ! (Thanks to @icpjones on Twitter who tweeted the link!)
3. Practise the emotions - up to 8 emotions- that you want the children to explore with the characters in their portrait. The paintings do not need to express these emotions - it's about the children exploring how to convey these emotions and then perform them in the persona of the character they have observed in the painting.
5. Share the emotions as facial expressions and word cards with the children. Can they identify the emotion - is it an emotion that is easy to recognise through the written word or do they need to use visual clues? Take feedback
6. Practise the emotions in full sentences with the children in the target language e.g "I am friendly"
7. Put the children in pairs in a space where they can stand and face each other . Develop a mirror mime activity . One partner is A and the other partner is B . You ,as the artist, tell all the partner A children with which facial expression they should start the activity. Simply say in the first or third person singular (example her is first person singular) one of the emotions you have introduced e.g "I am happy !" and the children who are partner A should create that facial expression . Partner B must mirror exactly partner A and their facial expression.
8.You, as the teacher, must now select another emotion and say "but now I am angry!" . This is where the mirror mime takes place . Partner B must observe Partner A and as partner A works out how to slowly change their expression from happy to angry , partner B must copy Partner A exactly
9. Swap roles - so that Partner B now leads .Complete the activity above a second time.
10. Now ask the children to reverse roles again. Announce a new emotion "I am ....." .Partner A creates this facial expression and Partner B must copy . Now, as the teacher ,say a new emotion and this time, partner A must say the statement they hear you say and use a voice that is appropriate to the emotion plus continue to move from one facial expression to the next . Partner B must copy the voice, the facial expression development and then as you say your next statement Partner B takes over the lead role and it flows from one partner to the next .
11. Ask the children to explore independently working in their pairs at least 6 of the emotions that you have introduced and practised. Hold freeze frames and view ins - where you stop the class and all the class observes work of a pair then the pairs return to their independent work until you freeze frame again.
12. Bring the class back to their tables.Give each table or group in the class a different portrait to work with and possibly a different artist. The table (no more than 6 children ) should decide which 6 emotions they want to explore with the character in the portrait . Each child must create an emotion statement e.g "I am sad" - each child must think of the voice and the action for the character and share this with their group .
13. The group or table must put together their work as a piece of Art . This is a six sided piece of Art (if there are 6 children in the group) - so the children need to decide how they want to stand , sit , perform so that the audience understands that each emotion is a different emotion of the same character.I might suggest to a group for example that they stand facing outwards in a hexagon if there are 6 of them and that the hexagon moves round to the right each time a new child performs their emotion etc - a bit like a carousel . Or some children might like to see their character as something that grows out from the sides of the original piece of Art . Each child and its face appearing out from either side of the child who starts the performance .so many creative possibilities that the children can find!
14. And finally give each child a piece of A4 card and some coloured pens . Ask them to create a sequence of "sides" to a person's character . they must show the "sides of this character's personality"- either the character in the portrait or someone they invent .This might be a good chance to link this to the phrase "different sides to his / her personality" in our language
Each side is an expression that conveys an emotion that this person feels and the children can decide which emotions they convey . They must also write the full statement for each emotion and select the colour to write in they feel conveys this emotion! . Show them the Mona Lisa picture link at the top of this blog to explain how this could look. It could be a sequence of six pictures. It could be a 3D object with six sides . It could be a dice etc
Looking forward to seeing the results of this ! Thanks Pinterest for the inspiration!