KEYWORDS

Choose an historical event, myth, fable, famous person, great scientific discovery or other theme for your students to dramatize. Kay uses theatre games, props, music, stories and improvisation to activate imagination and deepen understanding of any subject. Jointly planned by Kay and the classroom teacher, workshops may take place during a single class period or stretch over several days. Multi-day workshops or residencies allow students time to develop a dramatic work to share with other classes or the entire school community. Pick your own topic or choose one of these themes:

Pilgrims Prepare, Sail and Settle

Pack your belongings, gather up your loved ones and prepare for a long voyage. Students will use pantomime, tableaux, percussion instruments and lots of imagination to recreate the dangerous passage across the Atlantic and the new settlers’ encounters with Natives in the New World.

Grade Levels: K – 1

Insects Are Everywhere

Do your students bug you? They definitely will as they put their imaginations, creativity and listening skills to work acting out stories about insects (including a magical Papagos Indian story), moving like them, simulating their life cycle and discovering how different species have adapted to their environment.

Grade Levels: K – 2

The Dinoshow

Kay’s time machine transports students on a fact-filled fantasy adventure to discover why dinosaurs became extinct. Student actors will dramatize the story, playing the roles of dinosaurs, scientists and comets. Set pieces, props, percussion instruments and costumes turn a science lesson into a real production!

Grade Levels: K, 3

Weather

Imagine a water cycle musical dream, then act out the dream. That’s how Kay helps students understand rain cloud formation. She assumes the role of “Babushka” and leads students in a dramatization of Patricia Polacco’s story “Thunder Cake.” At the end of the workshop, children will demonstrate their knowledge of weather and their drama skills in a game of “Weather and Season Charades.”

Grade Level: 1

Animals and Where They Live

Kids act like animals—no, really! In this workshop, students use acting techniques to explore animal behavior, classifications and habitats. They will hear and act out a Native American story featuring Plains animals, contribute sound effects to a story about Monarch butterflies and play the habitat game.

Grade Level: 2

Outer Space Fun

Students will definitely get a “big bang” out of this movement-based workshop as they transform themselves into the Big Dipper and the planets of our solar system. Their journey through the cosmos ends with a special tribute to John Glenn, the first American astronaut to circle the Earth.

Grade Levels: 2, 4

Rock Formation

A volcanic explosion gets the action moving as students learn how rocks are formed. They will need lots of room for theatre games, tableaux and statue exercises as they act out the changes rocks undergo over long periods of time. They will use the same techniques in small group presentations to demonstrate what they have learned.

Grade Levels: 3 – 5

Civil War and Reconstruction

Everyone plays a part—even the desks and chairs—in re-enactments of significant events, facts and historical figures from America’s bloodiest internal struggle. This fast-moving class can introduce a unit on the Civil War and Reconstruction or follow one to help students review and recall what they’ve learned.

Grade Levels: 4 – 5

Riding West

Wagons, ho! Kay turns back the clock and invites students to join the members of an 1860’s wagon train along the bumpy, dusty trails westward. Using classroom objects, period music, various acting techniques and lots of imagination, students will work in groups to recreate the sights, sounds, dangers and triumphs of their full day’s journey to Oregon.

Grade Levels: 4 – 5

Circulatory System

It’s a wild ride through the human body as students make their way through the circulatory system. Just when they’ve got the path all figured out, they will have to respond to an invasion of germs and the destructive byproducts of unhealthy lifestyles. The class will use simple props, percussion instruments and all the floor space available to show how blood flows through the body. As an added bonus, they’ll discover how diet and exercise can keep their own hearts healthy.

Grade Level: 5

Immigration
 
What happened between 1860 and 1930 to make thousands of people from Europe, Asia and Scandanavia uproot themselves from their native countries and transport their loved ones to an unknown future in America? Under Kay’s direction, students will develop and present scenes depicting the personal and political factors behind the immigrant experience. Their journey will end in a group tableaux at Ellis Island, complete with a souvenir Polaroid photo.

Grade Levels: 5, 9 - 12

Kay Rosenblum

Kay breathes excitement into learning by blending acting and storytelling to create memorable educational experiences.  

A Georgia Council for the Arts Residency Artist, Kay has visited hundreds of classrooms.  As an instructor on how to use drama in the classroom, she has lectured for the Education department at Georgia State University, the Georgia Preschool Association, the Augusta Teacher Conference, and the Southeastern Theatre Conference. 

In addition to Young Audiences work, Kay is also a Georgia Council for the Arts Residency Artist (21 years), touring artist and education consultant.  During the summer, she is Program Director, acting teacher and art teacher with Circus Camp (16 years).