LP---A-mouse-in-the-House

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THEATRE GAME

Improves social skills

"The Mediator"

This exercise comes from Augusto Boal. Ask students who they would rather be seen as in life; the bully, the victim or the mediator?

Three players at a time

Either have a whistle, or you can holler "Change!" when need be.

The bully is facing the mediator, the victim is behind. The mediator keeps his/her arms spread wide. The bully must try to reach the victim but is not allowed to get close to the mediator. The bully can try to go around, under, any way but never touch the mediator. The mediator must run side to side, up and down wherever the bully moves, while the victim must stay close behind the mediator. If the bully touches the mediator stop, and start over again.

As soon as you see the bully is getting close to catching the victim, either whistle or holler "Change!".

The bully becomes the victim, the victim becomes the bully, and the mediator must jump around to face the new bully. The leader can say "change" quickly if the bully is gaining ground. This is perfect for students who have extra energy to use up before class begins.

Notice how the "victim" on the left does not know at all how to be the "bully" when it's her turn in the third image.

She was better as the "mediator" in the last image. This gave me the idea to practice being a bully and a victim.

Two lines facing each other, one side made all the aggressive gestures of a bully while the second line acted the stereotype gestures of a "victim". After a minute the roles changed.

PHONICS, VOCABULARY and IRREGULAR VERBS

(Please refer to the Sample Lesson for the exercises)

Man, Men, Mine, Mouse, Must - Quack, Quell, Quill, Quote, Quest

Care, Dare, Fare, Hare, Mare, Rare, Stare, Tear, Wear, Swear

CONJUGATE: To run, To hide, To flee

IMPROVISATION / DIALOGUE

Two Actors: The Boss and The Secretary. Both wear jackets and scarves (hats optional)

You will need

- Jackets, scarves (and hats) large enough to fit everyone in the group.

- An envelope where inside is a list of luxury items: a boat, a plane, a fancy house, a big pool...

- A notebook and a pen.

ESL: You can put suggestions of sentences on the board

Boss is on the phone, making plans to... play golf, take the boat to the Caribbean, fly to Monte Carlo...?

Secretary walks up and hands Boss a letter. Boss opens it, reads it and finds out s/he has lost everything in bad investments.

Boss waves the paper in the air, blames everyone else for his/her misfortune, and walks back and forth extremely upset: I've lost everything! My house! My boat! My plane!.....I'm an idiot!

Secretary follows Boss close behind and agrees to everything Boss says as soon as s/he says it, in a matter of fact way, and writes it down (pretend) in the notebook: Yes, you've lost everything....You lost your house... Your boat... Your plane... You're an idiot.

When the Leader says "Change!" the rest of the class starts counting from ten to one. The Boss and the Secretary have ten seconds to trade jackets, scarves (hats), paper, notebook, and pen so that the Secretary becomes the Boss and the Boss becomes the Secretary... On the tenth second the Boss must go right into the pacing back and forth, listing his/her losses, with the secretary right behind repeating everything.

TONGUE TWISTER

Mad Miss Mouse mussed the mustard on the Mac.

Betty bought butter but the butter was bitter, so Betty bought better butter to make the bitter butter better.

SONG

"The Mouse in the House"

(To the music of "Three Blind Mice")

A mouse in the house, a mouse in the house, see how it runs, see how it runs.

It ran through the door and slid on the floor, it jumped on the chair and in Hilda's hair, it ran to Joe's room and got hit by a broom.

The mouse in the house.

A mouse in the house, a mouse in the house, see how it runs, see how it runs.

It ran through the plants and into Slate's pants, it jumped over Drew's shoe and Uncle Jack's back, it slid over a plate and ate Aunt Kate's cake.

The mouse in the house.