Did you know you can add drama to just about anything you are doing in your homeschool? Have you thought about adding drama to your art class? Maybe you were debating between which class your student should take: art or drama? I’m here to say – why not both?

Hi! My name is Danielle and after 20 years of homeschooling I have learned that it’s fun to combine subjects together. It adds so much depth to what the students are learning and usually lends itself better to real world application. If you integrate subjects, then you definitely have time to fit drama into your homeschool!

Art Gives Kids the Skills and Ideas They Need to Create

For a couple of years we were part of a co-op that met once a week in the morning. I taught a couple drama classes and planned to do a major play. My kids were also signed up for an art class. At the time the classes seemed unrelated, because we did not collaborate on how we would run each class. We quickly found that what they were learning in art was going to transfer to many creative ideas for our set and props. 

Art class can be fun on its own. It’s a time to be creative and to get messy. 😀 Usually you do a project every week, take it home, hang it on the fridge or put it in a frame and later replace it with another favorite. Sometimes they seem like random projects. 

Because we did a play, the kids could immediately use the skills they were learning in their art class and apply them to building the sets and creating props. One week in art class, they made a mold of their legs using plastic wrap. At first it was just something cool they could have in their rooms or maybe keep to compare when they got older. But, it was one of many skills they learned that they ended up applying to the construction of the set and the props they were to build for our upcoming play.

For Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, the mold of the leg turned out to be a great way to overcome how Alice was going to grow bigger in Mr. Rabbit’s home. Since our actress couldn’t actually get bigger, and we were limited on our budget, we had to get creative so that the audience believed Alice actually grew. The girl that played Alice decided to make a mold of her dad’s leg using the plastic wrap technique, then put the same stockings she was wearing and a bigger shoe on it. When it came time in the play for her to “grow,” she stuck the mold of her dad’s leg out the window of the play house. 

When the art teacher taught them this skill, she was not doing it for this purpose. She had her own curriculum designed not even considering the play. Thankfully this student remembered what she had learned and found a way to use it. This is really the only way a student can be creative as they need something in their heads to pull from. 

One thing I have found through the years in homeschooling is that homeschooling moms and dads have a lot of hidden talents. Many have advanced degrees in the arts and literature, or have worked in different capacities that can help our children grow. Some just have a passion for subjects that will excite our children as they learn new things. A true passion for something can be all that is necessary to learn as a teacher and to lead children to do great things.

The Power of Collaboration: Drama and Art

The next year the art teacher and I decided to join forces to take set design and props to the next level. For drama, we decided to include the entire co-op in our play production. Some of the older classes would have drama class every week, while younger students would have another class until it was time for them to join in rehearsals. The older students also took an art class again. This time it was designed as an art history class that would teach art history in the beginning of the semester and the application as the students got creative and started coming up with ideas to build sets and design props. 

Art history on its own may not be something kids would sign up for, but they received an excellent art education and immediately were able to apply it to something else they were excited about. This teacher did a wonderful job because it was something she was truly passionate about.

If the students or I had an idea, the art teacher could help make it come to life. She would teach them the skills they needed, and they would start building, cutting, painting or whatever needed to be done. They were truly making this play their own and could be proud of the work they were putting into it.

Since we had a small stage and were trying to be efficient when changing scenes, I started thinking about how we could have one design that would work for a kitchen table, an animal crate, and a fence. The main part of the set was a barn, so these items helped change what was happening in each scene. I brought the idea to the art teacher, she brainstormed some ideas and the kids built and painted the final product. It was so cool! This meant there wasn’t a lot that we had to put on and take off the stage, since this one item could be used for most of the scenes. Being constructed from cardboard also made it very light.

Kitchen table with barn in background behind the half wall

Green animal crate and a hole for the rat mentioned later

White fence

Limitations Help You Focus on What Can Be Done

If all the kids did was to build sets and create props they would have had a lot of experience in theater and understood what all goes into making the story come to life beyond the characters. Without costumes, sets and props the actors have to work really hard to get the audience to imagine what they are doing. These items can really influence how the story is told. 

Combining art and drama could have been done in just one class a week. Since we had the time, we did have another class to focus on practicing lines and character development, which allowed the students to combine their acting with the sets and props they would be working with. This also could be done meeting twice a week or taking a couple of weeks out from drama class for building sets like we had done in previous years. 

Being so involved in the play on both sides, the students were able to consider what was needed and come up with how to make it work. They also learned to work within the parameters of the stage we had to work with. They learned that sometimes limitations are not limitations at all. Those limitations give you boundaries to work with and help you focus on what you have and what can be done. We had a small stage with a half wall that separated the back section of the stage from the front. Working with the stage we were given actually created a lot of fun ideas that we may not have thought of with a normal stage. 

This back section became the barn area where the animals could roam around and the actors could sneak to the other side (we didn’t have a proper back stage at this location, so this was much easier than running around the building to the other side). One of the little doors to the back area became a way for our rat to crawl from inside to outside the barn and access the food trough and the rest of what the world had to offer him (see picture above). Because the kids knew what the stage looked like, they were able to design the set to work with it. 

Benefits of Adding Drama to Your Art Class

You can fit drama into your homeschool by combining two subjects together: art and drama. Working behind the scenes on the sets and props helps students develop many skills:

• Learning art history and how to apply it to the world of theater

• Taking ownership of your role by creating sets and props that add depth to the story

• Working with a team to brainstorm ideas and watching those ideas come to life

• Working within the limitations you are given gives you boundaries and helps you focus on what CAN be done

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Ready for a play and the fun of creating sets and props, check out our plays!

Do you want to start with some drama games first before jumping into a play or set design? Check out Places Everyone! drama game fun for the whole semester.

Thanks for joining us!

Danielle at homeschooldrama.com