Did you know that as early as elementary school your kids can enjoy some of the greatest literature of all time? I recently found a list online of the top 100 books of all time on the public domain. As I read through the list, I reminisced about how fun it was for my kids to act out some of these stories and wanted to share them with you, so you can add drama to your homeschool while enjoying great literature.

Hi! My name is Danielle and I have homeschooled my kids from Pre-K through high school. We have found a lot of creative ways to fit drama into our homeschool, and now I want to share what I’ve learned and continue to learn with you.

Read Great Literature Together

Through the years, my kids and I have read hundreds of books. Whether they were specifically for school, bedtime, or just for fun, we enjoyed diving into the incredible stories that have been written and learning more about the interesting characters and the people with whom they interact.

At first, the adults in our family (mom, dad, aunts, uncles, grandparents) did all the reading while the kids just sat back and enjoyed the story. Reading together with your children is so important for so many reasons. Slowly my kids would interact with the book by making comments about what was happening or an illustration they saw. They would join in when sounds were made or clap if something good happened.

We created a sing-song rhythm to certain books we read to add to the fun. The kids would dance and sing along. We would also ask questions like, “Where is the cow or the sheep? Who is wearing a red shirt?” Pointing to what they saw on a page to interact with the book helped them pay attention to what was being said and demonstrated their comprehension of what was seen on the page. They would also repeat what they heard and wanted to hear the same stories over and over again.

For adults this repetition may not be as enjoyable as it is for the kids, but it is so important for the kids to have repetition to learn well. A fun way to change things up to keep us parents interested is to add some drama to the story.

Act out Great Literature

Watching your kids act out a page or a section of the story as you read is a good place to start and really entertaining. All you need to do is have them choose a character and act out what that character is doing while you are reading the story. Basically, you are the narrator, and they are the actors of this “play.” You don’t need a stage or costumes yet; they can just get into the role right where they are.

Some kids are natural performers and desire the stage and costumes, but that’s an easy fix. Put a blanket on the floor in a specific spot and call that the stage. Add a prop or some fabric from what you have around the house to make them feel more like the character. Whether they need the extras or just want to play a role, acting out the story brings the story to life in a new way for everyone involved.

Acting out Great Literature Can Help with Comprehension

When my kids first started reading, it was hard to tell if they were actually reading or just had the books memorized since we read them over and over again. Finally, I could tell that they were reading the books.

When kids first start to read, like you may have experienced when reading another language, it’s hard for them to comprehend what they are reading because they are focusing so hard on each individual word. Eventually, they start to familiarize themselves with the vocabulary both through the reading they’ve experienced from others and from their own attempts. This is when they really start to understand a story.

One way to help with this understanding is to have your kids act out a page or chapter from the book. This is not only fun to do, but helps you assess if they are actually comprehending what they are reading. They can use their own words to tell back the story, which is referred to as narration, and add some drama to the experience. The more senses they use, the more they will remember and comprehend the story.

Acting helps them relate to a character while they act out the story. They start to think about what the character is like and how they walk, talk and interact with others. They also start to consider the actions that the character makes and whether or not those are good choices, or another choice could have been made.

Elementary School Literature Books to Act Out

From the list of best public domain books of all time (from shortform.com), I’ve chosen some and broken them down into elementary, middle school and high school (we will cover them all in this series of blogs).

Here’s the list for elementary students:

• Peter Pan by J.M. Barrie

• The Jungle Books by Rudyard Kipling

• Winnie-the-Pooh by A. A. Milne

• Aesop’s Fables

Upper Elementary

• The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

• The Secret Garden by Frances Hodgson Burnett

• Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll

• Bible (I’ve added this to the list because there are always wonderful stories to act out in this best-selling book of all time, according to Guinness World Records, which is also available in the public domain.)

You can get these books for free as an ebook online (Project Gutenberg) or at your local library. Our family was blessed with the books the grandparents bought for the kids for birthdays and special holidays. Through the years the collection turned into quite a library of our own. If you don’t have someone helping add to your library, another place we found many of our books was at used curriculum sales. I would shop for my curriculum then look in the literature section for lots of great books at really cheap prices.

Your Elementary Student Can Enjoy Great Literature with Drama

You have access for free to some of the greatest books ever written right at your fingertips. You can add value to your child’s education by including drama while reading these great works of art. I will go into more detail about our experiences with some of these classics in Part 2 of Elementary Students Can Enjoy Great Literature with Drama.

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Looking for more ways to add drama to your homeschool? Check out our plays and drama curriculum related to this list of great literature and much more!

Thanks for joining us!

Danielle at homeschooldrama.com