Islands

Once in a while I like to blog about my creative drama class.  This quarter I am working with a group of fifth graders.  Perhaps they would rather be somewhere else, probably gym, recess or lunch, but I have been impressed with their focus the last few classes, and their ability to listen and take direction.  They have improved greatly since the first day of class.

On Friday we played a creative drama game called "Islands".  This game creates and builds community if played correctly.  The rules are simple.  You take several sheets of newspaper and put them down on the floor.  The newspaper sheets should not touch, there should be room for students to walk around the floor between the newspaper sheets.  There should be one less than the number of students playing the game.  When you say go, students walk around the room, not touching the "islands", as if they are swimming in the ocean.  When you say, "Shark" students must find a sheet of newspaper to stand on to get away from the shark.  Each time students go onto the sheets of newspaper you take one more piece of newspaper off the floor, so students have to share more and more space with each other.  You keep playing until you can't fit any more kids onto the pieces that are left.

When I described the game, the students first reaction was to say, "how do you win this game?"  I told them it is not about winning and losing.  It is about creating community.  They wanted to change the rules of the game.  If you don't get onto a sheet of newspaper, you are out.  I said, it is not about kicking someone out of the group, it is about including everyone, any way you can.  I told them to just try it out.

It was incredible.  I played quiet music and then when I stopped it, they all jumped to the newspaper sheets.  The more sheets I took away, the more people had to fit on small sheets of newspaper.  That meant that people had to hold onto each other, and some people by the end were carrying each other so they could fit together on the newspaper squares.  They were saving each other, instead of kicking each other off, and jockeying for position.  I was impressed.  Once they got the idea of the game, they were very receptive to it.

We had a reflection discussion after the game, and everyone managed to enjoy themselves a great deal, despite the fact there were no losers, only winners and survivors.  Why were there survivors?  Thrivers in fact?  Because we all worked together to stay away from the shark.  Some students said they still enjoy competition, and I said there is nothing wrong with that, it is just a completely different experience if you are helping each other, rather than trying to push each other out of your opportunity.

 Let's build community instead of creating more opportunities to compete with each other.  I think there will always be enough of those.  I hope students in my creative drama classes learn from these experiences that they will always need to do their best if they want the group, or the family, or the business or the play to be a success.