Drama Lessons - One Stop DRAMA Shop

100+ drama lessons in topics ranging from foundational drama skills to social/emotional learning to drama integration with every core curricular subject.

We designed these drama lessons by pulling together selected drama activities and stories to teach drama objectives, matched with National Standards. These complete ready-to-go lessons save you planning time — simply search your targeted skill or concept to find the perfect lesson. Each lesson includes a list of prerequisites, a step-by-step activity guide, assessment suggestions and an extensive list of supplemental teaching strategies.

These drama lessons are customizable and adaptable. We know every classroom is different, so think of them more as a guide. Alter them, add to them, rearrange them, and personalize them as you see fit, and if you ever have questions on how to implement them, we’re always here to help!

We have combined these drama lessons to create a complete integrated drama curriculum. We organized this curriculum by grade level focusing on age-appropriate objectives, matched with the National Standards.

Use the search function below to filter by grade, drama skill and integration topic.

Two Character Dialogue Lesson

Two Character Dialogue Lesson Are your students ready to create their own scenes? Building upon our One Person Monologue Lesson, this lesson guides students through collaborating with their peers to create their own original dialogues. Students can continue to work on playwriting, directing and performance skills, while learning how to …
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One Person Monologue Lesson

One Person Monologue Lesson Give students the opportunity to write, act and direct, all in one lesson! Ideal for sixth through eighth graders with prior drama experience, this lesson guides students through creating, directing, and performing an original monologue in groups of three. Students can hone their collaboration skills, drama …
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The Chase Lesson

The Chase Lesson Looking for an exciting way to teach students about personal space and self-esteem? This lesson is a great way to help students practice self-control, imitation, and concentration skills, while keeping them active! Progressing from independent movement work to full group collaboration, the Chase provides a thorough yet …
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Señor Coyote Acts as a Judge

Señor Coyote Acts as a Judge What better way to teach action-reaction than a story packed with mischievous animal characters, including a clever coyote, a sneaky snake, and a righteous rabbit? In this lesson, students in grades 3-8 can practice collaboration, imitation, transformation, and action-reaction skills. By presenting their dramas, …
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Creating Mood

Creating Mood Lesson Creating mood effectively is one of the most important lessons young actors can learn. In this lesson, students can practice using their imagination and concentration skills to create mood for a variety of different scenarios. This lesson gives students a chance to hone their ability to imagine …
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How the World Was Formed on Turtle’s Back

How the World Was Formed on Turtle’s Back Lesson “How the Earth Was Formed on Turtle’s Back,” is an Onondaga creation story that features a team of vibrant animal characters, who work together to save a young woman’s life and create the world as we know it. This lesson provides …
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Paper Bag Charades

Paper Bag Charades Lesson Improv can be intimidating at first, so it’s important to give students support tools and structure as they’re learning it! In this lesson, challenge students to use three mystery props as they work together to create an exciting group drama. This is a wonderful opportunity for …
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Park Bench

Park Bench Lesson Middle school can be a really hard time for students to feel connected to their bodies, but embodying physical choices is a key part of being an actor! We devised this lesson to give students in grades 6-8 a fun opportunity to practice using their bodies to …
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Animal Shapes Story Lesson

Animal Shapes Story Lesson There’s no better way to get students engaged and in their bodies than animal work! In this lesson, students can practice imitating and transforming into a variety of animal characters. You may choose to have your students move on to crafting Animal Stories, giving them the …
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Planning and Practicing: The School Crisis

Planning and Practicing: The School Crisis Lesson How can we get students hungry for more planning and practicing? Let them see what it’s like when they can’t plan or practice at all! In this lesson for grades 5-8, students can practice collaboration, cooperation, and Conflict/Resolution skills by improvising and then …
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Planning and Practicing: The Tightrope

Planning and Practicing: The Tightrope Lesson Are your students planning and practicing pros yet? This lesson is a great way to encourage students in grades 6-8 to be more thorough in their planning and practicing process and hone their collaboration and cooperation skills. This builds upon other planning and practicing …
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Three Scenes from a Book

Three Scenes from a Book Lesson Creating a drama is one of the best ways to identify the most essential events in a story! In this lesson for students in grades 3-12, students can practice collaboration, imagination, and identifying story elements as they plan a drama of the three most …
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Henry’s Magic Hat Lesson

Henry’s Magic Hat Lesson What are the essential building blocks of every story? In this lesson, you will have the chance to lead students through a simple yet engaging tale about a boy and his mysterious magic hat. This story is a wonderful way to teach students in grades K-2 …
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Reader’s Theater

Reader’s Theater Lesson Whether or not you are new to Reader’s Theater, this lesson will provide you with innovative ways to bring it into your classroom. Providing a bridge from drama to theatre as well as an excellent opportunity for vocal work, Reader’s Theater is a versatile learning tool and …
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Open Scenes Lesson

Open Scenes Lesson Challenge students to read between the lines and play distinctive characters in these open-ended scenes. With dialogue that purposefully leaves details up to the imagination, this lesson can be used with students to work on collaboration, imitation, transformation, and planning and practicing skills. You may also integrate …
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Bound No’th Blues Lesson

Bound No’th Blues Lesson Bound No’th Blues Assessment Checklist The beauty and clarity of Langston Hughes’ words makes his work ideal for introducing students to the joys of studying poetry. By adapting Hughes’ poem Bound No’th Blues into a drama, students can practice collaboration, imitation, and concentration skills. You may …
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Inferencing and Questioning in “The Daydreamer” Lesson

Inferencing and Questioning in “The Daydreamer” Lesson Inferencing and Questioning in “The Daydreamer” Rubric Want a way to get students to make inferences and ask questions about a text while addressing bullying issues? This lesson for fourth through eighth graders is the first in a series that makes up a …
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Building Vocabulary Through Drama Lesson

Building Vocabulary Through Drama Lesson Building Vocabulary Through Drama Rubric This lesson gets participants of all ages loving words and thinking of them as colorful ways to communicate their ideas. So put those worksheets and spelling tests down for time to have students build a relationship with words in a …
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Adding Details and Emotional Color to Writing Lesson

Adding Details and Emotional Color to Writing Lesson Adding Details and Emotional Color to Writing Rubric Beginning writers often leave out details that add color, emotion, and sensory elements to stories, poems, and nonfiction text. Likewise, beginning actors often create characters with little detail of gesture, facial expression, and movement …
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Statue Redesign Lesson

Statue Redesign Lesson Objective: Learning to use collaboration in creating drama. This Language Arts-based lesson focuses mainly on collaboration among students in creating (acting as) statues. Some negotiation among students may occur to determine a course of action, depending on how the setup occurs, so it may be helpful to …
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Fluency Through Poetry Lesson

Fluency Through Poetry Lesson Objective: Learning to use the voice to communicate ideas. This Language Arts-based lesson combines one of the drama tools (voice) with the art form of poetry to assist in communicating ideas and add meaning. Students will practice collaboration with others and learn how vocal choices change …
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Baking a Cake Lesson

Baking a Cake Lesson Objective: Learning about details and sequencing in telling or showing events. Everybody likes cake and many can relate to this delicious treat. We use making a cake to provide practice with details and sequencing in events. This Language Arts-based lesson uses body objects to interact with …
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Good News, Bad News Lesson

Good News, Bad News Lesson Objective: Students collaborate to plan and practice an improvised drama. Failure is often the best way to learn. In this lesson, students have the chance to experience both a fiasco and a success that show them the importance of planning and practicing in drama. While …
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Landforms Lesson

Landforms Lesson Objective: Students demonstrate the roles of cause and effect and force in stories. In this action-packed three-day unit, students will explore the connections between drama, science, and language arts. First, students read and enact “The Little Hole at the Bottom of the Sea.” Then, using the main story …
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Painting Stories Lesson

Painting Stories Lesson Objective: Students communicate emotion and mood through story element choices. This lesson begins by giving students visual images as an inspiration for creating a drama. After identifying the emotional content in a piece of artwork, students use teamwork working in groups to develop a story based on …
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Jabberwocky Lesson

Jabberwocky Lesson Objective: Students demonstrate the creative process using basic drama skills. Lewis Carroll’s poem “Jabberwocky” provides the inspiration for this fun and challenging lesson. After the introduction of the poem, students work in teams to enact the various characters and events. They use their basic drama skills (concentration, imagination, …
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Statue Maker with Nursery Rhymes Lesson

Statue Maker with Nursery Rhymes Lesson Objectives: Students demonstrate collaborative skills and use the body to communicate ideas. Letting students think creatively and abstractly as they work with a partner is at the heart of this lesson. Students mold partners into ideas that complete a reimagining of famous nursery rhymes …
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Body Systems Lesson (Part 2)

Body Systems Lesson (Part 2): Working with Science Objective: students will use drama to replicate living systems. This continues from Part 1 with students transforming their bodies to simulate organs or other body systems (part of the fourth grade objectives). Systems (actors and organs) must work in tandem and create …
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Body Systems Lesson (Part 1)

Body Systems Lesson (Part 1): Working with Science Objective: students will use drama to replicate living systems. Students working in small groups will transform their bodies to simulate organs or other body systems (part of the fourth grade objectives). Systems (actors and organs) must work in tandem. The actions of …
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“Westward Ho!” Lesson (Part 3)

“Westward Ho!” Lesson (Part 3): Taking Risks Objective: students will explore the contrasts of life in the past to modern times. This lesson (3rd of 3) continues the previous lesson with a focus on risks. The students will discuss and then enact the risks the pioneers took while traveling on …
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“Westward Ho!” Lesson (Part 2)

“Westward Ho!” Lesson (Part 2): Dealing with Conflicts Objective: students will explore the contrasts of life in the past to modern times. This Life Drama (2nd of 3) continues the previous lesson with a focus on conflict. The pioneers (students) traveling on an arduous journey westward encounter challenges. As a …
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“Westward Ho!” Lesson (Part 1)

“Westward Ho!” Lesson (Part 1): A Life Drama Objective: students will explore the contrasts of life in the past to modern times. This Life Drama begins a series of three lessons with a common theme. The students create a fictional group of pioneers preparing for an arduous journey westward. Students …
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Making Machines Lesson

Making Machines Lesson Objective: students learn how actors and directors work together. In this lesson, fourth grade students will practice building collaborative machines while taking turns as an actor and director (part of the fourth grade objectives). Students will gain a better understanding of the roles of actors and directors …
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The Fire Lesson

The Fire Lesson Objective: students demonstrate sensory (touch, taste, smell, sight, sound) recall in a drama. Students identify similarities among art forms. Students become fire, fight fire, and practice fire prevention all through the safety of drama. This lesson introduces students to sensory (touch, taste, smell, sight, and sound) recall and …
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Tornado Lesson

Tornado Lesson: Creating Objects & Characters Objective: students will learn how to use their bodies to create detailed objects and characters. This lesson for fourth grade students focuses on using acting skills to to create human, animal, and personified objects/characters. This lesson uses still images and videos of tornadoes (not provided). It …
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Prop Story Lesson

Prop Story Lesson Objective: Students will learn how props support drama work. This lesson for fourth grade students focuses on using props in a drama. For materials, you will need some simple props (described in the lesson) as well as selected stories from Aesop’s fables. This lesson makes use of the Pass …
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The Chase Lesson

The Chase Lesson: Using Space Objective: Students will learn how space affects drama. This lesson for fourth grade students focuses on the actor’s skills to transform space using locomotor and non locomotor movements. You can use this lesson to integrate with dance or visual art elements. The lesson makes use of the …
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How to Analyze Drama Lesson

How to Analyze Drama Lesson Objective: Students will learn how analyzing other dramas improves their own. We suggest this lesson as the school year start for students in fourth grade with prior drama experience. With this lesson, students will analyze how actors (self or others) use concentration, imitation, imagination, and transformation. We …
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Communities Lesson

Communities Lesson Objective: students demonstrate collaboration and cooperation. The story (included) for this lesson is “The Bad Joke That Ended Well.” This short story brings much merriment and laughter to the telling and playing but also provides an opportunity for students to experience community in a deeper sense. Students begin …
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Team Machines Lesson

Team Machines Lesson: Collaborating with a Prop Objective: students combine the primary tools (body, mind, voice) with a support tool (prop) and with the skills of collaboration, concentration, transformation, audience behaviors, to create a drama. Drama and machines have much in common. Students collaborate to complete a task of building an interactive …
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Vision Quest Lesson

Vision Quest Lesson: Body Objects Review Objective: students demonstrate concentration, imagination, imitation, transformation and collaboration as they plan and practice a drama. Students transform the body into objects and then combine objects to create settings for a dramatic story. Students then enact the one character journey story in small groups with one …
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Turtle who Lived by the Pond Lesson

Turtle who Lived by the Pond Lesson: Fantasy and Reality Objective: students use transformation and delineate reality from fantasy in a drama. Which part is fantasy and which is reality in the story of the turtle who wants to be something he is not? Turtle learns a very important lesson …
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The Greatest Show on Ice Lesson

The Greatest Show on Ice Lesson: Planning & Practicing Objective: students apply collaborative and planning processes to create a drama. Students hate to plan and revise their work. This lesson helps students see the impact that planning and practicing have on a finished drama product. In addition, the lesson further …
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B.J.’s Journey Lesson

B.J.’s Journey Lesson: Body Objects Transformation Objective: students collaborate with a partner using negotiation strategies and applying concentration, imagination, imitation, and transformation skills. Students transform their bodies into objects and then into settings with a team of other actors for the story B.J.’s Journey. Students work alone, with a partner, …
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The Dreamer Lesson

The Dreamer Lesson: Body Objects Objective: students use the body and mind to create settings for a story. Students transform their bodies into objects, first alone, then with a partner, and finally with a group creating settings for the story The Dreamer which is the culmination of the lesson. Students …
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Emotion Stories

Emotion Stories Lesson Overview: your students will learn what makes people feel the way they do. We provide a list of emotions (or create your own) and the students learn how movement in drama can be used to communicate emotion. This lesson is the second in our character education and …
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Science Integrated Drama Lesson

Drama Lesson Integrated with ScienceOverview: this drama lesson demonstrates tailoring the Body Objects activity for science.This FREE lesson steps you through an acting story with a focus on science. The emphasis is on the question: “How can we use our bodies to show what we know about story and habitats?” …
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Language Arts Integrated Drama Lesson

Drama Lesson Integrated with Language ArtsOverview: this drama lesson demonstrates tailoring the Body Objects activity for language arts learning.This FREE lesson steps you through an acting story with a focus on language arts. The emphasis is on the question: “What impact do details have on creating and communicating ideas?” This …
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Acting Story Lesson

Acting Story Lesson using Body Objects activityOverview: this lesson combines drama skills with a story to form a drama.This FREE lesson couples an acting story (included) with body objects work to create a Drama. Using a story turns the Body Object activity into a Drama. The goal for participants is …
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Drama Skills and Vocabulary Lesson

Drama Skills and Vocabulary Lesson using Body Objects activity Overview: this lesson starts building drama skills in groups new to integration work. Use this FREE skill-building lesson with students to introduce concentration, imagination, and teamwork through group activities. Their goal is to increase their drama skills by learning to create …
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The Sacred Scarab Lesson – Review & Assess

The Sacred Scarab Lesson: Review & Assess Overview: the students review how all the tools and skills they learned fit together to create a drama. Objectives: students demonstrate memorization skills; demonstrate interpersonal and collaborative skills; define story elements. Reviewing skills previously learned are at the heart of this summative lesson: acting …
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Body Objects – a FREE drama lesson

Body Objects Lesson: Creating Settings with DetailsOverview: students collaborate with a partner using negotiation strategies and applying concentration, imagination, imitation, and transformation skills.Objectives: students collaborate with a partner using negotiation strategies; apply concentration, imagination, imitation, and transformation skills; identify story elements.Students transform their bodies into objects and then into settings …
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Concentration and Partner Work Lesson

Concentration and Partner Work Lesson: Statue Maker Overview: students explore the role of the mind in drama. Objectives: students evaluate self and praise others; define the 5 key vocabulary words (imagination, imitation, transformation, concentration, and collaboration); practice self-management; demonstrate collaborative strategies Freeze! How long can students stay frozen? Can they …
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