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Rabbit, Elephant, Whale Lesson

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Rabbit, Elephant, Whale Lesson: Observation & Personification

Objective: students will learn how actors use the drama tools to create a character.

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Students have fun personifying animal characters to create a story of their own design. The students then use the actor’s tools (mind, body, voice) to create a drama using observation (part of the fourth grade objectives). This lesson is designed around the story of the same name - download The Story of the Rabbit, Elephant, Whale before you begin. We also suggest you start with an imitation activity as a warm-up to this lesson such as Pass the Imaginary Object. This lesson is part of our recommended sequence in the Fourth Grade Curriculum.

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Fourth Grade Drama Journal: Rabbit, Elephant, Whale

To maximize student achievement, download this drama journal for students to use as reflection or formative assessment. For each lesson in the curriculum, we have created a corresponding journal page for your students. A drama journal allows participants to reflect on their learning and artistic growth (metacognition). It also allows you, the teacher, to see how students are using the drama vocabulary, thinking about big ideas, and perceiving their own strengths and weaknesses. If you use the journal for assessment and would like more assessment tools, visit our Fourth Grade Curriculum. 

The Story of Rabbit, Elephant, and Whale

The Story of Rabbit, Elephant, and Whale 

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In this story, the rabbit outsmarts the elephant and the whale, both of which use their physical size against the rabbit.  Students like to act out the different parts in this story as they learn that sometimes being wise can counter physical size.  This story is also designed into a full lesson for the 4th grade to teach students how actors use the drama tools (body, mind, voice) to create a character.

The Sacred Scarab Root

The Sacred Scarab Root story

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This original story was written specifically for use in drama focusing on the concepts of Balance, Imagination, Cultural/Multicultural, Narrator/Storytelling, Repetition, Story Elements: Character, Conflict, Plot, Setting, Theme/Idea, and Transformation: Human Characters. It can also be used in the Body Objects Lesson if you are just getting started with drama. 

A little background information about the sacred scarab:

The sacred scarab is a species of dung beetle known for its habit of rolling animal dung into balls, laying eggs inside, and burying them in shafts in the ground. In ancient Egypt, these habits of the sacred scarab gained symbolic and religious significance. It was believed that only male scarabs existed and the birth of the beetle from the ball of dung was thought to be an act of self-creation. Because of this “spontaneous” birth, the sacred scarab became aligned to the creation god Khepri and likewise became a symbol of self-creation, resurrection, and eternal life. Khepri was also a sun god and thought to renew the sun each day before rolling it from the eastern to western horizon. The scarab’s rolling of the ball of dung was perceived as an earthly manifestation of Khepri’s rolling of the sun. Images of the scarab were widely used in Egyptian art and hieroglyphics and small carved scarabs were worn as necklaces. But, perhaps, the scarab’s greatest significance was in ancient Egyptian funereal culture. Due to its symbolic connection to resurrection and eternal life, scarab amulets were buried with mummies. These scarabs were know as “heart scarabs” because they were placed over the heart and thought to keep the secrets of the heart from incriminating the deceased at his final judgment.