Having been a childminder and nursery worker in a past life the challenges of early years that seem to scare off some of my peers - snotty noses, sicky tummies or (worse of all!) soggy nappies - don't phase me. In fact I think drama work with EYFS is some of the most exciting and rewarding out there, and here's why:
1. Imaginative Freedom
Baring in mind my earlier comments on the 'cuteness factor' I'm wary of hyping this too much. Sometimes what is touted as incredible creativity and imagination in EYFS is just the result of children not yet knowing that the answer to a question needs to somehow connect to what is asked (e.g Q: "What colour is the sky?" A: "spiderman"). But even so, the physical and cognitive freedom to go anywhere, be anyone and of course question everything with very little self consciousness is exhilarating for a dramatist. Seeing how limited, in contrast, this freedom can be in older children/teenagers makes me wonder if Ken Robinson was really onto something when he said we educate children out of their bodies, into their heads and so out of their creativity.
2. Zero Politeness
What I mean by this is: if they're bored, you'll know about it. When you know a group is liable to be distracted by their own shoes or the contents of their nostrils, walk away or even fall asleep ( though come to think of it, none of these are restricted to EYFS students!) it makes you pick up your game. Every ensemble only operates by consent of all its members, and this is never more true than with EYFS - There's never playing along; only playing totally in the moment or else nothing.
The flip side of this is how ready EYFS children are to engage in 'rituals' (drama-speak for doing the same thing over and over!). There's endless mileage in revisiting songs, games, opening and closing sequences session after session - extending and altering until they're totally owned by the group and give them more structure and concentration than you'd ever think a pre-school child could have.
3. The Full Arsenal
No, this is not about recruiting young children to my partner's favourite football team, but how the majority of early years work calls on you to use the 'full set' of drama tools. Songs (oh, always songs!) props, sound effects, costumes, music, pictures, physical theatre, puppetry all pop up on a daily basis. And by the way, taking a step back from the Brooktian 'empty space' idea so loved by progressive drama departments and other dramaturgs with no budget to speak of, aren't the bells and whistles of theatre (always in service of telling a proper good yarn, of course) something we all delight in?
Every day I'm adding to my box of tricks, from Makaton signs to 150 ways to get 3 year olds into a circle. For me there's a sort of alchemy when you bring together a song here, a puppet there and everything clicks into an amazing session.
4. Language Use
Another challenge I love - and which appeals to my rigourous, academic side - is the need to be precise, appropriate and consistent in language use. I'm a big believer that in theatre a word or gesture should never be wasted and that's especially true in EYFS theatre work. An instruction given in different ways with different words can throw a group into confusion, as can repeated use of an unknown word or phrase without checking understanding (a wonderful, though rather erudite, fellow practitioner fell into all kinds of problems with a year 1 group when using the word 'gabardine' to describe a raincoat).
Language is so important to this age group because it's so new, and that means alongside the need for clarity, there's endless fun and excitement to be found in discovering the richness of language, which is only widened when - as is so often the case in London - there's a lot of EAL children in the group.
5. Rate of Development
It never ceases to amaze me how quickly this age group take on new information. I find - again being wary of the cuteness factor - it does reinvigorate my own sense of wonder and excitement in the world rediscovering it through the eyes of young children.
Since my MA I've been a big believer in the educationalist Bruner's idea that you can teach anything to any age group if you scaffold it appropriately enough. Luckily for me, this seems to be bourne out through working with nursery and KS1 children, particularly in Shakespeare and other 'literature' - especially in developing their own responses to the stories and characters' choices.
And so it's because of all the above that I've been working on (BLOG EXCLUSIVE!) a new project with amazing practitioner John Kirk, called Story Boxshops - sessions for EY and KS1 children to creatively explore Shakespeare, Dickens and Greek myths. More about this project will be coming soon on my website www.jenniferkitchen.co.uk but here's an exclusive look at the new flyer (designed by Tom):
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