The 7 year old child
By Cristina Maria Brigagão Abalos, Dora Regina Zorzetto Garcia and Vilma Lúcia Furtado Paschoa.
In his make-believe, the 7-year-old can be the wind when he moves, grow like the little plant, be the frog that jumps or the bird that flies. At this age, the child still feels one with the world around him and, in particular, integrated with Nature. So talking about plants and animals is like talking about herself. She has not yet developed the perception of being an individual, of feeling and acting differently from her surroundings.
The child still lives immersed in the fantasy world, revealed in his games, but the child's play is his work, it is a very serious thing that is not separated from any other activity. It is in play that the child realizes his bodily possibilities, explores the world around him and establishes relationships with it. She is not ready to receive theoretical explanations: everything in her is activity. A striking feature of her behavior is her ability to imitate: gestures, posture, way of speaking, vocabulary, in short, she tends to easily imitate everything she perceives in the adult who lives with her. As for fantasy, it is up to educators to ensure that it develops in a healthy way, maintaining a close relationship with reality, so that fantasy does not turn into phantasmagoria. Imagination and fantasy arouse the child's interest in the world that he will later understand through logical reasoning.
Where does fantasy emerge most intensely? Creative fantasy emerges more intensely in moments of pause, in the small silences that we create in the course of any activity, in listening, even if it is only listening from within. Educators need to be attentive and not only let these pauses happen, but create opportunities for them to arise, as they are an indispensable part of a rhythm, of a breath: it is in these moments, when attention is not asked to the outside, that the fantasy works internally. On the other hand, fantasy also appears in the noisy action, in the spontaneity that the child brings in his playful nature - and often comical - and that surprises us with unexpected and creative solutions.
After these considerations, it can be said that the world of the 7-year-old is a constant theater, a continuous make-believe. The role of the educator is, in essence, to organize this world and configure it in a healthy way to explore all its possibilities. How? One of the ways is through theater, as we understand it in this context.
THE THEATER FOR CHILDREN FROM 6 TO 7 YEARS OLD
With children of this age, we suggest working with fairy tales. Throughout the year, they can be narrated daily, in full or in parts, depending on the length. The images of these fairy tales form, as it were, a backdrop, on which all the subjects that we want to deal with at this age unfold, as extensions of the tales. Many of them are here in theatrical form.
THE ASSEMBLY PROCESS
After choosing the play, the story is first told to the children two or even three times on different days. The stories are not read to children, because when they are read, the book constitutes a barrier between the teacher and the students, in addition to having a language that is not used in the day-to-day of classes. Telling a story looking at children allows us to observe their facial expressions, which reveal how the story is affecting each one and, thus, establish direct communication with each student, using the expressions that are typical of the teacher. At this moment, this personal contact is more important than the literary language, whose qualities will be present in the course of the essays and in the memorization of the text. It is not yet necessary to tell the class that the story will be dramatized, but just let the children experience the images.
Then, on another day, the students review the story (now they tell it) and, for example, draw parts of it. The drawings can be placed on the classroom walls and observed by all (not criticized): the teacher points out positive aspects and, if applicable, guides what can be improved. They can also paint, reproducing the feelings that arose through the qualities of colors.
Now the students are more involved with the images, and the teacher selects some excerpts and some songs and inserts them in the rhythmic part of the class.
What is the rhythm part?
Every day, when children arrive in the classroom, they come from different environments and present themselves in a special mood: some arrive breathless because they were late, others tired, because they were in a lot of traffic, others saw a fight between their parents or things even worse. They are not ready for learning. The main function of the rhythmic part is to harmonize these children and prepare them for learning. A poem, no matter how small and simple, said in chorus at the beginning of the school day, for example, helps to ease students' dispersion and make them feel that they are part of a whole. In a playful and joyful way, rhythm exercises are taught, with poetry and songs – which may even be part of a future play – performed by everyone, with claps, gestures, movement, “tuning” the class. This is how the body scheme, spatiality, diction, attention, social integration, and many other aspects are worked. This beginning of the class, which we call the rhythmic part, is repeated, in this way, for three or four weeks, when then something is changed, not all at once, that is, a poem is replaced by a new one, then a new one. music and so on, following the themes worked in class, the matter. In the long run, rhythmic work develops qualities and creates dispositions and skills for theatrical work.
In the first three school years, it is important that the rhythmic part is performed in a circle, with the children standing and free to move. The circle is the perfect form that integrates everyone, and where everyone sees the whole.
Well then: the teacher then inserts excerpts from the chosen piece in this rhythmic part, always with simple, broad, expressive gestures, and repeats them daily. Little by little, the child will assimilate and give his personal character, creating new ways of expressing the text. So the play is already being assembled, and the children are already memorizing it, with great enthusiasm and excitement. In a playful way, one works by guiding gestures, posture and body expression, as well as language and articulation, memory, intonation and speech rhythm. For that, it is necessary that, before, the teacher has memorized the verses and songs he teaches the students and trained the gestures. Everything must be well thought out and prepared, so there will be safety in the orientation.
THE LANGUAGE
Language is also fundamental when talking about theater and education. When choosing a play or poetry, the teacher needs to take care to present a rich, beautiful, correct and rhythmic language, in addition to preferably rhyming, especially for the 1st year. Rhymes facilitate memorization and give musicality to speech.
The teacher should not avoid more difficult terms or be concerned about explaining them. Children will expand their vocabulary and understand the meaning through the context and experience of the images. Over time, the teacher checks that the words have been understood and, if necessary, gives the explanation. Many intellectual explanations destroy the experience of images.
In the 1st year, all the children decorate everything, the entire piece. No speech should be individual, because, as was exposed before, children still live in the whole and perhaps they were precociously exposed as individuals in front of an audience. The teacher must judge what is best for his students, but we advise that each character be interpreted in chorus, that is, by a group of children dressed in the same clothes and colors.
SONGS
The songs used in the 1st year plays must have simple and short melodies. Sometimes just small and pure sounds produced by very simple instruments (bell, coconuts, metallophones etc.) already produce a sound effect at the right moment and help to create an atmosphere, a moment of pause, or to signal something that will happen. The teacher himself can make these sounds or that more shy student, who is not yet sure to appear on the scene. Scene sound can also be made with elements of nature, such as dry leaves, pebbles, etc., or by everyday objects, such as tins, cellophane, etc. Of course, it is very important that children sing, and even cirandas and nursery rhymes can be introduced in a play. Depends on choosing the right moment. We suggest that most of the commands given by the teacher in the first grades are transmitted by singing very simple melodies. Music is essential to harmonize the environment and develop the rhythm in the activities. *
* The sound of electronic devices is always distorted, which is not very suitable at an age when the child is refining his hearing ability. In addition, the songs are ready, saving the child any effort to develop in this sense. Added to this is the fact that, no matter how careful you are, it is difficult to find something ready-made that fits perfectly into the piece being assembled, which ends up creating an artificial situation.
PAPERS
The piece, therefore, is being assembled in parts, every day, in the rhythmic part of the class. Everyone exercises, interprets and memorizes everything. The choice of roles is left for the end, and it is important that the teacher makes it. This is a pedagogical activity, and role choices cannot be random. You can choose a student to play a certain role because they look like that character, or because it will be a challenge for them. One should always keep in mind: – What does this student need? – What are your skills?
SCENE AND COSTUMES
Now, one can also think about the sets and costumes. This shouldn't be a big concern, because, especially in the 1st year, the greater the simplicity and the smaller the number of details, the better. It must be remembered that the forces of fantasy in a 7-year-old are very present. The ideal is to take advantage of these forces and let the children experience the images brought by the play inwardly. If too many details are used – such as props and scenic objects that will certainly not match what the child had imagined – we could be killing their fantasy.
To compose a scenario, just a few cloths of colors chosen according to the environment you want to create. The children wear the same tunics, with different colors, according to their characters, and they themselves compose and represent the scenario: tree, river, stones, animals, etc. If there is a king, he may wear a cape and crown of golden paper; if there is a grandmother, a shawl over the tunic and nothing else. Neither face paint nor masks are necessary: these will appear at the right time, a few years later. Ultimately, the most important thing happens in the children's imagination.
PRACTICAL EXAMPLE
To exemplify the assembly of a play in a 1st year, the play “Rosa Branca e Rosa Vermelha” was chosen. The steps to be followed would be as follows:
1st. Telling the story: as mentioned before, the teacher prepares the story and tells it without reading, interpreting, or questioning: adaptations must also be avoided, as fairy tales reflect ancient wisdom, which speaks directly to the hearts of children. kids;
2nd. Retell the story, what is done by the children, the next day;
3rd. Drawings or paintings of parts of the story;
4th. Introduce, in the rhythmic part, the music and the first line of the choir; in the case of this piece, the teacher can emphasize the sounds of the consonants M/N/R/L in speech;
5th. Expand the work with the text in the rhythmic part, making the children memorize, articulating the sounds well, while experiencing situations through gestures;
6th. After everyone has learned the text, you can, for example, separate the class into masculine and feminine lines: the boys say the gnome and the bear prince parts, and the girls say the Rosinhas and the mother parts. Over time, children reveal themselves: some identify with the bear, others with the gnome, still others with the mother, and so on;
7th As there are few characters for an entire class, the same role can be played by several children at different times, for example, each time the gnome appears, it can be played by another student, or a group of students, although the speech is always accompanied by the boys' choir; that is, his speech is represented by the boys' choir, but one of them (or a small group) stands out in the interpretation, putting himself further and interacting with the other characters.
8th. Some children can take care of the sound effects, which are fundamental to mark the scenes, entrances and exits, and to characterize the characters. Each Rosinhas entry can be signaled by a triangle touch; the gnome's rage and bad temper would be well characterized by the harsh sound of the reco-reco. All this is gradually being inserted;
9th. Bearing in mind that the ideal is for students to be on stage at all times (positioned in a semicircle or in groups, behind those who are acting), the scenery and scenic elements will be very simple and suggestive: a chair for the mother, cloth green on the ground like grass, another blue for the river, two brooms; the fireplace will be suggested by a chair or bench covered by a cloth, two small vases, one with red roses and the other with white roses (which can be paper), a bag with crumpled gold and silver pieces of paper for the gnome. Ready! Nothing else is needed!
10th In keeping with the simplicity of the setting, for the costumes you can use: a shawl for the mother, swirled dresses for the Rosinhas and wreaths of flowers on the head (white and red; also made of paper), a brown cape with a hood for the bear, that he will wear a prince's outfit underneath (an open vest made of golden satin and a crown made of golden paper); a red cap for the gnome, with a short vest and long pants inside green boots (a piece of felt or suede paper adapted nicely for the boots). overload them.
In order for children to experience all these steps in depth, there should be no rush. In our experience, the assembly time for a piece like this is at least a month, working every day and considering that this activity is not only done in a day of classes. Sometimes an assembly can take longer, depending on the pace of the class and the possibilities of the curriculum.
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