Rhyming and School Plays/Programs

Rhyming makes learning easier for everyone. If you want a child to learn something quickly there are two things that will make the process much easier and less painful for everyone involved. One is to put it to music and the other is to make it into a rhyme.

Many if not all parents, preschool and kindergarten teachers use these methods several times a day to get their children to learn. They not only recite nursery rhymes or sing songs, but many put the childs phone number and address to music and rhyme to help their children learn them.

As the children get older teachers use the same methods to teach, multiplication facts, states, counties, states, English rules, punctuation and many other subjects. Putting them to music makes it even easier for children to learn.

I have found when I do school programs that if I will write the script in rhyme then the students can learn their parts much easier and with less rehearsal. This helps keep rehearsals to a minimal. With all the testing and subjects that teachers are being asked to teach and do they have little time for the fun things at school.

I started writing my own elementary school plays 30 years ago and my students loved to participate. It took a lot of memorizing, out of school rehearsal, and after school and during school rehearsal. That is time that teachers no longer have to give to programs. With the No child Left Behind and all the testing required their time is limited. That is why in the last 15 years I have been putting most of my school programs/plays to rhyme.

When you put the script to rhyme and in stanzas then you can get away with a minimal amount of time for rehearsing. That does not include the music which I ask the music teacher to teach in her regular music class.

When you put the parts in rhyme then you can hand out the parts a couple of weeks before the program and the students will have them memorized and ready for rehearsal in a week. Most students will have it memorized the first night. This way you do not have to go over and over each scene.

Thus, with the rhyming I have been able to take a school program that required many of hours of practice and be able to produce a quality program in 3-4 hours of rehearsal spread out over a week. So put your programs to rhyme or find some that are written that way and you will be able to have time enough to still do a program

Caroline Mackay is a retired teacher of thirty seven years and writer and producer of many school programs. She is the host of http://www.ezeducationplays.com/articles.html and http://www.ezelectronicelements.com/page/page/3966316.htmSorcha Blog57935
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