Around the World in 80 da- er.. 60 minutes.

What Actually Happened:

Last week, my aim was to solidify the fictional lens that we started the previous week. I planned on starting to create the safe environment that the children need to feel safe to express themselves.

During the week, I put children into pairs (with one child on her own, through her own request). These pairs are going to be the government of their countries. Over the last few days I've asked the children to design the shape of their countries, flags, languages, currencies etc. all of which the children must have ready for Thursday.

Reviewing the lesson from the previous week, the first part the children wanted to discuss was the name of their world. I was secretly delighted that they wanted to change the name of the world. I didn't draw attention to the fact that "Funnest" isn't a word, as my lesson was not an English lesson in the slightest. Drama is a safe haven for these children, and all children really; I wasn't going to taint it with a grammar correction.

Seeing as the very successful classroom management system (ClassRealm) is based on games, and the drama world is based on ClassRealm, I gave the class a list of names of towns from various Final Fantasy games. Long story short, the children's new world has been named: (Drum roll please!)

Again? Next time I won't ask for any drum roll.

Bevelle!

Yes indeed the kiddles named their new and magical wonderland after the pseudo world capital Bevelle from Final Fantasy X.

Upon further reflection of the last drama lesson, I realised that my lesson was much more a geography based one and not so much a drama lesson. This week, the lesson was as much an art lesson as it was a drama lesson!

The children worked hard on planning and forming their countries. They all tried very hard to ensure geographical accuracy, with every country having a river, mountain ranges, deserts, coastlines etc. I decided to support the children's idea here. I told the children some countries were going to be called "superpowers" and be much larger and richer, some would have to be very cold countries, while at least one would be an archipelago.

It's hard to see, but this country is actually in the shape of a camel.

These boys are in charge of one of the two "superpower nations"

The children worked hard and worked long, and none of them wanted to stop working when I told the children that time was up.

So Where Do We Go From Here?

The children are really starting to get sucked into their world, now known as Bevelle. They all were very critical of their countries, which told me that they really cared about how they looked and the way they were represented. I wanted to cement the fictional lens that I had established in the last lesson, and I know that I achieved this from the children's attitudes, not to mention how they introduced their countries to me.

Tune in next week to find out if I:

• Begin the character development of the children.
• Ask the children to meet the other nations at a UN Summit.

Most Importantly...

Like last week, the children really enjoyed themselves. On top of that, they are really becoming invested in Bevelle, including the typically not-so-enthusiastic-about-school kids! I need to keep in mind that for this project to work, I'll need to keep the children's enthusiasm up all the time, and not just at the new, fresh and exciting phase.