Designing Scenery and SettingActivities & Teaching Strategies
Active learning works well here because second graders grasp setting best by making it themselves. When they paint, sketch, or discuss backdrops, they connect abstract ideas like time and place to concrete choices in color and shape.
Learning Objectives
- 1Design a simple backdrop for a play, selecting elements that communicate the setting.
- 2Identify how specific scenic choices, like color and shape, influence audience perception of a story's mood.
- 3Compare and contrast the environmental needs of two different characters in a short scene.
- 4Explain the function of scenery in establishing the time and place of a theatrical performance.
- 5Critique a peer's backdrop design, offering specific suggestions for improvement based on the scene's narrative.
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Think-Pair-Share: What Does This Place Look Like?
Read aloud a short scene description (e.g., a magical forest, an underwater cave, a school cafeteria). Students think about what they would put in the background, share their ideas with a partner, and then explain their choices to the group, naming specific colors and shapes they would use.
Prepare & details
What would you put in a background to make it look like a magical forest?
Facilitation Tip: During Think-Pair-Share: What Does This Place Look Like?, listen for descriptive phrases that students use and jot them on the board to build a shared vocabulary.
Setup: Standard classroom seating; students turn to a neighbor
Materials: Discussion prompt (projected or printed), Optional: recording sheet for pairs
Inquiry Circle: Group Backdrop Sketch
Small groups receive a setting prompt card (e.g., 'a sunny farmyard' or 'a spooky haunted house'). Together, they sketch the key elements they would include in a backdrop, assign who would draw each part, and present their plan to another group to get one suggestion before they finalize their sketch.
Prepare & details
Why does the setting, or where the story happens, matter so much in a play?
Facilitation Tip: During Collaborative Investigation: Group Backdrop Sketch, remind groups to divide tasks so every student contributes a visible element to the backdrop.
Setup: Groups at tables with access to source materials
Materials: Source material collection, Inquiry cycle worksheet, Question generation protocol, Findings presentation template
Gallery Walk: Setting Identification
Display six to eight backdrop sketches from different groups around the room without labels. Students walk through the gallery and write on a sticky note which setting they think each sketch depicts, then reveal the intended setting to see how well the visual elements communicated the place.
Prepare & details
How would you design a simple background for your own short scene?
Facilitation Tip: During Gallery Walk: Setting Identification, ask students to point to one element on each backdrop that immediately tells them the setting’s location or time of day.
Setup: Wall space or tables arranged around room perimeter
Materials: Large paper/poster boards, Markers, Sticky notes for feedback
Individual: Quick Sketch Challenge
Give each student a setting prompt and ten minutes to sketch the three most important elements they would put in a background. Encourage them to consider foreground, midground, and background layers, and to use color to signal the mood of the scene.
Prepare & details
What would you put in a background to make it look like a magical forest?
Facilitation Tip: During Individual: Quick Sketch Challenge, encourage students to use no more than three shapes and three colors to communicate the setting clearly.
Setup: Tables or desks arranged as exhibit stations around room
Materials: Exhibit planning template, Art supplies for artifact creation, Label/placard cards, Visitor feedback form
Teaching This Topic
Teachers should model quick, bold strokes for scenery rather than detailed drawings. Use theater examples to show how simple shapes work at a distance. Avoid over-explaining; instead, ask students to guess settings from minimal visual cues to build their confidence in visual storytelling.
What to Expect
Students will demonstrate how scenery guides storytelling by explaining their design choices in clear, simple language. They will also recognize how backdrops shape mood and audience expectations through collaborative and individual tasks.
These activities are a starting point. A full mission is the experience.
- Complete facilitation script with teacher dialogue
- Printable student materials, ready for class
- Differentiation strategies for every learner
Watch Out for These Misconceptions
Common MisconceptionDuring Collaborative Investigation: Group Backdrop Sketch, watch for students adding too many tiny details or realistic elements.
What to Teach Instead
Remind the group that from the audience’s far seats, only big, simple shapes will read clearly, so they should simplify their designs and use bold colors.
Common MisconceptionDuring Gallery Walk: Setting Identification, listen for students saying that a backdrop needs to look exactly like a real place.
What to Teach Instead
Pause the walk and ask students to point out how one color or shape instantly tells them the setting, then ask them to cover up any extra details to prove their point.
Assessment Ideas
After Individual: Quick Sketch Challenge, collect sketches and have students write one sentence explaining which fairy tale their setting belongs to and why their color or shape choice helps tell that story.
During Gallery Walk: Setting Identification, gather students to discuss how two different backdrops for the same story made them feel differently, then ask them to vote on which backdrop fits a happy scene and which fits a scary scene.
During Collaborative Investigation: Group Backdrop Sketch, circulate and ask each group, 'What is the most important detail your backdrop needs to show the audience about this story's location? What color did you choose and why does it fit that place or time?'
Extensions & Scaffolding
- Challenge: Provide blank backdrops and ask students to redesign one to change the mood from happy to scary using only color and shape.
- Scaffolding: Offer pre-cut shapes (suns, trees, mountains) for students to arrange on paper before drawing their own.
- Deeper exploration: Have students write a two-sentence story that matches their backdrop, then exchange with a partner to guess the setting.
Key Vocabulary
| backdrop | A large piece of painted cloth or other material hung at the back of a stage to represent scenery. |
| setting | The time and place in which the story of a play or performance happens. |
| prop | An object used on stage by actors during a performance, such as a chair, a book, or a fake tree. |
| scenery | The painted backdrops and physical structures, like trees or buildings, that create the environment on a stage. |
| mood | The feeling or atmosphere that a setting or scenery creates for the audience. |
Suggested Methodologies
More in Movement and Story: Dance and Theater
Expressing Emotions Through Movement
Students use facial expressions and body language to portray different roles and feelings in dramatic play.
2 methodologies
Developing Characters
Students explore character traits and motivations through improvisation and short scenes.
2 methodologies
Locomotor and Non-Locomotor Movement
Students explore different ways their bodies can move, distinguishing between moving through space and moving in place.
2 methodologies
Narrative Dance Sequences
Using locomotor and non-locomotor movements to represent narrative sequences and tell stories through dance.
2 methodologies
Creating Dance Phrases
Students learn to combine individual movements into short dance phrases, focusing on beginning, middle, and end.
2 methodologies
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