Actions speak louder than words

Actions speak louder than words. Sometimes our feelings are so complex that it is difficult to find words to express how we feel. Often our actions and behaviour reveal to others our deepest thoughts and emotions. In today’s society, we are constantly bombarded with visual images and, for many young people, interpreting these complex visual messages and discovering ways to communicate their feelings can be challenging. Shaun Tan’s The Red Tree uses rich imagery and colour to articulate a young girl’s emotions as she journeys through one day trying to understand who she is. Using this picture book imagery and a range of drama strategies, this scheme explores feelings and body language to inspire writing and oral storytelling through which we can express emotions and our identity.

Learning objectives:

• Speak with confidence in a range of contexts
• Listen, respect, understand and respond appropriately to each other in group and wholeclass discussions
• Talk effectively as a member of a group, qualifying and justifying their opinion, idea or feeling
• Ask relevant questions to clarify, extend and follow up ideas for their stories
• Use movement and freeze frame to explore emotions and feelings
• Create, adapt and sustain telling a story supported by simple movements and props
• Imagine and explore feelings and ideas, to inspire creative uses of language
• Evaluate how they and others have contributed to the storytelling

Number of lessons: 4