Aliens

In the past few years the genres of sci-fi and fantasy have really recaptured a younger generation’s imagination with the reinvention of Dr Who and popularity of Harry Potter and the Twilight trilogy. Younger students have always been interested in things that are beyond our human comprehension, with an ultimately inquiring mind, a unlimited imagination and a hint of childhood naivety.

Ghosts, ghouls and aliens endlessly fascinate the younger audience, therefore Kenn Nesbitt’s poem ‘The Aliens have Landed’ seems a perfect topic to cover in drama with a KS2 class. It is an amusing poem about an alien invasion on Earth, which ends with the twist – the aliens are really teachers employed in your school! Holding back the ending until the last lesson can again provide a source of intrigue and amusement for your class.

This scheme consists of four one-hour lessons and links the KS2 drama objectives from the National Curriculum with literacy objectives and covers the introduction or re-use of many core exploratory techniques.

• Talk and listen confidently in different contexts, exploring and communicating ideas through group discussions and in role in their drama
• Show an understanding of the main points of the poem and of an imagined world through discussion and drama
• Create, adapt and sustain different roles, individually and in groups
• Use character, action and narrative to convey story, themes, emotions, ideas in plays they devise and script
• Use dramatic techniques to explore characters and issues
• Evaluate how they and others have contributed to the overall effectiveness of performances

Number of Lessons: 4