Explain the concept of role-playing to the children. Introduce the idea of portraying another character by exhibiting different behaviors, emotions and ideas about the world.
Ask students to generate a list of individuals and groups of people who are different from themselves. This list should include parents, grandparents, teachers, older and younger classmates, siblings and professionals such as policemen, waiters or sales associates. Write down each person on an index card and place all the cards in a plastic storage bag.
Select one index card from the "person" bag. Write the person on the classroom board and ask students to brainstorm various character traits, behaviors, emotions and situations specific to the character. For example, if the person selected is a server, ask them to think about what might make a server sad or afraid, what makes a server good or bad at her job, what kind of life does the server have outside of work. Write the children's ideas on the board and discuss the type of character that develops out of their suggestions.
Suggest various scenarios a server might find himself in, such as serving dinner to a movie star, getting fired or having a diner leave without paying. Ask students to imagine they are the server. Have them describe how the various scenarios would make them feel and how they would respond.
Work with the students to develop a list of emotions, such as anger, happiness, fear and jealousy. Create an additional list for various locations, such as a bank, underwater and the desert. Build a third list describing activities such as baking a cake, cleaning up a mess or planning an escape. Develop a fourth list of problems that might occur, such as an earthquake, a robbery or the revealing of a secret. Write all items of the lists on individual index cards and place them into plastic storage bags according to emotion, location, action and problem.
Place students into pairs or groups of three or more, depending on the size of the class. Have each child draw a character type and an emotion out of the bags. Select one location, action and problem card for each group.
Provide costume accessories that the students can wear to represent the character they are playing, such as hats, scarves, aprons, badges or ties. Select appropriate props for each group to assist them in performing the action they were given, such as pans, buckets or ropes.
Give the students 10 or 15 minutes to discuss their improvisational scene. Circulate among the groups to ensure the focus is staying on the development of their character and the role-playing aspect of the exercise.
Give each student group 10 minutes to perform their improvised role-playing scene. At the end of each performance, ask students to discuss how the actors expressed the character traits, behaviors and emotions of the roles they were playing. Ask students to suggest additional character traits and behaviors that might have been incorporated into each role.