Teacher Tips: Getting Costumes For The School Play

Remember back in the day when the moms got together and made their kids' costumes for the school play? Back when participation was what was important, as opposed to keeping up with/doing better than... or even having the perfect Instagrammable moments?

Not everything has to be fancy or flashy, and sometimes you just have to do the best you can with what you have. Here's a brief article with some suggestions on how to get costumes for a school play when you have limited resources.

The following article was originally published December 26, 2010

How to get Costumes for a School Play

Putting on a school play can be a lot of fun, but it can also be a lot of work. Choosing a play (or writing one); casting the performers; directing the action; staging rehearsals; coming up with the sets, props and costumes; and perhaps hardest of all, drawing an audience, all require a lot of organized effort.

When it comes to getting the costumes for a school play, there are a few different options to consider. Costumes can be rented, purchased or they can be made by someone such as a staff person or a parent or even the students themselves. Deciding which option is best will depend on the size of the play.

For a simple production with little kids (i.e., K-1), it may be enough to have the kids wear masks. They could also wear leotards or long-sleeved T-shirts with sweat or dance pants in a solid color to coordinate with their mask. Or, to make things simpler, they could all wear black.

For older groups of students (grades 2-4) who can learn and recite enough for a full one- or two-act play with multiple scenes, clothing, jewelry and accessories could be purchased in appropriate sizes from a thrift store to create costumes. The advantage of purchasing thrift store clothing is that it is cheap in cost and, because it’s already “made”, the items are easier to adapt for costumes than creating wardrobe from scratch.

Thrift store clothing can easily be cut down, dyed or painted to suit the needs of the production. Students can wear ballet, character, jazz, or other suitable dance shoes to complete their costumes, and quite often parents will be willing to pay for these.

When mounting a school play with middle and high school students, art and home economics classes can be a good source of potential costumers and even set-builders. Coordinating with other teachers to have their students participate in play production will help to delegate some of the responsibility, and if the school has a music teacher, enlist his or her help as well to find music students willing to participate.

Making costumes for a school play is a great way to get students involved in other aspects of play production and allows students who do not have a speaking part to be involved. Having original costumes also adds to the play’s uniqueness, particularly if the script is not original. If students are too young to make costumes, try enlisting parents or volunteers from church groups or college service organizations.

If making costumes is not an option even with adapting clothing purchased at a thrift store, the next best option will be to rent costumes. Your local telephone directory or a quick Internet search will help you determine where the nearest costume rental company is that may have what you need. Whichever route you choose for obtaining costumes for your school play, enlisting at least one other person to help with the work load will help things go smoother.

Why and How to Encourage Children to Read

Almost nothing in life is more important than literacy. Not being able to read or having a low literacy level affects everything from driving to taking medicine, not to mention applying for and functioning on a job. A favorite quote I often share on Twitter is "Children are made readers on the laps of their parents." If you read to children when they are very young, and if they see you reading, they will develop an interest in reading and learning in general.

Originally published October 2011 via that site that no longer exists...

How to Encourage your Child to Read

Reading is an important component to success, and the best way to encourage children to read is for the adults in their lives to set an example as a readers. If children are read to from a very young age, they learn to appreciate it as entertainment long before they ever discover reading as a “work.” With the right foundation children can learn to look upon reading as the ticket to unending adventure as well as a gateway to unlimited knowledge.

All children love stories and imaginative play; if children are introduced to reading early enough, they will consider it a part of fun time – AKA play – and regularly ask (or even demand) to be read to. As they grow older, they will want to do the reading to their parents and others, and appreciate books as much as they do their most prized toys and games.

Aside from being read to on a regular (if not daily) basis, the next important factor that will encourage children to want to read is having an assortment of books at home. It is important that these books always be age appropriate with regard to both subject matter and reading level. Books with pictures but no text will encourage very early readers to use their imaginations while they interpret the pictures to make up their own stories, and chapter books will help proficient readers stay interested as they grow out of “baby books”.

Thrift stores are a great source of books to help build a young reader library as several books can usually be purchased for less than one dollar (U.S.), and often books are put on sale for half price, making them even more affordable. As soon as a child is old enough (or has facility enough) to read beginner books on their own, they should be taken to the public library. One of the best things that can happen in a child’s life is getting their own library card.

As children get older and become more independent, they also discover other interests. Having both fiction and non-fiction books at their disposal that help them learn more about those interests and other people’s experiences with them is another way to encourage them to continue to read.

Not all reading material has to be in the form of books, however. One of the best ways to encourage a child to read is to write letters to them. Even early readers can comprehend short notes and begin to write back. Jokes, funny sayings, instructions on where to find special treats, can help to start a tradition with children that will continue well into adulthood.

The most important factor in encouraging a child to read is “not dropping the ball.” It is not enough to get a child started with reading and provide them with books; the ongoing interest must be encouraged and kept alive by activities and discussion. It is extremely important for the adults in a child’s life to set aside both quiet time reading as well as time for reflection where the child can talk about what was read and share any thoughts or feelings he or she might have.

First at home, and later at school, children develop an appreciation for reading when it is practiced regularly in their environment. It is an easy thing to encourage a child to read when they have learned to value it early on.

Education Topics: Subjects To Enhance Students' Lives

For a brief period, I had a blog titled Engaging Kids, Enriching Lives. I was teaching enrichment classes at a charter school at the time and contributing education articles to Helium. I started the blog to address some of the issues I saw in and out of the classroom and with the education system in general.

After a while I decided to delete the blog. Too many blogs, too little time; also, I had the platform for publishing at Helium (little did I know how soon that would end...), and I was no longer in the classroom. Some of the same topics are still relevant for me, though I don't get to spend as much time on those subjects anymore.

Engagement is still important, and I hope I am still enriching young lives in my role as a docent at the Ogden Museum, where I've been leading tours for school children since 2007. The arts are a great way to engage children and get them interested and involved in learning. The article below addresses some of the ways in which to do so.

Originally published on Helium.com as "What subjects should be taught to children as enhancements to their lives," in April 2009.

Enhancing Children through Education

Holding the attention of today's children long and well enough to keep them not only interested in a particular subject but excited about learning is a tremendous challenge. Traditional education is basically a low-tech endeavor that hardly competes with the modern multi-media excitement of Wii, X-boxes, Playstations and the like.

It is indisputable that every child needs to learn to read and write and to be able to perform basic arithmetic in order to effectively communicate with others and to function in the adult world, as well as be able to hold a job when they grow up. This is only part of the picture however; it is also important for schools to incorporate enrichment and character education.

A Kinder Classroom

When teachers spend the majority of their time managing behavior there is very little learning taking place. Students have to be able to sit for extended periods, pay attention and be good neighbors to their classmates. They need to learn the concepts of teamwork and sportsmanship and to develop speaking and social skills and they need these concepts continually reinforced beyond the limits of what little of these is provided through their scant physical education classes.

Children need to be taught about responsibility and respect and forgiveness. While many may feel this is the job of parents, the reality of the situation is that today's kids spend the major part of their waking hours at school under the influence of teachers, administrators and most of all, their peers. The use of non-competitive games and cooperatives such as the ones found in Bernie Badegruber's "101 Life Skills Games for Children" can be incorporated into classroom routines to help to encourage emotional maturity and further develop skills of observation and concentration, while reducing aggression and encouraging social awareness.

Looking at Education Another Way

While subjects like Social Studies provide a broad concept of history and social systems they do little toward teaching children to honor diversity and appreciate the differences between themselves and other members of their community. Schools that provide Spanish or French language instruction at the elementary level also include culturally relevant lesson plans that address aspects of the cultures that those languages come from but these programs usually reflect the cultural makeup of the cities in which they are used and are not necessarily wide spread.

Schools, teachers and even parents are aware of the deficits within their educational programs but are not always in a position to address them. Fortunately, there are a number of resources on the web to assist teachers in supplementing their out of date textbooks with creative approaches to augment the classroom experience. One of those resources is Edutopia.

The George Lucas Foundation established Edutopia (www.edutopia.org) to address the challenges of learning and educating in today's world of continual technological advances, where in many instances, students who are barely literate have to hurry and catch up with the digital age in order to be able to be competitive when they enter the workplace. They have provided a forum for educators to share and distribute information with each other via an assortment of media. The core concepts of Edutopia are Project Learning, Social and Emotional Learning, Technology Integration, Teacher Development, Comprehensive Assessment and Integrated Studies. Teachers all across the United States are posting information and learning how to use hands on projects and other methods to enhance their classroom lessons.

In order for students to be well rounded and develop into creative, critical thinkers they need to be exposed to a variety of interesting and stimulating activities that cause them to ask "what are we doing next?" Project based and experiential learning lesson plans provide the approach while specific programs to provide enrichment classes to students provide the means.

The Arts

Just as Liberal Arts contribute to the well-rounded adult student, supplementing the basic subjects in elementary education with electives and extended day enrichment classes offers a vital opportunity to shape young minds early on and foster interest in learning and scholarly habits. These classes allow for the introduction of important concepts that the traditional lesson plans don't leave room for.

It is extremely important for students to participate in and develop an appreciation for what the arts disciplines have to offer. Even if they never become dancers, painters or musicians there is much they can learn that will later come in handy in the adult world that will be applicable to social settings as well as the work world. Developing this appreciation also helps insure the future of the arts for other generations.

The documentary film "Mad Hot Ballroom" is a great example of how partnered social dance has been used in schools to improve self-esteem, manners, communication and consideration for others resulting in fewer discipline problems. Children love music and they absolutely love to dance and once they get past the issue of having to touch a boy/girl and potentially looking silly they completely embrace Salsa, Merengue, Tango and Swing. The also enjoy teaching it to other students, and performing and showing what they have learned to their parents.

Extended day enrichment classes not only provide a better alternative to aftercare and late pickup the use of nontraditional approaches like Hip Hop classes that foster the appreciation for poetry and ethnic dance classes for African and Brazlian forms add an additional cultural element while allowing students to get up an move, which is a plus after they have spent the better part of their day confined to a desk. Classes like yoga promote calmness and good posture while encouraging students toward healthy lifestyles. Schools with garden programs have found that children love to watch things grow as well as prepare their own foods and have connected this interest to science and math curriculums.

Education is a challenging enterprise that can also be deeply gratifying. No matter what changes take place in the world around us some things are constant: children learn best when they are fully engaged in what is happening.