Thursdays are a busy day of Drama for me, I run a lovely lunch class at St James R.C. Primary school in Petts Wood, then have a few hours to kill before I visit our Drama classes in Biggin Hill and or Sevenoaks. So a few weeks ago I decided to park near Queensway, Petts Wood and treat myself to a sneaky cappuccino and sandwich at Café Dolce Vita before making my way down to Biggin Hill library.
Not only does this café serve a lovely selection of gourmet cakes and coffee (I was strong on this occasion and resisted a cake) but has devoted the top corner of its premises to a kids play area so local parents and carers can have a well-earned cuppa while their children play.
After chatting to the café's owner, Marco, I found that they also run activities for pre-schoolers and we agreed to start our Kindy drama classes there, which would complement the singing, dance and art activities already on offer.
A typical Kindy lesson includes children singing a familiar ‘Hello Song’; activities to encourage children to speak with each other and their teacher; speech exercises, to develop strong projected voices with clear articulation and expression and a movement segment so little ones can discover other ways of communicating.
The main part of each lesson develops these skills further, making them into a story with music, a short ‘play’ or a series of high impact activities children can identify with. As listening skills are also important, each lesson has listening time.
The culmination of the lesson, just before the ‘Goodbye Song’ is the Special Surprise Bag which could contain anything from a hot water bottle to a carton of popcorn!
I am delighted to now provide pre-school classes in our area. Having seen young children develop so much in our primary classes, the opportunity to introduce them to our programme from the age of two and a half is indeed exciting. We already improve basic speech, language and communication skills through our unique and affordable programme and now we can extend this to pre-school children.
Our Kindy class will launch at Café Dolce Vita on Tuesday, 7th April at 10:30am – 11am for 2½ to 5 year olds and will cost just £3.50 a session. After that classes will be held weekly on Monday mornings 10:30 – 11am. The summer term will run from Monday, 20th April – Monday, 13th July 2015. This excludes the bank holidays so that there will be 11 sessions in total. Our summer term themes are: NUMBERS, NURSERY RHYMES & FAIRY TALES, NIGHT & DAY and SPORTS and I'm really looking forward to having lots of fun with the children and parents that take part.
If you're interested in joining up your child, please call my office on 01689 812336 or email bromley@helenogrady.co.uk. Booking is advised as spaces are limited. I look forward to seeing you there!
Helen
Helen Walls, Principal.
Helen O'Grady Drama Academy Bromley, Gravesend and Sevenoaks
www.dramaBWK.co.uk
www.helenogrady.co.uk
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