Green that Skit

Children and adults enjoy performing skits in class. Break away from the ordinary by encouraging your students to revise traditional fairytales, myths, and moral tales by adding a touch of green. You can go about this in two different ways, depending on the level and age of your students.

1. (For younger or lower level students) Divide the class and bring in enough skits or one act plays for your students to perform. (Visit your local library to find skits.) Instruct students to adapt their scripts (and characters) by adding environmental issues, concerns, products and vocabulary.

2. (For more advanced students.) Break students into groups and ask each group to choose their own classic fairytale or story to act out. As well as writing the original script, the students will change the theme to an environmental issue.

Adaptation ideas
There is no right or wrong way to adapt a play! Encourage your students to let their imaginations go green. Perhaps they can think of a way to change the title to “Little Green Riding Hood”. Maybe one of the little pigs used recycled materials to build his house? Or, what if the Lion is cowardly because he is worried about going extinct? Could it be that the reason the tortoise took so long to complete the race was that he stopped to clean garbage from a park? If your students ask for help, here are a few ideas for adaptations:

• Change the title of the play or skit
• Add characters
• Change character traits
• Change setting
• Change the moral of the tale
• Write a new ending
• Add “environmental” vocabulary

Here is some vocabulary you can offer to inspire your students:

pollution
global warming
green house gases
pesticides
recycle
dump
throw away
reuse
reduce
green wash
waste
compost
conserve
energy
landfill
environmentally friendly
good for the earth
ecofriendly

Verbs to use when talking about the Environment

Examples of classic tales that make fun skits:
The three little Pigs
Red Riding Hood
Goldilocks and the three little Bears
The Wizard of Oz
The Tortoise and the Rabbit
The Night Before Christmas
The Emperor’s New Clothes
Hansel and Gretal

Don’t limit your students to skits that are traditional in your own culture. Invite them to adapt skits and traditional folklore from their own backgrounds as well. Wikipedia offers a list of Fairytales by region.

Image: ViNull