ELEMENTS:
This is an exercise for creating and producing emotion. The Students are asked to give the elements Earth, Air, Water and Fire human-like qualities in discussion. Examples are talkative for Air as well as flighty and bouncy, meandering, wishy-washy and pouting for Water; angry, hot tempered and quick for Fire, and pensive, slow and methodical for Earth. The students should be encouraged to come up with some of their own examples of descriptive words for these elements.
After the discussion, the instructor should split the class as evenly as possible into four groups, labeling them after the four elements. After they have been labeled, tell them to move throughout the space and interact with each other as if they were of the element they were labeled. After a period of time that allows for some interaction, have the groups switch the elements they represent. This is repeated until all students have tried all four elements. The fifth switch will be to have the students take on their favorite element and portray it for another period of time, interacting with the other students as before.
It should be noted that once the students have been split into groups the first time, they should be interacting as a class, and not limited to only people in their specific group. It is a mental splitting, not a physical one.
Our very own Chuck "Shirt's on fire! Now it's out." Charbeneau wrote this game description!