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Learning Standards Standards

What does a student learn in ?

This is the year pretend play starts to look like real theatre. Students invent characters and small stories, then practice them with their voices and bodies so an audience can follow along. They also watch classmates perform and talk about what the story meant and what felt believable. By spring, they can plan a short scene, act it out for the class, and say what worked.

  • Make-believe
  • Character and story
  • Acting it out
  • Performing for an audience
  • Watching and responding
Source: New Jersey New Jersey Student Learning Standards
Year at a glance
How the year usually goes. Every school and district set their own curriculum, so treat this as a guide, not official pacing.
  1. 1

    Imagining characters and stories

    Students start the year by inventing characters and pretend situations from their own lives. They try out voices, faces, and movements to bring an idea to life.

  2. 2

    Building a short scene

    Students take their ideas and shape them into short scenes with a beginning, middle, and end. They practice working with classmates to agree on who plays which part.

  3. 3

    Rehearsing and improving the work

    Students rehearse their scenes and make changes to make them clearer or funnier. They try a moment one way, then another, and pick what works best.

  4. 4

    Performing for an audience

    Students share scenes with classmates or families. They focus on speaking so people can hear them and showing feelings through their face and body.

  5. 5

    Watching and talking about plays

    Students watch performances and talk about what the story meant, what they liked, and how it connects to their own lives or to stories from other places and times.

Mastery Learning Standards
The required skills a student should display by the end of Grade 2.
Connecting

  • Synthesize and relate knowledge and personal experiences to make art

    TH:Cn10.2

    Students connect something from their own life to a character or story in a play. That personal link shapes the choices they make when acting or creating theatre.

  • Relate artistic ideas and works with societal, cultural

    TH:Cn11.2

    Students connect a play or performance to the time and place it comes from. Learning where a story was created helps them understand why the characters act the way they do.

Creating

  • Generate and conceptualize artistic ideas and work

    TH:Cr1.2

    Students come up with ideas for characters and stories they want to act out, then figure out how to bring those ideas to life in a scene.

  • Organize and develop artistic ideas and work

    TH:Cr2.2

    Students take a story idea and shape it into a short scene by deciding who the characters are, what they want, and what happens between them.

  • Refine and complete artistic work

    TH:Cr3.2

    Students revisit a short scene or character choice, make at least one change to improve it, and practice until the piece feels finished and ready to share.

Performing/Presenting/Producing

  • Analyze, interpret, and select artistic work for presentation

    TH:Pr4.2

    Students choose a character or scene to perform and explain why it fits the story. They make decisions about how to act it out before stepping in front of an audience.

  • Develop and refine artistic techniques and work for presentation

    TH:Pr5.2

    Students practice a scene or short play more than once, then improve it based on what they notice. The goal is a performance that looks and sounds ready for an audience.

  • Convey meaning through the presentation of artistic work

    TH:Pr6.2

    Students perform a short scene or character and make choices about voice, movement, and expression to show the audience what the story means.

Responding

  • Perceive and analyze artistic work

    TH:Re7.2

    Students watch a short scene or performance and describe what they notice, such as how a character moves, speaks, or reacts. They start to explain why those choices matter to the story.

  • Interpret intent and meaning in artistic work

    TH:Re8.2

    Students explain what a character in a play might be feeling and why, using what they saw or heard in the performance to back up their thinking.

  • Apply criteria to evaluate artistic work

    TH:Re9.2

    Students look at a scene or performance and decide what worked well and what could be better, using simple rules like "Did the actor speak clearly?" or "Did the story make sense?"

Common Questions
  • What does theatre look like for second graders this year?

    Students make up stories, act out characters, and put on short scenes for classmates. They use their bodies, voices, and simple props to show what a character is thinking or feeling. Most of the work happens through play, not memorised lines from a script.

  • How can I support theatre at home if I am not an actor myself?

    Read a picture book together and ask students to act out one character's voice or walk. Play pretend games where students invent a setting, like a busy market or a quiet forest, and stay in that world for a few minutes. Five to ten minutes of make-believe a few times a week is plenty.

  • Does my child need to memorise lines or perform on a stage?

    No. At this age, students mostly improvise and retell familiar stories rather than memorise scripts. Any performance is short, low-pressure, and often shared with just the class.

  • How should I sequence theatre work across the year?

    Start with movement and voice warm-ups, then move into short improvised scenes built from familiar stories. By winter, students can plan a scene with a beginning, middle, and end. Save the spring for refining a short piece and sharing it with an audience.

  • What does mastery look like by the end of the year?

    Students can invent a character, stay in that character through a short scene, and explain a simple choice they made. They can also watch a classmate's scene and say what it made them think or feel using kind, specific words.

  • My child is shy about performing. Is that a problem?

    Not at all. Many students start the year quiet and warm up through small group work and partner scenes. Practising silly voices or acting out a bedtime story at home helps build comfort without any pressure to perform for strangers.

  • How do I help students give useful feedback on each other's scenes?

    Give them two simple prompts: name one thing the actor did that was clear, and name one thing you wondered about. Keep feedback focused on choices, like voice or movement, rather than on the person. Modelling this a few times sets the tone for the year.

  • How does theatre connect to what students are learning in other subjects?

    Acting out stories deepens reading comprehension because students have to decide what a character wants and why. Scenes about community helpers, historical figures, or different cultures also tie naturally into social studies units.