The following activity was prepared by our Education department as part of their curriculum for The Wizard of Oz. You can easily substitute the provided words lists with words the reflect your desired lesson, or the context of the activity.
Oz Words
The objective of this activity is to physically activate words from The Wizard of Oz while exploring nouns and adjectives, verbs and adverbs. Oz Words can be done in a large group, small groups or pairs.
- Display the word list below (or one of your choosing) for all players. Have one person in each group choose a noun to depict with his/her body (without words). The other players will try to guess which noun the person is portraying. (You can also ask players to experiment with choosing adjectives that do and don't make sense with the noun).
- Once they have correctly guessed the noun, have another participant choose an adjective to modify the noun and portray that adjective with their body. The other players should try to guess what the adjective is. You could also choose to add a layer by allowing participants to choose more than one adjective to portray at a time.
Oz Word List
Nouns: Slippers, Monkeys, Poppies, Broom, Wizard, Road, Lion, Cowardly, Woodsman, Forest, Dog, Witch
Adjectives: Ruby, Flying, Poisonous, Enchanted, Wonderful, Yellow Brick, Cowardly, Tin, Wild, Little, Wicked
- For a variation, or to take the activity to another level, try using verbs and adverbs. Have players choose a verb and act it out, then have them layer on one or more adverbs.
- Take some time to discuss the differences between similar adverbs (e.g., creepily and spookily, or bravely and fiercely).
Oz Word List
Verbs: Flying, Skipping, Picking, Stealing, Running away, Chopping, Pouncing, Floating, Hiding, Waiting, Celebrating, Dancing, Grabbing, Chopping, Chasing, Clunking
Adverbs: Bravely, Neatly, Fiercely, Softly, Cowardly, Stiffly, Innocently, Creepily, Menacingly, Spookily, Gracefully, Loosely, Neatly, Quickly, Cleanly, Wildly
As always, we'd love to hear your comments if you try this activity with your group.
