Wilco - I go into a school (7 to 11 year olds)for two afternoons each week. My sessions are "drama" - but I include music and song as much as I can to set the atmosphere, get them thinking and as a springboard for the improvised scenes they devise.

As well as 'social education' such as "being a good friend", I do a *lot* of historical themes. I found an excellent sequence of sessions on the Irish Potato Famine in this book:
"Scholastic Workshop - Drama 9 to 11" by Alison Chaplin, publ. Scholastic Ltd. ISBN 0-590-53827-6
and it worked very well with a Year 6 class (10/11 year olds). It uses source material such as a poster announcing a soup kitchen and contemporary drawings. The children become the tenants being evicted, begging on the streets, finally on board ship emigrating, speaking out their fears and hopes about leaving their homeland. There is a whole mixture of having them working on their own, in pairs, groups and as a whole class.

I don't tend to use much in the way of costume - but let their imaginations work for them. I show them pictures, for instance, and they walk around (to appropriate music), imagining themselves wearing those clothes, the feel and weight of the clothes, how it makes them move, then greet each other etc. Another *very* useful thing is to use paintings/contemporary photographs of people in pairs or groups, and have them make a "freeze frame" picture exactly copying it, then tap them on the shoulder to speak out their thoughts as the characters in the picture, or have them answer questions in character from the rest of the class.

oooh, I could go on... there is so much can be done and I think it's a wonderful way, as you say, to make the past "come alive" and it helps them to understand themselves and the present day, too.

- jeanie