Fairy tales and nursery rhymes come to life Thursday afternoons in a basement room at Murphy Hall. Children transform into cats playing fiddles and cows jumping over moons, and KU students become dishes running away with spoons as they act out children’s books.

The classroom exercise is called story drama, and it’s part of a “Children and Drama” class directed by Jeanne Klein, associate professor of theatre and film.

Eighteen KU students are taking the spring semester course, which helps them learn how to teach drama to local children in first through sixth grade. The first through third graders work with children’s books, while fourth through sixth graders create their own stories, which often dealing with more serious topics.

But the students find themselves learning from the children as well.

“They are the most imaginative people you could meet,” said Melissa Arnold, Mundelein, Ill., junior and education major. “Learning from their ideas and having them direct us is really fun.”

On Tuesdays, the students meet for discussion and on Thursdays they are joined by the children.

“It almost feels like the kids become your peers on the Thursday classes,” said Rachael Beaumont, Lawrence senior and theater major.

Beaumont has a unique perspective on the class because she’s been on both sides. As a child, she participated every semester from first to sixth grade.

Beaumont and the other KU students spend the first half of the semester working on improvisational skills with children in first through third grades by reenacting children’s books.

Klein has been teaching the class for 20 years and this semester is using the book “And the Dish Ran Away with the Spoon” by Janet Stevens. It’s the story of a nursery rhyme gone wrong — the dish and the spoon actually do run away, and all the nursery rhyme characters have to find them.

“Everybody works together to make the whole thing run smoothly,” eight-year-old Lyla Beckingham, one of the seven children in the younger class, said.

Brandon Williams, Leavenworth senior, said the children’s imaginations showed when they re-enacted the stories.

Lyla played the cat with the fiddle during the classroom exercise and said her favorite part was watching everyone become their characters. Her sister, Emmalyn Beckingham, agreed.

“I like all of it,” seven-year-old Emmalyn said. “I like cracking jokes.”

As part of her role, Emmalyn was a little dog who told knock-knock jokes about the big, bad wolf, played by Sally Pirie, Olathe senior.

Nine-year-old Toshita Barve, who played another dog, enjoyed tricking the big, bad wolf when she tried to “eat” Emmalyn and Toshita. Lyla played a lullaby on her imaginary fiddle to put the wolf to sleep.

Later in the semester, the students will develop their own story drama with the younger children and will reenact other books.

“I’m hoping I can learn how to incorporate some of these activities into my own teaching,” Whitney Gilliland, Leawood senior and elementary education major, said.

But it’s not all fairy tales and children’s books. In March, the KU students will begin working with as many as 15 children in fourth through sixth grades and focus on creating a story rather than re-enacting a book.

With the older children, Klein has previously covered story topics including women’s rights, time travel and child labor. She said she did not “dumb it down” for the children, but helped them learn about the topics by improvising stories.

When Klein covered child labor, she played a mean boss who pretended to make her child employees work long hours in a factory.

By re-enacting such scenarios, Klein said concepts became more understandable for children, who had experienced the situation through their imaginations.

“My method of learning best is by having the children lead me in the drama,” Klein said. “I set up the premise, but it’s up to the kids to decide where the story is going to go and what happens next.”

Tina Halady, Lyla and Emmalyn’s mother, said her family moved to Lawrence from Australia, and she wanted to give her homeschooled girls the chance to be involved with drama and the community. She said she liked how the classes were similar to a one-room schoolhouse with students of all ages.

“It’s an extension of creative play,” Haladay said. “It’s fun for them to see the big kids play too.”

Beaumont said she hoped the children would learn to cultivate creativity and appreciate theater the way she did when she was in the classes.

“It was these classes and working with the students and being able to get out there and express my creativity that helped me focus,” Beaumont said. “Later on in life, I realized how much I depended on theater as part of my life.”

Klein said the class meant just as much to the college students as it did for the kids. She said it helped the students remember who they were and who they still are.

“You’re incredibly imaginative. You’re incredibly creative,” Klein said. “You just don’t use those juices everyday. But it’s still there. You just have to let it out.”

— — Edited by Susan Melgren