Dance/Movement/Drama
What’s in a Name? Tableau and Writing
Tableau is the French word for a still
picture representing an idea physically created by actors. It is
an acting snapshot. Groups of students can act out the names of
traditional quilt square blocks
Examples: Grandmother’s Flower Garden: some students can be
flowers growing in the garden while another student can be
Grandmother watering or picking the flowers. Log Cabin:
students can pretend to build a log cabin. Flying Geese:
students can get in a V formation and fly around honking.
Spider Web: one student can build a web and catch the other
student bugs that fly into the web. Hen and chicks: One
can be the hen calling the rest of the chicks to her side. After
a few seconds of acting the students “freeze” in the tableau. The
rest of the students can guess from the list of names which quilt
the actors were portraying. Ask students to write about the names
of the quilt designs and about how they got their own names.
A list of quilt names to get you started:
