The Invisible Clothes Parade

Using Andersen's The Emperor's New Clothes, children dress up in imaginary clothes and parade, showing how you move in each item. It builds body expression, imagination and coordination of small and large movements.

How to play

1. The teacher tells how tricksters fooled an emperor with clothes no one could see. Today we're all tailors and we'll make ourselves invisible outfits (2 min).
2. Without music, we get dressed in pretend clothes: very long trousers, a shirt with lots of buttons, boots that are hard to pull on, a heavy cape, a giant hat (3 min).
3. With music, we parade down the runway (a lane in the middle) like proud emperors: slow steps with the cape, bouncy steps with the hat, heavy steps with the boots (4 min).
4. A child calls out “But he's in his pajamas!” (or whatever they think of) and we all change outfits: now pajamas, a swimsuit, a coat and scarf… (3 min).
5. Take off the invisible outfit piece by piece, fold it and put it away in a pretend wardrobe (2 min).

Rules

• The outfit is invisible: we show it with our body, without touching anyone.
• On the runway we go one or two at a time, no running.
• Every outfit is great: no one laughs at someone else's.

Variations

Adaptations

• Limited mobility: the child dresses using their arms and parades in the wheelchair with the cape flying.
• Visual impairment: the teacher describes each item in detail and the child touches a real one before acting it out.
• Autism: keep real clothes on hand to go from real to pretend.

Learning goals

• Act out everyday actions through mime.
• Change the way of walking to fit the character.
• Express themselves confidently in front of classmates.

Equipment for a class of 25

• Music

Teacher tip

Getting dressed is the richest part, so go slowly and exaggerate each move (buttoning, pulling, tugging on boots). Children who don't want to walk the runway can be the clapping audience.

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