Discuss the use of masks with the students and talk about how a person can change character the moment they put on the mask and change back as soon as they take the mask off. Talk about how wearing a mask helps them to be someone or something else and explain that when they are wearing the mask, they will be called by the mask's name or known as "their name's creature" (for example, "Mere's creature").
The students each find their own space and take the time to look closely at their mask, imagining what the monster's body looks like, what it is wearing, and how it may stand and move.
The students put their masks on, stand up in their space, and move as they wish for a few moments. Encourage them to make big shapes and to use slow movements as well as flamboyant ones.
Each student with a mask on lies on the floor within the working space. Cover each student with a sheet of newspaper, leaving a light-hole for young or nervous students. When everyone is covered, start from silence. Explain to the masked students that they are new monsters who have come to life inside their shells. Ask them to explore their shells and then to break out and discover their world. (Explain that they can't see anyone else in the room except you. If they see another body, they are to look through it pretend that it's not there.)
Discovery of their monster world may involve the students moving through an imagined land. For example, it may have upside-down trees, white caves, and pink and green polka-dotted rocks. The monsters can use their senses to discover imagined objects, food, or homes. Encourage slowness and clarity of movement.
After the monsters have moved around, through, under, and over the features of their land, encourage them to freeze into a "statue" and make a sound to express how they feel about their new world.
When they have explored their world, suggest that the monsters come across some other monsterlike creatures. Without touching, they interact. Conversing in creature language, they decide whether they are friends or foes. Like-minded monsters can then together:
- search for food;
- scare another group;
- build a shelter;
- go on a journey through dangerous swamplands to find treasure.
As a debriefing activity, the students could draw a picture of the monster they made and write captions that explain how they felt when they were a monster in a "new" world.

Variations and extensions to this activity could include the following:

Partner A could put their mask on to partner B and "sculpture" a new monster body into the right position, for example, a three-legged animal. Partner A then tells the monster how they are to behave when they "come to life", for example, to move stiffly and to speak slowly in a deep, fierce voice. When partner A is satisfied with their "sculpture", they can "flip the switch" and make their monster come to life. Partner B then has their turn to create a monster with Partner A.
After the students have become familiar with their monster names and the sounds of other monsters in their class, all the monsters can hide. The teacher covers one monster and calls the others back to find out which monster is missing. They do this by asking it questions, such as: "What sound do you make?" and "How do you move?"
All the monsters in the class are in hibernation, curled up in balls, with their eyes tightly closed. Four monsters, selected by the teacher, uncurl and set out in search of their own special friend. The four monsters move appropriately, and each selects a friend by tapping another hibernating monster on the shoulder. In their monster voice, they each invite the hibernating monster to be their friend and then move quickly back to their safe place before their friend awakes.
Once the teacher signals that each monster is back in their safe place, the friend awakens from hibernation with appropriate monster sounds and movements and has one chance to guess who selected them as their special friend. If they guess incorrectly, they return to hibernation, and the monster chooses another friend. If they guess correctly, they swap places with their monster friend, and the process begins again.

Teachers' notes

Resources required for this activity could include:

a sheet of newspaper for each student;
music to encourage movement, for example, the 1962 song Monster Mash, popularised by Bobby Pickett and The Crypt Kickers;
books, such as Where the Wild Things Are by Maurice Sendak and The Lorax and other books by Dr Seuss.

Care should be taken with this activity because some students may find monster masks frightening or threatening. You may wish to use a range of masks that includes positive, kind, and friendly characters.

Hand-held masks on a stick may be more appropriate for less confident students. When the mask is held in front of the face, the child is a monster, but otherwise they can be themselves.

Before the monsters discover their new world, read the students some stories (such as the Dr Seuss books) that have strange fantasy environments. Discuss with the students how they might react to these new environments. This will encourage the students to get to know their new world in a considered way.

Before the students take off their masks at the end of the session, ask them to find a comfortable, quiet place and a restful position for their monster to sleep.