The art-expressive workshop in elementary school between experiential and emotional learning. A case study

With their playful and artistically-expressive forms, laboratory activities in elementary school always have a high transformative potential. Opportunities for experiential and situated learning (Wenger, 2006) that are also useful for facilitating symbolization processes and experiencing relationships. Although "simplified," these dynamics are readily apparent in real-world situations (Wulf, 2014). From these premises, the paper focuses on the workshop activities of expressive reading and dramatisation of a theatrical-musical text conducted in a primary school in the Province of PesaroUrbino, Italy, during the second quarter of the 2021 school year. The main purpose is to show how such activities – particularly during pandemics, whose impact was initially "cognitive, and then transferred to the affective and social dimensions [and], therefore, to the entire personality structure of the individuals involved" (Corsi, 2020, p. 30) – served as educational and didactic tools for emulation, fostering vicarious learning (Bandura, 1977), allowing the emergence of emotional experiences and recovering the emancipatory value that characterises all performing arts, particularly theatre and music.