“bang”.
I saw my practicum students play it and they love it so I wanted to share it
with my cohort. The game starts with the class making a big circle. A
teacher, in this case me, will call out a student’s name. When I call the
student’s name, the two students standing beside him on either side will
make a gun with their hand and shoot each other by shouting “bang”. The
student who shouts out “bang” first has shot the other student. The
student who gets shot is out and has to watch the game. When there are
two students left, they will go to the center of the circle. They will have
backs against each other. When a teacher says go, they will take three
steps before turning to each other and scream “bang” until either loses
their breath and can’t say anymore.
Human Knot
This is an activity intended to work on team building, and to improve problem solving
skills, and communication.
Steps:
1) If it is a large group, split it into smaller groups. Ideally there should be 10-12
people per group.
2) Tell groups to stand in a circle, standing shoulder to shoulder.
3) Tell the students to put their right hands in the air, then grab the hand of someone
across the circle from them.
4) Tell the students to put their left hand in the air, then grab the hand of a different
person.
5) Tell the students to check that everyone is holding the hands of two different people,
and that they are not holding hands with someone directly next to them.
6) Tell group members to untangle themselves to make a circle without breaking the
chain of hands.
7) If the chain gets broken, the group needs to start over again.
Note:
To make the game more challenging:
1) A time limit can be placed on the activity.
2) Students can be blindfolded, or made ‘mute’ during the activity.
3) Instead of making groups start over when the chain is broken you can create
penalties like blinding or muting a group member.
This version of the instructions for the game have been adapted from Holden
Leadership Center
(http://leadership.uoregon.edu/resources/exercises_tips/team_builders/human_knot).
Graveyard
In this game, one student volunteers to be a gravedigger. The other students are corpses.
The corpses lie motionless on their backs on the ground, with their hands across their
chests. The corpses are told to stare at the ceiling and maintain neutral expressions. The
job of the gravedigger is to try and make the individual corpses smile by coming into
their fields of vision and making silly faces or gestures. There is no physical contact or
talking allowed. If a corpse smiles, he or she stands up and becomes another
gravedigger. The game continues until all of the corpses have become gravediggers.
Alphabet Story
This is an improvisation game in which everyone sits around in a circle and makes up a story. The
first student makes a sentence where the first letter in the word is “A”. And the next student in the
sentence makes a sentence that starts with a “B” word and so on. For example:
Student #1: A tomato fell from the sky this morning.
Student #2: Before that some noodles fell from the sky.
Student #3: Can we make spaghetti with it?
Warm-up Activity: Cross the Circle
Idea: Cross the circle, acting out different prompts given by the teacher.
Duration: 3-5 minutes
Skills Used: Improvisation & Imagination
How to Play:
1. In a circle, give each student a number from 1-3.
2. Give quick instructions: When I call out your number, i.e. #1, all the no.1s
have to cross the circle like an explorer, and find a new chair on the other side
of the circle.
3. Every time you call out a number (different group of students), change the
prompt. I.e. All no. 3’s cross the circle like a: giant, a ballerina, a snake, a super
model, a mouse, a turtle, a robot, an exotic bird, a gorilla, a fish, a kangaroo, in
slow-motion, in a canoe, flying a kite, painting a picture, with a partner, etc.
Warm-up Activity: Random Sound Story
Idea: Create a story, using random sounds created by each group member.
Duration: 5 minutes
Skills Used: Voice, Improvisation, Imagination, Group Work
How to Play:
1. Split students into groups of 5 or 6. Can work for smaller/larger groups as well.
2. Each group member has to create a random sound. No one can have the same
sound.
3. Next, each group must decide and practice how to arrange their selection of
random sounds - with each member making their one vocalised sound.
4. Each group performs its sound sequence in turn to the whole class.
5. Now, have each group make up a brief, strange story, in which these sounds
occur, to share with the class. The stranger the story, the better!
This exercise could be adapted to focus on as many ideas as possible i.e., animal sounds,
bird calls, laughing sounds, monster voices, gibberish sounds, machine sounds, automobile
sounds, telephone ring tones, etc.
Greetings Your Majesty.
Difficulty: easy
Age Range: All Ages (primary ideal)
It is a nice and simple game which can build on the skill of voice.
Steps are as follows,
1.
Students line up.
2.
Place a chair facing away from the students.
3.
One student is chosen to sit in the chair. He/She must then shut their eyes.
4.
Students are then picked from the line to sneak up behind the student in the chair, and in a weird
or different voice, they say: Greetings Your Majesty.
5.
This student then returns to their seat in the line.
6.
The student in the chair must guess which student it was.
7.
If the student in the chair gets it right they stay in the chair, and this will continue until they get
five right in a row.
8.
If they get it wrong, however, the student who tricked them becomes the one in the chair.
9.
End the game with an applause.
Resource
http://www.stagemilk.com/acting-games/ ;
Four corners
What it is: Four corners is a classroom game (posted in honor of all my readers who are
teachers!) that I remember playing in grade school as a reward for good behavior or at
parties. It’s simple, there’s not really any skill involved, and it’s fun. The best type of
classroom game there is.
Best for: A classroom full of students! I would say you need about 10 people at a
minimum, to however many can fit comfortably in your room.
What you need: Just players and a room with four corners! Ooh, actually, if you were
in a hexagon-shaped room, you could play six corners…but that’s beyond the point.
How to play: First assign each corner of your room a number one through four, like
this:
The numbers will stay the same and everyone will need to remember them.
Then select one player to be It, like Melanie. Melanie stands in the middle of the room,
closes her eyes, and counts to ten (or another specified number). While she’s counting,
all of the other players silently move to a corner of the room. Each player can pick
whichever corner they want.
When Melanie is done counting, she keeps her eyes closed and then tries to guess which
corner has the most people, based on the sounds she might have heard when she was
counting. Say she heard a lot of rustling and banging over by the door in corner number
4. She would say out loud, “Four!” Then all of the players in corner 4 would be out and
would go sit down at their desks. Then Melanie begins another round, counting to ten
again while players move to whichever corner they want. Then Melanie picks a corner,
the players in that corner are out, and a new round starts. Play continues until one player
is left – the new It.
Strategies: You obviously want to be quiet when picking a corner. You don’t want
Melanie to know that your corner is occupied! But, if you have time and if you move
fast, maybe you could throw her off – make a noise over by corner 3 before hurrying
silently back to corner 2. (The corner 3 people wouldn’t like it much, though.) When
I’ve played, we’ve mostly tried to move as silently as possible and avoided too much
“strategy.” There’s just something about this simple game that’s fun enough on its own:
the countdown, hurrying to pick a corner, moving silently with everyone else, making
eye contact and trying not to giggle, the suspense, the last-minute mind changes where
you dart across the room. Ah, good times in Mrs. Pritchard’s third grade class.
Does anyone have any variations or alternate rules to share?
Status Music Freeze (An Improv Game)
Lesson length: 5-7 minutes
Goal: This warm up will introduce the student teachers to the status concept in improv,
and to the music freeze game that they can use with their practicum classes.
1. Describe status, and how noticing and using status-initiated body language can
affect mood and performance ability. Example with volunteers: CEO vs. janitor
mopping floor (waiting for elevator).
2. Show three pairs of high status/low status moves:
- confident/shy
- I won/I lost
- power point/look away
3. Describe music game (freeze in a called out pose when music stops, no-one is out)
Add developments:
4. Try various kinds of movement between poses (shy tiptoe, angry stomp, etc)
5. Have people pair up and choose various high/low status poses on freeze
6. Have one person designated high, all else low
Closure: Ask how it felt to be the high status person, or low. How might this affect the
next student teacher meeting they go to? How could it help shy kids? Reading and
using body language can be a very beneficial skill.
Accommodation: People with sore legs can do this sitting across from each other.
Materials: ipod, speaker system, notes, music
Assessment: Ask for feedback as to whether the lesson was enjoyable and useful.
Warm up Game: Zombie
1. All students walk around the room with their eyes closed and their arms crossed in front of their
chest.
2. The teacher then taps a student on the shoulder to indicate that they have become the zombie.
They
will
need
to
make
a
zombie
noise
that
warns
the
others
students.
3. The zombie then stretches their hands out in front of them in search of humans…
4. If the zombie squeezes a student on the shoulder they become a zombie also.
5. If two zombies squeeze each other on the shoulder they turn back into humans. They must give a
big
sigh
to
indicate
that
this
has
happened.
6. In large classes it is a good idea to split the students into two groups and use the second group as
a
barrier
so
the
humans
and
zombies
can’t
escape.
https://dramateachersnetwork.wordpress.com/2013/09/08/warm-up-of-the-week-zombies/
Mr. and Mrs. Right
Description
Have everyone stand. Read the story. When you say "right" everyone takes a step to the right. When you say
"left"
This
everyone
is
a
takes
a
story
step
about
to
Mr.
the
and
Mrs
left.
WRIGHT.
One evening they were baking cookies. Mrs. WRIGHT called from the kitchen, "Oh, no, there is no flour LEFT!
You
will
need
to
go
RIGHT
out
to
the
store."
"I can't believe you forgot to check the pantry," grumbled MR. WRIGHT. "You never get anything RIGHT!"
"Don't be difficult, dear," replied Mrs. WRIGHT. "It will only take twenty minutes if you come RIGHT back. Go to
Fifty-first and Peoria, and turn LEFT at the stop sign. Then go to Sixty-first Street and turn RIGHT, and there it
will
be
on
your
LEFT,"
declared
Mrs.
WRIGHT
as
her
husband
LEFT
the
house.
Mr. WRIGHT found the store and asked the clerk where he could find the flour. The clerk pointed and said, "Go
to
Aisle
four
and
turn
LEFT.
The
flour
and
sugar
will
be
on
your
LEFT."
Mr. WRIGHT made his purchase and walked RIGHT out the door. He turned LEFT, but he couldn't remember
where he had LEFT his car. Suddenly he remembered that he had driven Mrs. WRIGHT'S car and that his car was
in the driveway at home RIGHT where he had LEFT it. He finally found the RIGHT car and put his purchase
RIGHT
inside.
Eventually, a weary Mr. WRIGHT found his way home. Mrs. WRIGHT had been waiting impatiently. "I thought
you would be RIGHT back," she said. "I LEFT all the cookie ingredients on the kitchen counter, and the cats got
into
the
milk.
You'll
just
have
to
go
RIGHT
out
again."
Mr. WRIGHT sighed. He had no energy LEFT. "I am going RIGHT to bed," he said. "Anyway, I need to go on a
diet, so I might as well start RIGHT now. Isn't that RIGHT, dear?"
Toy Boat (Trust Game)
1. Have the group stand in a large circle
2. The middle of the circle is a shallow pond
3. Stand behind one student and ask her to close her eyes. As you gently push her
forward, she is to become a toy boat that lightly glides to the other side of the pond
(with her eyes closed)
4. When the boat reaches the other side, a student should be ready to catch her. The
boat opens her eyes and takes the place of whichever student caught her.
5. Te student who caught her now becomes the next toy boat to float across the circle.

Every aspect of the fame is in a slow, gentle motion
GAME: "1,2,3 What will you be" (renamed by Brandon from Cross the Circle) Everyone
is numbered around the circle as 1,2,3...When you call their number, everyone must
cross the circle in a role (as a ballerina...a panther...a moonwalker...someone who is
stuck in the mud...a fashion model...anything you can think of).
I found this game off of www.primaryresources.co.uk/pshe/pdfs/dramawarmups.pdf
Four Corners
1. Number the four corners of the room.
2. Choose a student to stand in the middle of the room. You then make the student close
their eyes whilst you count down from 10. They stay still and then pick a corner on
zero.
3. The students who are in the corner that the student in the middle picks are then out.
4. The game continues until there is a winner.
The winner then becomes the one in the centre
Warm up Game: Zombies

This is a group building activity that has everyone participating at the same time.

Everyone is asked to gather into the center of the room where they are going to slowly
wander around with their eyes closed.

The teacher will discreetly tap a student on the shoulder. They have now become a
zombie! They are to walk with their arms outstretched, (eyes remaining closed) and
make zombie noises.

If they encounter another person they must grab them by the shoulders at which point
they also become a zombie.

If two zombies come into contact with each other, they become human again.
IMPORTANT SAFETY CONSIDERATIONS:

Ensure that there is nothing in the game area that players can trip over.

Provide a barrier (ex. Circle of chairs) so that players know when they are nearing the
edge of the circle. If you have an extra large group, you can form two groups with one
group acting as the barrier.

Clarify that ALL players are to walk slowly and carefully – NO running!
Romeo and Juliet
Instructions: Students will be told that this is a game to be played in silence and they will need to
work on communicating in other ways.
A boundary will be identified and all students will be up and moving around in that space in silence
when the facilitator will call out a pair (ex. Romeo and Juliet). At this point students will need to find
a partner close to them and quickly act out the pair and freeze in position. All of this must be done
in silence.
If there is an uneven number of students the student who does not join a pair can join to make a
team of 3 or they can become the next facilitator to call a pair out.
Adaptation: This can also be an elimination game. There can be a judge who will identify the last
team to freeze and they will be eliminated. They will then assist in judging. Last pair wins!
One other change that can make judging easier is that students pair up and line up in two lines
facing each other 20 steps away. When a pair is called out they run into the middle and act it out still in silence.
Example Pairs: Romeo and Juliet, Cat and mouse, Judge and Olympian, Fish in a fish bowl, someone
walking a dog, oil and vinegar, teacher and student...
Drama Warm-up Activity:
Musical Statues
What You Need:
CD player
Recordings of songs that inspire a variety of movements
Ribbon streamers, chiffon scarves, or hula hoops (optional)
What You Do:
1. Invite students to move around (dancing, hopping, skipping, running) while the music
is playing and to freeze into a statue when the music stops.
2. Tell them to remain like a statue until the music starts again.
3. Randomly stop and start the music by pressing and releasing the pause button on your
CD player. Surprise your students by varying the amount of time you play and pause
the music.
*** You can also give your students a streamer, scarf, or hoop to manipulate as the
music is playing!
Bomb and Shield
Type: Warm-up
Purpose: Great to play as a fun warm-up or a mid-session activity if the kids have been
sitting for too long.
Procedure:
1. Have the kids stand in a circle.
2. Ask the kids to silently choose two people in the circle and label them: 1 person as a
“bomb” and 1 person as a “shield”. They should do this without letting anyone else
knowing.
3. When you say “Go”, the kids are to move around the room, always keeping their “shield”
between themselves and the “bomb”. They must never stop moving.
4. After awhile, say “Switch!”. Now the “bomb” becomes your “shield” and your “shield”
becomes your “bomb”.
5. At the end of the activity have the kids circle-up and one by one share who was their
bomb and who was their shield.
http://www.bbbpress.com/2013/11/drama-game-bomb-and-shield/
CAPTAIN’S COMING FULL DIRECTIONSAssign one person to be the "Captain." The role of the Captain is call out the
actions and dismiss the players who don't do the actions quick enough or who
break from character. Once the captain calls an action, each player has 3-4
seconds to start performing the action. If they don't find a group fast enough or
perform the right action, they are out of the game.
ACTIONS:
Captain's Coming!: Everyone stands at "attention" (in a salute), and they can’t
move from this position until the caller says, "At Ease!" If they laugh or break from
the attention, they are dismissed.
To the ship!: Players run to the right.
To the shore!: Players run to the left.
(for an added bonus be sure to point the right direction the first few times and then
begin to point the opposite occasionally. You will be surprised how many go the
way you point instead of the right direction)
Man Overboard!: One person drops to one knee the other stands behind them, puts
a hand on their shoulder. Both scan the ocean for the overboard man
Crow’s Nest!: Three players stand backs to each other and lock arms at the elbows
to form the crow’s nest.
Mess Table!: Four players squat in a circle like sitting at table and pretend to eat
like they haven't eaten in days. Tell them to make really loud eating sounds like
"YUM YUM YUM YUM YUM!"
Walk the Plank!: Five people stand in a single file row hands on the shoulders of
person in front of them
Mermaid!: each player individually thrust out right hip, places right hand on that hip,
takes left hand and makes a big exaggerated wave and yells out "howdy sailor!"
3 men rowing: 3 players. Get in a line and pretend to row a boat while singing "row
row row your boat".
4 men pointing north: 4 players. All get into a circle and point up.
5 men eating: 5 players. Get in a circle and pretend to eat.
Sea Sick: 1 player. Pretend to throw up.
Beached Whale: 1 player lies on the ground while acting like a beached whale and
making weird sounds.
Hit the Deck: Player falls to the floor on their stomach.