Warm up games for teaching

Three drama games for all classes

Drama specialist Sam Marsden suggests we can all use simple drama games to energise lessons for students of all ages.

Break the ice, build creativity, and confidence.

I have no doubt that teachers from all disciplines can utilize drama to engage students and to warm them up for any class. Playing a ten-minute drama game can break the ice, focus attention and strengthen rapport. In other words ‘drama’ is a useful component in any teacher’s pedagogy and classroom repertoire, especially at the start of the new school year to help new students settle and become more comfortable with their peers.

Drama games can take students of all ages out of themselves through simple role play, facilitating the development of alternative perspectives and empathy and get you closer to learning objectives.

‘Rules’ of the game

If you want to have a go, you can always consult your specialist drama colleagues, but here are some basics to help you facilitate a drama game in your classes. Firstly, it’s good to explain a few of the fundamentals of drama work to your class. Doing so will help to create a safe and creative space for you, and your students. These might include:

Don’t block, and go with the ideas of others
Fully commit and go for it. Failure is no problem
Trust yourself and go with the first thing that comes into your head
Listen well to others and then react
Above all, try and be in the moment as much as possible while practicing drama activities.

Games

Here are three drama games to get you started.

1. Yes, let’s!

Explain to the class that everyone goes along with whatever the idea caller calls out. For example, the idea the teacher might say, “Let’s all eat an ice cream,” and the class would reply, “Yes, let’s!”

Then everyone would ‘eat’ an ice cream. For the first few examples I might add a few questions to get students in the mood: “What flavour is your ice cream?” “Is it in a cone or a cup?” “Is it melting or frozen solid?” “Do you like to bite or lick your ice cream?”

Give everyone a minute with their ice cream before you call out the next idea. You might say, “Let’s all pretend to be monkeys!” and the class would reply, “Yes, let’s!” before leaping into action. Then you may call out, “Let’s all go to the beach,” and the class would call back, “Yes, let’s!” Explain there is no right or wrong in improvisation and that each individual gets to choose what they do. Once these foundations have been laid, you can ask students to raise their hands if they’d like to share their own ideas. Explain that the only bad ideas are those that are violent or disrespectful in speech or action. Give each idea around forty-five seconds to play out.

Going further you can then ask the class to imagine they are doing something directly relevant to a teaching point: “Let’s all imagine we are working out a difficult math problem.“ – or whatever is relevant to your subject.

2. I found this . . .

Ask for a volunteer. Approach this volunteer and say, “I found this…” and finish the sentence with a noun: dog, cake, football-size egg, magic wand, diary, wedding ring, wallet, alien . . . all ideas are welcome! Ask the person you’ve approached to react to what you have found. Maybe they’re surprised, afraid, in awe, or delighted. Hopefully a conversation will develop. It might go something like this:

“I found this dragon’s egg.”

“A dragon’s egg? You should return it, dragons are dangerous!”

“Oh my goodness, it’s hatching! What shall I do?”

“Put it down!”

“I can’t leave it!”

“What if its mother comes for you?”

In my experience, students take this exercise all kinds of places, from the mundane to the magical. Once the improv is over, the person who said, “I found this…” sits back down in the circle. The person who was receiving approaches someone else and says, “I found this…” changing the object to something new.

“I found this lost fairy,” they might say, holding their palms together, looking at a little fairy standing on their hands. The game continues until everyone who wants a turn has had one.

3. Supermarket checkout

Explain that the class is going to walk around the room at different speeds depending on what number you call out. Ten is the fastest speed, one is the slowest speed. Students will create characters from the speeds they are walking. For example, if you call out the number two, they will walk around the room reasonably slowly, perhaps as a chilled out yoga instructor. Or as a mother with a sleeping baby strapped to them. Or as a child distracted by a meadow of flowers. After thirty seconds or a minute, change the number. If you call out the number ten, students will speed around the room, perhaps late for an important business meeting, or late for a flight, or perhaps they’re a rapper who likes to live a fast-paced life.

Once you’ve gone through a variety of numbers, ask the students to sit down in front of the supermarket checkout as an audience. Explain that two actors will take to the stage, each playing at a speed they choose. Each player can keep this speed information private. One person will play the check-out assistant and the other person will play the customer. Ask the actor playing the customer to not only choose a speed in their head but also a reason for moving at that speed. Perhaps they are in a rush getting supplies for a party that starts in ten minutes. Ask for two volunteers and let the fun begin. They can either mime placing the groceries on the conveyor belt or you can hand them a bag of real groceries to use. If both people in the improvisation have chosen a similar tempo, there won’t be much conflict. However, if one chooses a ten and the other a one, there is likely to be conflict and humour! Allow the improv to run for one or two minutes, and then you can have the audience guess which speed each actor was playing.

Good luck if you decide to take the plunge!

Sam Marsden has taught drama for fifteen years in variety of settings across the UK. She’s the author of 100 Acting Exercises for 8 – 18 Year Olds, and the Pocketful of Drama book series, which includes Acting Games for Improv, Drama Games for Early Years, and Acting Exercises for Creative Writing.