Theatre Games in a Classroom

I remember being in youth group and doing silly games that encouraged everybody's participation. They were somewhat like improv games and took the pressure off to be "right" about something. The purpose was to try. I had a lot of fun doing these types of activities and now, as a teacher, wonder about the value of adapting these games to a classroom atmosphere. Here are some ideas that I have found that could be easily adaptable.

From Creative Drama and Resource Site Theatre Education:

• Categories: Students create a clapping beat. A category (I am thinking of kinds of minerals, I am thinking of United States Presidents, I am thinking of foreign countries, I am thinking of geometric shapes, I am thinking of American Poets, I am thinking of Shakespearean characters, etc.) is stated. Students have to name something that fits in that category, moving around a circle, taking no more than one beat to think of something that fits in. The objective is to keep the beat going as long as possible. In a class of 34, I could easily do this in two or three groups, and bring a competitive edge to the game. Some people would argue that competition isn't good in a classroom atmosphere, but I do think it is valuable sometimes as long as nobody is sore winners or sore losers.
• Improvisation Starters: Teachers can develop scenarios to use in order to get students to reflect or act out different situations. These can be used to teach different social responsibilities (see some of the starters listed on the website linked above), or they can be used to teach content. Here are some improvisation starters I thought of: Rosa Parks, a black woman during the civil rights era, goes to sit on a bus. She sits in the front and is asked to move to the back of the bus, solely because of the color of her skin. , A hurricane hunter is flying into the eye of the storm. , Bob is able to dig a hole to the center of the Earth, on the way down, he journals about what he sees. , etc.
• Name Game #1, Name Game #2: See the sight linked above to find a description of how to do these games. Great for first day of class to encourage people to learn classmates' names.
• Object Permanence: One great way to modify this game would be to use pictures/paintings as the objects rather than actual objects. Students could view a photograph/painting and be instructed to pay attention to details. Picture would be taken away and students, individually or in groups, would have to list every object/detail they can remember from the photo. (Another modification would be to loosely re-create the photo/diagram/picture by drawing it.) Team with most correct details wins. This would be especially useful if the details in the photograph were important to the content being taught. For example, the photograph could be about the anatomy of a hurricane and students could draw and label the different parts of a hurricane.

These are just a few of the many options available. Some more resources to use for ideas can be found below:

• Story Robot
• Contemporary Drama Service
• Kid Activities
• Classroom Lesson Plans
• Supercharge Your Classroom with Improvisation
• Using Drama Skills in the Classroom

Enjoy! I'm already thinking of ways to incorporate these activities into my classroom! Please comment if you have used improv effectively in a classroom and how. Share ideas!