Theater Improv Games for Children
Kooky theater improv games are entertaining enough to become a staple of comedy clubs, but they're good for more than a few laughs. Children can learn from drama courses or just a few minutes of theater education during the regular school day. Interpreting emotion, communication, creativity, cooperation and self-confidence are just some of the areas in which students can benefit from theater. Many theater improv games are simple to set up and quick to play; children will be engaged and want to play again and again.
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Picture Book Drama
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Choose a picture book that the students aren't already familiar with and don't show them the title, if possible. Open to the first page and call on students to come up and act out what is happening in the picture, explaining what their character (or inanimate object) is doing or thinking. Then ask the children to sit back down and turn to the next page, asking another set of students to come up and act out a continuation. You can also ease students into this idea by just calling on a student to explain the first page and calling on another to explain the next page, without any movements.
Muscial Freeze Tag
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Gather snippets of many different songs across many genres. Talk with students about how music can sometimes convey an emotion. Then allow students to move around the room while a song plays; ask them to move as if they feel whatever emotion the song seems to convey. Stop the song and "freeze" the students. Ask them to explain how their movements were displaying the emotion. Move to the next song and repeat.
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Excuses, Excuses
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This game requires three players at a time, one to be a teacher, one to be a student and one to be "the excuse." The teacher asks the student why she was late and she must give her excuse and explanation for how she got to school based on "the excuse's" movement. The child playing the excuse cannot speak, but must act out the excuse for being late and method of travel. Bashful children can begin with the easier role of the teacher.
Skit Rewind
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Prepare several brief skits or scenarios involving two to five students each. Choose one skit and have children act it out as it is written. Prepare index cards beforehand, each with a way to change the skit written on it, for instance, "animal." Ask the children in the audience to pick an animal; then the students perform the same scene again, this time as the chosen animal. Think of creative ways to change the scene. Try "song" where the children must sing all of their words, or "action" where the children must perform a particular movement along with their skit, such as skipping.
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References
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