- Name Games
These activities are focused around getting the students comfortable around each other and can help with collaborative work. They involve some improvising.
Students will sit in a circle, introduce themselves and associate themselves with a movement, an adjective, a noun, a rhythm etc. depending on the rules of the game. So if the rule of the game is to do a movement associated with the first letter of your name, I might say "My name is Ariella" and then I would make an A shape with my hands.
- A cold wind blows
This game helps mix up a group of students, allows students to move freely in the group and helps students learn a little about each other.
Students sit on chairs in a circle, and the teacher stands in the center of the circle and announces "A cold wind blows everyone who.... [insert a statement describing some students here eg. has a younger brother]". All the students with a younger brother need to stand up and move to another seat (and the person standing up will also try to sit down). Whoever remains standing gets to be the 'cold wind' for the next turn.
- What are you doing?
This activity gets students moving, mining and improvising.
Students stand in a circle, and one student (or the teacher) starts miming an activity (eg. reading a book). The next student in the circle asks "what are you doing?". The original student gives an answer that is completely unrelated to what they're doing (eg. I'm jogging!) and the next student must take up this activity. The process repeats until all the students in the circle have had a turn to ask and answer the question.
- Mirrors
This activity gets students moving, miming and improvising.
Students are put in pairs, and one performs an action while the other mirrors it. The leading student may mine whatever activity they want, or they may be told what type of activity to use (eg. cooking).
Mirroring talk
This activity gets students to practice storytelling.
Students are put in pairs, and one tells a story slowly, while the other student attempts to speak along with them. I particularly like this activity as it gets students comfortable with storytelling without making them feel like they're being put on the spot and have to come up with a brilliant story (since the focus of this activity is on the mirroring).
- The Martha game
This activity gets the students moving and improvising.
The class stands in front of a designated 'stage'. The teacher (or a student) runs onto the stage, stands in a certain pose, and announces the object that they are posing as (eg. I'm a table). One at a time, the rest of the class runs onto the stage and joins the scene (eg. I'm a chair. I'm a cupboard. I'm a person having breakfast).
- In a hat
This activity gets students improvising and may help develop playbuilding.
Pieces of paper with the names of objects (eg. apple, table, chair, light-bulb) are placed in a hat. Students are put in small groups and each take a slip of paper from the hat. When students have received their slip of paper, they need to tell the rest of the group why they really really like their particular object. This activity can be used with different emotions (maybe the object makes the student feel sad, or angry, or frightened instead).
Saturday, 15 October 2011
Drama - Warmups
We brainstormed drama warm-ups briefly in class today and I was embarrassed to realize that the only activity I could think of was Space Jump! So I've decided that I need to know more about drama warm-ups, specifically the type of warm-ups that would be used at the beginning of a lesson. I've brainstormed with friends, read through Beyond the Script and trawled the internet for ideas. My favourite warm-ups are compiled below.
