Drama games provide a wonderful way to build confidence, imagination, and self-expression skills in your little actors. With our collection of cheerful activities, perfectly tailored to kids of all ages, you’ll teach them the tips and tricks of acting while having a ball doing it! From classic improv games to innovative characterizations – we’ve got you covered with a series of awesome activities to inspire your budding performers.
1. Lines From a Hat
This iconic improv game is great for building communication and on-the-spot thinking skills. Allow your audience to write down sentences on pieces of paper before placing them in a hat. Your actors then have to tell a coherent story that incorporates the phrases into their scenes.
Learn More: YouTube
2. Music Conductor with Emotions
In this awareness-building exercise, your students will take on the role of musicians in an orchestra. As the conductor, you’ll create sections for various emotions such as sadness, joy, or fear. Every time you point to a particular section, you’ll prompt your performers to make sounds that convey their assigned feeling.
Learn More: Live About
3. Challenging Drama Game
Here’s an excellent game to develop your kids’ listening and concentration skills while keeping them immersed in fun. Invite them to stand in a circle where you’ll have them begin to tell a story with one sentence each. The catch? Each player must start their sentence with the last letter of the last word of the person before them!
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4. Fun Drama Game for Teenagers
Encourage your learners to tell cohesive stories with this intriguing theater game. Simply challenge them to perform an entire scene composed only of questions or interrogative sentences.
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5. Tell a Story with Props
Have your class gather a group of interesting objects as you engage them in telling a captivating story using their props. You can even amp up the difficulty by providing them with objects that are unrelated and require more critical thinking to combine them in a meaningful way.
Learn More: Hands On Teaching Ideas
6. Fun Improv Miming Game
Here’s a delightful improv game that’s great for incorporating into everyday lessons. Invite your kiddos to stand in a circle before having them pass around an imaginary ball. You’ll task them with acting out different situations to show that the ball is heavy, light, getting bigger, getting smaller, or becoming slippery.
Learn More: Improv Dr
7. Two Truths and a Lie
Put your budding actors’ skills to the test while also involving them in a fun icebreaker. In this classic drama game, you’ll encourage them to tell two truths and one lie about themselves before you challenge everyone else to guess which statement is false.
Learn More: Ice Breakers
8. Animal Characters
This interactive game is sure to culminate in a room full of giggles! Start by showing each of your children an animal card before prompting them to become that animal by miming, gesturing, and making sounds or movements in order to find the other members of their animal tribe.
Learn More: Kids English Theatre
9. Themed-Musical Chairs
Add some dramatic flair to a game of Musical Chairs with this creative twist. Engage your kids in playing different actors in a well-known story. The player in the center will call out a character trait, prompting the players who have those traits to rush and find an empty seat.
Learn More: Ice Breaker Ideas
10. Speak in Gibberish
Challenge your students to an acting game where they’re barred from using real language! Have one person pick a random sentence out of a hat before tasking them to communicate its meaning using gibberish and gestures. The rest of your class will then have to guess the meaning of the sentence based on their actions and made-up words.
Learn More: Child Drama
11. Yes, And
Involve your whole acting troupe in this captivating drama game. Teach them the art of using “Yes, and” by having one person start off with an offer such as suggesting they go for a walk before prompting the next person to respond with the word yes before expanding on the idea.
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12. Stand, Sit, Kneel, Lie
Here’s an acting challenge that’s perfect for your little learners! Start by dividing them into groups and then invite them to explore scenes where each of them are standing, sitting, kneeling, and lying down. Anytime one changes their poster, you’ll prompt the others to change up their poses so that no two players are in the same position.
Learn More: Improv Dr.
13. Imaginary Tug-of-War
Introduce your kiddos to pantomime and expressive acting with this movement-based game. Encourage them to use their body language and movements to portray a scene where an imaginary rope is being pulled over an indicated center line.
Learn More: Drama-Based Instruction
14. Transform an Everyday Object
Put your children’s creativity to the test with this inventive game. Engage them in turning everyday household objects into anything they can imagine, using a little bit of dramatic flair. You’ll watch as colanders become pirate hats and rulers become slithering snakes.
Learn More: Kids English Theatre
15. Repurpose Selfies to Capture Emotions
This super cool game is perfect for your modern learners. Simply allow them to take various selfies while you encourage them to express different emotions with their facial expressions in each photo.
Learn More: YouTube
16. Simple Idea for Drama Class
This simple activity is fantastic for introducing your class to one another at the beginning of a new school year. Task them with calling out their name and using a unique gesture before prompting the rest of your pupils to echo their name and gesture.
Learn More: Teach Mag
17. Wink Murder
Here’s a wildly popular drama game that can be played with small or large groups and doesn’t require any equipment! Assign the role of “murderer” to one of your players where they’ll have to “kill” as many people as possible by secretly winking at them.
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18. Pass the Sound
In this classic drama game, you’ll have one of your actors start off with a random sound before encouraging the next person to pick up the sound and transform it into something new. For an added twist, challenge them to add a movement to their sound to liven up this expressive game.
Learn More: Drama Resource
19. Build a Machine
Transform your kids into parts of a machine with this interactive game. Invite one learner to start a repetitive movement such as bending their knee up and down before prompting the rest of your learners to join in with their own movements until their whole machine is built.
Learn More: Bright Hub Education
20. Mirror, Mirror
Introduce your class to the concept of spatial awareness with this simple game. Start by partnering them up before prompting them to face each other. Then, challenge them to work together as you have them follow their partner’s motions to duplicate their movements exactly.
Learn More: Child Drama
21. Animal Scenes
Transform your classroom into a safari full of animals with this improv game. Start by having your learners form pairs and assign the role of leader to one person in each pair. Then, allow your leaders to suggest animal scenes like a monkey in a tree or a lion in the jungle before they work together to creatively act out each scene.
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22. The World’s Worst
Engage your budding teen actors with a game of World’s Worst! Task them with comically acting out the worst versions of different scenarios, like world’s worst chef or world’s worst doctor. You’ll watch as they come up with the most silly examples for each situation.
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23. Everybody Smile Portraits
In this interactive game, you’ll draw inspiration from a variety of portrait ideas. Prompt your kids to form groups before inviting them to act out different situations where people have to take pictures. For instance, you could have them portray a family portrait by having them stand in position and freeze when prompted to smile.
Learn More: First Cry Parenting
24. Add to the Scene
Teach your budding performers how to use their bodies to become different objects! Begin by having your first player take center stage and choose an object they want to represent. Then, allow the rest of your children to join in by using their bodies to form an object that relates to those that have already been presented.
Learn More: Teach Starter
25. Surprise Guests
Here’s an engaging guessing game that’s great for warming up your class. One player will be assigned as host of a party and they’ll have to leave the room. While they’re gone, task your remaining learners with becoming quirky characters that attend the party. Then, invite your host back in and challenge them to guess the identity and trait of each guest.
Learn More: Live About
26. Shark Tank
In this “Shark Tank” inspired game, your students will take turns being the entrepreneur and the shark. Encourage your pupils to choose any household item and create a wild use and business plan for it. They’ll then have to persuasively present their unique object and convince the shark to finance it.
Learn More: Playful Heart Parenting
27. Mine! No, Yours!
Nurture your kiddos’ imagination with some theatrical prop work. While working in pairs, you’ll challenge them to passionately act like they really want to keep or get rid of a small toy. A round of applause will go to the little actor who portrays the most convincing scene.
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28. Freeze, Dance, Justify
In Freeze and Justify, you’ll have your children dance to music and pause when you shout “Freeze!” before encouraging them to justify their weird poses in creative ways. For instance, a child squatting on the floor might justify their pose by saying, “I’m a frog on a log.”.
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29. Knife and Fork
Here’s another non-verbal acting challenge to excite your budding actors. Simply engage them in selecting a set of commonly paired objects like macaroni and cheese or eggs and bacon. Once you’ve given them their pair, task them to act it out by using gestures and movements.
Learn More: YouTube
30. Dub a Foreign Film
This cheerful game will have your class in fits of laughter as you invite them to dub a film! Have a few of your children act as foreigners, speaking in a made-up language with exaggerated expressions, while the rest of your students dub their lines to match the acting and scene.
Learn More: Icebreaker Ideas
31. Prop Bag
Create a hilarious scene in your classroom by having your kids use arbitrary props. Allow them to randomly pick up an object before creatively demonstrating an alternate use for it like transforming a shoe into a phone or turning a scarf into a pet snake.
Learn More: Child Fun
32. Job Interview
In this imaginative activity, you’ll challenge your students to act out quirky interviews. Have two players take on the roles of interviewer and interviewee before inviting your class to choose unusual titles and silly job positions to be the subject of the interview.
Learn More: Kid Activities
33. What Are You Doing?
What Are You Doing is an excellent choice if you’re looking for a game that’ll foster quick thinking and creativity in your budding actors. Give them each a turn to silently act out an action of their choice, and when asked “What are you doing?”, they’ll respond with something unrelated to their action; and the asker will then have to act out their response.
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34. Change the Channel
Inspire the use of spontaneity in your drama lessons with this imaginative theater game. Provide your kiddos with scenes to act out and then prompt them to stop by shouting out “Freeze”. While frozen, you’ll replace one of your characters with another and then shout “Action” to prompt them to continue with a completely unrelated scene.
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35. One Word Story
Your children are in for a series of silly and unexpected turns with this One-Word Story game. Simply invite them to take turns adding on one word at a time to collectively build a story.
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36. Obstacle Race
Challenge your students to think on their feet as you have them narrate a hilarious scene. Two actors will serve as commentators of a slow-motion race between two athletes. Task your athletes with simulating movements as you encourage them to overcome 3 random and imaginary objects.
Learn More: Improv Dr.
37. Musical Dilemma
This competitive game is perfect for your music lovers! Engage your class in singing lines from various songs by prompting them to pass the tune on to the next person to keep things going by using one word from the previous song.
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38. Hitchhiker
In this hysterical game, your pupils will become drivers who pick up hitchhikers! They’ll go around the room picking up different people who have odd quirks like a strange laugh or loud mouth-breathing.
Learn More: Snack Nation
39. Mystery Box
Here’s a game that’ll add a fun-filled twist to your prop bag activities. Begin by having your kids act out a given scene while you add random objects into the plot and encourage them to incorporate these objects into their performance by only using them for their original purpose!
Learn More: Icebreaker Ideas
40. Sound Effects
Develop your future actors’ verbal skills with this lively game. Task a group with acting out random scenes while you have the rest of your class embellish their acting with sound effects! The sounds don’t have to match the scene, making it all the more tricky for your guessers to point out what scene is being performed.
Learn More: Style Craze
41. Popcorn
This activity is perfect for sparking your little ones’ imaginations. Simply gather your kiddos on the floor and then provide them with roles such as popcorn in a pan or a log floating downriver. Then, kick off the fun by challenging them to become their object and act it out as its movement increases in intensity.
Learn More: First Cry Parenting
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