Improv games have an essential role in team building and getting creative juices flowing, but classic ice-breaker-style games like “Two Truths and a Lie” are tedious and a little dull. Improv games can also be a great way to help your kiddos develop their listening skills and gain spatial awareness all while having tons of fun! Have a look at our list of innovative improv games to spice up any lesson and get your children thinking out of the box!
1. Character Bus
This fun improv exercise is bound to get loud as each character has to be larger than life. Your “passengers” get onto the “bus”, each overexaggerating a character quirk. The child you pick to be the bus driver has to become that character each time a new passenger hops on board!
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2. Count Your Words
The concept of improv forces your learners to think on their feet, but this game makes it a little more difficult! You’ll limit the number of words they’re allowed to use as each participant is given a number between 1 and 10 and can only utter that number of words. Count your words and make your words count!
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3. Sit, Stand, Lie Down
This is a classic improv game where three players work together to complete a physical action. One must always be standing, one must always be sitting, and the last person must always be lying down. The trick is to change position frequently and keep everyone on their feet, or off them!
Learn More: YouTube
4. Explain Your Tattoo
This game will test your kids’ confidence and quick-thinking skills. Gather a few pictures of bad tattoos and assign them to players. Once the player sits in front of the class, they can see their tattoo for the first time and must answer questions about it from the audience. Why DID you get a picture of a whale on your face? Defend your choices!
Learn More: Teachers Pay Teachers
5. Sound Effects
This game is sure to provide lots of laughs and is perfect for small groups of 2-4 players. Some players will be tasked with coming up with dialogue and doing actions while others must provide the sound effects of the imagined setting. This is an excellent collaborative improv activity as everyone must be aware of each other to tell a coherent story.
Learn More: YouTube
6. Lines from a Hat
Some fun improv games take a little prep work but the reward is highly entertaining for the whole class. For this one, the audience members or participants have to write down random phrases and toss them in a hat. Your kids must start their scene and sporadically pull the phrases from the hat and incorporate them into the scene.
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7. Last Letter, First Letter
The possibilities of improv may seem confined to physical presence, but this fun game is perfect to use if you’re working remotely and using Zoom! In this game, your kiddos will focus on honing their listening skills as each person can only start their reply using the last letter the previous person used.
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8. One Word at a Time
This is another perfect game for kids of all ages and can be used in a circle with improv participants or during an online session. This is a super way for you to test their collaboration skills as each student must say one word and together they’ll work to form a coherent story. The results are sure to be hilarious!
Learn More: Drama Source
9. Questions Only
Conversational improv games can really challenge your learners if you limit them in what they can say. In this game, each person can only use interrogative questions to drive the conversation forward. They’ll need to be quick thinkers and keep an eye on their tone to avoid being knocked out!
Learn More: YouTube
10. Knife and Fork
This non-verbal improv game is great for kids of any age. You’ll call out out pairs of items like a “knife and fork” or “lock and key” and two players must use only their bodies to demonstrate the pair. This is a great game for kids as they don’t have to think of complicated or funny dialogue.
Learn More: YouTube
11. Party Quirks
In party quirks, the child who is playing the host is unaware of the quirks each character has been given. He or she has to “host a party” and mingle with the guests (the other students), trying to figure out what each person’s unique characteristic is. The improv scene might seem chaotic but it will challenge your players to get creative in the ways they express their given quirks!
Learn More: Drama Trunks
12. Prop Bag
When it comes to creative improv games, few can hold a candle to “Prop Bag”. Start by filling a bag with random items which players will then draw from one by one. Your kiddos must present their chosen prop to the class in an infomercial style, explaining its use. The twist is, that they can’t use the prop for its intended purpose!
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13. Cross the Circle
This is a super fun game to kick off your next drama session! Start by giving each player a number and then calling out one of the numbers as well as an action, for example, “Number ones; stuck in quicksand!”. All the players numbered ‘one’ must then cross the circle to switch places with another student while pretending to be stuck in quicksand.
Learn More: Improv Encyclopedia
14. The Mirror Game
Use this two-player reaction game to pair players up in a game of emotions! Encourage the first player to start a conversation, expressing any emotions like sadness or anger, clearly. The second player must aim to mimic that emotion as if they were looking in a mirror!
Learn More: YouTube
15. People Pictures
This is a fun one for your older kiddies! Kick things off by handing out pictures of people to your students and tell them not to let anyone else see their person! Give them a few minutes to determine the personality of the person and get into character. They’ll then go about mingling while staying in character. The aim of the game is to guess which picture belongs to which person!
Learn More: Creative Drama
16. Deer
This game works best in groups of three and is perfect for younger learners! You’ll call out an animal and then encourage your teams to get into a formation that represents the animal! You can also switch it up by letting them decide the animal and letting the rest of the class guess which animal they are!
Learn More: BBC Press
17. Fortunately, Unfortunately
This classic story game lets your kids take turns to complete a story by highlighting one fortunate and one unfortunate event at a time. Their listening skills are put to the test as they must follow up on what the previous person said to create a compelling story! You’ll be surprised and impressed at where your kiddies take their story!
Learn More: Very Well Family
18. Space Jump
Have your little ones think fast and collaborate on a one-of-a-kind performance with this next game! Start by getting one player to act out a scene and when the words “Space Jump” are called out they must freeze in place. The next player enters the scene and must start the scene from the frozen position of the previous player. Encourage your kiddos to try to get into a tricky position quickly to throw off the next player!
Learn More: YouTube
19. Superheroes
This game relies on some audience participation as they’ll get to make up a silly predicament that the world is in and then make up an unlikely superhero-like “Tree Man” for example. Your first student will arrive as this superhero and try to solve the problem but they’ll inevitably fail. That player must then call upon the next unlikely hero to come and save the day!
Learn More: Hoopla
20. Job Interview
This idea is a great one to help your older students who are getting ready to enter the world of work or college interviews! Start by selecting one student as an interviewee who’ll leave the room while the rest of the group decides on the job they will be interviewing for. The player will then return to the hot seat and must answer a range of interview questions specific to the job, without knowing which job it is!
Learn More: Child Drama
21. Expert Double Figures
This fun improv exercise for four players is guaranteed to deliver tons of laughs! Two players will pretend to be doing a talk show interview while two others kneel behind them, wrapping their arms around each other. The players in the back will be pretending to be the arms while the talk show guests can’t use their arms. Be ready for some awkward moments!
Learn More: YouTube
22. Clay Sculptures
The sculptor molds his clay (another player) into a specific pose from which the scene must then start. Let your group of sculptors work together to create “sculptures” out of other players that must form a cohesive story once they come alive!
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23. Location
This non-verbal game will let your players each act out a creative setting. They must act as they would in a mall, at school, or at a theme park. Your kiddos will then need to take turns acting out their setting and the rest of the class can make guesses as to where they are meant to be!
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24. World’s Worst
This game is sure to get some laughs! Have a few kiddos take to the stage (or stand up) then let their peers call out a profession. Your players have to then take turns to think of lines that the “world’s worst” would say. How about, “the world’s worst bus driver”? Your kids might come out with something like “Where’s the brake again?”. This game is fast-paced and can serve up tons of creative ideas!
Learn More: Improv Games
25. Many-Headed Expert
This game will join a few players together in a collaborative process as they act together as one expert! They’ll be faced with a question seeking advice for example “How do I save money?” and must work together to give advice by saying only one word each!
Learn More: YouTube
26. Parts of a Whole
This super creative improv game will get all of your students involved and moving! Pick a kiddo and let them decide what they want to act out, then let the rest of the group join in and act as a different part of the whole! For example, if someone decides to be the sail of a sailboat, the rest of the group will work together to become a different part of the sailboat! How creative can your class be?
Learn More: YouTube
27. Park Bench
The park bench game is a fun way to get your entire class involved with some improv! Pick two people to sit on the “park bench” and have them leave the room. The rest of the class then needs to pick who those two people should be (a book character, historical figure, movie star, etc.). When the two park bench people come back into the class, have them sit down and the members of the class will greet them using references that go with who they are! The game continues until the two people correctly guess who they are.
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28. Taxi Driver
Your improv students will love to play Taxi Driver. The object of the game is to act as the same character as the taxi driver. For example, if the taxi driver decides he is an elephant, he will act as an elephant. Every time the driver, “picks up” a new character, everyone in the cab must act as that character. This continues until the taxi driver drops off the character!
Learn More: YouTube
29. What Are You Doing?
Looking for a fun game that all of your kids can participate in? Try ‘What Are You Doing?’! Have one child complete an action, then another will come up and ask “What are you doing?”. The first person will explain the action and the second will then participate in that action. A third person will then come up and ask “What are you doing?” and the process starts all over again with the response to the questing being changed each time!
Learn More: YouTube
30. Yes And
‘Yes, and’ can be a hilarious game for your drama class. The goal of this improv game is to have your kiddies converse with one another using the phrase “yes, and”. In pairs or groups, you can have them ask each other questions and respond with “yes, and” to continue the conversation and story. The main point of the game is to avoid saying “no”! How long can they keep the dialogue going?
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31. Pass the Item
If you have a large group of students and you’re looking for a fun improv activity that can give everyone a role, then this could be the perfect game for you! Start by having one student “lift” their object and “pass” it to the next person. Your players can speak to one another and explain what object they are passing on and can use physical signs to show the properties of their item if it’s heavy, sharp, hot, and so on!
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32. Passports
Want to give your kids the chance to practice different dialects? With the Passports improv game, they’ll have a conversation and when you say pause, they can draw a piece of paper out of a bag with a different accent on it. When the teacher says to continue, they’ll need to try to continue with the conversation, but use their new accent/dialect!
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33. The Alphabet Game
The alphabet game can provide the perfect challenge for your older improv students. Give them a topic and encourage them to begin each line of their conversation with the next letter of the alphabet. Kids will do this until they go from A-Z!
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34. Say it Again, Sam
Say it again, Sam is a great improv game for young students. The object of this game is for each of your players to read their line differently each time. For example, the first time they read it, they may use an angry tone, and the second time might use a whisper. This is a tried and tested method used by actors everywhere to improve their delivery!
Learn More: YouTube
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