DRAMA ACTIVITIES FOR K-6
Why drama?
Lead a brief class discussion about why we teach and learn drama. Why is it important? How does it help us? (confidence, fun, brain, development, creative thinking)
Clumps - good starting game
Children walk around in the space in neutral (hands by sides, heads up, no talking). Teacher calls out numbers and children form groups with that number of people in them and sit down.
Play for a few rounds.
Postcards
You can use the final Clumps group for this game (around 4-5 children in each group). A great warm-up game.
Give students a location (like the Opera House) or an object (like a flower in a vase) and they have 10 seconds to create a 'postcard' (a still image) of that scene. You can have a winner per object.
Mime
Discuss mime with the children and show a video of a great mime.
Without speech, how does the actor convey emotion and show what's going on? (facial expression, body movements).
Discuss the fact that movements and expressions should be exaggerated when miming.
Have a selection of activities written on paper strips and children pick one and mime that activity. The audience guesses the activity and the person who guesses correctly gets the next turn.
Examples:
Mime: unwrapping a present
This is a relatively fast-moving game which is good for all age groups.
Introduce and discuss mime and its features as above.
Children sit in a circle and mime unwrapping a gift. After their turn, they face the child next to them and mime giving them a gift as the recipient mimes receiving the gift and then unwrapping it.
Before starting, prompt children to think about:
Lead a brief class discussion about why we teach and learn drama. Why is it important? How does it help us? (confidence, fun, brain, development, creative thinking)
Clumps - good starting game
Children walk around in the space in neutral (hands by sides, heads up, no talking). Teacher calls out numbers and children form groups with that number of people in them and sit down.
Play for a few rounds.
Postcards
You can use the final Clumps group for this game (around 4-5 children in each group). A great warm-up game.
Give students a location (like the Opera House) or an object (like a flower in a vase) and they have 10 seconds to create a 'postcard' (a still image) of that scene. You can have a winner per object.
Mime
Discuss mime with the children and show a video of a great mime.
Without speech, how does the actor convey emotion and show what's going on? (facial expression, body movements).
Discuss the fact that movements and expressions should be exaggerated when miming.
Have a selection of activities written on paper strips and children pick one and mime that activity. The audience guesses the activity and the person who guesses correctly gets the next turn.
Examples:
- raking leaves on a windy day
- unwrapping a present
- going rock climbing
- walking into a spider web
- riding a bike down a very steep hill
- taking yucky medicine
- making your bed
- washing a very dirty car
- going ice-skating for the first time
- playing the drums
- making pancakes
Mime: unwrapping a present
This is a relatively fast-moving game which is good for all age groups.
Introduce and discuss mime and its features as above.
Children sit in a circle and mime unwrapping a gift. After their turn, they face the child next to them and mime giving them a gift as the recipient mimes receiving the gift and then unwrapping it.
Before starting, prompt children to think about:
- how we might feel when we receive a gift (surprised, happy, hesitant, embarrassed, even fearful);
- how might we react if we like the gift, if we're very surprised at what it is or if we don't like the gift;
- what is the gift? Is it big, small, awkwardly shaped, unwanted?