This year I am teaching a lot of drama and dance to students. I’m excited about this because they’re always subjects that students look forward to and they’re interactive and easily engaging for kids. However, I don’t find that there are a lot of resources available that are great for groups or for the classroom. So, I’m creating my own and excited to share them with you. Below you’ll find one of my first activities, and it’s a Free Drama Game for Kids.

Drama is a great way to get kids up and moving and working on lots of essential skills. One of the biggest challenges that I find drama can help with is children who are uncomfortable speaking or being up in front of a group. Drama is a fun way to get them used to being in front of the class, but in a fun way with less pressure. When they get used to being in front of the group, even if they’re not talking or presenting, this builds confidence over time.

Small groups, or partners are a great way to start your program. I’m still learning my students comfort levels, and experience with drama programs. Partners and groups gives me the chance to see who is willing to pop up in front of the group and who stands back to let their partner present. Either way, if they will stand in front of the class it’s a step in the right direction.

Free Drama Game for Kids

Preparing the Cards

If you’re looking for more drama inspired activities, check out a printable collection of brain break task card. These are great activities to use when you have limited materials available to you and no time for prep! I created it to fill the last 5-10 minutes of class when an activity didn’t take as long as you planned or it didn’t go as planned.

For one of our first classes, I used the below activity as a warm up. Children were placed with either a partner or in a group of 3. We talked about teamwork and sharing ideas. You can download the 12 activity cards at the end of this post. The cards each take up a quarter of a page. Print them in black and white or color. I laminated my cards because I knew a lot of kids would be touching them, but you can choose not to.

The pages are included in color and black and white. The color pages are more appealing, but the black and white ones can be great to give to kids if they finish faster than other groups, they can be colored.

Once printed, you’re ready for your kids to try the activity. I had young children with me so we read through each of the cards together first. Then I handed them out so that each partnership or group had their own card. Distribute the cards randomly.

This activity is a great way to encourage kids to think about their facial expressions, body movements and actions for a specific purpose. You can choose to have them focus on a certain dramatic feature, or simply use the activity as a warm up.

Drama Lesson for Kids

Once children have a card they then have to come up with some skit that depicts what their card shows. I encouraged groups to include some talking or sound when they present and each group member needed to have some role. They can choose to present their setting/activity any way they can think of.

Children understood it best when I explained for them to create a really short skit. Honestly some groups only spent 30 seconds at the front. This was all I was looking for as a warm up activity. You can extend the activity and turn it into something more where kids have to create a full story and presentation just based on the activity card. Choose to use the free drama game for kids however you want.

Kids liked having the card to understand their task. The images also give them some ideas. The groups did a great job of thinking about what they look like when they are doing the activity on their card and how they could show it, without having the actual the materials or being in the actual location.

Since we had read the cards before I handed them out, my students liked guessing what each group had as they presented. They used clues from what their classmates said and did to figure out which card they had. We also reflected on the presentation as a group after everyone had presented. Children said some of their favorite features of their friends presentations and things that they think they could do better.

Download the Printables Here

Grab your copy of the printables featured above. Click the image below and the pages will download right away. When you click you will need to subscribe through Grow. As soon as you subscribe the pages will download. You will also be subscribed to Hands-On Teaching Ideas. Shortly after subscribing, you will receive an email with a link to the Free Resource Library which is filled with over 100 free printables. From math and escape rooms to STEM task cards and scavenger hunts, there are lots of free resources to use.

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