Let the Drama Games Begin

In the words of William Shakespeare, “All the world’s a stage.” For little learners in your classroom, this statement could be true in a matter of moments. Dramatic play and theater in the preschool classroom allow for creative expression and the development of literacy, speech, social and emotional learning, and motor skills. These activities can be integrated in early childhood settings as lesson hooks or attention getters, an activity or game, a brain break, or the whole lesson. Props, costumes, a stage, and puppets are not required to execute theater with young students—the children’s imaginations are enough.

Some examples of integrating the dramatic arts in the classroom are playing pretend, using guided imagery, pantomiming, and movement. Dramatic arts integration also builds speaking and memory skills.

Below are five activities that can be adapted for your classroom and students’ needs to incorporate theater games in the classroom.

‘Then What Happened?’ Stories

“Then what happened?” stories are great ways to engage children in improvisation, writing and literacy, speaking, and social and emotional learning. To play this game, give students a couple of sentence starters like “Once upon a time...” or “Yesterday, I went to the playground and saw…”

You may choose to scribe the dictated story for the students, so you may want to write out the sentence starter on a sheet of chart paper, as well as everything that the children say. You can also use a collection of Popsicle sticks or paper strips with sentence starters on them for frequent game-playing use. After students share the sentence starter aloud, have them take turns adding to the story. Prompt them to continue by asking, “Then what happened?”

The game goes on until all students have had turns or when the story has reached a logical end. The stories can be as silly and creative as your students wish. For a bonus extension activity, have students act out the story they wrote.

Reenacting Parts of Stories, Poems, and Nursery Rhymes

This game is much like having students put on skits or play charades. Have students pick their favorite parts of a story, poem, or nursery rhyme that was read and discussed in class. Then, ask them to pantomime, or act out, the story by pretending to be the characters and using their imagination to make the setting come to life. The children can pick their favorite characters or favorite parts of the story to act out. It's fine if the same parts and characters are pantomimed multiple times because each child will perceive and perform differently. You can also assign parts for students to act out. Student should take turns with their reenactments so that the teacher and the rest of the class can watch and discuss.

This activity works well with nursery rhymes, such as “Jack Be Nimble,” or poems like “Boa Constrictor,” by Shel Silverstein. This activity provides students with opportunities to be creative, exercise empathy and memory skills, and develop their motor and speech abilities.

Food Pantomime

In this game, students are prompted with guided imagery to use visualization, listening, motor, social and emotional, and body/spatial awareness skills. Have students pretend that they are eating various foods.

For example, the leader of this activity could use the following prompts: “Pretend that you are eating your favorite flavor of ice cream. Is it in a dish or a cone?… Uh-oh! You have a brain freeze!... Now the ice cream is melting!” This could also evolve into other actions like cooking or beach day activities like building sand castles. For example, you could use the following prompt: “Imagine that you are going to the beach. You are walking across the hot sand. You can feel the sand between your toes. Then, you hear the water crashing on the shore.”

I Have Something to Tell You

In this game, students practice saying the same sentence over again with different inflections and intonations to work on expressing emotions. Typically, the sentence, “I have something to tell you,” is used, as in: “I have something to tell you,” “I have something to tell you,” “I have something to tell you,” “I have something to tell you.” The word hello could be used, too.

Additionally, ask students to say, “I have something to tell you,” in a happy voice, angry voice, and whisper voice, and to say it to a friend, to a teacher, to a sibling, etc.

‘Yes, let’s…’

To play “Yes, let’s…,” the teacher takes the role of the leader, and the students follow and repeat. The leader cues the group by saying, “Yes, let’s (insert action word here),” and tells students to pantomime an action like digging, singing, walking, hiding, stirring, jumping, sleeping, and so on. Students repeat, “Yes, let’s!” and all pantomime the action.

This improvisation game is great for having students move their bodies, follow directions, vocalize, and use their imaginations.

All of the above games can seamlessly integrate theater into the preschool classroom. They can be adapted to fit the needs of your students and used across content areas. Hopefully, they will engage and inspire you and the young learners and benefit their growing minds while they’re having fun.