Games, Exercises and Warm Ups

BurnsideHigh School – Mr. Truman - 27/2/2012

This basic game can be adapted for 2, 3, 4 or 5 players with one sitting out each time a new idea is brought into the circle. Discussion is useful on accepting others’ ideas, developing and extending them, as well as “listening in a role”.

1)Story building

On the board write up a list of characters that are offered by the group. List enough for there to be one character between two actors. Give the characters out in order round the circle in pairs. The pair thinks of a repetitive action to suit the character and a sound to accompany it. They can use own voice or instruments. Time is given to prepare. The work is shared.

Decide where and when the story takes place. Write on the board e.g. “it was night in the fair ground”. Then continue the story using all the characters listed on the board. Take offers from the class.

Perform the scenario with the teacher narrating. The actors move using repetitive action while their partner provides the sound and voice .

The roles can then be swapped over so the musicians are the actors. Both groups are totally involved in the process. The teacher helps the improvisation fit together and may decide on places for action etc beforehand.

2)Story building II

Develop a new character through three words and actions plus playing the storyteller role, as well as own character. Create a story in groups of 4 using the chosen words and actions repetitively as well as the story teller role to link it together.

3)Following instructed action

Two performers sit on chairs in front of an audience. Two people in the audience give the actors instructions. The actors do as requested without any expression or without developing their own ideas. E.g. “man in the blue shirt – stand up. Woman with brown eyes blink. Man in the blue shirt wave to the woman. Woman with the brown eyes – yawn.” Etc.

This exercise encourages discipline but also the skill of immediate acceptance

4)Car Improvisation

The group of 4 sit in pairs. Two are actors – passenger/driver, the other two are audience. Each actor is given an emotion on a card e.g. anxious, happy, fearful, nervous, calm, cheerful. The class can make these to begin the lesson. Neither actor knows what the other actors emotion is. They work together within the car setting to improvise a scene. They focus on their given emotion which may reach a point of change if it is followed through fully.
The pair as audience feedback ideas that worked well. Obviously accepting ideas given and developing them is important. They now change so the actors become audience.

5)Improvisation / movement using poetry as a starter.

“No Ordinary Sun” HonëTuwhare.

Words and phrases from the poem are written on card and placed around the room. Read the poem and discuss. Find a movement to express the rhythm of the words. Choose a word/phrase, experiment with sound, movement and space. Capture the essence of the word. Try several other words.

  • Choose one and show your sound/movement sculpture to another.
  • Your partner echoes your piece of work. Swap.
  • Choose one idea in the pair. Develop it. Use repeats and silence. Add stillness.
  • Repeat the same process using the other person’s word. Add repeats, silence, stillness. Refine.
  • Put ideas together. Focus on movement and the rhythm of the words and the floor pattern created.
  • Perform for another group or the class. Three pairs could perform together being conscious of others’ work. This improvised approach works well. It can also be choreographed by the rest of the group discussing where the pairs need to stand, who begins and order of working. Adding silence and stillness gives clarity to the work.

The piece could then be worked on to fine tune it if desired. This would make two lessons. The teacher could read the poem.

6)Music

Listen to a piece of music e.g. “Signs of Life” from A Momentary Lapse of Reason by Pink Floyd. Use one pastel. “Dreamland” pastels are great.

  • Draw a response as you listen again.
  • In groups compare the common elements in the drawings. Choose an idea to explore
  • Plan an environment deciding on the essence of the music. One third of the class group visits the environment while one third of the rest of the class watches and draws or observes the response to the environment. The environment can be made using vocal sound, instruments, movement, isolated words, as long as it captures the chosen “essence”. Repeat using other environments.
  • Reflection – observers give feedback on the mood and environment they saw.

7)Improvisation using a picture as an initial stimulus.

  • The group carefully examines the picture/painting.
  • They respond by writing single words on a page making a word collage.
  • Using the ideas from the poetry work, circle four words that link into a theme.
  • Experiment on own with words making a movement/word collage – use repeats, levels, silence, stillness. Record.
  • Define what the theme is. Write it down.
  • Students work in groups of four putting similar themes together. The class share first their own themes so groups can be formed by those who have similar thematic interests.
  • Groups perform their own work simultaneously.
  • Each person now shows work to group.
  • Refine by choreographing each offering without changing it so that the piece flows together. Focus on movement, voice and eye contact, and use of space.

8)Tableau Story

Divide into groups of 4-5. Give a topic e.g. “Crash” or “Emergency” – something dramatic. Students form a tableau which shows the climax of a possible storyline – freeze and show to other people.

Now students are to present the 30 seconds leading up to the climax. This has movement with dialogue. Include the climax. Now they present the 30 seconds which comes after the climax – movement with dialogue.

9)Story telling

As a class, make a list of ‘items’ and one character on the board e.g. a tin of fruit salad, a bottle of sunblock, a pair of scissors, Mrs Green.

Each group creates an improvisation using the items on the list. Perform to class.

As an extension for character development, all the “Mrs Greens” come together for a spontaneous improvisation e.g. in doctor’s waiting room.

10)The Diary

One student discovers a diary (e.g. in the attic, under a bed, buried in the garden etc). They open it and begin to read aloud the contents e.g. “Mon 13th June 1968, yesterday was the best day of my life. Kate and I went to see the Beatles…”

As they read, students come in to act out the events that are being read. They can also improvise dialogue.

11)Look Up and Bang!

Everyone standing in a circle with heads down. Someone say ‘up’. When you look up if you are looking at someone and they are looking at you, try to shoot them saying ‘Bang!’ before they shoot you. In a tie the one with the most energy wins.

12)Red Elbow

Students play in pairs. The leader calls out a colour and a body part e.g. yellow thumb. Each pair has to find a way for them both to place that part of the body on that colouri.e. find something yellow in the room and put their thumbs together on it. Check what colours do occur in your room, or collect colour samples to place around the room.

  • Unusual colours: magenta, violet, sky blue, turquoise, maroon
  • Parts of the body: patella, femur, tibia, ear lobe, sternum, fibula, index finger, tibia

13)Bodyguard

Everyone picks someone to be their bodyguard, and somebody to be their assassin. Don`t say out loud who picked who for what, keep it to yourself.

Game starts, and everyone tries to protect themselves from their assassin, by trying to keep their bodyguard between themselves and their assassin.

After several minutes of chaos everyone reveals who was picked for what.

14)Adoration

Start with the children spaced out. Then name an object in the room (e.g. something yellow, a wall, a spot on the ground, a spider, a piece of litter, teacher etc.). Then, the students have to run over to that object, get down on their knees and 'adore' the object by repeatedly bowing and exclaiming 'oh, (wall) we love you'. Change the object continuously and give students different options so they're not all in one corner (e.g. a wall, a window). Explain importance of safety!

15)Chains

Choose two 'catchers', who link arms/hold hands. They chase the others (as in 'tig') and catch them. If you are caught, you join the chain. When four people are in the chain, the chain splits into 2 sets of 2. This goes on until you have a WINNER!

16)Whizz / Block / Boing

Group stands in a circle. One person starts the game by saying ‘whizz’ and pointing an open hand across their body to next person. Next person can continue i.e. ‘whizz’ to the next person Or say ‘Block’ and hold up their opposite fist. This makes the whizz go back in the opposite direction. Or say ‘Boing’ while doing a movement like a spring and holding both fists up. This makes the whizz skip over the next student. Players are out when they make a mistake or flinch. Game ends when there are 3 players left.

Note:On the first round get the players to let the whizz go all the way around, so they get used to it. Have a couple of warm ups before you start the elimination.

17)Make a list of things they have to do before they come back to the circle.

Nobody leaves until the list is finished. You can make up whatever you like. Touch five things that are pink, touch all four corners of the room. Give three people a hug, give two a hongi, jump up and down ten times and do a roll on the floor.

18)Cross Crawl

Stand. Place your right elbow across the body to the left knee as you raise it, and then do the same thing for the left hand on the right knee just as if you were marching. Count to twenty. I count in Te Reo. As a class we all have responsibility to keep the counting going but we don’t all have to count the whole time.

19)The Puppet.

Same arm same leg. Lifting your legs with imaginary strings.Counting to twenty. I count in Te Reo. As a class we all have responsibility to keep the counting going but we don’t all have to count the whole time.

20)Look behind and touch your foot.

Squatting and arms extended to the side. Bending and looking behind touch your left hand to your right foot. Come back to centre and then the same on the opposite side. Count to twenty.

21)Finger-ear/nose swap.

One finger touches your nose. The other crosses it and touches your ear. Then you swap the hands to touch the opposite. Then swap them. Swap, swap faster and faster.

22)Thumbs Up Thumbs down

Hold your hands out in front of your body. On one hand one thumb is up. On the other hand your index finger is pointing. Then swap them. Swap, swap faster and faster.

23)Pat your head and rub your tummy.

Make the swaps faster and then specify which way the hand has to rub. i.e. Rub your tummy to the left. Rub it to the right. While keeping the rate of the swaps steady and quick.

24)Figure 8s with two arms extended

Hold your hands out in front holding them together fully extended. Then make the biggest figure 8 you can 8 times. You can try figure 8’s with your knee, elbow, toes etc

25)Ball Game

Buy a cheap ball and write the numbers 1-20 around it. Get students standing in a circle and throw the ball to a student. The number closest to their left thumb is the number of the question they should answer. You could include the following questions:

  • Do you have a theme song? Or what is your current favourite?
  • What is your favourite food?
  • What sort of bird would you be?
  • If you had to lose one body part what would it be?
  • What is your greatest fear?
  • What is your favourite TV programme?
  • What do you need more of right now?
  • If you were on a desert island who would you take with you?
  • What New Zealand town does not deserve a place on the map?
  • Is chocolate a breakfast food?
  • If you were a teacher what subject would you teach?
  • If you were an evil dictator, where would you rule?
  • If you could bathe in a vat of any drink or food item, what would you choose?
  • Favourite place in NZ is?
  • What was your worst hair cut?
  • What do you regard as the most repulsive form of music?
  • Do you have any embarrassing stories?
  • Favourite movie of all time is?
  • Where would you most like to visit?
  • What is your favourite ice-cream flavour?

26)Biddy Biddy Bop

Students begin by standing in a circle. One person is “in” and stands in the middle of the circle. They make clear eye-contact with a fellow student and say the phrase, “Biddy-Biddy-Bop”. The student in the outer rim of the circle must say “Bop” before the person who is in finishes.

The game can be made more complex by adding some other cammands that the person who is “in” can ask of the others.

  • Elephant
  • Toaster
  • Aeroplane
  • JFK
  • Charlie’s Angels

Once the students are familiar with the poses, they can begin inventing their own.

27)Bang

Students stand in a circle. The teacher begins by calling a students name. That students should duck while the two students standing on either side point and attempt to shoot the ducking student by creating a gun with their fist and saying bang.. The last person to move is out and sits down for the rest of the game. If they all move at a reasonable pace, allow them to stay in. If the ducking student survives, they say another name and the game continues. If the ducking student was shot, the person on their left with say another name.

Once you are down to two students, they stand back to back and get ready to duel. The last student to go out tells the two duellers a word and then says a sentence that containes the word. When the students hear the word in the sentence they turn and shoot.

28)People Map

An interesting way for people to get to know one another is to learn about the geographical distribution of where people come from. Ask participants to create a human map, by standing to indicate where they consider home. Indicate North, East, South & West, then allow participants to position themselves to create a map. Ask the person who is the furthest what their name is and where they come from. Proceed to ask each major cluster where they come from. In this process, participants may refine or improve their map.

Optional: To extend the activity, ask participants to create a human map to show:

  • where their mother/father was born
  • where they would ideally like to live
  • the fartherest place you've travelled

29)Get to Know You Sociometric Questions

This activity is simply a series of "sociometric" questions which require participants to arrange themselves in space in relation to other people according to various individual and social characteristics. Facilitator warmth and friendly encouragement will help to break natural hesitancy. Laughter is very healthy. Leaders are to move amongst students and join in as participants. We suggest you use about 10 questions for a session.

30)Find someone who:

  • had the same breakfast as you
  • has the same shoe size (or has the same size hand)
  • has a different religious belief
  • you haven't met yet, but would really like to
  • has the same favourite season
  • has the same favourite sense
  • Walk to / arrange yourselves according to:
  • the place where you were born
  • the place where you live
  • a place you would like to visit
  • a place where a memorable event took place for you
  • Lineup according to:
  • number of siblings
  • thumb size
  • number of glasses of water (or cups of caffeine) you drink per day
  • introversion / extraversion
  • how tired / alert you feel
  • number of different countries you've visited

31)Name Pantomime

Participants stand in a circle, arms distance apart. Ask each person to think of an verb and action which starts with the same letter as the person's first name e.g., "Jumping James". The person does the action and yells out their action-name. Everyone then repeats the action and the action-name. This requires pretty high level of instructor energy and drama, people are pretty shy to start with. Really encourage everyone to join in and say the name and action of everyone else. To really drill names home, go around again, it should be faster and really get the blood moving. For participants who say "I can't think of anything", I say "Keep thinking, we'll come back to you". If they still don't come up with anything, I ask the group to help. Note I don't allow duplicate verbs either - must use a unique verb.