Toy Boat

Type: Ensemble Building, Trust

Purpose: A simple trust exercise that will help your students work together and feel comfortable with the group.  Also a great game to play to calm the energy of a class.

Procedure:

1.  Have the group stand in a large circle.

2.  Explain that in the middle of the circle is a shallow pond.

3.  Stand behind one student and ask her to close her eyes. As you gently push her forward, she is to become a toy boat that lightly glides to the other side of the pond (with her eyes closed).

4.  When the boat reaches the other side, a student should be ready to catch her.  The boat opens her eyes and takes the place of whichever student caught her.

5.  The student who “caught her” now becomes the next toy boat to float across the circle.

NOTES:

-  Make sure that every aspect of this game happens in slow, gentle motion.

-  Students will realize when their eyes are closed the other side of the circle is much further than they think.

-  After a few rounds, consider allowing sending two or three toy boats across at the same time.

Towel Crossing

Type: Ensemble Building, Creativity

Purpose: Although this game doesn’t have anything to do with theatre/drama specifically, it’s great for team-building and forces kids to think outside the box.

Materials: 1)  A long beach towel 2) A hand towel (old ones that you don’t mind getting dirty).

Procedure:

1.  Divide the class into groups. Each group should have 4-8 students.

2.  Clear the stage. With masking tape, create a starting line and finish line on opposite sides of the stage.

3.  Ask one group to take the stage and line up behind the starting line. Give the group both the beach towel and the hand towel.

4.  The goal of each group is to get from the starting line to the finish line as quickly as possible, while keeping everyone’s feet ON the towels at all times.

5.  If any team members’ foot touches the floor, they must start over while the clock continues to run.

6.  They can use any technique they can think of.

7.  Use a stopwatch to time each team. The team that accomplishes this task the fastest wins.

NOTES:

- If the kids get stuck, “How else could you use those towels to solve the problem?” “Think outside the box!”

Sound and Motion

Type: Warm-Up, Break Out of Shell

Purpose: To get students loose, creative and having fun.

Procedure:

1.  Everyone stands in a circle.

2.  Tell the students you will start with a simple sound and motion that you will pass to the person to your right who will then pass it on and so forth around the circle.

3.  Students should be ready to receive the sound and motion and immediately, without thinking, pass it on. Start with a simple and smallish sound and motion.

4,  Continue until students are responding automatically.

5.  Next say you are going to start with a very small sound and motion, and that each person who gets it must pass it along, but must make it a little bigger. Continue until the sound and motion is huge.

6.  As a last possibility, tell them that they can alter the sound and motion as they make it bigger – challenge them to challenge each other by getting more and more ridiculous – each person having to top the person before them.

Other Variations:

1.  Start sending one sound and motion around. Then, immediately send a new sound and motion going the opposite direction. Try to keep the ongoing flow of sound and motion going around.

NOTE:  This game is simple and has many variations.  It’s recommended, especially when working with image-conscious teens, to start simple and slow and work up to totally crazy.