Early years drama activities (part 2)

Listed below are a few activity ideas / games to encourage drama and socio-dramatic play in early years settings. They are taken from a document that I put together thanks to CCE funding. It is available to download as a pdf here.

The chewing gum game

Really nasty, funny game that kids tend to adore.

1. Take a piece of (imaginary!) chewing gum out of your pocket and put it in your mouth.

(Discuss various disgusting flavours.)

2. Chew it with much exaggeration.

3. Explain that you are going to stick it on the person next to you and that they must then stick it on the person next to them and so on. You must try to think of a different way of sticking it. (eg nose, shoe, hair etc)

4.Pass the chewing gum around the circle in this way, amongst much ‘uuurrrrgggghhh’ noises from the children!

Soundscapes

Nice simple activity, drawing on collective and shared experiences.

1. All children in a circle.

2. Decide on a location (eg the zoo, seaside, nursery etc)

3. Explain that, as a big group, we are going to make the sounds of that place so that we can pretend we are

there.

4. Build up soundscape one sound at a time. (eg one child makes sound of sea, someone else seagull, someone else children playing….all continue but keep adding in new

sounds).

5. Be the conductor: Introduce concept that if you raise hands up in the air the sound gets louder, down to the floor and sound gets quieter, slice through the air and sound stops.

Emotive

Lovely game for exploring emotions and facial expressions.

1. Tell the children that they each have a big pile of magic putty in front of them.

2. Take a moment for everyone to squidge their (imaginary) putty and make the squelchy sounds to go with it.

3. Explain that the putty can change your feelings.

4. Choose a feeling, eg happy/sad/angry/excited etc, and put the putty all over your face (take your time, use loads of sounds effects etc). When you peel the putty off, you are all HAPPY/GRUMPY/SCARED etc.

5. Allow them to take turns in choosing an emotion for everyone to explore.

Read part 3 here.

Lindsay is a freelance creative practitioner and community artist www.lindsayjanehunter.co.uk