Teaching drama over Zoom? Here are some great drama games to play with your students
With so many drama classes for young and old being taught over Zoom at the moment, we have compiled a list of great drama games that you can play with your class through video conferencing. So many drama games usually involve someone leaving the room or pairing off which is hard to do when we are all isolating! Hope you enjoy this list. If you have any others, share them in the comments below!
Alphabet Animals
This is a game that our son plays in his Saturday morning classes with PQA. It’s very straight forward and great for all ages. Despite it being called Alphabet Animals, you can make it a bit more tricky with something like “Alphabet Musicals” or “Alphabet Singers”.
The game is very simple. The first player says an Animal (or whatever chosen subject) that starts with the letter A. The next player B, etc. Any player that can’t think of an animal is out and it moves to the next player. At the end of the alphabet, you start again. However, no animal can be used more than once. As players are knocked out, it gets harder and harder to think of more animals. The winner is the only player to not be knocked out. For extra excitement, add a 5 second limit on how long each player has to come up with their animal.
Read My Lips
This is perfect for playing over video and is best played with a theme such as “Famous Musicals”. One player puts their microphone on mute and then reads out the name of the musical (or whatever subject is agreed on). The other players then try to read the other player’s lips and figure out what they are saying. The player that guesses what they are saying first both wins the point and also gets to be the next person to be the “Silent Reader”.
Before you start the game, give all the players a couple of minutes to come up with a few titles that they can use in the game. The winner can be based on the first to get to a certain amount of points. Depending on the size of the class, 3, 5, or 7 points should fill enough time.
Fictionary
This is a classic parlour game and really gets the creative juices flowing. The quizmaster either chooses an unusual word from the dictionary OR makes up a crazy word. Everyone else then takes a couple of minutes to come up with a definition for the word. The more detailed and ridiculous the better! The winner is chosen by the teacher based on whatever criteria you choose.
Here is a list of possible words you can use for the game.
Flugelbinder
Fowarten
Accurvey
Fuvertment
Sineout
Globsemille
Litionom
Prophyderling
Justantion
Pullmaplic
Durrectioner
React and Act
A great game for drama groups. Everyone comes up with a scenario and everyone else in the group has to react to it. It’s as simple as that. It’s a great icebreaker for the beginning of class. Here are some sample scenarios to start you off. The winner can be the most creative scenario or who reacts the best!
“You just forgot the lines while you are on stage”
“You just met your idol”
“You just scored the winning goal in a big match”
“You realise you are locked in a big shop overnight”
“You woke up naked on the high street”
“You just got back from 12 months in space”
“You just lost the world Yo-Yo championship by one point!”
“Your latest TikTok, YouTube, Instagram post just hit 5 million views!”
Two Truth’s and a Lie
Another great game that works very well over a video call. Each player is given a few minutes to come up with two truths and a lie about themselves. They then take turns to read out all three statements and the other players have to guess which is the lie. If you have time, the other players can ask questions. The player reading out their truths and lies need to be neither too convincing nor too unsure about any of the facts. The trick is to hide the lie as best as possible amongst the truths.
Votes can be taken on the three ‘facts’ read out by the player and points awarded to those that managed to uncover the lie!
Some real and fake facts can be:
People they have met
Places they have been
Injuries they have sustained
The age they were when….
A famous relative or connection to a historic character
I have a sibling who…
I was born in….
I used to live….
My dad used to be a….
I can play the….
I have won…..
Kim’s Game
Kim’s Game was named after the Rudyard Kipling novel of the same name. It’s a seemingly simple memory game. The game leader prepares a tray of objects. The more random the better so as to make the game more challenging. A cover is put over all the objects and only revealed to the players for a short period such as 15 seconds. The players then have a limited amount of time to write down as many objects as possible. The winner (or joint winners) is the player that notes down the most amount of objects.
Line By Line
A classic group-based game that you can add a theme to. The game leader starts off a story with any line that they like. It then goes through the group with everyone adding in the next line to make a story. You can include themes such as Shakespeare, A famous movie or genre of entertainment from Trashy reality TV through to highbrow drama. With a smaller group, you can go around to everyone a certain number of times or with a larger group, finish with the last person. Aim and get a few twists and turns in the story as well as introducing new characters and situations.
Here are some great opening lines from famous stories you can use:
‘In her nightmares, Alice looked into the magic mirror and watched the steamship burn all over again.’
“What are you doing here, child? This is no place for a little lass like you. Come on, tell me your name.”‘
‘When you wish that a Saturday was actually a Monday, you know there is something seriously wrong.’
‘“Tell us your story,” the voices said. “We want to hear your story – all of it….“’
‘From the years 1894 to 1901 inclusive, Mr. Sherlock Holmes was a very busy man.’
‘As soon as I got home from school, Aunt Baba noticed the silver medal dangling from the left breast-pocket of my uniform.’
I hope you like these Drama Games for Zoom. Do comment below if you have any more that are working well for you.
