Killer

How it Works:

1. Get the group into a circle. 
2. Everyone closes their eyes.
3. The facilitator chooses someone to be the killer by tapping one person on the shoulder.
4. Everyone opens eyes and then walks around shaking hands with one another and introducing themselves. 
5. The "Killer" can choose to kill someone by double squeezing their hand while shaking it. 
6. If a person receives the double squeeze of death, they need to shake hands with two more people and then fall to the ground, in their most dramatic (and often noisy) death scene. 
7. If at any point a member of the group believes that they know who the killer is, they can yell "STOP!" At this point everyone freezes. The person who yelled stop then accuses someone as the killer (ie: "STOP! The killer is Derek!")
8. If the accused actually IS the killer, THEY die dramatically. If the accused is NOT the killer, the one who yelled "STOP!" dies dramatically. 
9. Once the killer is discovered, the game resets and a new killer is chosen. 

Notes: 

• The killer does not have to kill with every hand shake, but they MUST kill at least every 3rd person they meet, otherwise the game gets boring

Options: 

• Have the deaths be acted out silently. 
• Introduce 2 or 3 killers in a game. This is often interesting if you select 2 people while the teams eyes are closed, but don't tell the group that there is more than one killer. 

Group Circle Counting

How it works: 

1. Have the students get into a tight circle where everyone is touching shoulders and is in as far as they can go.
2. All students should close their eyes. The goal of the exercise is for the group to count from 1-20, or whatever number you prescribe. 
3. One person begins by saying “1,” then another says “2,” until the group makes it to 20. If 2 people say a number at the same time then the group must start over at 1. No one is assigned to a certain number and there is no prescribed pattern. The goal is to get the group thinking as one so that they can get through the entire exercise.

Huh? What?

How it works:

1. Get everyone into a circle formation. 
2. You will pass a "word" around the circle. 
3. When people Look to the left, they say "huh?"
4. When people Look to the right, they say "what?" 
5. Goal is to pass "huh?" or "what?" around the circle, without breaking the left/huh, right/what rule. 
6. Practice once all the way around in each direction so students get a feel for which word is said when facing each direction. 
7. Play for real: Each person gets to choose which word they say, and thus which direction they move the words around the circle. 
8. If someone says the wrong word/direction combo, I usually have everyone say "Yay!" or "oooh!" and that person restarts the circle. 

Notes: 

• Students may want to get caught in a back and forth of huh/what. While it is entertaining to see if one person will mess up, the rest of the students get bored. Try to discourage this. 

Options: 

• Start 2 or three words at different points in the circle, travelling in different directions. 
• Add in a third word where a student can pass the word across the circle. I've used "Hey you!" in the past and it has worked well. 

Neighbours

How it works: 

1. Get everyone in a circle. 
2. Go over names.
3. Choose person for middle. 
4. Person in Middle chooses someone in the circle and says: "(name), how do you like your neighbours?"
5. Person Chosen responds with: "I like my neighbours (name of person on left) & (name of person on right) just fine, but I would rather have (name)'s neighbours.(note: He/she chooses someone else across the circle)
6. The four neighbours (two initially named, and two on each side of the other person chosen) switch. 
7. Person in middle tries to get a spot during the switch. 
8. The odd one out becomes new person in the middle. 
9. Repeat. 

Options: 

• People switching can only move in slow motion

Welcome to Middle School Drama Games!

Welcome to the site! I am always searching for great drama games and warmups for middle school performing arts classes. On this site I will post a variety of games and warmups that I have tested with my students. If you have some that work for you, please contact me and send them my way!