Theater Games for Little Kids

• Get kids into character with theater games.girl in halloween costume image by NiDerLander from Fotolia.com
  
  Children are natural actors. Watch them during daily playtime and you will observe plenty of comedy and drama. Effortless role-playing behavior diminishes in kids over time, as they lose interest in imaginary games and move on to the structure of sports or the fun of playground equipment. Teach children to tap into their acting ability as they play theater games designed to develop their natural talent.
  
  

Park Bench

• Choose two children to play Park Bench. The first child should sit on the area designated as the bench and pretend to be someone who wants to be quiet and left alone to enjoy his day. He could choose to pretend to read a book or listen to an MP3 player--or even just sit and look around. The second child pretends to be an obnoxious person who bothers the first child until his day is no longer pleasant and he leaves the bench. The obnoxious child may not touch or push the other child, but should behave so that no one would want to stay on a park bench next to her. When the first child leaves, the obnoxious child gets to be the quiet person on the bench and someone new is chosen to bother her.
  
  

Quiet Charades

• Tell the little ones to zip their lips when playing this game, because no talking is allowed. Choose the titles of well known children's books or movies to whisper into the ear of the child performing the charade. All of the other children call out guesses until the correct answer is given. The child that named the charade correctly gets to act out the next one.
  
  

Animal Improv

• Children are familiar with the characteristics of animals in their environment, or animals they've learned about in books. Let them explore what it feels like to be an animal in a silly circumstance. Animal improv is done with three or more children--each playing an animal who finds herself in a predicament. Based on the children's animal knowledge, choose an animal for them to play. If you choose a cat, encourage them to develop their cat-character by giving it a name and imagining what it might wear. Then tell the children the situation they will act out as the cat characters. For example, you may choose cats having a picnic on a beach spoiled by a storm. Try challenging the kids to be different animals in another improv scene. They could be polar bears on a tropical vacation, or farm animals watching a parade and describing the action as the parade passes.