ESL Drama Game: Animal Mime

What’s the first step to helping pre-schoolers open up and express themselves freely in English… without inhibitions?

Here’s a simple drama game to review animal vocabulary and get everyone moving around having fun!

• Print out 4-5 picture cards/flashcards of different farm/jungle animals
• Have the children spread out around the room
• Show each child (in secret) an animal card
• Tell the children to “pretend” to become the animal. Encourage them to mime their animal’s gestures and sounds and start to prowl, bark, stomp, slither, quack, hop, whoosh or waddle around the room in search of other “family” members (someone who acts and sounds like them)
• When they find a family member, they team-up and continue role-playing until everyone has found a group.
• The teacher then goes around and asks: “What animal are you?”
• Each Family answers in unison “I’m a Lion,”(Roarhhhh!) or “I’m a snake,” (Sssssss!) or “I’m a duck” (Quack quack!) etc…

Lots of fun especially when you find ducks teaming up with elephants!
Happy Teaching
Miranda