Acting and theater are great activities for kids to get involved with. Check out these creative acting games for kids, and allow the art of storytelling to whisk your kids away into another world. A space where they can explore, play, and express themselves in a safe environment. Acting can help kids develop super crucial everyday life skills in a fun and engaging way.
These skills will be super helpful in their learning and social environments and throughout their whole lives. Encourage their development by playing fun acting games at home or in groups. Before we look at all the fun acting games for kids that they’ll love, let’s go over why I so strongly encourage everyone to give these games a try!
What Are the Benefits of Acting Games for Kids?
There are many benefits to playing acting games for kids, but here are our favorites:
Imagination
A strength many kids already have, acting and acting games for kids can help foster and add value to your kids’ wild imagination. Acting allows them to share and play out their wildest imagined ideas and scenarios with no judgment. It encourages them to become out-of-the-box thinkers, meaning they will find it much easier to generate creative ideas in all areas of learning and life.
Confidence
Acting games allow kids to work on their confidence skills. You must be brave to share ideas, especially in front of many people watching. These games encourage kids to speak up, trust themselves, and eliminate any fear of being seen. These skills will prove helpful when your kids are nervous about a presentation they have to make in class or when they must speak in public.
Teamwork
Most of these acting games for kids will require kids to listen to each other, accept each other’s ideas, and work together to either win or keep the game going. These skills will create excellent team players! Your kids will find it much easier to collaborate in the future if they get their practice in now through these fun games.
Language/Speaking Skills
Some of these games will require kids to work on story-telling, using words creatively, and coming up with words (improvising) on the spot! Acting will enrich their vocabulary and make them more confident speakers and excellent listeners!
Body Awareness Skills
Many of these games also require movement. This means kids can eventually develop a strong awareness of how their bodies move and how they can move in a space.
These acting games for kids will work on multiple, if not all, of these benefits and skills simultaneously without kids even noticing it because they are so engrossed and engaged in the games! All the games can be played with just two players; however, they also work fantastically with more people or in larger groups.
Our Favourite Five Acting Games for Kids to Get Started
Game #1 – Moving Around the Space
Skills Used: Speaking, Listening, Body Awareness, Confidence
This game challenges your child’s listening, instruction-following, and physical motor skills. I recommend you start by giving the instructions. You can join in on the movements so your child feels like you’re playing with them. Once they have the hang of the game, they can take over and give the instructions instead of you.
Start by instructing them to walk around the space, not in a circle, in any direction they want, filling the space.
Add in the following instructions one at a time:
- Stop / Go
- Jump / Touch the floor
- Clap / Snap (or Stomp if they can’t snap)
Keep walking after the jump, touch the floor, clap, and snap instructions so that you’re always constantly moving around the space unless instructed to “stop.” You must be instructed to “go” again after “stop” to keep moving around the space.
Once they have a hang of these instructions, tell them each instruction means the opposite.
For example:
- Stop means Go
- Go means Stop
- Jump means Touch the Floor
- Touch the Floor Means Jump
- Clap means Snap
- Snap means Clap
This should be challenging for the brain as they must keep moving around while following opposite instructions! It’s fun, and kids love this challenge.
They will also have lots of fun taking charge and giving instructions. So, I encourage you to allow them to lead this game as the instruction giver! This game has no definitive end. You can either set a timer or do it for as long as you feel like. If you want to up the stakes and you are playing with a large group, you can take people out of the game if they don’t follow the instructions correctly, and the winner will be the last person standing.
Recommended Ages: 5+ years old
This acting game for kids works great for a wide variety of ages. Even as an adult, it’s a tremendous brain-stimulating and fun game! It can be played with just two players, but really, you can play it with an unlimited number of people, and all take turns giving instructions.
Feel free to come up with your own fun instruction pairs, too! Get creative (you could pretend to be animals, even; ex., cats/dogs)! The possibilities are endless, and you can adjust the level of difficulty based on your kids and how comfortable they feel with this game.
Game #2 – “What are you doing?”
Skills Used: Imagination, Speaking, Confidence
This game is a great improvisation game, as kids will have to think on the spot and get creative! It also stretches the imagination. The idea is that it is played quickly, and you learn not to judge your own ideas.
Player A starts by “offering” a frozen position in the middle of a room.
Player B asks, “What are you doing?”
Player A replies with an action and acts it out, unfreezing from their position. A reply could be something like “Cooking pasta!” “Mowing the lawn!” “Playing Football.” The idea is that they quickly say the first thing that comes to mind!
Then, Player B taps Player A, and Player B is frozen in the middle of the room.
Player A asks, “What are you doing?”
Player B responds with whatever comes to mind first: “Building a house!” “swimming in the Olympics!” and “flying in the sky.” They unfreeze and jump into action, acting out the action they mentioned.
Once again, the players swap over, and so on. Bonus points are awarded for freezing in the same position as the previous player and inventing a brand-new action!
If there are more than two players, any player who gets a stroke of inspiration can tap the player in action and replace them. This game also doesn’t have a defined structure.
Recommended Ages: 4+ years old
This game is excellent for many ages and even fun for adults – get involved!
Game #3 – One Word Story
Skills Used: Language, Speaking, Listening, Teamwork, Imagination
This is another improvisation game that will work on imagination, collaboration, and listening skills. It will also challenge your kids to think quickly and on the spot.
This game can be played sitting down, facing each other. The goal is to build a story; however, you can only say one word at a time.
So it could sound something like this:
Player A: Once
Player B: Upon
Player A: A
Player B: Time
Player A: There
Player B: Lived
Player A: A
Player B: Chicken
Player A: The
Player B: Chicken
Player A: Likes
Player B: Ballet
This should eventually become a funny, unpredictable short story. A great teaching moment could be reminding your kids that stories have a beginning, middle, and end, and that’s the goal. The challenge is only saying one word at a time and listening to the other player(s). Sometimes, you will have to change your idea of where the story will go because of what your teammate said, and that’s okay; it’s all part of working together! The most important thing is to have fun!
You can also play this game in a circle; each player says one word as you go around the circle.
Tip: If your kids prefer more guidance, you can give them a theme for your story or a title to work with. For example, you could make a fantasy, horror, or romance story. A title example could be “The Fox and the Cheese” or “The Boy Who Could Fly.” Get creative!
Recommended Ages: 7+ years old
This game works better with slightly older children who understand how to form sentences correctly. Younger kids might need more support if language is not their strong suit.
Game #4 – Mirror Me!
Skills Used: Teamwork, Physical Awareness
This game challenges partner work, coordination, and movement.
You play this game in pairs! Pick who will be Player A and who will be Player B.
Player A and Player B stand and face each other.
Player A will start moving slowly; they can move their hand, leg, or whatever they please.
Player B will try to mirror Player A as accurately as possible.
After a while, swap over!
It’s really simple, works well when done slowly, and is enjoyable too. This game is an excellent choice if you want something calm and focused.
Recommended Ages: 4+ years old
Game #5 – Keeper of the Keys
Skills Used: Physical Awareness, Confidence, Risk-taking
This is a variation of the game “What’s the Time, Mr. Wolf?”. If you don’t have keys lying around, get a set of keys or another small object and place it on one side of the room, next to the “Keeper.”
Choose one person to be the “Keeper of the Keys”.
All other players go to the opposite side of the room. The game starts when the “Keeper” says “Go.”.
The other players must get the keys without the “Keeper” catching them. The “Keeper” catches them when they turn around and see one of the players moving. The “unfrozen” player caught moving has to return to where they started.
The game finishes once someone successfully manages to take the keys. The person who managed to get the keys becomes the new “Keeper of the Keys”.
I suggest coming up with movement/character challenges for the kids to add a bit more of a dramatic acting flair. For example, you can tell the players they can only move like a specific animal, ballerinas, superheroes, grandparents, etc.
This game works best in a large group. However, it can be played with two people (making it more intense) or with three or more people.
Recommended Ages: 4+ years old
Acting Games for Kids – In conclusion…
These are just a few creative acting games for kids that they’ll love, and that will help them get inspired, build their confidence, and let their creativity flow—all while having a really fun time! So, next time you have some free time or want to shake up your child’s regular playtime routine, I recommend trying out one of these simple games, and I encourage you to get as involved as possible, too!
When it comes to acting games, feel free to personalize, add, or remove any rules to adjust them to your style of play or your kids. The most important thing is to create a safe environment where you and the children feel comfortable expressing themselves without judgment, getting creative, and working together. There truly is no limit to creativity, expression, and play!
