Just after half term is a great time to reflect on any trips away, talk future plans for the summer, or discover and consolidate what your children know about a topic. This drama game is the perfect way to get them chatting constructively and improve their communication skills whilst having heaps of fun. Watch your children become creative and focussed with this fast paced improvisation game, “Tell me about…”. It has great links to literacy as the children explore the use of adjectives, but can be used for all sorts of topics!
How it Works
Ask the children to get into pairs – or choose pairs yourself if you’d like to see specific interactions. One child is A and the other B. Choose a noise signal using your voice or an instrument. The noise signal tells children when to start and stop talking. When the children hear this signal, A must say to B “Tell me about…” and insert a subject of their choice, for example “Tell me about rice pudding”. B must then talk about the chosen subject until they hear the noise signal again. It is then B’s turn to say to A “Tell me about…”.
Top Tip
Ask partner B to pick something entirely different for A to talk about, if you have chance to swap back, ask partner A to ask B a follow up topic from their first turn.
For example, A could say “tell me about your summer holiday”, B talks about going to Brighton, then on partner A’s next turn they could say “Tell me about the beach in Brighton”.
This will help increase memory skills, concentration and comprehension.
Take it Further
You can tailor the game to your specific topic, or leave it completely up to the children to choose their subjects. You can encourage them to use as many adjectives as possible, or, for a real challenge, ban the word ‘and’!
For older children you could do this in small groups, perhaps fours, rather than pairs and structure it like the radio game ‘Just a Minute’. If the speaker repeats themselves, or hesitates, the other members of their group can say ‘beep’ and the topic passes to the next person. Perhaps do this without point scoring to keep the game moving along and avoid disputes.
Follow up work could include the children telling back to the whole class a story that was told to them, or writing their partner’s story up, like a journalist after an interview!
