At my first NTPRS, I took a class with Von Ray about using the skills of improv to add excitement to your TPRS class. Well, I was inspired, two years later, to start taking improv classes. What a blast! I am in love and will be performing for the first time on March 3rd.
The interesting thing to me is trying to take the "games" from the improv classroom to my TPRS classroom. Here are some games that I think translate well. They might be a little hard to picture without the visual, so feel free to ask questions if anything is not clear.
Patterns: In this game, students stand in a circle. I turn to the person to my left, look them directly in the eye, and we start a pattern by saying a word at the same time (this can be hard because the other person doesn't know what I'm going to say yet) and clapping. Then, they turn to the person to their left and continue the pattern, and so on. Once it gets back to me, we repeat the pattern until we can do it fairly quickly. I would say that this works best if there is no more than 15 kids in a circle, so you might need to split up a larger class. For my students, we start off with numbers. I say "un" and my partner says "deux" and so on around the circle. When it gets back to me, I turn to my left partner and say "un" again. By this time, they should know that I am going to say "un". Try and get it going faster and then start with the numbers a second time, so that there are two sets of counting going on at the same time. Once kids get the hang of this, you can try a category, like colors. I would start off with "bleu" and then my partner would say another color to his left-partner. If you can get really good at it, you can have two categories going at once (colors and numbers).
Go!: This is more of a brain-break, but it's kind of fun. Again, stand in a circle. One person points to another student and says their name (this would be good for the first weeks of school when we are trying to build community). The person who has been called on looks at the pointer and says "Go!/Vas-y!" The pointer can not move until the named person says Go! Once they say Go, the pointer moves to take the named person's place and the named person becomes the pointer and picks another student. It sounds really easy, but the brain's first reaction is to start moving as soon as the student names and points.
Whatcha doing?: I really like this game, but I have not yet tried it for the classroom. Two students come to the front of the class and one student starts miming an action. The other student says, Whatcha doing?/Qu'est-ce que tu fais? The student doing the action says anything but what they are actually doing and the non-miming student starts mimicking that action. For example, student A starts pretending to swim. Student B asks "Whatcha doing?" Student A says, "Riding a bike" Student B starts pretending to ride a bike and Student A asks "Whatcha doing?" and student B says "playing football" and student A starts pretending to play football.
Arm/leg/countdown: This is one that I just thought of adapting yesterday, so I haven't had a chance to try it. It would be great for those moments when the eyes are starting to get glassy. Everyone stands up. You shake your right arm and say "Arm, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8" Then start shaking your left leg and say "Leg, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8" Then move to the left arm and say "Arm, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8" Then right leg "Leg, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8" Then go back to the left arm and lose the 8 "Arm, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7" Repeat until you are just yelling "Arm, leg, arm, leg, arm, leg" and jumping around like a goofball. Obviously, you would translate to your language.
So that's it! Hope these add some fun!
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