Teaching Kids To Mime

Mime Can be Used To Reinforce Learning

© Jo Murphy

Feb 5, 2007

Some children will feel comfortable about communicating through mime and others will find they are stretched. Here are some ideas for using mime in the classroom

• The teacher may sing a short song eg “went to bed and bumped his head and couldn’t get up in the morning.” The students respond by miming the song. They may want to challenge you the teacher to a mime.
• The teacher may mime a phrase or word and have the student choose a card from the floor that they think is the best fit.
• This activity will be very challenging. The old saying is that “you really do not know something until you have taught it.” Have the children teach each other art techniques by miming the instructions. The results can often be very creative.
• Arrange a sports game such as leader ball using only mime to give instructions.
• Play Pictionary by having one student mime a word and the class draw what they think it was.
• Pretend your body is like an attribute and mime how you would act. These attributes could be something like puffed out balloon, thin, wispy, watery, hot and shriveled.
• Pretend you are a snake and weave your way to the sand pit or art classroom
• Go on a trust walk without disturbing the birds and animals.
• Have the students create a poem and mime it
• With the class write a short skit and mime it
• You the teacher mime a short skit and have the children finish the story on paper in pairs. They can then come out and mime their creation.
• Create a collage story without talking. Workout the layout together by miming.
• Spread masks on the floor. Have the students choose a mask. They can mime the character the mask portrays.
• Have the students mime the experience of being an animal such as butterfly, caterpillar or duck.
• Mime a situation like being lost, finding a lost child, looking for a needle in a haystack.

Film the miming session and deconstruct it with the class. Ask them for alternative recreations. Students can learn alot about 'ways of seeing' by doing these exercises.

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