If you are planning to do some fun Halloween drama workshop activities with your class, then here are some great games to give you inspiration! We’ll be posting some more nearer to Halloween as well, so keep your eyes peeled! (Peeling your eyes? Very Halloween! Ew)

Zombie Name Game

One of our favourites at any time of year, but particularly good at Halloween! You can use to learn the names of a group, or use with a group whose names are already familiar to each other.

Stand in a circle.  One person announces, “I am a Zombie”.  They then act as if they are a Zombie and walk slowly and directly towards another person in the circle, hands out in front.  If the Zombie touches the other person, they are “out” and must leave the circle.

The only way the victim can stop the Zombie is to call out the name of another person in the circle before any contact is made.  Once a name is called out, that person instantly becomes the Zombie and begins advancing on a victim.  Again, the only way the victim can save himself is by calling out a name.

Continue to play until all but two people have been eliminated.  It gets harder and harder, and faster and faster because as people are “out” the circle gets smaller!

Scary Statues

Musical statues with a spooky twist!

Put on some spooky music, there are plenty of CD’s of scary sounds that you can buy or use some classical music.

Ask pupils to move around the room when the music is playing, but when the music stops they have to freeze in a scary pose! If you want to eliminate people from the game, any pupil who moves when the music is off is out. You can play until there is only one pupil left.

Through the Dark, Dark Wood.

Pupils line up single file. Give each pupil either a different character or environment. Get each pupil to walk across the room one at a time acting as if they are that character or in that environment. When the student has walked across the room, they must go to the end of the line and let the next student have a turn. Here is a list of possible characters and environments:

• Witch
• Vampire
• Zombie
• Ghost
• Bat
• Owl
• Cat
• Monster
• Through a dark, dark wood
• Through a thunderstorm
• Through a haunted house
• As if the floor is covered in green slime
• Flying through the night on a broomstick

To continue the activity, invite pupils to come up with other spooky characters or environments. You can also get the pupils in the line creating sound effects as the other pupil walks across the room. This can be developed into the pupils creating their own spooky play using their favourite characters and environments.

Tongue Twisters

Tongue twisters can be used in a drama setting to help pupils learn to speak more clearly, practice projecting their voices, and to have fun. They can be said as a group or one at a time. It’s usually helpful to have students repeat each tongue twister several times in a row.

Encourage pupils to project their voices to the back of the room (taking a breath before each one to carry their voices) and to speak clearly.

• Giant green ghouls giggle at ghosts.
• Werewolves watch witches watching werewolves watching witches.
• Black cats can’t cough because black cats coughing is something black cat’s can’t do.
• Owls hoot haughtily.
• Patricia Poltergeist picked a peck of plump pumpkins. How many plump pumpkins did PatriciaPoltergeist pick if she picked a peck?
• Menacing monsters mingle at menacing monster monthly meetings.
• Many mournful mummies moan mournfully ’til morning for their mommies.
• Seven spindly spiders spin spooky silk speedily.
• Beastly, bigger bats boisterously bully baby brothers.
• Headless horsemen hunt with horrible howling hounds.

You can then invite them to create spooky tongue twisters on their own or in small groups.

Don’t forget we have a range of drama workshops for Halloween and the upcoming Fireworks Night!