Drama Resources for Schools

Name Games

Here are a variety of name games to use with children and adults. These can be used for a facilitator to learn the group’s names before starting a workshop, or for a group who are unfamiliar with each other.

Age: 4+

Catch My Name

This is a fun and easy way to learn names and develop a sense of working together. Stand in a circle, throw a ball or a beanbag to someone, using their name, and they in turn toss it to someone else, using the next person’s name. Keep it going until everyone in the circle has had a turn. Once you have done this you can move on to a more complicated game.

Age 8+

Party Name Game

The group sits or stands in a circle. The facilitator tells the group they are having a party and that everyone has to bring something for the party that begins with the same first letter as their name. E.g. My name is Alison, and I am bringing an Antelope.” The person to the facilitators right says his name and item and we go round the circle until we have heard from everyone.

To make it more difficult go round again, but this time the first person says their own name and what they are bringing to the party and also repeats the facilitators name and item: “My name is Helen, I am going to bring Hamburgers. This is Alison, who is bringing Antelopes.” Each person in turn introduces himself, announces their item, and repeats the name and item of everyone who preceded
them. This means the last person has to remember everyone in the group! The facilitator needs to encourage others to help out when participants get stuck on someone’s name or item, with verbal or pantomimed clues.

Name Pantomime

The group stands in a circle, the facilitator asks each person to think of a verb and action which starts with the same letter as the person’s first name e.g., “Jumping James”.

The first person says their action-name and then does the action. Everyone then repeats the action-name and the action. Go round the group until everyone has had a turn. The group is normally quite shy to start with, the facilitator needs to really encourage everyone to join in and say the name and action of everyone else. Then go around again, it should be faster and really more exciting. For participants who say “I can’t think of anything”, I say “Keep thinking, we’ll come back to you”. If they still don’t come up with anything, I ask the group to help.

Age 10+

Juggle My Name

1^st round

Stand in a circle, pick someone out & ask their name, then say “Hi Freddy, my name is James…here you go!” Throw the ball underhand to Freddy. Freddy then says “Thank you James”, he picks someone else and says “Hi X, my name is Freddy…here you go!” and so on until everyone in the circle has had a go.

2nd round

Throw the ball around the circle again, making sure that everyone uses the same order, and uses each other’s names. The group will be challenged to remember who to throw it to. Take it slow and help the group out, so that each person has a successful second round.

3rd round

Do it again, using the same order and everyone’s names, but see if you can do it faster. It will go pretty fast and the group will be left feeling pleased with themselves.

4th round

Do it again, urging the group to go faster with an enthusiastic tone, once the ball has gone around a few group members, take a second ball out of your pocket and throw it to the first participant (Freddy!) saying his name just like before. By now the group should feel comfortable with keeping the second ball going. Dependent on the age and ability of the group you can introduce a third and a fourth ball, you can go up to about six balls. For fun you can introduce a ridiculous number of balls, and strange objects such as cuddly toys, beanbags in strange shapes, anything soft! It generally becomes a hilarious shambles, which can help the group to bond even more.

Age 12 +

Zombie Name Game

The group stand in a circle. Nominate one person to become the Zombie. Encourage them to “release their inner Zombie” using sound and facial expressions. The Zombie begins walking slowly but directly towards another person in the circle, with their hands out in front of them like a zombie. If they touch the person, the victim is “out” and must leave the circle.

The only way the intended 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, because as more and more people are “out” the amount of names to call out grows smaller. You can’t say the name of a person who is out–it must be someone who is still in the circle. This games naturally gets faster as it goes along, but don’t allow it to get too quick!

We have a general drama workshop for KS1 and KS2