By Jackie Daley, Education Director at Kidstock!
Classes kicked off at Kidstock! this week and we’re so excited to see all the new and returning faces in the building! From the first day, we strive to create a fun and safe environment for all our students to explore new challenges alongside peers with stories, theater games, character work, and acting exercises through our unique curriculum.
The best part about theater games and exercises? Anyone can try them! If your Kidstock! performer loves their experience and wants to keep the theater fun going at home, we have lots of activities to try.
Here are some of my favorite creative theater activities that families can do together at home in the afternoon or on a weekend day:
Create a Circle Story!
Each family member contributes one sentence at a time to create a story. Once you’ve mastered the collaborative thought, try doing it with unfinished “cliffhanger” sentences that require the next person to complete your sentence before beginning a sentence of their own for the next person to complete.
If you really want a challenge, adapt the format to be just one word at a time, working on making sure it is not just the longest sentence, but has obvious elements of punctuation that initiate new sentences. Do your best to have it make sense grammatically, but it’s extra fun when some of the ideas are wacky and unexpected. I played this on a long car ride with my niece and nephew and it was wonderful as you can make it as long or short as you have time for. We had a lot of laughs and made some hilarious characters together!
The Story Spectacle
We play this game during Kidstock! talent shows! One person suggests a title of a story that does not yet exist like “Henrietta’s Birthday Disaster” or “The Little Piggy That Couldn’t Dance.”
A different person is then assigned to be the storyteller and tells the story out loud. The remaining participants create illustration tableaus of various moments, or even perform the story as it’s being told.
One Minute Story
This one is a fun challenge to play! Come up with a title for an untold tale and set the timer for one minute. The storyteller has to talk continuously for one minute to give the story a beginning, middle, and end and concludes right as the timer goes off. Take turns telling stories, then try to tell stories for shorter or longer.
Above all, at Kidstock! we believe everyone is a natural storyteller. Have fun, encourage each other, and remember to applaud!
If that’s still not enough theater fun for your Kidstock! kid, there are always more things to do here! Explore our website for more classes, no school day “Playcations,” birthday parties, and more.
About the Author
Jackie Daley, Education Director at Kidstock! Creative Theater
Jackie Daley has been part of our management team and a Kidstock! educator and performer since 2017. She delights in directing, teaching, creating shows, and developing curriculum that fosters confidence, creativity, and empathy in young performers and storytellers.
