Theatre Education: A Resource of Practical and Project-Based Warm-ups/Theatre Games for K-12

Cover the Space

Where we learned it: Creative Drama at NU
Ages: 2nd grade and up
Materials: None

Process:

1. Ask the students to walk around the room.  As they walk, they should pay attention to the empty spaces and move to fill those areas.  The goal is to evenly fill all the available space.
2. Tell the students that on the count of three, they must freeze and assess how well they have filled the space.
3. Count to three.  Side-coach as necessary and make adjustments to fill in the entire space.
4. Repeat the walking and freezing until the students can fill the space on the count of three.

Variations:

1. On every freeze, the students must work in pairs or threes to fill in space using each other’s bodies for support.
2. Coach the students to think in three-dimensional terms and to fill the space on the floor and all the space above it.  (This encourages students to think about negative space in a creative way.)

      

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