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

Duck, Duck, Whatever

Where we learned it: Children’s Theatre of Western Springs
Age: Kindergarten and up
Materials: large open space

Process:

1. Sit in a circle, facing the inside.  One person stands on the outside of the circle.
2. The person standing moves around the outside of the circle, tapping people lightly on the head and saying, “Duck,” with each tap.
3. At some point, instead of saying “Duck,” the person on the outside of the circle names any kind of animal (e.g., horse, tiger, eagle) as she taps a head.
4. The standing person now runs around the circle as that animal (e.g., galloping like a horse) and the person who she tapped must chase them around the circle like that animal.
5. If the person gets tagged, she must come in the middle and say something interesting about herself.  The chaser is now the tapper.
6. If the person sits in the vacant seat of the chaser before being tagged, then the chaser becomes the tapper.

Variations:

• Create a Shakespearean version by naming characters from his plays instead of different animals.  Create the specific ways of moving for each character as a class (e.g., Richard III limps, Lady Macbeth washes hands).