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

Simon Says

Where we learned it: Elementary school playgrounds
Ages: 3rd grade and up
Materials: None

Process:

1. One student volunteers to be the caller or “Simon.”
2. All other students stand in lines of rows.
3. Either each person plays for herself or each line is a team playing together.
4. Simon begins to call out things that everyone should do by saying, “Simon says…”  (e.g., Simon says jumps up and down).
5. Everyone should do what Simon says and continue doing so until Simon says stop.
6. The trick is that if the caller says to do something and doesn’t say, “Simon says” in front of it – you’re not supposed to do it.
7. You are out if you do something without “Simon says” in front of it, or stop doing something that you haven’t been told to stop doing.