If you’re planning a Halloween party with your primary school students, you might want to include some games to get everyone loosened up and having fun. Drama games help young children express themselves, communicate with their peers, and build bonds which all contributes to how comfortable they feel in the classroom. Try out these Halloween drama games with your KS1 and KS2 students.
For more fun, spooky activities, check out our blog 10 Educational Halloween Activities for School Kids.
1. Wizards, Giants, and Goblins
This is a more expressive adaptation of the traditional Rock, Paper, Scissors game, with a sinister twist! In this game, have your students line up in two teams so each person is facing someone else. Then on the count of three, each child assumes one of the three characters by raising their hands up tall as a giant, crouching down as a goblin, or casting a pretend spell as a wizard. In this game ‘Giants beat Wizards, Wizards beat Goblins and Goblins beat Giants’.
On the link, instructions call for the losing team to make it back to their side of the classroom without being tagged by the winning team. But you could also make the game similar to musical chairs, where each loser sits out and the winner is the last person standing.
2. Zombie Name Game
The Zombie name game is perfect for KS2 but can also be adapted for KS1 or even as a preschool Halloween activity. In the game, all the students stand in a circle and each says their name like a zombie would. Then, choose one student to be the zombie. The zombie must walk arms stretched out like a zombie into the middle of the room. Then call out the name of another student. The zombie will head towards that person with the aim of tagging them and turning them into the zombie. But the target can call out the name of another person meaning the zombie must switch direction and head for that person instead.
A preschool adaptation of this game could be simply to go round the circle and have each child call out their name and do an impression of a zombie.
3. Through the Dark Wood
Have all the students line up facing each other to form a corridor. Then each student must lock hands with the person in front of them. One by one, each student has to travel through the dark wood in a different way. Choose spooky characters for the children to do impressions of. For example, a ghost, a cat, a zombie, a witch, a goblin.
4. Worm Race
Here’s a simple game that will test childrens’ coordination and teamwork skills. Split the class into teams of at least four or five. Have each person in each team line up and form a ‘worm’ by putting one hand through their legs and grabbing the hand of the person behind them. The ‘worm’ will have to make it to a designated spot intact to win. You could either race all the ‘worms’ at the same time or time them one by one so each team can put on a performance.
5. Wink Murder
This game is ideal for circle time and requires children to focus, use deduction skills, and communicate non verbally. Hand out pieces of paper to let the children know whether they are the murderer or the detective (there is one of each in the game and the murderer must keep their identity to themself). Then have the children sit in a circle. The murderer must secretly ‘kill’ other players by winking at them. The detective must find out who the murderer is before everyone is ‘dead’.
