Physical Warm-Up Game: Doodles

The following is a quick, simple warm-up game that works for virtually any age range and skill level. All you’ll need is a stack of Post-it notes or a pile of scrap paper, some writing implements, and your students.

There are many different ways you can tailor this warm-up, depending on whether you’re studying mime, tableau, creative movement, or if you just need your students to get their brains and bodies moving. It’s a handy exercise to keep in your back pocket when you need to shake things up in class. Pick one, two, or a few for your students to do.

Instructions

1. Give each student a piece of scrap paper or a Post-it note and a writing utensil.

2. Each student has exactly three seconds to make a doodle on the paper. No more, no less!

3. Collect the doodles. Make sure they’re all appropriate for your class.

4. Choose a doodle (or doodles) at random, post it where everyone can see it, and have students try the following exercises:

• Create a frozen pose with your body that physicalizes the doodle.
• Create a frozen pose with a partner that physicalizes the doodle.
• Move very slowly from a neutral stance (feet flat on the floor, hands by sides, eyes forward) to the frozen pose from the doodle.
• Physicalize the doodle. Move around the room (silently) as you think the doodle would.
• Select three doodles and have students slowly flow from the first doodle to the second to the third.
• Divide students into groups of three or four. Select three doodles and have each group create a movement piece that includes the three doodles in some fashion.
• Have one student direct the rest of the students in re-creating a giant version of the doodle flat on the floor.
• Have students come up with their own way of bringing the doodle to life.