TEXAS SHAKEDOWN: A DRAMA GAME for KIDS
A High Energy Warm-up for Body and Voice

This energizing warm-up asks each student to shake out their hands and feet while counting down from ten to one—increasing the pace with each round.

STEP-BY-STEP INSTRUCTIONS

• Players form a circle. Tell the students to raise their right hands and count with you. Then lift your right hand and shake it eight times quickly, counting each shake. 

• Repeat this with the left hand, then the right foot (kicking it in the air while balancing on the left) and finally with the left foot. 

• Then tell the students, “Now just count to seven.” Lead the students in repeating the pattern of shakes–but counting only to seven. 

• Repeat the pattern counting to six, then five, then four, then three, then two, then one. The counting speed should increase with each round until–on the last round–everyone is quickly shaking their limbs shouting "One! One! One! One!" Then everybody cheers.

MORE DRAMA GAMES AND THEATER ACTIVITIES YOU MIGHT ENJOY:
SIREN - A vocal warmup where students glide their voices from low to high and back down
SPLASH - Students mime throwing water balloons and ducking while learning names in this group game
MIRROR - In pairs, one students mirrors the movements of the other

Curtains Up Curriculum by Friends of the Groom Theater Co. is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License. Curtains Up is a training program designed for young actors sponsored by Friends of the Groom Theater Company.
It is available to the general public for free under the terms of the Creative Commons License above.