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Contents:

Introduction…………………………………………………………. p1

What is improv?....................................................... p2

The ‘rules’ of Improvisation………………………………….. p3

How to use improv in the classroom…………………….. p4

- Accepting mistakes activities…………………….. p5

- Listening activities…………………………………….. p7

- Yes and activities………………………………………. p8

- Performance!................................................ p11

More ideas and information………………………………….. p12

Comedy improvisation for

Comic Relief

2

Introduction:

Comedy improvisation is an excellent way to improve children’s speaking and listening skills,

build their confidence, develop their creativity and proactivity, and get them working

together as a team.

It also serves as a great hook to engage harder to reach children and as a safe space to

encourage quieter children to come out of their shell.

This free resource provides you with some fun improvisation activities that will get your KS2

children working together to make up comedy scenes on the spot. Your pupils’ vocabulary

will affect the success of some of these activities, so we suggest running this predominantly

with Year 5 and 6 pupils.

Comedy improvisation and literacy:

At the National Literacy Trust we define literacy as the ‘ability to read, write, speak and

listen in a way that lets us communicate effectively and make sense of the world’.

Improvisation improves speaking and listening skills and is often used as a way to both

inspire and develop writing.

Our 2016 BBC Comedy Classroom survey, of almost 25,000 children aged 8-16, showed that

a third of children and young people read comedy outside the classroom at least once a

month - more than poems, non-fiction or newspapers.

Comedy is also particularly popular with boys. The same survey showed that boys, despite

reading significantly less than girls overall, read more comedy outside the classroom every

month (38% versus 29%) and were much more likely to write comedy outside the classroom

(17% versus 10%).

“Speaking and listening is a key part of how we define literacy at the National Literacy Trust,

and being able to speak and listen well is vital in ensuring that a child goes on to live a happy

and successful life. These improvisation resources are a fun and effective way to help

develop these skills in the classroom.”

Jonathan Douglas, Director of the National Literacy Trust

“Improvisation is a fantastic skill for children to learn. It emphasises the importance of

listening, as well as utilizing creative skills of imagination and language. It also encourages

children to work together and will often improve communication skills, as they learn to have

fun and create scenes together.”

Freddie Sandilands, Teacher

3

What is improv?

Improvisation (sometimes called improv or impro) is a form of unscripted theatre where

characters, dialogue and story are made up on the spot. Often a suggestion from the

audience is used as a starting point to inspire the performance.

There are two main types of improvisation:

- Short form: In short form improvisation, the actors perform individual scenes each

inspired by a suggestion (usually from the audience). Each scene will often involve a game

that the actors must play whilst performing the scene. Examples of notable short form

improvisation include the Comedy Store Players and the TV show Whose Line Is It Anyway?

- Long Form: In long form improvisation, actors tend to get inspiration at the beginning and

then perform a series of scenes. Sometimes this means there is a narrative or recurring

characters. Examples of notable long form improvisation groups in the UK include

Austentatious and Showstoppers.

This resource will mainly focus on short form improvisation, but develop the skills needed to

do long form improvisation in the future.

The ‘rules’ of improvisation

The activities in this resource will look to embed the following principles in your young

improvisers. These are also great principles to use more widely in your class’s group work.

Yes and: This means to agree and build on your scene partner’s ideas. e.g.

- Person A: What an amazing treehouse.

- Person B: Thanks! Me and my dad built it last year.

The opposite of ‘Yes and’ would be a denial where we disagree with the reality of

what our scene partner has told us. e.g.

- Person A: What an amazing treehouse.

- Person B: It’s not a treehouse, it’s a space rocket!

This would likely get a quick laugh, but make it difficult to continue the scene.

Listen to and support your scene partners: Improvisation is a collaborative art

form so listening and supporting fellow performers is crucial. When we talk about

listening in improvisation, we don’t just mean what people say, but how they say it

and how they act. Performers should also focus on making their scene partner look

good, and avoid undermining them or putting them in a situation that they find

uncomfortable.

Enjoy your mistakes: Improv is unscripted so mistakes will happen – people will

mishear or misunderstand things, forget a detail, react oddly or say something

unusual in the moment. These should be celebrated as they allow your scene to go

in an unexpected, attention-grabbing and often comedic direction.

4

How to use improv in the classroom

This collection of exercises will introduce your class to improvisation and in the process help

develop their speaking, listening, performing, creating and collaboration skills. They can be

either:

Pieced together to create full comedy improvisation lesson plans

Used as stand-alone activities to introduce improvisation slowly throughout the

term, or to break up a day and add energy to a lesson

Beginner, intermediate and advanced: You will find activities marked as beginner,

intermediate or advanced to help you decide what to try with your class. We would

recommend getting your pupils comfortable with beginner and intermediate activities first,

before moving onto the advanced ones. The advanced activities, in particular, are best

suited to Year 5 and 6 pupils only.

Curriculum adaptations: Some activities have suggestions of ways to adapt it to

complement and reinforce things the class is learning in other subject areas. You’ll find

these coloured purple and in brackets at the end of the instructions for the activity.

Pupils with EAL: Many of the activities can be adapted for EAL pupils by simply emphasising

that it is fine to make mistakes: you could even say to EAL pupils that if they can’t think of a

word in English then they can say it in their first language instead. Some activities work

particularly well for EAL pupils, like ‘sound ball’ and ‘mirroring’.

Delivery: Remember to celebrate and draw attention to examples of ‘yes and-ing’, good

listening and support, and of pupils embracing and enjoying their own mistakes. You should

create a positive atmosphere where the very act of participating in these games is an

awesome, impressive, amazing achievement.

5

How to use improv in the classroom: Accepting mistakes activities

Purpose: The purpose of these initial activities is to get your pupils comfortable making

mistakes, as well as to warm up and energise your group. Encourage them to enjoy, laugh

at, and celebrate getting things wrong.

One, two, three: [beginners]

Tell the students to get into pairs. Their task is to continuously count to three, one

number at a time. i.e.:

- Person A: one

- Person B: two

- Person A: three

- Person B: one

- Person A: two

- Person B: three

- Person A: one

etc.

Stop them after a minute or so. Explain that they are going to repeat the activity but

that instead of saying ‘two’ they can now choose to clap.

After another minute or so, stop them and explain that instead of ‘three’ they can

now make an animal sound.

Finally, stop them and explain that instead of ‘one’, they can now say a TV presenter.

i.e.

- Person A: one

- Person B: *clap*

- Person A: growl

- Person B: Gary Lineker

- Person A: two

- Person B: three

Etc.

[Adaptation: Instead of the suggestions above, why not get them replacing one, two and

three with words or phrases that you are learning about in class? For instance, rock types,

historical figures or square numbers.]

Moo cow [beginners]

Form a circle with one person in the middle.

The person in the middle will make eye contact with one person round the circle and

say one of six the following six initial words. The person around the outside of the

circle must respond as shown in the response column. (i.e. if the person in the

middle says ‘cat’ then they must immediate respond with ‘miaow’).

6

Initial word Response

Cat Miaow

Cow Moo

Owl Hoo

Miaow Cat

Moo Cow

Hoo Owl

If the person on the outside gets it wrong, they then go in the middle, and everyone

else must celebrate someone making a mistake by giving them a big round of

applause. If not, the person in the middle continues until someone gets it wrong. As

it goes on, you could allow them to add in different animals and sounds too to make

it more and more complex.

[Adaptation: Animals and their sounds could be replaced with anything you’re currently

learning. For instance, if you’re studying Henry VIII’s wives, when someone says ‘Catherine

of Aragon’ you’d have to respond with ‘divorced’, when someone says ‘Anne Boleyn’ you’d

have to respond with ‘died’ and so on.]

7

How to use improv in the classroom: Listening activities

Purpose: The purpose of these activities is to encourage your pupils to listen to each other.

In improvisation we want our performers to fully absorb what their scene partners say, do

and feel.

Sound ball [beginners]

Pass a sound and action around a circle by asking each person to attempt to carefully

copy the person before them (they must try to directly copy the person before them

and NOT just reproduce the original sound and action).

What you should find is that the sound and action slowly changes as you go round

the circle.

This game is also a great example of opportunities emerging from mistakes and of

‘yes and’.

Mirroring [beginners]

Divide into pairs, labelling one person in the pair as Person A and one as Person B.

Person A and B should face each other. In silence, A should slowly move, and B

should mirror exactly what A is doing. The aim should be for the pairs to work

together to mirror each other (rather than Person A trying to catch Person B out).

Switch round so that Person A mirrors Person B.

Finally, let them do the activity one more time, but now no-one is going to be the

leader. They’ll find that sometimes it feels like Person A is mirroring Person B,

sometimes Person B is mirroring Person A, and sometimes it’s not clear who is

mirroring who.

8

How to use improv in the classroom: Yes and activities

Purpose: The purpose of these activities is to encourage your pupils to ‘yes and’. That

means to agree and build on what their scene partner says.

Gift-giving [intermediate]

Divide the group into pairs. One person in the pair is Person A and one is Person B.

Person A should imagine that they have a large ‘Mary Poppins-style’ bag in front of

them that can contain anything in the world.

Person A should mime giving Person B a gift, using the phrase “I’ve got you a…[and

what the gift is]”.

Person B should respond as enthusiastically as possible with the phrase “Thank you,

that’s amazing”.

Person A should give Person B as many gifts as possible as quickly as possible. e.g.:

- Person A: I’ve got you a handbag

- Person B: Thank you, that’s amazing.

- Person A: I’ve got you an orange.

- Person B: Thank you, that’s amazing.

- Person A: I’ve got you an elephant.

- Person B: Thank you, that’s amazing.

- Person A: I’ve got you a toilet brush.

- Person B: Thank you, that’s amazing.

etc.

After a minute or two, swap round so that Person B has a go at gift giving.

Then, repeat again. This time whoever is receiving the gift can also add a little

information. e.g.:

- Person A: I’ve got you a picture.

- Person B: Thank you, that’s amazing, I’ll hang it on my wall.

- Person A: I’ve got you a sports car.

- Person B: Thank you, that’s amazing, I love driving fast.

- Person A: I’ve got you a lamp.

- Person B: Thank you that’s amazing, it’ll help me see my picture better.

Finally, repeat again, but this time Person A and B will take it in turns to give gifts.

- Person A: I’ve got you a laptop

- Person B: Thank you, that’s amazing, I love working on the move. I’ve got you a

pair of trousers.

- Person A: Thank you, that’s amazing, they’re just my colour. I’ve got you a tennis

racket…

Discuss with the group afterwards how it felt to have someone being positive about

your ideas, and whether it would have been difficult to think of more gifts if the

receiver had acted like they didn’t like them.

9

One word story [intermediate]

In a circle or small group, pupils must take it in turns to tell a story using one word at

a time.

Begin by asking for suggestions of a name and a job (e.g. Carrie, photographer). That

will form the title of the story (The Story of Carrie the Photographer).

Tell your pupils to start the story with ‘Once upon a time’. You should encourage

them to listen to what the person said before them and then respond quickly, and to

not take a long time to think about it or try to force the story in the direction they

have in their head. E.g.:

- Person A: Once

- Person B: Upon

- Person C: A

- Person D: Time

- Person E: There

- Person F: Was

- Person A: A

- Person B: Photographer

- Person C: Called…

[Adaptation: Tell a one word story about what happens next in the book you’re reading

together as a class. When you then read the book you can then discuss which version you

preferred.]

How we met [advanced]

Divide the group into pairs.

Tell each pair to imagine they are old friends meeting over lunch discussing how they

first met. Give the pairs a location where they met to help them (e.g. a swimming

pool, zoo, football match).

They must now discuss in character how they met, but must repeat the last line the

person before them said.

The first person should start with “Do you remember how we met? We were at

the…”. E.g.:

- Person A: Do you remember how we met? We were at the zoo.

- Person B: We were at the zoo, and you were looking at the tigers.

- Person A: I was looking at the tigers. I used to love tigers!

- Person B: You used to love tigers. Your favourite tiger was a baby called Bob.

- Person A: My favourite tiger was a baby called Bob. And you were feeding him.

- Person B: And I was feeding him. And then Bob got angry…

10

How to use improv in the classroom: Performance!

Purpose: Finally, play these fun games to re-emphasise enjoying mistakes, listening to your

scene partners and ‘yes and-ing’. If you have a confident class then you can get them

performing these in front of each other. Equally, they could perform these in small groups

without an audience.

Expert panel [advanced]

Ask the audience for four unusual areas of expertise. Give one area of expertise to

each person, then host a mock TV panel show in which you and the audience ask the

experts questions. Be clear with your group at the beginning that it doesn’t matter if

they know nothing about their expert area, as whatever they say will be treated as

fact. E.g.:

- Teacher: Hello and welcome to ‘Ask the Expert’. We have four experts in the studio

today and we’re going to ask them some questions. Professor, you are an expert in

flying monkeys.

- Person A: Yes.

- Teacher: How does a monkey fly?

- Person A: They have little aeroplanes on their feet.

- Teacher: Of course, a monkey’s foot is part-paw and part-concorde… how could I

forget. Also with us on the expert panel today is…

[Adaptation: Give the performers a subject area that you’re learning in class about and tell

them that they’re free to both make things up and include facts that they know. Afterwards,

ask the class what was true and what was made-up].

One word expert [intermediate]

Ask four or more people to stand in a line with their arms around each other. These

people will all play one person (the expert), taking it in turns to each say a word a

little like in One Word Story. You (the teacher) will be an interviewer.

Get an expertise from the audience (you could combine a few suggestions to get

something unusual), and then start asking your expert some questions. e.g.:

- Teacher: Hello everyone, we’re very lucky today to have an expert in cutlery with

us. Please introduce yourself.

- Person A: Hello

- Person B: My

- Person C: Name

- Person D: Is

- Person A: Mr

- Person B: Fork

After this, ask the audience for some questions, before thanking the expert.

11

Story die [advanced]

A group of five or more must tell a story, each only speaking when pointed to by a

conductor. They should take over the story mid-sentence from the person before

them without hesitating, deviating or saying something that does not make sense.

If you feel that they made a mistake, then everyone shouts ‘die’ they do a dramatic

death, are given a round of applause and then they’re out of the game. You can

make things more fun after each death by introducing new chapter titles, telling

them to deliver the story in a specific accent, or saying that it must be in rhyming

couplets.

e.g.

- (Conductor points to Person B)

- Person B: Once upon a time there was-

- (Conductor points to Person D)

- Person D: a monster called-

- (Conductor points to Person C)

- Person C: and the monster…

- Audience: Die!!

- (Person C does a dramatic death, is applauded, and then is out of the game. The

conductor points to Person B to begin a new chapter).

New choice [advanced]

Performers will perform a two-person scene. Give them a situation to get them

started. At certain points in the scene, you can shout ‘new choice’ and they have to

say or do something completely different. e.g.:

- Person A: Thanks for the ice cream, mum.

- Teacher: New choice.

- Person A: Thanks for the sports car, mum.

- Person B: You deserve it, darling. You did very well in your exams.

- Teacher: New choice.

- Person B: You deserve it, darling. You did very badly in your exams.

- Teacher: New choice.

- Person B: You deserve it, darling. You did extremely averagely in your exams.

- Teacher: New choice.

- Person B: Forget about exams. I want you to grow up to be a racing driver.

- Person A: Thanks mum.

[Adaptation: Tell your performers that at some point in the scene they must use one of the

words that they have learnt in class this week].

12

More ideas and information

Going further

1. Improv show

Divide your class into improv troupes. Ask them come up with a troupe name and to agree

on walk-on music. Then have each troupe introduce and perform one improv game to the

rest of the group.

2. Improv jam

Put the names of all pupils in a hat. Pull a few out at a time to play games or perform scenes

in front of the rest of the group.

3. Writing

Challenge your class to write a story, letter, or monologue inspired by something that

happened in one of the improv games that they played. They could use a character,

something unusual that took place, or just one line of dialogue as initial inspiration for their

piece.

Find out more

National Literacy Trust: Our website (literacytrust.org.uk) has a range of literacy resources

to use in class. Some of these are free, and some of them require you to become a member

of the National Literacy Trust in order to access.

BBC Comedy Classroom: You may also be interested in the Comedy Classroom resources

that we developed with the BBC. You can access these resources here:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/47JkrFPKlvGk7SGs1Vh0WfL/teachers-

resources

Hoopla: Hoopla is one of the leading improvisation schools in the UK. Their website has a

range of exercises and games that you could try with your class:

https://www.hooplaimpro.com/improv-resources-community.html

The author: Contact Nick Oram at nick.oram@literacytrust.org.uk if you have any questions

about these resources or want further guidance and advice about how to introduce

improvisation into the classroom. We’d love to hear how you got on running these

activities, so please do get in touch with your thoughts and feedback.

13

If your class likes comedy, then they may be interested in these resources and

competition from the Beano:

Join Beano’s nationwide competition and prove your class has the ultimate funny bone!

Use Beano jokes to make SPaG lessons funny for children. Download the six curriculum-

linked KS1 and KS2 lesson plans, presentations and worksheets. Each one is focused on

different joke writing techniques including homophones, Knock-Knock jokes and compound

words.

Then simply submit your class’s new and original three jokes to be in with a chance of being

crowned Britain’s Funniest Class!

You could win:

A Beano VIP school visit and comedy workshop

A bundle of Beano annuals

Beano comic subscriptions

Submission dates are April Fool’s Day (April 1st) to May 1st 2019. More details to follow soon

on schools.beano.com.