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Fun Nonverbal Games

Nonverbal games and activities are not only fun but also teach a variety of different skills, such as the ability to observe others and self-awareness. Children who do not have nonverbal communication skills may experience awkwardness, miscommunication and even occasional social isolation. Help your students practice nonverbal skills with fun games and activities.

Catching Chickens
- Gather the class and have the students sit in a group, facing the front of the room. Take three students out of earshot of the class and instruct the students to pantomime catching chickens in front of the class. Send the first student in front of the group to pantomime catching chickens. Wait a few seconds and send in the second student and then the third. After a few minutes of the pantomiming, have the three students sit down and ask the group of students what they thought the three students were miming. The answers are typically surprising and quite humorous.
Suits
- Take a stack of cards, shuffle and give one card to each student. Instruct the students to avoid showing their cards to any other student in the class. Without speaking, the students must assemble into four groups according to the suits they are holding: hearts, spades, clubs and diamonds. Students can only use nonverbal clues to communicate. The first group to assemble according to their cards wins the game.
Follow the Leader
- Instruct all the students to sit in a circle, facing each other. Designate one student as the leader of the group. The leader then leads the class into an activity, such as waving her arms, without speaking or making any noise. The class must copy the leader and watch the leader in order to know what will happen next. Expand the activity for older kids by having the leader signal a classmate with a wink or nod, which lets the classmate know he is the new leader. Continue the activity until each student has a turn at being the leader of the class.
Charades
- Charades is a classic nonverbal game that is fun and exciting for all ages. Make a list of words for the students to communicate. Separate the class into two different groups. Give one person from the first group a word that the person must act out, such as reading. Without showing his team the word, the student must give nonverbal clues to help his team guess the word. Each team has an estimated time for guessing the words. The team with the most guesses in a determined amount of rounds wins the game.

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