Mime Rhyme
Can you guess the secret word? How good are you at charades? How good are you at RHYMING?!?! Check out this activity for all ages that will keep you guessing.
Carrie Mills teaches the Asolo Rep Education & Engagement Team how to play Mime Rhyme. See if you can guess her secret word before we do!
Designed for All Ages, perfect for younger students. (Instructions and adaptations below)
What is a Pantomime?
Pantomime is when an actor will use gesture, movement, and no words to create something that is not there. It can also be used to express emotions. In this activity, you can use pantomime to show words and actions.
Ex. You can pantomime putting on a hat. You can pantomime petting a cat. (It's all up to you! Get creative!)
Instructions
1. There are two types of players in this game. The Keeper of the Secrets and the Guessers. In the video, Carrie played the role of the Keeper of Secrets and the rest of us were Guessers.
2. The Keeper of Secrets will select a secret word. Then they tell the Guessers a word that their secret word rhymes with. For example, if Carrie selected the word "Blue" as her secret word she would then tell us that it rhymes with the word "Clue".
3. All the Guessers will think of a word that rhymes with the given word. For example, we would think of things that rhyme with "Clue" so- "Shoe", "Screw", "Stew", or "Kalamazoo".
4. One at a time the Gussers will act out (pantomime) their guesses. The other Guessers must figure out what the word is that is being pantomimed. For example, Tiana would pantomime the word "Shoe" by pretending to put on a shoe and tie it. Then Brittney guesses "Shoe" correctly, because she is really good at guessing.
5. Then the Keeper of Secrets will let the group know if that was their secret word or not!
If it is not the word, have more Guessers pantomime their guess.
6. Once you successfully guess the secret word you can switch roles and have a new Keeper of Secrets with a new secret word- ideally with a different rhyme scheme.
Reflect
- What was easy/hard about this game?
- What made pantomimes clear and easy to guess?
- What words were easier to pantomime? Why?
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WHO CAN PLAY THIS GAME?
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Anyone! If you have younger players, you may need to choose easier words as your secret word (to be fair, we adults had trouble with the word cat...)
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OTHER WAYS TO PLAY THIS GAME
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DIGITAL
- Play this game like we did in the video, and call someone on Zoom or another conference call platform.
ANALOG
- This game works just the same in person as it does online. In person, add the challenge of using your entire body!
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TAKE IT FURTHER!
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Mime it Up: There are so many tips and tricks for how to create convincing pantomime. Watch this video of Bill Bowers, a professional mime, giving an introduction to mime.
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WHY PLAY THIS GAME (LEARNING CONNECTIONS)
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This game highlights the skills of: Rhyming, pantomime, inference, imagination, and creative thinking.
Use these variations to make school work fun:
Reading/Writing/Social Studies: Play this game with your sight words or vocabulary list.
Science/Math: Play this game with a secret animal or scientific concept instead of a word.
Thanks Carrie
Shout out to Carrie Mills for playing this game with us! Carrie can be found at Booker Middle School where she is the Drama Teacher and VPA Curriculum Leader. She is an amazing human and is very involved with Asolo Rep, whether it is bringing her students to shows or having her actual children up on our stage. Thanks for being a part of the Asolo Rep Family, Carrie!
