LIS Interntional Hong Kong

Hand Animals
This is an activity I do with all of my young students who are new to Drama. It serves as an
introduction to the structured use of imagination and to the idea or character. It's also great fun and
gives all of the students a chance to "erform" in the first class.
Look at your hands.
!e "egin "y e#amining our hands. I coach in the following vein$
"Hold your two hands up and look at them. Use one finger to trace the lines and the shape
of your other hand. Wiggle your fingers. Open and close your fists. Except your face, your hands
are the most expressive part of your body. ook at all the different things they can do! "ry to find as
many different ways to move your hands as you can."
The students send several minutes %or until they're done& closely e#amining the infinite
ossi"ilities of hand movement.
Animal Characters
'e#t I show them that I can ma(e my hand or hands into an animal. )sually I show them a sider.
*ne hand "ecomes the sider+ and it "crawls" u my arm+ across my chest+ and finally over my
head+ as I ma(e comic,terrified faces and generally react as I would were a real sider crawling on
me. The children love this+ "ut they also get the oint. I am a"le to ma(e my "hand,sider" real for
them.
I then coach the children to invent their own hand animals. -y raising their hands %an a"solute
must&+ children volunteer to show their new creations to the class. There are rarely volunteers in the
first class+ so choose the most confident or over,active of the class to "egin with+ moving down the
confidence ladder as you rogress through the students. .fter we have seen and admired each
character+ the whole class tries to ma(e it. %"his reinforces for each child the worth of his or her
creation, and gives the whole class practice in observation and mirroring.&
If the grou is sohisticated enough I will coach discussion in some of the following ways$
"Loo( at this articular "ird %or dog or wilde"eest&. /or this erformer+ what do you thin( is the
most imortant characteristic of a "ird0" %I'm loo(ing for the rimary feature,a "ird can "e mostly
wings and flight+ "ut it can also "e mostly "ea( and ec(ing motions. I've even seen "irds whose
rincial characteristic was their distinctive hoing wal(.&
"What do you think this character would do if he saw that character#"
"$s one character %better% than another#" %Logically+ none are "etter+ "ut different.&
"What is a puppet0 $n some ways can we call these hand animals puppets#"
*nce we have all made many different hand animals+ I use this activity as a sring"oard into using
more of our "odies to create characters. 1ou can do the easy ones+ 2lehants+ tigers and dogs etc.
Try to encourage the use of non,ver"al communication. 2veryone can see that you are retending to
"e a dog if you+ 3woof4' your way through it. This is something further e#anded and wor(ed uon
"y older students.