Guess The Pet

Age: 5 to adult
Players: Pairs
Time: 5-15 minutes
Skills: Mime and Movement

A variation on the Mirror Game for younger students

Select two students to demonstrate the Mirror Game and label them A and B.
The pair should stand facing each other a short distance apart with an imaginary mirror between them.

• A starts moving slowly and smoothly, while B tries to reflect A’s movements as accurately as possible
• When they have got the hang of this, give a signal (ring a bell or clap your hands) for the leading to swap so that A is now looking in the mirror
• Now start again and ask A to think of a type of pet. They should slowly make the movements and facial expressions of the animal
• B copies the movements and afterwards guesses what the animal was

Now all the students are going to take it in turns to be different types of pet.

• Divide the class into pairs and ask them to label themselves A and B
• ‘A’ will be the first animal. Emphasise slow movements
• After a while ask them to stop and guess the animal
• Swap over. Partners pretend to be a different animal each time they swap
• Ask a pair to show what they were doing (they should whisper to decide who is leading at first)
• Give the signal to swap a few times then stop the activity and ask the students to guess who is leading at that moment and which animals they saw
• Ask more pairs to show their ideas