Kid's Skit Ideas
Role-playing and performing skits may seem like child's play, but it actually allows kids to explore complex social ideas, obstacles and complications. It also teaches about self-control, as kids take on a role with a set of parameters and rules. For instance, when you play the part of a sheriff, you can't begin acting like a dog, so the actor is actually exercising discipline and self-control that can help her later in life. You can help your kids in their dramatic play by offering some skit ideas.
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Classics
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Introduce your kids to classic plays and nursery rhymes by adapting one into a skit together. Older kids can take classics like "Romeo and Juliet" or "Oedipus" and make them contemporary or set it in a different period. Doing this encourages kids to study the text and reword it to help a younger audience understand the plot better. Give a helping hand in the beginning for interpretation. Online resources and annotated editions published for kids can also help translate complex text. For younger kids, take nursery rhymes instead of plays. "Humpty Dumpty," "Mary Had a Little Lamb" and "The Itsy Bitsy Spider" are all stories with fairly straightforward characters and plots preschoolers can grasp and act out.
Celebrate a Holiday
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When the holidays come around, use them as inspiration for your kids to put a skit together. Incorporate Christmas and Hanukkah pageants and Thanksgiving skits into your holiday celebration, hosting a premiere before or after the big meal. You can also celebrate specific moments in history during commemoration and awareness months, like Women's History Month, Black History Month and Chicano History Month. Don't forget about more obscure "days of note" for a whimsical skit. Look up who was born on this day in history, or if it's national cheddar cheese day. Use that as inspiration for a skit, and have your kids run with it.
Kid Written, Kid Produced
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Give creative input to your kids and have them write their own skits. Give them a prompt that centers around a person, place or thing, and see what they come up with. You can also let them create their own prompt. Ask them to look for something in the room that could be an interesting prop. Ask how the prop might be used and by whom. Does that person have a problem to solve? What is the person like? Who are the other characters the person interacts with? What other things in the room could be of use? What imaginary items could the characters use? Where do they live? The more questions you ask, the more vividly your little ones can paint a picture. Have them act it out with as little intervention from you as possible.
Look to Books
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Having kids turn a story or book into a skit can help them comprehend and retain the story and make it their own. Talk about which characters you need. If you have too many characters in the story, some actors can play more than one role, and ask if any characters can be combined or cut out. Don't worry about sticking to the story closely. Each child may interpret the story differently and bring something new to it, and that's a crucial part of appreciating and even making art. Have the kids look for costumes and props, and give them time to rehearse before putting on the show.
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