Communication Activities for Kids: Explore 50+ fun communication games and activities to help children improve self-expression, social interactions, and listening skills. Download a fun free communication worksheet (What’s your Communication Style?)
Communication is the process of sharing information, thoughts, or feelings between people.
It can involve speaking, listening, writing, or using body language to express ideas and understand others.
Communication helps people connect, solve problems, and build relationships.
Table of Contents
- Importance of Communication Skills
- 52 Fun Communication Activities for Kids
- Other Communication Resources
- Communication Worksheet Download
Importance of Communication Skills
Communication skills impact every part of life, from friendships to school and future success.
Effective communication skills:
- Allow us to express feelings, needs, and thoughts clearly.
- Help us interact effectively with others in both personal and professional settings.
- Boost our confidence.
- Prepare us to handle many different types of situations
- Contribute to better problem-solving
- Support academic and professional success
Good communication skills help kids and teens navigate the world more effectively and build positive relationships.
Fun Communication Activities for Kids
I’ve organized our communication activities into broader categories to make it easier to understand and focus on specific areas for improvement.
We will explore engaging communication skills games and activities in the following areas:
- Expressive Communication: Clearly Sharing Thoughts and Ideas
- Receptive Communication: Listening and Understanding Others
- Emotions and Communication: Understanding and Expressing Feelings
- Non-Verbal Communication: Using and Interpreting Body Language and Tone
- Social Communication: Interacting and Communicating in Groups
- Public Speaking: Speaking Confidently to an Audience
- Assertive Communication
Expressive Communication Activities: Sharing Thoughts and Ideas
Fun activities that encourage children to share thoughts and ideas—first ones for younger kids, later ones for older ones.:
- Singing nursery rhymes helps kids learn to articulate words clearly, practice rhythm and tone, and build confidence in speaking.
- Pretend play is a simple game that allows young children to explore and practice different social situations.
- Show and tell is a fun way to share your thoughts on a beloved item and to learn about your peers.
- Add in sharing a ‘high and low’ into your daily routines (I like to do this near bedtime when we are winding down for the night).
- Play ‘two truths and a lie.’ This can work in partners or in a large group to share different parts of their lives.
- Write a short story and read it aloud to a group to share new ideas in story form. This helps kids organize their thoughts and express them clearly.
- Interview a friend. This is a meaningful way to practice active listening skills and ask questions to learn more about a person.
- Organize listening quizzes where kids hear a story and answer questions to check their understanding.
- Practicing phone or video conversations is a great way to improve language skills

Related resources:
Receptive Communication Activities: Listening and Understanding Other
Listening and understanding others is one of the essential skills for effective communication. Try these listening games and activities:
- Telephone game. A fun activity where a message is whispered from person to person, often changing in surprising and funny ways. Great for practicing listening skills and seeing how easily messages can get mixed up. Works well for older kids, even high school students.
- Blindfold game. One child guides their blindfolded partner through a course using only their voice. This helps both kids practice active listening and clear speaking.
- Cooking is not only an important skill but a fun activity to practice listening skills. Give a step and see how well they follow directions in a real-life setting. You can read the directions while your child does the work (or vice versa!).
- Call family members on the phone. In this day and age, the art of speaking on the telephone is becoming a lost art. Encourage a weekly phone call with Grandma to help develop both speaking and listening skills.
- ‘Lego Creation’ In pairs, one child gives instructions, and the other builds it. Bonus points? It helps with fine motor skills.
- Guess the sound. A leader plays a sound, and everyone guesses what it is.
- Story Chain. One child starts a story with one sentence. The following student adds to the story with another sentence and continues until everyone has added a sentence.
- Simon Says is a fun activity where the entire group listens carefully to one person and only acts when they hear “Simon says.” It helps kids practice paying attention and following directions.
- Listening to songs helps children recognize new words in context, improve their vocabulary, and give them more ways to express themselves. This builds receptive communication by helping kids understand and recognize new words (and expressive communication by giving them more ways to use those words when they talk!)
- Back-to-back drawing. Children sit back to back, and one person describes a scenario while the other draws it. It’s fun to see what people create by simply listening.
More listening activities for kids: 27 Listening Activities for Kids

Emotions and Communication: Understanding and Expressing Feelings
One of the basic communication skills in a child’s life is understanding and expressing feelings. Here are some interactive games to encourage emotional development.
- Reading wordless books where an adult asks open ended questions like what facial expressions the characters are making. They are also great for developing expressive communication, as kids can describe what they see, create their own narratives, and practice storytelling skills.
- Set a time limit and have children draw different emotions. This game is a creative way to help teach children different emotions so that they can identify them later on.
- Emotion Charades. This is a fun communication game that can help children act out and identify a variety of feelings.
- Pointing out characters on a show and asking how they feel. This is a great activity for parents to participate in watching a show with their child while helping their child develop the skill of understanding different emotions.
- Creating art about different emotional situations. Asking your children to make art based on big events (like a natural disaster or a change in the home) can help them express feelings that they may not be able to with just words.
- Showing a set of pictures and discussing how each feeling is portrayed.
- Emoji match game. Give an emoji and have your child match it to an emotion (this can be done on a phone or you can print off cards)
Related reading:
Related products:
- Learning to Recognize Basic Emotions
- Emotions Flashcards (And fun ways to use them)
Non-Verbal Communication Activities: Using and Interpreting Body Language and Tone
Understanding non-verbal cues is key to developing strong communication skills. Let’s explore some fun games and activities:
- Mirror Game is an activity played in pairs, where one person moves, and the other mirrors them. It helps kids become more aware of body language and learn to interpret it in different situations.
- ‘Made ya Blink’ is a game where two people stare at each other and you win by not blinking first. This is a great activity to practice eye contact.
- ‘Tone Detective’ One phrase is spoken in different tones and the child interprets what that tone means. I recommend starting with ‘wow’- that can be used in dozens of tones, and all mean different things.
- Make a ‘silent movie skit’. In teams of 3 or 4, have your students write a skit that has no dialogue but must have a beginning, middle, and end. They will learn that their body language can tell different stories.
- Feelings Freeze Dance. The group dances to a song, and when the music pauses, the leader calls out an emotion that the students express.
- ‘Guess my gesture‘ One person makes a gesture (thumbs up, shoulder shrug), and the group guesses what their body language represents.
- Emotion Walk. Give your child an emotion and have them walk in a way to show that body language.
Social Communication Activities: Interacting and Communicating in Groups
Fun ways for kids to practice interacting, taking turns, and communicating in groups:
- 20 Questions is a classic guessing game where one player thinks of an object, person, or place, and the group asks up to 20 yes-or-no questions to figure out what it is.
- Host a debate (even children as young as 5, depending on the child’s communication skills). This can encourage healthy discussion in a group of people.
- Playing a card game like ‘BS’ (Cheat or Bluff) or ‘Pass the Ace’ is a fun way to interact in groups while competing
- Hosting a scavenger hunt around the neighborhood is always a fun time that encourages the group to work together towards a goal.
- Playing team sports is proven to help children learn how to work as a team and communicate effectively to win the game.
- ‘Guess the object’ Have one child describe a mystery object, and the group will have to guess what it is.
- ‘Never have I ever’ is an easy game that works in groups to learn more about each other.
- ‘ I Spy’ is a fun way to ask questions in a small group and work together to discover that answer.
- Role-playing social scenarios (e.g., ordering food, asking for help) helps kids practice real-life conversations, build confidence, and learn how to communicate in different situations.
- Conversation Ball Toss: Toss a ball between players, and whoever catches it must answer a question or add to the conversation before passing it on. This helps practice turn-taking and active listening.
Related reading:
Public Speaking Activities: Speaking Confidently to an Audience
Fun ways for kids to practice speaking clearly, staying confident, and engaging an audience:
- Storytelling Challenge – Make up a short story on the spot using a random word or theme.
- Speech in a Hat – Pick a topic from a hat and talk about it for 30 seconds.
- News Reporter – Pretend to be a reporter and give a quick news update on anything fun.
- Persuade Me – Try to convince the group why something (like pizza for breakfast) is the best idea ever.
More public speaking activities:
Assertive Communication Activities
- What is your communication style? Explore different ways people communicate (aggressive, assertive, passive) and reflect on your own style through discussion or a quick quiz.
- “I Statements” practice – Kids take turns rephrasing sentences to express their thoughts and feelings using “I” statements (e.g., “I feel frustrated when…”).
- Boundary role-Play – Act out scenarios where kids practice setting respectful boundaries, like saying no to peer pressure or asking for personal space.
- Yes, No, or Maybe? – Kids practice responding assertively to different requests or situations by choosing and explaining whether they would say “yes,” “no,” or “maybe,” reinforcing confident decision-making.
- Respectful debate – Pair kids up to discuss a fun, low-stakes topic (e.g., cats vs. dogs) while practicing expressing opinions clearly and listening to others without interrupting.
Related resources:
- Assertive Communication for Kids: 10 Practical Tips Kids How to Be Assertive
- Assertive Communication Workbook for Kids
- Assertive Communication Workbook for Teens
Other Communication Resources for Kids & Teens
- I-Statements: Examples & Fun Worksheets (Free PDF Download)
- 27 Listening Games and Activities for Kids
- 25 Fun Turn-Taking Activities for Kids (Classroom & Home)
- Conversation Starters for Kids
- Apology Worksheets and Activities
- Conflict Resolution Activities for Kids
- Public Speaking Activities for Kids And Teens
- Self-Introduction for Kids (Worksheets)
- 43 Social Skills Activities for Kids & Teens
Download your Free Communication Worksheet for Kids
Download your “What’s Your Communication Style” worksheet:
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