21 Fun Public Speaking Activities for Kids & Teens (PDF Download)
Public Speaking Activities for Kids & Teens: In this blog post, we’ll explore a variety of tips and activities to help your students improve their communication skills and overcome the fear of public speaking. These activities are a great way to teach this essential skill to students of all ages, from young children to middle school and high school students. You can also download a free public speaking activity and a checklist of public speaking tips.
Table of Contents
- What is Public Speaking
- Benefits of Developing Public Speaking Skills in Kids
- When Can Kids Use Their Public Speaking Skills
- 13 Tips on How to Become a Great Public Speaker
- 21 Public Speaking Games and Activities for Kids & Teens
- 11 Games and Activities for Kids
- 10 Public Speaking Activities for Youth
- Public Speaking Worksheets (PDF Download)
What is Public Speaking
Public speaking is telling a story to a live audience to inform, persuade, entertain, or inspire. But it is not just about words. It’s also about how you use your voice, your gestures, and other tools to bring your message to life. In essence, it’s all about connecting with your audience.
Benefits of Developing Public Speaking Skills in Kids
There are many benefits to teaching public speaking skills to our students. Some of these include:
- Boost Confidence: It helps students become more comfortable speaking in front of others.
- Improves Communication: It focuses on the importance of message and delivery clarity and teaches the importance of non-verbal communication (body language, tone of voice).
- Reduces Public Speaking Anxiety: Provides practice opportunities that help decrease anxiety and improve overall performance.
- Prepares for Future Opportunities: Equips students with essential skills for job interviews, presentations, and leadership roles.
- Encourages Active Listening: Teaches students to listen carefully and respond thoughtfully to others.
- Develops Persuasion Skills to influence an audience.
Public speaking is a communication and social skill that also allows students to explore and present their ideas in unique and engaging ways and encourages logical thinking.
When Can Kids Use Their Public Speaking Skills
There are many situations where kids may need to use their public speaking skills:
- Presentations in front of the class.
- School Debates on various topics.
- Student Council Elections, hunting for peer votes with persuasive campaign.
- Performing Arts like school plays, reciting poetry, or performing in talent shows.
- Sports Team Captains, addressing teammates before and after games or giving motivational speeches.
- Speech competitions.
- Church or Religious functions delivering readings or speeches during services.
- Family gatherings, giving toasts or speeches at family celebrations like weddings, anniversaries, or reunions.
Teenagers may additionally engage in public speaking in other scenarios, such as:
- Part-time jobs: Speaking during customer interactions, team meetings, or presentations for work-related tasks.
- Social media and YouTube: Creating video content or live streaming involves speaking to an online audience.
Tips on How to Become Great Public Speakers
The following tips will take you or your student one step closer to becoming an excellent public speaker:
- Know your topic inside and out.
Make sure you really know your topic well. The more you learn about it, the more confident you’ll feel. When you’re an expert, you can talk about it easily and handle any surprise questions without stress. - Understand your audience.
Know your audience and adjust your speech to fit their interests and understanding. For example, if you’re giving a speech about social media to your classmates, you might focus on cool new apps and how to stay safe online. But if you’re speaking to parents, you might talk more about setting boundaries and helping their kids use social media responsibly. Tailoring your message makes it more relatable and engaging for your audience. - Define your purpose.
Be clear about what you want to achieve with your speech. Are you trying to inform your audience with new information, persuade them to see things your way, entertain them with funny stories, or inspire them to take action? Knowing your goal helps you stay focused and makes your speech more effective. - Research.
Gather relevant information on your topic. The more you know, the better you’ll be able to explain and support your points. - Preparation is key.
The amount of time you devote to preparation is important and reflects on your effective public speaking. Organize your content logically and create an outline to structure your speech. This will help you stay on track and make your message clear to your audience. - Practice makes perfect.
Rehearse your speech, presentation, or any type of public speaking event multiple times. Practice in front of a mirror, record yourself, or present to friends and family for feedback. Research suggests that total preparation time and number of rehearsals for an audience predict the quality of a speech performance. - The bigger your practice audience, the better.
Additional research showed that students who practiced their speech before larger audiences performed better than those who practiced with small groups. - Non-Verbal communication is crucial.
Effective communication is more than talking. It also includes non-verbal communication.
Use your voice
Change your tone and speed of voice to keep people interested. Speak clearly, and use pauses to let important points sink in.
Use body language
Use hand gestures to emphasize key points, make facial expressions to show your emotions, and move around the stage or space to engage with different parts of the audience. This makes your speech more dynamic and helps you connect better with everyone listening. - Manage your anxiety.
It’s totally normal to feel nervous. In a study of 815 participants in a communication course, students ranked public speaking as their top fear.
Anxiety predicts speech quality, so learning techniques to manage your public speaking anxiety is important.
Use relaxation techniques before your speech or presentation, like deep breathing or tensing and relaxing your muscles. You can also work with your thoughts by visualizing your success. Motivate yourself with positive self-talk, like reminding yourself that you’re prepared and can do a great job. - Engage with the audience.
Make eye contact with people, ask questions, and get them involved. Interacting with your audience helps build a connection and makes your speech more engaging. Plus, it can make the experience more fun for you, too! - Prepare for Q&A.
Q&A sessions can be one of the most nerve-wracking parts of public speaking. Make a list of all possible questions you might get and practice answering them with confidence.
A few tips that will help you deal with Q&As:- If you don’t know an answer, it’s okay to admit it and offer to follow up later.
- Repeat the question: This gives you a moment to think and ensures everyone heard it.
- Stay calm: Take a deep breath before answering and stay composed, even if the question is unexpected.
- Seek feedback.
After your speech or presentation, ask for constructive feedback from your friends, teachers, or mentors. Use their suggestions to help you improve for next time. - Continue practicing.
Look for opportunities to practice public speaking, whether it’s in class, at events, or with friends. Each time you practice, you get better and more confident.
21 Public Speaking Activities for Kids & Teens
Research suggests that practicing improves the quality of our public speaking performance, so let’s create plenty of public speaking opportunities for our kids.
And, since making things fun will always ensure kids engage better in the activity, I’ve prepared a list of public speaking games and activities that will appeal to kids of all ages and allow them to hone their public speaking skills while practicing in front of an audience.
11 Public Speaking Activities for Kids
Classroom activities are full of public speaking opportunities, which will give kids plenty of chances to practice and build confidence.
Let’s explore some fun, real-life classroom public speaking activities that will help kids get comfortable speaking in front of their classmates.
- Show and tell.
Kids love “Show and tell,” and even shy students are eager to go in the spotlight and talk and share stories about their favorite things. - Storytelling / Story time.
Ask your students to make up a story or share a tale they know. It’s a fun way to get creative, enhance their storytelling abilities, and work on speaking clearly.
A variation of this activity would be to ask them to come up with an alternative ending to a classic story. - Book reports.
Ask students to summarize a book they’ve read. Give them a structure of what they need to share so that they can organize their thoughts in advance.
For example, share the book title and author with your classmates, a summary, main characters, your favorite part, a lesson you learned, and if they would recommend it. - Reciting poems.
Memorizing and reciting poems is a fantastic way to build confidence and practice expression. Instead of focusing on preparing content, kids can work on other important aspects of public speaking like voice modulation, eye contact, and body language. - Giving instructions.
Ask students to give instructions on how to perform a simple task, like making a sandwich. This activity helps kids practice speaking clearly, giving step-by-step instructions, and organizing their thoughts so the sequence happens correctly. Encourage students to make sure their audience understands each part of the process. - Reader’s Theater.
Give your students a brief text and ask them to read it aloud with plenty of emotion and expressive actions. This activity helps them practice expressive speaking, engaging an audience, and using body language and vocal variety to convey a story or message. - Hosting a game show
Pretend to be a game show host and ask questions or give tasks. It’s great for thinking on their feet and being engaging. - Understand your audience activity. Give your students a short, neutral text. Ask them to adapt that text to fit three different types of audiences.
After completing the task, ask them to reflect on how much the text changed depending on who they were addressing.
You can download this public speaking activity at the end of the post. It includes two versions: an easy one for younger kids and a slightly more complex one for older students. - Classroom presentations.
Ask your students to present a project or topic to the class. This activity helps them practice their presentation skills and many aspects of public speaking, including researching their topic, preparing their content, and organizing their thoughts. A short presentation can also help them work on using visual aids effectively, like PowerPoint presentations, engaging the audience, and handling any questions that come their way. It’s a comprehensive exercise that builds confidence, clarity, and the ability to present information in an engaging manner. - Puppet shows.
Use puppets to tell a story or put on a show. It’s a playful way to practice dialogue and interaction with younger kids. - Describing a favorite [Item].
Another fun public speaking activity for children is “Describe your favorite…” It’s a simple way to practice descriptive language and allows children to talk about something they love and feel comfortable with.
10 Public Speaking Activities for Teens
As kids get older, they’ll encounter more public speaking opportunities. These skills are essential as they approach adulthood, where they’ll need to present to teams at work, lead meetings, and communicate effectively in various situations. Developing strong public speaking abilities now will set them up for success in their future careers.
Be sure to review the activities shared for kids, as many of them are also perfect for teens.
- Debates.
A debate is a structured discussion where students argue opposing sides of a specific topic. Each side presents their arguments, supports them with evidence, and tries to persuade the audience.
Debate practice is a public speaking activity that helps your students develop critical thinking, persuasive skills, and the ability to construct and present logical arguments. They also improve listening skills and the ability to respond to opposing viewpoints. - Public speaking role-playing.
Act out different scenarios or characters. This public speaking activity allows them to practice quick thinking, as they must respond to situations in real-time, and well as their vocal expression, body language, and the ability to engage an audience by bringing a character or scenario to life.
A perfect example of public speaking role-play could be organizing a mock town hall meeting where students take on roles such as the mayor, concerned citizens, and business owners. - Impromptu speeches.
Speak about a random topics without preparation. This public speaking game is perfect for improving spontaneity and confidence. It helps students practice thinking on their feet, organizing their thoughts quickly, and delivering a coherent and engaging speech on the spot. - Group discussions.
Discussing a topic in a group setting helps develop listening skills, responding, and collaborative speaking. It encourages students to express ideas clearly, consider different perspectives, and build on others’ contributions. - Speech class.
Delivering a speech allows students to practice several key aspects of public speaking:- Research, preparation, and structuring their thoughts.
- Communicating, using their voice to articulate a message.
- Communicating, using their body language.
- Engaging an audience.
Ask your students to give a speech about something they love. Provide some backup speech topics for those who may struggle to choose one. For example, provide a selection of topics that can be used as examples of different types of speeches, such as motivational speeches, persuasive speeches, or informative speeches.
- Mock interviews.
Ask your students to practice answering interview questions. This fun public speaking activity is useful for job interviews and college admissions, and becoming good at interviews is an important life skill. - Presenting a news report.
Ask your students to act as a news anchor and present current events. This activity helps them practice formal speaking, stay informed, and develop key public speaking skills such as clarity and articulation, engaging an audience, and using a professional tone. It also improves their ability to summarize information and deliver it in an organized manner. - Analyzing current events.
Discuss and analyze recent news. It encourages critical thinking and staying updated. - Watching TED Talks.
Identify several TED Talks for your students to watch. TED Talks are well-known for their engaging, inspiring, and thought-provoking presentations. Ask them to reflect on how the speaker uses body language, voice modulation, and storytelling techniques to engage the audience. Consider how the speakers communicate and what lessons can help them create their own talks. - Presenting TED-style Talks
After watching and analyzing TED Talks, ask your students to prepare a short, powerful talk on an idea they’re passionate about. This activity is great for practicing impactful and inspiring speaking. It helps them refine their storytelling skills, learn how to convey complex ideas clearly, and connect emotionally with their audience.
Incorporating public speaking into your lesson plans can greatly benefit your students by helping them master the art of public speaking. From impromptu speeches to mock interviews, these great practice activities offer students valuable opportunities to speak in front of a crowd and boost their confidence. grow. Use these engaging activities to create a dynamic and supportive environment where students can thrive and develop this essential skill.
Other Communication And Social Skills Resources
- Social Skills Workbook for Kids (50+ Fun worksheets & activities)
- List of Social Skills for Kids
- Social Skills Activities for Kids
- Assertive Communication for Kids
- Assertive Communication for Teens
- Listening Activities and Games for Kids
- Turn-Taking Activities for Kids
- Personal Space Activities
- Perspective-Taking Activities for Kids
- Empathy Activities for Kids
- Emotional Intelligence Activities for Kids
- 101 Kindness Activities for Kids
Public Speaking Worksheets (PDF Download)
Download your public speaking worksheet (PDF) by filling out the form below. You will find the following resources:
- 13 Tips to Become a Great Public Speaker
- Understand Your Audience Activity: Complex Version for Older Students
- Match your Speech to Your Audience: Easy Version for Younger Kids