It might be difficult for youths to jump in headfirst to improv activities if they do not know each other well. Establish that the students have a bit more physical and emotional freedom than structured environments in other classrooms. Name games work well for icebreakers. Have everyone sit in a circle; then the first person states her name. The second person repeats the first person's name, and so forth. When you've gone through all students, work backward from the end.
Improv --- and drama in general --- requires an immense amount of trust in the other artists onstage. You must trust that they'll help you move the action along and give you a strong, consistent character to play to. Build trust amongst your students with improv activities like free falling, an activity requiring plenty of trust in the other group members. One person stands in the center of a circle and falls backward or forward, and the others must catch her. Always perform this activity with plenty of pillows and padding on the floor, and let the other youths know how important it is that they catch the center person.
To nurture cooperation, students can stand in a tight circle with hands reaching in the middle. They grab someone else's hand randomly, then must untangle themselves without letting go of the other person's hand. You can also have students stand in a tight circle, then make a quarter turn to the right, scooting even closer to one another. Students sit down. They should be sitting on one another's knees. Everyone moves the same foot first to walk the circle around.
Improv players must be fearless onstage, ready to try things that might either fall flat or go over well and create a strong scene. Freeze games can strengthen your young players' spontaneity. Freeze involves playing out a suggested scene with two or more players. An audience member yells, "Freeze!" when she wants to pause and change the scene. All players freeze in motion, and the audience member switches place with the character of her choice. She assumes the exact pose the other actor had and then begins her scene from that position. The scene must segue way from the frozen tableaux the actors are in.