Country Role-Play Activity

In this activity students work in groups to form imaginary countries. There are a variety of activities that can be implemented depending on the students’ levels.

In groups, students invent a country. In the first activity, they create a name, slogan, and flag. In a small presentation, students tell the class a little about their country and their flag. Encourage students to discuss what their country is famous for, including food, sports, entertainment, or other things.

List a number of natural resources on the board that the groups must discuss and rank by importance to their country.

Examples: Oceans, Lakes/Rivers, Fertile Land, Mountains, Mines, Deserts, Volcanoes, Jungle, Snow, Forests.

The groups then have a mock draft to pick an equal number of resources for each country. With those resources, the students must plan their countries. 

They can then give presentations that talk about how they will incorporate their resources into the economy, energy, and tourism. The groups can be divided to focus on each topic. For example, a group with jungles might talk about jungle tourism, or research and present food products found in a jungle. 

Be sure that each group does not use the other countries’ resources. A good example of this is oceans. Students who present on tourism always want to talk about beach resorts, but don’t let them if their country does not have oceans as a resource. This forces them to be creative with what they have.

Other games I like to play with this theme include inventing a national anthem, traditional dance, or national sport. With the use of classroom material, the countries can also have an architectural contest. World trivia can become a contest for which country has the best international relations. If your students are children and you have the space, an Olympics is always popular.