An easy warm-up game for children to play, which is ideal for younger children. On the word ‘red’, the children must stand very still. On the word ‘amber’, they can walk around. On the word ‘green’, they should run. If any of the participants do the wrong thing at the wrong time, they are out of the game and act as a judge for the remainder of the game. The leader of this game can make things confusing by shouting ‘Speed camera’, slow motion, ‘roundabout’, sit and spin, etc. Minimum Group Size: 8 Equipment Requirements: None
Author: David Priestley
The group is split into two equal teams and each team should form a straight line. Each team is given a ball. The person at the front of the line passes the ball over their head followed by the person behind them taking the ball and passing it through their own legs to the next person. The ball continues going over then under until it reaches the person at the back of the line. The person at the back takes the ball and runs to the front of the line where the process starts again. In order to complete the…
Children pair up and each pair chooses a different type of fruit. They then stand opposite each other in two lines (similar to line dancing) and make a tunnel with their hands. The leader then calls out fruit names randomly. Once a pair’s fruit has been called, they run through the tunnel, then back round the outside and race back to their original places. This can be made more interesting by using animals and making the noise of the animal rather than calling out just the name. You can also make it competitive by making each line one team and…
In a boundary area, one person is ‘it’. They must then run around trying to tag as many people as they can. Once a person has been caught, they then have to stand with feet shoulder width apart and can only be freed if someone crawls between their legs. Minimum Group Size: 10 Equipment Requirements: None
Choose one person to be the leader; everyone else must stand in a circle around them. When the leader shouts, ‘Jack in the box’ participants must squat down. When the leader shouts ‘Jack out of the box’ participants must all jump up. The leader can repeat the commands, say them fast or slow in an attempt to confuse the children. Anyone who does the wrong action is then out of the game. Minimum Group Size: 8 Equipment Requirements: None
This is a very simple run around game. Participants start by running around, the leader then calls out a number and the participants then have to form a clump of that many people. You do not necessarily have to penalise anyone who does not find a group – it’s just for fun! Minimum Group Size: 10 Equipment Requirements: None
Group members need to get into pairs, and decide on one person being the horse and the other being the jockey. All pairs stand around in a circle, with the horses on the inside and the jockey on the outside. When the leader calls out ‘horses’, all of the horses have to run clockwise around the circle, back to their partner, under their legs and then the jockeys have to jump on their back. The last pair to do this is out and has to ‘neigh’. If the leader calls out ‘jockeys’, the jockeys do the running around the circle…
First, pair up the group members and sit them down, with legs flat, leaving space between pairs to prevent injury from occurring. Now give each pair a number starting from the number one. Once all pairs have a number, you then call a number and that pair will jump up, step over the other pairs legs one at a time then run round the whole of their team and sit back down in their original place. The first one to sit back in place is the winner. Alternatively, you can play as a team. After the first pair has completed…
One person is the cat and the rest are mice. The mice run around in the meadow until the cat meows. When this happens, the mice must run and get on a piece of numbered newspaper to be safe. The numbers of that piece of newspaper indicate the maximum number of mice allowed to stand on the paper. Any mouse with no home becomes a cat. Minimum Group Size: 12 Equipment Requirements: Numbered Paper
In this game, the children get into pairs. They then run around separately, buzzing and pretending to be bees. The person nominated to be ‘it’ shouts, ‘Buzzy bee, buzzy bee touch [body part]’ After this phrase is said, the participants run back and find their partners. Whichever body part has been called out, they must touch together. e.g. ‘touch knees’, they have to touch their knees together. Minimum Group Size: 12 Equipment Requirements: None
Participants pick a spot on the floor some distance away and focus on it. When the game starts, they must walk towards the spot in a straight line. The object is to reach your spot on the floor without coming in to contact with any other person. You may not stop or change direction but you may alter speed. This game is great for group awareness. Minimum Group Size: 10 (depending on venue and space provisions) Equipment Requirements: None
Participants pick two people from the group: one person is the bomb and the other the deflector shield. The object is to keep the deflector shield between you and the bomb without revealing which is which to the rest of the group. At the end of a given time (say 1 minute) the game stops and you see at that moment who has their deflector shield in between them and their bomb. If they fail to protect themselves from the bomb then they sit out the rest of the game. Everyone must secretly choose another person in the group who…