Games Kids Enjoy to Play

GAMES KIDS ENJOY TO PLAY

Compiled

By

Jeff Bradley

Updated 1/16/2015

Hey everyone,

A couple of years ago Andy and I sent out a packet of tag games for all of our elementary teachers to use with the students (if they chose to). I’ve decided to do it again with some good outdoor games. Some of these games require materials that you may not have and we will do our best to accommodate you if you let us know in advance what it is that you need. Otherwise I know that in order to be a teacher you have got to be creative and flexible. Many of these games can be played with little or no materials and all of them work and are fun. I will let you decide if your students are old enough to handle a game and we would be happy to help you figure out a way to modify a game to meet the needs of your students if you ask. Most of these games can be used at all grade levels with just small modifications to make them age appropriate.

Hope you get some use out of these.

Sincerely,

Jeff Bradley

PROTECT THE PIN:

1. Spread out 10 to 20 pins around the playing area. You will need one ball for everyone guarding a pin (tennis balls, racquet balls, foam balls, playground balls, bean-bags (best choice: these you would under hand toss since you cannot roll them).
2. Each pin will have one person to guard it. You will want about 5 people to be out without a pin in line behind a cone or marker. This is the rest area because this game can be very tiresome.
3. They may use their hands or feet to guard their pin.
4. While guarding the pin, each person can also get a ball and roll the ball to attempt to knock down another players pin. You can even leave your pin at your own risk in order to get a ball. You need to remember that a bean bag (ball) could come from in front, the side, or behind you. If you leave your pin for a ball you may end up having your pin knocked down.
5. There are no teams. Each person is against every other person in the class. Your goal is to defend your cone and not allow it to be knocked over. As long as your cone is standing you stay there and defend it. If your pin is knocked over you pick up your pin, give it to the person next in line waiting.
6. There really is no winner or loser here. The sole purpose is to keep the students moving and active. Honesty and sportsmanship are important aspects of this game.

VARIATIONS:

1. Divide the class into two teams. Have half of each team guarding a pin. The goal here would be for each team to attempt to knock over the cones of the opposing team. Time the game and see which group has the most cones still standing at the end of play time.
2. Use the original scenario but have the students keep up a count as to how many times they are put out of the game. At the end have them see who was knocked out the least.

Soccer Mania:

1. Divide the class into four different groups (Red group, Blue Group, Green Group, Yellow Group). If you do not have a way to designate groups its okay, just be sure they understand who is where.
2. Once you’ve divided the class into groups you will place them on the field as shown:

LEFT TURN / RIGHT TURN TAG:

Partner up- one partner can only move straight or turn left, one partner can only move straight or turn right. 3 speeds: Slow mow, walk, your late (fast walk).

1. When moving you must take at least one step forward before you can make a turn.
2. When one partner tags the other they switch roles – it lets new “it” to get away by doing 5 jumping jacks or 5 push ups or 5 sit ups

SECRET AGENT / GUARDIAN ANGEL:

Pick any two people in the room and get their image in our head. In your head w/o telling anyone, designate one as secret agent and one as the guardian angel. Your goal is to keep your Guardian Angel between you and the secret agent. This one is funny to watch because nobody knows who is what.

FARKLING (official name of rock , paper, scissors)

This is a full body game of rock, paper, scissors called RO-SHAM-BO. The three designations are the Giant, the Wizard, and the Elves. Who beats who is below:

Giant > Wizard > Elf > Giant

The giant crushes the wizard, the wizard zaps the elf, and the elf ANNOYS the Giant.

The Giant: The person stands up real tall and makes muscles with their arms and yells ‘ARGGGGHHHHH’.

The Wizard: Squats down and make hand motion like they are casting a spell

The Elf: squats down real low and puts pointer fingers to their ears to make like they have elf ears.

RO-SHAM-BO can be played in the classroom without the tag version of it but below is a version for outdoors.

1.  You begin with a singles match where the students find a partner and on your ‘go’ they face of and farkle. When you say go they all yell (or say) RO-SHAM-BO. On Bo they show their sign and decide who is the winner. If you have a tie, redo until you have a winner.

2.  Once you have a winner, s/he absorbs the losing partner and they become a team of two. They then find another team of two and on your ‘go,’ they farkle again….RO-SHAM-BO.

3.  The winning team absorbs the losing team and then they find another group of 4. On your ‘go’ they farkle again. This process repeats itself until you have the class divided into two teams.

4.  Once you have them in two teams the game changes. They will still farkle against the other team but the result will change into a tag game. Have the two groups face off from one another. On your ‘go’ they will farkle….RO-SHAM-BO. The winning group will then chase the losing group back towards a designate safe area (could be cones set up, touching a fence, etc.). Once the losing team reaches the safe area they are okay. Anyone who was tagged by the other team becomes a member of that team. This game can last just a few minutes or can last for a very long time. The good part is that they students are always involved regardless of the team that they are on.

Steal the Bacon

Steal the bacon and bring it home in this traditional playground game.

WHAT YOU NEED:

Ball, stick, or bandanna

HOW TO PLAY:

1.  Divide the players into two equal teams and line them up facing one another, about 15 feet apart( players in line should be about 5 feet apart).

2.  Starting at the right end of each line, have the players count off down their line, so those with the same numbers are diagonally across from each other.

3.  Place the bacon (the stick, ball, or bandanna) in the center of the space between the two lines; his is the bacon.

4.  To start the game, call out a number. The players who share that number must race to grab the stick and get back to their places without being tagged by the opposing player.

5.  The player receives a point each time he makes it home safe; if they don't, the stick is returned to the center. The game continues in this fashion until the first team reaches the predetermined number of points.

Human Alphabet Soup

This game can either be played using the whole group or with the group split into teams. The first thing to try is to get the group to make the letter "A" by laying on the ground, using their bodies as parts of the letter. Once this is figured out, see how fast you can go through the entire alphabet. If you are using teams, race the teams against each other to see which team can form a letter first. Once the group has become comfortable with the game, get the teams to spell whole words with each member of the team forming one letter.

Touch the Ball

You will need a variety of objects in a variety of sizes; some good examples include a soccer ball, a softball, a tennis ball, a golf ball, a tube of lip gloss, a bread clip, and a dime. Ask your group to stand in a circle. Place the largest object in the middle of the circle, and tell the students that they must all touch the object without touching each other. Once they figure out how to arrange themselves so that they can do this for 10 seconds, give them a smaller object. Work all the way down to the dime!

Titanic - A Great Cooperative Game

Materials Required: 2-8 hula hoops and 2 objects or places designated as ships per group
Activity Time: numerous possibilities (i.e. 5 to 30 minutes)
Concepts Taught: Cooperation, Teamwork, Problem Solving, Movement, and Balance

1.  This game is very easy to play. Prior to the activity, two objects or places on the floor need to be designated, one as the Titanic and the other as the rescue ship. I suggest using 2 or 4 benches for each ship because it allows students to physically be on a “ship,” making the game more realistic.

2.  In the game, students are passengers on the Titanic and, just like in real life, the student's Titanic has hit an iceberg and is rapidly sinking. The object of the game is for all the students to escape from the Titanic to the rescue ship, using the lifeboats (hula hoops) to cross the freezing water (the gym floor / field). The only way to be in the freezing water is to be inside a lifeboat and once there is someone inside a lifeboat, it cannot be moved.

3.  Students are not allowed to touch the freezing water outside of the lifeboats and anyone who does so is sent back to the Titanic to start over again. This is all the information students should be given.

4.  To stimulate problem solving, students should be given the opportunity to discover how to travel from the Titanic to the rescue ship. There is, of course, only one way. Students must travel in the lifeboats in a rotating fashion, therefore needing a minimum of 2 lifeboats to travel.

5.  To travel, an empty lifeboat must be placed in front. You cannot walk with the lifeboat. You must place it on the ground in front of you. Without touching the freezing water, students move forward and inside the front lifeboat. The rear lifeboat, that should now be empty, is then picked up, passed, and moved to become the new front lifeboat and the process in repeated.

6.  This is where problem solving comes into play. Depending upon the ages and number of students, there can be any number of lifeboats. With fewer lifeboats there is more problem solving as students must decide who will travel to the rescue ship first. However, with enough lifeboats for all the students to fit into there is more cooperation and teamwork when moving forward and passing the rear lifeboat to the front. I recommend trying the game with your students several times, each time using a different number of lifeboats to generate a discussion and reflection of strategy, strengths and weaknesses, and what could have been done differently each time.

Finally, to add to the mood and realism of “Titanic,” I played the soundtrack from the movie in the background, an addition that the students loved. I hope your students will enjoy this cooperative game as much as mine did.

BEAT THE “CLOCK”

EQUIPMENT: 2 soft balls of different sizes

AREA: general space large enough to form a class circle

PROCEDURE:

1.  Divide into 2 to 4 even teams. Have students line up alternating in a circle. Join, then drop hands to space the circle.

2.  The minute hand (smaller ball) is passed around the circle in a clockwise direction first.

3.  When the small ball is about half way around the circle, the hour hand (large ball) is started in the same direction.

4.  The students try to pass the large ball so that it catches up with the smaller ball.

5.  The smaller ball can only be passed in a clockwise direction while the larger ball can go in either direction.

6.  The person handed the small ball and the large ball is eliminated.

7.  The circle is re-spaced, and it begins again.

8.  The team with the most members left wins after a designated number of rounds or a certain time limit has been reached.

9.  Any players put out of the game run or walk laps around the circle until you have a winner.

CHINESE DRAGON DODGE BALL

EQUIPMENT: Large soft rubber ball or nerf ball, cones or objects to mark the boundaries

AREA: General space large enough to form a class circle.

PROCEDURE:

1.  Select four students to form a chain in the middle of the circle by joining hands at the waist like a Congo line.

2.  The rest of the class forms a circle around the dragon chain.

3.  The players who form the circle try to hit the last person of the dragon below the waist.

4.  The rest of the dragon tries to shield the end with their bodies.

5.  When someone hits the tail of the dragon, that person goes to the head of the dragon and the end person joins the circle to become a thrower.

BOX BALL

EQUIPMENT: A sturdy box to hold at least 4 soft nerf type balls or 4 soft balls (four things about the same size will work); cones or objects to mark the boundaries

AREA: General space large enough for a 50’ by 50’ square or smaller