Light games

With Halloween coming at the end on the month, you might well be thinking about what you can do. A light party might be on your agenda, so here are some games you can play!

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Thief!

You will need: a large bunch of keys; a blindfold

Blindfold games help you think about the absence of light and what being in darkness or light means. Blindfold one volunteer and sit them in the middle of the floor, placing the bunch of keys behind them. Sit the rest of a group in a wide circle around them. Silently pick a volunteer who must go to the blindfolded person in the centre and steal the keys, without the blindfolded player hearing them. If the blindfolded player hears something, they should point to where they think the sound is coming from. If they manage to point to the thief, then the thief takes over in the middle of the circle. If not, and the thief makes it back to their place with the keys, then the keys are put back and another thief is chosen.

Torch hide and seek

You will need: lots of torches or lanterns; a venue with plenty of rooms; smartphones, tablets or digital cameras

Before you play, turn on all the torches and lanterns and hide them around your venue. Make some of them easier to find (eg sitting on a table in the middle of a room) and some of them harder (eg behind a curtain). Put the players into pairs and give each pair a device that can take pictures. The pairs have to go around your venue looking for the sources of light. When they find one, they should take a picture. At the end of the game, the team with the most photos of different light sources wins.

Of course, this game is best played in the dark, so make sure you risk-assess your venue, and place adults around the venue to make sure everyone is staying safe. You might choose to keep lights on in corridors to aid movement around the building.

Torch statues

You will need: a torch; music and the means to play it

This is a light-themed version of musical statues. Darken the room a little – enough so that you can see the light from a torch, but not so much that the children can see. Play the music and encourage everyone to dance around. After a few seconds shine the torch at one player (being careful not to dazzle them!). That player should freeze. If they are caught moving, then they are out. Keep playing until you have a winner. You could use more than one torch if you have a large group, otherwise this game will last a long time!

For younger children, change the rule that any dancer still moving when they are in the light is out for one turn only. In this version, play for as long as the children are interested (making sure that every child has a go at freezing in the torchlight).

Glow-in-the-dark hoopla

You will need: glow sticks; a way of connecting glow sticks together; sticky tape; blob of playdough

Before the session, tape five glow sticks together to make a thicker ‘post’. Stick the bottom into the playdough and then stand the glowing post up at one end of your playing area. Join together three glow sticks into a hoop (you could use the connectors that come with some packs of glow sticks or find some strong tape, such as gaffer tape).

Mark out a throwing line a distance from the post (make it closer for younger children, further away for older players). Players have to throw the glowing hoop over the glowing post! For a more complex game, have several posts set up at different distances from the throwing line. Assign the posts different scores – a post near the throwing line could have a small number of points, those further away could be worth more.

ALEX TAYLOR

is resource editor for Premier Youth and Children’s Work.