Team Dodgeball
Where: indoors/outdoors
Space needed: at least 5m x 4m
Number of children: 6+
Equipment: A soft sponge ball
The boys in your group will probably love this physical, competitive game, which is a twist on that old classic dodgeball. Split your group into two (or more) teams. The size of the teams will depend on how much space you have. I’d recommend having 5m x 4m for two teams of three. If you’ve got more kids you can use a bigger space or split into more teams.
Divide the area into two with a line down the middle. Each team should be on either side of the line. Make it clear that team members must stay on their side of the court at all times. Give one of the teams the ball, ideally a soft, sponge, football-sized ball, to start. The aim is to throw the ball and hit a member of the other team on the legs or feet. If they do this, they get a point. The other team can block the ball with their hands, head or whatever.
If a point isn’t scored the other team can grab the ball and try and hit the first team and so on until a point is scored. Team members can pass the ball between themselves to get a better angle for a ‘shot’, just remember team members must stay on their side of the court. If a point is scored the team that was hit starts the next rally.
This game works best in a confined space so that the ball keeps moving. If you’re playing on an open court you can put leaders/other teams around the outside to put the ball back in play if it goes out.
The first team to seven points wins. If you have more than two teams you can then swap over and give the other teams a go. Make sure you have plenty of drinks available afterwards!
Spaghetti Quiz
Where: indoors
Space needed: space to sit
Number of children: 2+
Equipment: saucepan, saucepan lid, string or wool cut into different lengths
Children’s leaders like a good quiz – but how about making it a bit more interesting? Divide the children into teams, write some questions and appoint someone as the quiz master. Now here’s the twist: beforehand cut some string (or wool) into different lengths. Place these bits of string in a saucepan with one end of the string poking out over the lip of the saucepan. Then place the lid on the saucepan so you can see the string ends poking out by about 3-4cm, just like pieces of spaghetti (sort of). Arrange the string ends so they all look to be of similar length, but of course they aren’t.
Start the quiz and each time a team gets a question right they come up and choose a piece of string. As the quiz goes on the team needs to tie all their pieces of string together into one long piece. (They may need an adult to help them with this.) If it’s the same people answering the questions each time perhaps choose one of the other kids to come up and take a piece of string so everyone is involved. The winning team is the one with the longest string.
Top tip for cutting string lengths: Don’t make the longest one so long that if you get it you’ll automatically win. What you want is a nice variety of lengths so that the team who answers the most questions doesn’t necessarily win.
SMS – (Silly Messy Simple) Game: Leader in the Stocks
Where: outdoors
Space needed: about 2-3m long
Number of children: 2+
Equipment: chair, sponges, paddling pool, 2 hula hoops, water
Divide the children into teams and make sure each team has at least one adult leader with them who doesn’t mind getting (very) wet. To setup the game you’ll need to do the following: have a chair you don’t mind getting wet for the leader to sit on. Place one hula hoop 2m away from the chair (for the younger kids to throw from) and one 3m away (for the older kids to throw from). Behind the hula hoops have a paddling pool which has some water in it and several sponges.
It’s important to keep order during the game – make sure the children know they can only throw sponges when you blow your whistle. (I find taking points off their team to be a good disincentive.)
The team who is throwing lines up, youngest to oldest, by the paddling pool. The brave leader sits in the chair and the aim is to hit the leader with a sponge. They get 1 point for any hit and 2 points for a head shot. The leader must sit still!
When you blow the whistle the first child gets a sponge, stands in the appropriate hoop, throws, retrieves their sponge and returns it to the paddling pool. Once the first child is clear of the chair then the second child can throw and so on.
Once everyone has had at least one go – blow the whistle. Swap around for another team and leader. Make sure all the sponges are back in the paddling pool and top up the pool. Repeat for all the teams. The team that scores the most points is the winner!
