Indoor games

DUCKY DUCKY

5 minutes

Get everyone sitting down in a circle and start off with everyone clapping a rhythm. Pat your knees then clap, and keep repeating until everyone is in sync. Then someone starts off as the ‘ducky’ and says: “Who’s got the ducky?” to which everyone responds: “You’ve got the ducky!” The ducky then passes it on by making a beak with their hands, facing the next person and saying, “Ducky ducky”. This next child passes the ducky to someone else by pointing the beak at another player and saying, “Ducky ducky”.

Players are out if they miss the ducky, take too long or lose the rhythm! The final pair of players are the winners. (The game gets harder as more people are out.)

To take it to the next level, the two people either side of the ‘ducky’ have to chant, “Quacky quacky” at the ducky while it is being passed on and raise their hands up in the air.

HUMAN GUESS WHO

10 minutes

You will need: chairs; pens and paper

This is just like the board game Guess Who, but with real people! Split the group into two even teams and stand them in front of a few neat rows of chairs. One person from each team has to choose (in their heads) someone from the other team to be their person, and write it down.

The others on the same team then take it in turns to ask yes or no questions to try and work out who this child is thinking of, such as: “Are they wearing glasses?” If it’s a no, everyone who is wearing glasses must sit down (or if it is yes, everyone who is not wearing glasses must sit). The team must work out who the person has chosen through asking questions and making guesses.

If you have a smaller group, you can play this game in one team by nominating someone to be ‘it’. You can follow the same rules, but with the other players standing in a line asking the questions to work out which one of them has been chosen!

ROCK-PAPER-SCISSORS-EMPIRES

5 minutes

Split into pairs and ask each pair to play a game of rock-paper-scissors (rock beats scissors, paper beats rock, scissors beat paper) all at the same time. The winner of each pair has to find another winner to play against. The person who lost must support the winner and stand behind them, cheering them on.

The winners now have an empire cheering them on and following them. Each game is played at the same time with someone at the front counting down. At the end, there will be two empires cheering on their winners as they play one final game of rock-paper-scissors.

PASS THE NAME

10 minutes

This game is just for fun, and is good for getting everyone involved and laughing.

Split into three teams and get each to come up with a team name based on a set theme, for example food: lasagne, knickerbocker glory and chicken pie.

The teams then stand in lines linking arms with each other, facing the other teams. The first team starts by choosing quickly who to pass to next, and they must say their team name all together loudly three times, bouncing / squatting each time they say it. They then say the team they are passing to three times loudly, squatting while they say it! For example: “Lasagne, lasagne, lasagne; knickerbocker glory, knickerbocker glory, knickerbocker glory.” The second team receives it by saying their team name three times and the name of the team they want to pass to three times. It just gets passed around between the groups. No one gets ‘out’, it’s just a funny ice breaker game.

The longer / more obscure the team name, the funnier it is!

HUMAN BOP-IT

10 minutes

This is a real-life version of the classic game Bop It, using our bodies. Teach the group the Bop It moves (below) and have a practice. The leader then shouts out all of the actions in a random order, starting slowly but speeding up and changing the order. The winners are the ones who can keep up with the actions and remember the moves.

These are the moves: