Water relay
‘Wat-er way to have a good time.’ (Get it? It sounds like, ‘what a way…’ Oh, never mind.)
10 minutes
Split the group into teams with at least five people per team (though the larger the teams, the better). Line the teams up and sit them on the floor, all facing one way. Give each team member a disposable cup. Place one bucket filled with water in front of each team and another (empty) bucket at the back. The aim is to get as much water from the full bucket to the empty bucket in the allotted time.
The first player in each team dips their cup into the bucket of water. While still seated, they pour the water over their shoulder into the cup of the person behind. They, in turn, pour into the cup of the person behind them and so on. The last person then pours the water into the empty bucket at the back of their line. The person at the front doesn’t have to wait for the water to go all the way along the line, they can refill their cup with water as soon as they’ve passed it to the person behind. When a nominal amount of time is up, the team with the most water in the end bucket wins.
Counting game
We genuinely think this might be the most infuriating game in the magazine’s history. You’re welcome.
5 minutes
There’s no doubt that every year your group will be nagging you about what you’ll be doing for Number Day. Well now you can say, ‘Playing the counting game of course!’ Get everyone to stand in a circle and close their eyes. The aim is to get the group to count from one to ten. Anyone can call out the next number but if two people say a number at the same time you have to start again. It sounds easy but try it and you’ll see otherwise. Make sure you stop the kids using strategies such as going round the circle or each person taking a number – it’s meant to build up teamwork, patience and trust. When you first get to ten it feels like a real achievement and then you can build up to 15, 20 and so on.
Get in some practice now and your group will be all ready for Number Day on 5th December. (I’m sure it’s in your diary already.)
Scavenger hunt
You could take this approach to planning your whole session – someone calls something out and you run around madly looking for it.
10 minutes
Split your group into equal teams of between three and eight. Put the teams around your meeting space and place a hula hoop in the centre. The teams should line up in their area. Then the leader in the centre will call out something (eg a ball) and one child from each team (the one at the front of each line) has to run, find that object and bring it to the hoop in the centre. The first team to place a correct object in the hula hoop gets the point.
This game works better if you’ve written a list of things to scavenge beforehand and, if need be, scattered some objects around the hall for the children to find. Some examples could be a ball, a sock, something you’d wear on your head, something red, something that starts with the letter T, the oldest person on your team.
Four square
When I was a child, I used to receive letters which began, ‘For square’. As the class swot, it was deeply hurtful.
15 minutes
You probably played a version of this when you were at school and it’s still going strong today. It’s a game with various names and almost as many sets of rules, so let me give you the version we play and you can adapt as you wish. First, you’ll need to mark out a court of 4m by 4m and then divide it into four equal squares of 2m by 2m. Number the squares one, two, three and four. Start with four children playing the game, one in each of the squares. The aim is to make it to square number one and stay there. The game is a bit like tennis except instead of using a racquet, you use your hands.
Start playing with whoever is in square number one. They serve by hitting the ball so it bounces in one of the other three squares. Note that you can’t get out from a serve so you normally serve underarm. If it bounces in your square then you hit it with your hand to bounce in another square and so on. Keep playing until either a person fails to play the ball before it bounces twice, a person hits the ball outside of the court or a person bounces the ball in their own area rather than another player’s area. That person is then out and goes down to the number four square and the other players below them move up a square. The aim is to try and target the number one player to get them out.
You can also play with more than four players, although you wouldn’t want to play with more than six. The extra players wait at the side and when a person is out, they join the back of the waiting queue. The top of the queue takes square number four and everyone else moves up one place. You could have multiple games running at the same time. There’s no real end to the game so keep playing as long as you wish.
Steve Mawhinney is the children’s worker for Barnsbury Parish, Islingtonand Premier Childrenswork’s gamesmaster.
