Tag: Grades 3-5

Ho!

Grade:

Grades 3-5

Setup:

Circle Game

Objective:

Have the group stand in a circle. Ask a player to help you demonstrate what a jumping double high0-five looks like: you should jump at the same time and high-five with both hands while they are in the air. Have the first player pick another player and demonstrate what a jumping double high-five looks like, only this time ask the players to shout “ho!” (or some other monosyllabic word of excitement) as their hands meet in the air.

The game begins when one player runs across the circle to another player and does a jumping double high-five with a “ho!” in the air. When both players land, they switch places so that the second player is now running across the circle toward another player. And then that player will run across the circle to high-five another player, and so on.

Encourage the other players to stay on their toes and watch for players coming at them. Eye contact is important in this game — if someone approaches you, ready to jump and switch places, you need to be ready or else you might get jumped on!Also a jumping double high-five can be a tricky skill to master, and eye contact helps ensure that both players jump at the same time and the same height (which is particularly important when playing with children of different sizes). Keep going until everyone has been picked at least once.

 

Heads Up, Heads Down

Grade:

All

Setup:

Circle Game

Objective:

Rules: All students stand in a circle and put their heads down looking at the ground.  When the moderator says, “heads up” each student looks up at someone else in the circle. If the person they choose to look at is also looking at them, the two of them are both out. If the student they look at is looking at someone else, they get to play another round. The idea is to start slow and then speed up quickly!  

Feel free to adapt this game to your group. It could be the Wild West and if you meet eyes with someone you both get taken out. Or if they like Percy Jackson/Greek Mythology, it could be the Medusa effect.

Video:

 

Go!

Grade:

Grades 3-5, Middle

Setup:

Circle game

Objective:

Have the group stand in a circle and ask each player to say his or her name out loud. The game starts when the leader points at a person across the circle and orders that person to Go. For example, if Annika begins by pointing at Karsten and saying “Go, Karsten,” Annika then has to walk toward Karsten. But before Annika gets to Karsten, Karsten has to pick someone else around the circle and order him to go. Karsten must not leave his spot until he orders someone else. After Karsten has said, “GO, Hans” (for example), he then may leave his spot in the circle, walk toward Hans, and Annika takes Karsten’s spot. Once the ordering has gone around the circle a few times and each person has been picked at least once, you may increase the difficulty by adding a second “Go!” energy so that two orders are taking place at the same time.

 

Fishbowl Game

Grade:

Grades 3-5, Middle

Setup:

Two teams sit in one circle, alternate team A and B

Objective:

Each student will get three slips of paper on which they will each write three different nouns (person, place, or thing). Then, students will fold each slip in half and put it in a bowl with all the other words. Students sit in a circle and form two teams (easiest if it’s every other person is on team A and the rest are on team B). The game has three rounds.

  • In round one, a student can talk to their team to get them to guess the word they have picked from the bowl — they can say anything except the word (and no rhymes, either!). They try to get their team to guess as many words as possible in one minute. Then the bowl gets passed to the person next to them who gets one minute to have their team guess as many words as possible. The bowl goes around the circle, alternating teams, until all the words have been guessed. Each team gets a point for each word their team guessed. Once all the words have been said, ALL of the slips go BACK in the bowl for round two.
  • In round two, a student can only act  (like charades) to get their team to guess the word they have picked. (Since these words have already been guessed, it should theoretically make it easier to guess for this round!) They get one minute to have their team guess as many words as possible. The bowl goes around the circle until all of the words have been guessed.  Each team gets a point for each word their team guesses. Once all the words have been said, ALL of the slips go BACK in the bowl for round three!
  • In round three, a student can only say ONE WORD (and one word only) to get their team to guess the word they have picked. (Since every word has now been guessed twice, it should theoretically help with the guessing!) They get one minute to have their team guess as many words as possible. Each team gets a point for each word their team guesses.  Once all the words have been guessed, the game is over and you count up the points to find out which team won!

Note: Depending on the size of the group, you can adjust the number of paper slips each student gets — if you have a small group, you can increase the slips to five.

 

Frog in the Pond

Grade:

Grades 1-3, Grades 3-5

Setup:

Circle game

Objective:

Students are all sitting on the knees in a circle. There are different movements depending on what is said. “Frog in the pond” means students put their hands down in front of them. “Frog in the bank” means students put their hands on their shoulders. “Frog in the tree” means students put their hands on their head. “Frog in space” means students stick their arms above their heads and wiggle their fingers. One student is the leader and they will call out “Frog in the pond” and do a movement — either the correct one or not. Students are supposed to follow what the leader SAYS not what they do. So a student may say “Frog in the tree,” but put their hands on the ground. Students leave the circle if they don’t do the correct movement to what is said.

Video:

Electricity

Grade:

Middle

Directions: Split campers into two equal teams. Have them form a line with one person across from a person on the other team. Then have them hold hands. The AG should stand at the front of the line and hold the first two team members’ hands. At a random interval, the AG will squeeze the hands of the two campers near them. Once they feel the squeeze campers pass the electricity to the next person down the line until the last person feels it and taps the ground (or the second AG if you have one) AG is the referee. Have the last person in the line become the first person and repeat. Keep track of points and make this competitive to keep Middle Schoolers engaged but also deescalate if players get too into the game by reminding them that it is about having fun. Watch to make sure electricity doesn’t jump ahead without passing through everyone.

Video Example:

Duck, Duck, Goose

Grade:

Grades 1-3, Grades 3-5

Setup:

Circle game

Objective:

A group of players sit in a circle, facing inward, while another player, who is “it”, walks around tapping or pointing to each player in turn, calling each a “duck” until finally calling one a “goose“. The “goose” then rises and tries to tag “it”, while “it” tries to return to and sit where the “goose” had been sitting. If “it” succeeds, the “goose” becomes “it” and the process begins again. If the “goose” tags “it”, the “goose” may return to his or her previous spot and the original “it” restarts the process

*You can do variations based on your groups interest! Royal, Royal, Frog! Dog, Dog, Cat! Person, Person, Pokemon! Dragon, Dragon, Dinosaur! *

 

Darling If You Love Me…

Grade:

Middle

Setup:

Circle Game

Objective:

Seat the players in a circle all facing each other. One player who is chosen as “it” sits in the center of the circle. The “it” player in the middle of the circle goes to a player in the circle, maintains eye contact and without touching them uses their silliest voice and expressions says “Darling, if you love me won’t you please, please smile?” The player who was asked the question responds with “Darling, you know I love you, but I just can’t smile.” without smiling. If the player responds, but cannot do so without smiling they become the “it” player in the center of the circle.

If the player successfully replies without smiling the “it” player moves on to the next player in the circle and again asks “Darling, if you love me won’t you please, please smile?”. The “it” player should go in order around the circle. This prevents them from only selecting their friends or players that are naturally smiley. When a new player becomes “it” they should continue where the previous player left off. To succeed it is highly recommended that as the “it” player you use whatever antics you can during your approach to the player you are about to ask the question. Use of silly body movements and facial expressions may get the player smiling before the question is even asked.

(If some campers are wearing a mask, the goal could be to make them laugh or break eye contact, or you could do an honesty policy on smiling… be creative!)

 

Clapping Game

Grade:

Grades 3-5, Middle

Setup:

Circle Game

Objective:

Everyone stands in a circle. There are three claps students can do: one clap keeps the clapping going in the direction it started / two claps reverses the order of the clapping / and three claps skips a person in the direction it was going.  It’s important to keep pace. Students sit out if they make a mistake or are off beat.

Video:

Beans

Grade:

Grades 1-3, Grades 3-5

Setup:

Campers spread out 

Objective:

The Adventure Guide calls out the name of a bean and the campers respond appropriately. Possible beans might include:

  • Runner Beans – children run into spaces
  • Jumping Beans – children jump into spaces
  • Kidney Beans – children (kids) hop around holding onto a knee
  • Baked Beans – children lay flat on their backs as if they are baking in the sun
  • Broad Beans – children move around making broad shapes with their bodies
  • String Beans – children move around making skinny, string-like shapes with their bodies
  • Chilli Beans – children act as if they are chilly

The Adventure Guide may also like to call out ‘Freeze’ from time to time for which the children should freeze in the position that they are in.