Large Group Games
Spot Remover-Split group into two different teams and have them line up on either side of the playing area. In the center spread out as many polyspots as you can. To start, the students from both teams will move into the playing area and try to remove the spots and place them on their team's side. To remove the spot, you put a hand or foot on the spot and complete a fitness task. While trying to complete a task, he or she can be challenged by a player from the other team. If challenged, the players will play Rock, Paper, Scissor to see who collects the spot.
Variations- Play RSP from a plank position or use feet to play.
- After RSP challenge, the winner gets to stay at the spot and do the exercise before they can take it back. While doing the exercise they can be challenged by a different person.
-At first have a lot of spots, and then take away spots to encourage more challenges.
Sharks in the water- Set up hoops on the outside of the playing area and designate a place in the middle of the play space as the “main island”. In the hoops (remote islands) place treasure of some sort (beanbags, noodle pieces, etc). Assign a few players to be sharks but giving them a pinnie, noodle, or other tagging implement.
The object of the game is for the swimmers on the main island to swim to the remote islands to get a piece of treasure and bring it back to the main island.
If a swimmer gets tagged by a shark, the swimmer can perform an activity at the main island before they can go to another island again.
If sharks are puppy guarding islands remind them that on the edge of the islands are beaches and that beached sharks aren't good! Encourage them to swim in the deep waters.
Clean out the Backyard/advanced pass to teammate then throw- Use mats or volleyball nets as a barrier to separate the two sides. Just like in clean out the backyard players throw the ball over to the other side. However, in this version when a player gets a ball they must make an overhand throw to another teammate. The teammate must catch the ball before they can throw the ball over the net/mat to the other side. When the music is off count up how many balls are on your side.
Oscar’s Trashcan
4 way Shack Attack- Divide gym into four quarters using dome cones. In each quarter take a floor mat, stand it upright and unfold it so that it stands freely. Take another floor mat, keep it folded, and place it across the top of the free standing mat to create a table top. This is a shack. Place three objects on top of your shack, we use plastic cones. Have each team in each quarter do this.
Play begins with players throwing gatorskins in an attempt to knock down other teams cones from their shack. Once a team has all of their cones knocked down, they may scatter to whichever team they want to go to next who still has cones up. Game is over when one team left.
Defense Rules: team may play defense however, no interceptions and can only swat the ball away. To prevent standing, once a defender blocks a ball away, that defender must go get a ball and make a throwing attempt before they can play defense again.
4 way Frantic- This game has a feel of Clean out the Backyard. Divide gym into four quarters using the dome cones. Use gator skin balls to begin with. Empty them out onto the floor. When the game starts students can slap, kick or throw the ball out of their area. At the end of the round see which group has the fewest balls in their area;
Variations: -start off with fewer balls then add more each round.
Catapult- Equipment: Gator Skin balls (at least 1 for every other student) Sit up mats, targets (foam blocks, pins, etc) noodles (at least 4)
Procedure: Divide gym into two zones and two teams
Give each team an equal number of targets (foam blocks, pins, etc)
Place several mats down each teams side.
Select some students to be catapults, as many as you want for each team
Give Go signal and begin
Rules: If a student is selected to be a catapult they lay flat on the mat in their territory so that when they do a curl up they can throw the ball to their opponent’s side.
All other students are blockers/reloaders. Their objective is to give the gator skin balls to their catapults by placing it in their hands or blocking any cannonball that comes through the air.
When the catapult student has a ball to throw they must do a sit up and throw it in ‘soccer style’ (two hands over their head) to try to knock down their opponent’s targets.
At any point give the groups a few seconds to restack. Switch catapults as necessary.
Slapball, kick slapball-Skill Strike (underhand roll, soccer,etc)
Air Raid and Air raid with bosu balls
Annie Annie Over- If possible, get a bunch of floor mats and stand them on their side across the half court line in the gym making a “wall.” On a sideline on each side make a coned off square.
Play beings by each team throwing balls across the wall. If a student on one side catches a ball in the air, that player can go over to the other teams’ square on the sideline and do an underhand roll trying to tag an opposing player on the foot. If a player is tagged, they must go over to the other team’s side.
The object of the game is to see how which team has the most opposing players on their side.
-VARIATIONS- for younger grades you may allow the players to catch a ball off of one bounce.
* sometimes players “let” themselves get tagged so they can go be with their friends on the other side, thus ruining the object of the game. To fix this, you can change the objective to be an individual game where when the round is over the object is to be on the same side which you started from
Fitness Ball: Set up the volleyball nets across the middle of the playing area or set up mats ala “Annie Annie Over”. This is a throwing and catching game with one team on each side of the net. On the signal, the players will start throwing colored gatorskin balls back and forth. If a player catches a ball, the color of the ball they catch indicates a different exercise/activity. Once they do that activity for catching the ball they are awarded how ever many points the teacher deems them. Ex: if you catch a red ball, jog two laps around basketball court and receive 5 points. If you catch a blue gatorskin ball, do 20 mountain climbers and receive 10 points, etc. Object is to see how many points students can earn. Do a few rounds with the objective of trying to increase your personal best score.
Beehive: Place four hoops, one at each corner of the gym. Divide the flags into the hoops as evenly as you can. Divide the class into four color groups (red, yellow, blue, green) and give them that color jersey.
To start-players will try to grab the flag of another player from a different team. When they get a flag they take it back to their hoop and place in there.
If a player has their flag taken, they go back to their hoop to get another one and get back in the game.
Rules-
If a player slides to grab a flag it does not count.
A player who stole a flag and is taking it back to their hoop cannot have their flag stolen.
Gotcha:How to Play – Students form a large circle around the teacher. When the activity begins students try to squat down, touch the ground with their fingertips and then return to a standing position. The teacher stands in the
middle of the circle and tries to catch a student while doing a squat. If the teacher catches a student doing a
squat and says, “Gotcha!” the students must turn to the outside of the circle and run one lap around. When they
return to their spot in the circle, they may rejoin the game. Every time a student completes a squat, they get
one point. Students take turns in the middle as well.
Variation- change the movement from squat to a different exercise.
agility circles/ mountain top/ olympic jump rope
Tower of Power
4 way brick knock down
American Gladiator style battle ball
super bowl
Ro Shan Bo- RSP- join onto the line if you lose
10 Pin Knockdown: Split the teams in half. Each team will strategically place cones/pins in their playing area. Probably no less than 10 pins on each side. More is better in this game. On the start signal, players try to knock down the cones/pins from the other teams side. Once a cone from the other side is down, the player who knocked it down raises their hand and retrieves the cone/pin and brings it back to their side. The side with the most pins at the end of the time limit wins.
Variations:
Have students roll, soccer kick, or throw to knock the pins down
Sugar crash
-Hand out 4-5 noodles. Players with noodles are junk food
-Hand out 6-8 gatorskin balls. Players with gator skin balls are fruit/veggie
-Have players skip or move actively around the gym
-When a player is tagged by junk food, they immediately lose their energy and walk in a very tired like fashion, like a zombie.
-When a fruit or veggie person gives the tired person their ball, they get their energy back and are allowed to move actively again.
-Game is continuous.
-Take some time to talk about how simple sugars give us a short burst of energy and then we "crash". Also, talk about the complex sugars in fruit and veggies and how they give us longer lasting energy.
Steal the veggie
Poison Ball
Red light green light (sports and fitness skills)
Samauri
beanbag grab
Team keep away
Beanbag Fitness- Have enough beanbags so that everyone has one and an activity chart with the beanbag colors representing a fitness move. When the music starts everyone begins to tag each other. When you get tagged by someone you exchange beanbags with that person. When the music stops, check what color beanbag you have with the Activity chart and do that activity until the music comes back on.
Gate Keeper- Divide the playing area into three or four zones depending on your space. Place two cones beside each other as if making a doorway or entryway from one zone to another. Players start in zone one. Create two "doorways" to get from zone 1 to zone 2 but have only one gatekeeper. For zone 2 have three "doorways" and two gate keepers and for zone 3 have four "doorways" and three gatekeepers, etc. The object of the game is for the runners to go through the doorways to get to the next zone until they get to the end of the grid. If a tagger tags them, the runner goes off to the side and circles back to the beginning and tries again. If a runner gets to the end loop around and start again. Change taggers from time to time.
Honey Bee- Give out noodles to about half the class. The players with noodles are the bees. They try to “sting” others with the noodle by tagging them on the leg. Once a player has been stung they go to an area and do a designated activity. The bee that just stung the player drops their “stinger” (noodle). When the stinger is on the ground anyone can come by and pick it up and become a honey bee. Play is continuous.
Bowling Frenzy: Divide the gym into four sections and then divide the players up into four teams. Each team goes to one of the sections. In each section are 10 foam bricks, bowling pins, cones, etc. Set them up in a scattered manner in your zone. Once that is completed hand out balls or beanbags to each team.
The object of the game is to underhand roll/slide the ball/ beanbag to knock down other teams standing objects.
Players may play defense but need to be encouraged to also attempt to knock down other teams pins too.
When the round is over, see how many your team has left standing.
variations- add an "invader". The invader gets a noodle and can go to other sections to try to knock down their objects. To stop an invader the other team must simply tag them. If they are tagged they must give their noodle to the person who tagged them and return to their home section.
Tradhok-
The polyspots should be spread out in the gym and there should be one for each student that is not a tagger (tagger = Tradhok). The polyspots represent the forest trees and the students are birds in the trees. As long as a bird is on a tree, they are safe from the tradhoks. The birds may not talk and may not leave their tree unless they are switching with another bird. The way they do this is to blink 2x at another bird who would in turn blink back 2x…then the two would switch spots. If tagged the bird and the tradhok would switch…or you can have a predetermined consequence in which case you would pick new tradhoks every few minutes.
Variations:
1. Put out more spots than birds and allow the birds to run to open spots as well as blink and switch. (My students love this version). Ensure the students know they should be stopping at each new tree before switching to a new one.
2. If playing the original version, make it so that instead of tagging, if a tradhok can beat a bird to an open tree (spot), then they would switch jobs.
Ankle Biters- Have students pair up. Make a large square or rectangle playing area. Most of the time a basketball or volleyball court work fine. One partner will have a pool noodle and is in the court while the partner is on the outside perimeter.
When the game starts players in the middle try to tag anyone and everyone. Once a player is tagged they must go give their noodle to their partner and switch places. Play is continuous.
variation: Have partners on the outside moving around the playing area while they wait for their partner to exchange the noodle with them. The best way to move is to slide around the perimeter so that you are always facing the middle.
Run for it- (similar to Sharks in the water)
Have a large area in the middle for the players to start in. Set out cones far away on the outside areas. Select players to be taggers and give them noodles.
On the go signal, players are trying to get from the middle circle to a cone, touch it and then come back to the middle. Teacher may set point system if they want.
If a player is tagged they can
1. return to the middle and try again
2. switch jobs with the tagger.
Variations:
-Have players change loco motor movements
-place hoops instead of cones. Let players use hoops as safe zones to rest or plan out their route back to the middle. Set limit of how many people can be in a hoop at one time.
Evolution- Everyone will start out as an egg with their hands connected above their heads so that they look like an egg.
When the game begins each egg will look for another egg. Once they have found each other, the two will do Rock Paper Scissor (RSP). The winner becomes a chicken the loser stays an egg. The chicken will make their arms into flapping wings. Two chickens will play off. The winning chicken becomes a dino while the losing chicken drops back to an egg. Dinos will play other dinos. The winner will become a superhero and fly though the air looking for other superhero’s. The losing dino goes back to being a chicken. Superhero’s play others Superhero’s. If you win you stay a superhero, if you lose you go back to being a dino.
Tip- have a list of the progressions visible for players to consult throughout the game
Risk Run
-Players get a bucket or cone and place it behind the end line that is opposite of the “treasure” line.
-Players are to start at one end of the game with the “treasure” at the other end of the game.
-players are trying to get across to the treasure side and collect a piece of treasure. When a piece of treasure is collect, the player needs to run on the outside of the game and put their treasure in their bucket or cone.
While running through to get the treasure there will be taggers with noodles. If you get tagged you will take the noodle and become a tagger. The old tagger goes off to the side to return to the starting line. Its important that the new runner goes off to the side rather than run straight back to the starting line as they will end up running against the grain of runners trying to get to the treasure side.
Risk
A runner may decide to risk some of their treasure by carrying as many pieces of treasure with them across the field to the treasure side. If they make it across successfully the runner is allowed to double the amount of treasure they can collect. Ex: if a person carries four pieces of treasure they can leave the treasure pile with eight pieces to take back to their bucket.
-HOWEVER-
if you get tagged with pieces of treasure in your hand before you get across, you must give your treasure to the person who tagged you. They then get to add that treasure to their bucket and continue with trying to collect more treasure.
Crossing the River- This is a lead up for Island Hopping. This is a game that works best in a large open space like an outside playing field or a very large gym.
To begin, set up two rows of cones parallel to each other with at least 20 yards of space in between. This is the river. The players stand behind the rows of cones on the “shore”. There is one person who starts out in the River who is the tagger. The object of the game is for the players to see how many times they can cross the river in a certain time frame. If the tagger tags a player, then that player becomes a tagger as well. We use noodles in this game as a tagging implement so that everyone knows who the taggers are.
When the round is over have them count up how many times they were able to successfully cross and then encourage them to try to beat that score the next time.
Play many rounds so that players get a chance to increase their score as much as possible.
*variations- have players skip count
Maze Gauntlet
Scatter spots on the floor and have one team stand on the spots.
The other team will start at one end trying to get through to the other side without being tagged
The players on the spots must keep at least one foot on the spot while they attempt to tag.
When players make it through the maze they run back to the starting line and try again.
If a player is tagged, go off immediately to the side and run back to the start line and begin again
Variation:
Have more spots than taggers and let taggers move from spot to spot. Remind taggers that they cannot tag others without at least one foot on a spot.
Mountaintop- Create three zones. One large zone. One smaller zone inside the largest zone and then one more small zone inside the second zone. Everyone needs a flag belt, scarf, etc. Play begins in the largest zone. Players play a one on one challenge. The winner of the challenge by pulling their opponents flag will move to towards the top of the mountain by advancing to the next zone. The winner of the one on one challenge in that zone advances to the smaller third zone; the mountaintop! If a player loses a challenge they remain at the current level. However, if a challenge is lost at the mountaintop, the player tumbles all the way down to the bottom of the mountain and begins at the beginning again!
Variations- Play RSP from a plank position or use feet to play.
- After RSP challenge, the winner gets to stay at the spot and do the exercise before they can take it back. While doing the exercise they can be challenged by a different person.
-At first have a lot of spots, and then take away spots to encourage more challenges.
Sharks in the water- Set up hoops on the outside of the playing area and designate a place in the middle of the play space as the “main island”. In the hoops (remote islands) place treasure of some sort (beanbags, noodle pieces, etc). Assign a few players to be sharks but giving them a pinnie, noodle, or other tagging implement.
The object of the game is for the swimmers on the main island to swim to the remote islands to get a piece of treasure and bring it back to the main island.
If a swimmer gets tagged by a shark, the swimmer can perform an activity at the main island before they can go to another island again.
If sharks are puppy guarding islands remind them that on the edge of the islands are beaches and that beached sharks aren't good! Encourage them to swim in the deep waters.
Clean out the Backyard/advanced pass to teammate then throw- Use mats or volleyball nets as a barrier to separate the two sides. Just like in clean out the backyard players throw the ball over to the other side. However, in this version when a player gets a ball they must make an overhand throw to another teammate. The teammate must catch the ball before they can throw the ball over the net/mat to the other side. When the music is off count up how many balls are on your side.
Oscar’s Trashcan
4 way Shack Attack- Divide gym into four quarters using dome cones. In each quarter take a floor mat, stand it upright and unfold it so that it stands freely. Take another floor mat, keep it folded, and place it across the top of the free standing mat to create a table top. This is a shack. Place three objects on top of your shack, we use plastic cones. Have each team in each quarter do this.
Play begins with players throwing gatorskins in an attempt to knock down other teams cones from their shack. Once a team has all of their cones knocked down, they may scatter to whichever team they want to go to next who still has cones up. Game is over when one team left.
Defense Rules: team may play defense however, no interceptions and can only swat the ball away. To prevent standing, once a defender blocks a ball away, that defender must go get a ball and make a throwing attempt before they can play defense again.
4 way Frantic- This game has a feel of Clean out the Backyard. Divide gym into four quarters using the dome cones. Use gator skin balls to begin with. Empty them out onto the floor. When the game starts students can slap, kick or throw the ball out of their area. At the end of the round see which group has the fewest balls in their area;
Variations: -start off with fewer balls then add more each round.
Catapult- Equipment: Gator Skin balls (at least 1 for every other student) Sit up mats, targets (foam blocks, pins, etc) noodles (at least 4)
Procedure: Divide gym into two zones and two teams
Give each team an equal number of targets (foam blocks, pins, etc)
Place several mats down each teams side.
Select some students to be catapults, as many as you want for each team
Give Go signal and begin
Rules: If a student is selected to be a catapult they lay flat on the mat in their territory so that when they do a curl up they can throw the ball to their opponent’s side.
All other students are blockers/reloaders. Their objective is to give the gator skin balls to their catapults by placing it in their hands or blocking any cannonball that comes through the air.
When the catapult student has a ball to throw they must do a sit up and throw it in ‘soccer style’ (two hands over their head) to try to knock down their opponent’s targets.
At any point give the groups a few seconds to restack. Switch catapults as necessary.
Slapball, kick slapball-Skill Strike (underhand roll, soccer,etc)
Air Raid and Air raid with bosu balls
Annie Annie Over- If possible, get a bunch of floor mats and stand them on their side across the half court line in the gym making a “wall.” On a sideline on each side make a coned off square.
Play beings by each team throwing balls across the wall. If a student on one side catches a ball in the air, that player can go over to the other teams’ square on the sideline and do an underhand roll trying to tag an opposing player on the foot. If a player is tagged, they must go over to the other team’s side.
The object of the game is to see how which team has the most opposing players on their side.
-VARIATIONS- for younger grades you may allow the players to catch a ball off of one bounce.
* sometimes players “let” themselves get tagged so they can go be with their friends on the other side, thus ruining the object of the game. To fix this, you can change the objective to be an individual game where when the round is over the object is to be on the same side which you started from
Fitness Ball: Set up the volleyball nets across the middle of the playing area or set up mats ala “Annie Annie Over”. This is a throwing and catching game with one team on each side of the net. On the signal, the players will start throwing colored gatorskin balls back and forth. If a player catches a ball, the color of the ball they catch indicates a different exercise/activity. Once they do that activity for catching the ball they are awarded how ever many points the teacher deems them. Ex: if you catch a red ball, jog two laps around basketball court and receive 5 points. If you catch a blue gatorskin ball, do 20 mountain climbers and receive 10 points, etc. Object is to see how many points students can earn. Do a few rounds with the objective of trying to increase your personal best score.
Beehive: Place four hoops, one at each corner of the gym. Divide the flags into the hoops as evenly as you can. Divide the class into four color groups (red, yellow, blue, green) and give them that color jersey.
To start-players will try to grab the flag of another player from a different team. When they get a flag they take it back to their hoop and place in there.
If a player has their flag taken, they go back to their hoop to get another one and get back in the game.
Rules-
If a player slides to grab a flag it does not count.
A player who stole a flag and is taking it back to their hoop cannot have their flag stolen.
Gotcha:How to Play – Students form a large circle around the teacher. When the activity begins students try to squat down, touch the ground with their fingertips and then return to a standing position. The teacher stands in the
middle of the circle and tries to catch a student while doing a squat. If the teacher catches a student doing a
squat and says, “Gotcha!” the students must turn to the outside of the circle and run one lap around. When they
return to their spot in the circle, they may rejoin the game. Every time a student completes a squat, they get
one point. Students take turns in the middle as well.
Variation- change the movement from squat to a different exercise.
agility circles/ mountain top/ olympic jump rope
Tower of Power
4 way brick knock down
American Gladiator style battle ball
super bowl
Ro Shan Bo- RSP- join onto the line if you lose
10 Pin Knockdown: Split the teams in half. Each team will strategically place cones/pins in their playing area. Probably no less than 10 pins on each side. More is better in this game. On the start signal, players try to knock down the cones/pins from the other teams side. Once a cone from the other side is down, the player who knocked it down raises their hand and retrieves the cone/pin and brings it back to their side. The side with the most pins at the end of the time limit wins.
Variations:
Have students roll, soccer kick, or throw to knock the pins down
Sugar crash
-Hand out 4-5 noodles. Players with noodles are junk food
-Hand out 6-8 gatorskin balls. Players with gator skin balls are fruit/veggie
-Have players skip or move actively around the gym
-When a player is tagged by junk food, they immediately lose their energy and walk in a very tired like fashion, like a zombie.
-When a fruit or veggie person gives the tired person their ball, they get their energy back and are allowed to move actively again.
-Game is continuous.
-Take some time to talk about how simple sugars give us a short burst of energy and then we "crash". Also, talk about the complex sugars in fruit and veggies and how they give us longer lasting energy.
Steal the veggie
Poison Ball
Red light green light (sports and fitness skills)
Samauri
beanbag grab
Team keep away
Beanbag Fitness- Have enough beanbags so that everyone has one and an activity chart with the beanbag colors representing a fitness move. When the music starts everyone begins to tag each other. When you get tagged by someone you exchange beanbags with that person. When the music stops, check what color beanbag you have with the Activity chart and do that activity until the music comes back on.
Gate Keeper- Divide the playing area into three or four zones depending on your space. Place two cones beside each other as if making a doorway or entryway from one zone to another. Players start in zone one. Create two "doorways" to get from zone 1 to zone 2 but have only one gatekeeper. For zone 2 have three "doorways" and two gate keepers and for zone 3 have four "doorways" and three gatekeepers, etc. The object of the game is for the runners to go through the doorways to get to the next zone until they get to the end of the grid. If a tagger tags them, the runner goes off to the side and circles back to the beginning and tries again. If a runner gets to the end loop around and start again. Change taggers from time to time.
Honey Bee- Give out noodles to about half the class. The players with noodles are the bees. They try to “sting” others with the noodle by tagging them on the leg. Once a player has been stung they go to an area and do a designated activity. The bee that just stung the player drops their “stinger” (noodle). When the stinger is on the ground anyone can come by and pick it up and become a honey bee. Play is continuous.
Bowling Frenzy: Divide the gym into four sections and then divide the players up into four teams. Each team goes to one of the sections. In each section are 10 foam bricks, bowling pins, cones, etc. Set them up in a scattered manner in your zone. Once that is completed hand out balls or beanbags to each team.
The object of the game is to underhand roll/slide the ball/ beanbag to knock down other teams standing objects.
Players may play defense but need to be encouraged to also attempt to knock down other teams pins too.
When the round is over, see how many your team has left standing.
variations- add an "invader". The invader gets a noodle and can go to other sections to try to knock down their objects. To stop an invader the other team must simply tag them. If they are tagged they must give their noodle to the person who tagged them and return to their home section.
Tradhok-
The polyspots should be spread out in the gym and there should be one for each student that is not a tagger (tagger = Tradhok). The polyspots represent the forest trees and the students are birds in the trees. As long as a bird is on a tree, they are safe from the tradhoks. The birds may not talk and may not leave their tree unless they are switching with another bird. The way they do this is to blink 2x at another bird who would in turn blink back 2x…then the two would switch spots. If tagged the bird and the tradhok would switch…or you can have a predetermined consequence in which case you would pick new tradhoks every few minutes.
Variations:
1. Put out more spots than birds and allow the birds to run to open spots as well as blink and switch. (My students love this version). Ensure the students know they should be stopping at each new tree before switching to a new one.
2. If playing the original version, make it so that instead of tagging, if a tradhok can beat a bird to an open tree (spot), then they would switch jobs.
Ankle Biters- Have students pair up. Make a large square or rectangle playing area. Most of the time a basketball or volleyball court work fine. One partner will have a pool noodle and is in the court while the partner is on the outside perimeter.
When the game starts players in the middle try to tag anyone and everyone. Once a player is tagged they must go give their noodle to their partner and switch places. Play is continuous.
variation: Have partners on the outside moving around the playing area while they wait for their partner to exchange the noodle with them. The best way to move is to slide around the perimeter so that you are always facing the middle.
Run for it- (similar to Sharks in the water)
Have a large area in the middle for the players to start in. Set out cones far away on the outside areas. Select players to be taggers and give them noodles.
On the go signal, players are trying to get from the middle circle to a cone, touch it and then come back to the middle. Teacher may set point system if they want.
If a player is tagged they can
1. return to the middle and try again
2. switch jobs with the tagger.
Variations:
-Have players change loco motor movements
-place hoops instead of cones. Let players use hoops as safe zones to rest or plan out their route back to the middle. Set limit of how many people can be in a hoop at one time.
Evolution- Everyone will start out as an egg with their hands connected above their heads so that they look like an egg.
When the game begins each egg will look for another egg. Once they have found each other, the two will do Rock Paper Scissor (RSP). The winner becomes a chicken the loser stays an egg. The chicken will make their arms into flapping wings. Two chickens will play off. The winning chicken becomes a dino while the losing chicken drops back to an egg. Dinos will play other dinos. The winner will become a superhero and fly though the air looking for other superhero’s. The losing dino goes back to being a chicken. Superhero’s play others Superhero’s. If you win you stay a superhero, if you lose you go back to being a dino.
Tip- have a list of the progressions visible for players to consult throughout the game
Risk Run
-Players get a bucket or cone and place it behind the end line that is opposite of the “treasure” line.
-Players are to start at one end of the game with the “treasure” at the other end of the game.
-players are trying to get across to the treasure side and collect a piece of treasure. When a piece of treasure is collect, the player needs to run on the outside of the game and put their treasure in their bucket or cone.
While running through to get the treasure there will be taggers with noodles. If you get tagged you will take the noodle and become a tagger. The old tagger goes off to the side to return to the starting line. Its important that the new runner goes off to the side rather than run straight back to the starting line as they will end up running against the grain of runners trying to get to the treasure side.
Risk
A runner may decide to risk some of their treasure by carrying as many pieces of treasure with them across the field to the treasure side. If they make it across successfully the runner is allowed to double the amount of treasure they can collect. Ex: if a person carries four pieces of treasure they can leave the treasure pile with eight pieces to take back to their bucket.
-HOWEVER-
if you get tagged with pieces of treasure in your hand before you get across, you must give your treasure to the person who tagged you. They then get to add that treasure to their bucket and continue with trying to collect more treasure.
Crossing the River- This is a lead up for Island Hopping. This is a game that works best in a large open space like an outside playing field or a very large gym.
To begin, set up two rows of cones parallel to each other with at least 20 yards of space in between. This is the river. The players stand behind the rows of cones on the “shore”. There is one person who starts out in the River who is the tagger. The object of the game is for the players to see how many times they can cross the river in a certain time frame. If the tagger tags a player, then that player becomes a tagger as well. We use noodles in this game as a tagging implement so that everyone knows who the taggers are.
When the round is over have them count up how many times they were able to successfully cross and then encourage them to try to beat that score the next time.
Play many rounds so that players get a chance to increase their score as much as possible.
*variations- have players skip count
Maze Gauntlet
Scatter spots on the floor and have one team stand on the spots.
The other team will start at one end trying to get through to the other side without being tagged
The players on the spots must keep at least one foot on the spot while they attempt to tag.
When players make it through the maze they run back to the starting line and try again.
If a player is tagged, go off immediately to the side and run back to the start line and begin again
Variation:
Have more spots than taggers and let taggers move from spot to spot. Remind taggers that they cannot tag others without at least one foot on a spot.
Mountaintop- Create three zones. One large zone. One smaller zone inside the largest zone and then one more small zone inside the second zone. Everyone needs a flag belt, scarf, etc. Play begins in the largest zone. Players play a one on one challenge. The winner of the challenge by pulling their opponents flag will move to towards the top of the mountain by advancing to the next zone. The winner of the one on one challenge in that zone advances to the smaller third zone; the mountaintop! If a player loses a challenge they remain at the current level. However, if a challenge is lost at the mountaintop, the player tumbles all the way down to the bottom of the mountain and begins at the beginning again!