Fun Games
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Pillow Catch

Give half of the children pillow cases. The other half of the children throw balls up for them to catch in their pillow cases.

Frogs on a Lily Pad

Spread hula hoops on the grass. Tell the children the hoops are lily pads and they are "safe" when they are on a lily pad. There is a huge mean hawk (you) who loves to eat little frogs (them). The hawk makes a a scary sound and swoops after the frogs. The children must hop to the lily pad for safety. Each lily pad can hold an infinite number of frogs. If the hawk catches a frog, she picks it up in her arms, twirls around and carries her off to her nest. When she leaves for more frogs the captured frog can escape. The children love this game and can play it much longer that you will be able to!

Oink Piggy

One player is "It". It is blindfolded and given a pillow. Turn him around three times while others sit in a circle around him. "It" puts the pillow down in somebody's lap and sits on it. He says "oink piggy! and the other players must oink like a pig. It tries to guess whose lap he is on. If he does the other player becomes it. Be sure all players change places each time a new person becomes it.

Busy Bee

Find a partner. Stand back to back or side to side/ hand to hand/ foot to foot. Move to music. When Busy Bee is called out, everyone finds a new partner. Call out a new body part to touch.

Hot Potato

A ball or other object is passed quickly around by children sitting in a circle as the children say "One potato, two potato, three potato, four, five potato, six potato, seven potato more. When the chant ends, the last person to touch the ball goes into the middle of the circle. When the chant ends again, someone else replaces the person in eh middle

Treasure Hunt

Send the children on a treasure hunt. For young children use pictures instead of words.

Red Light Green Light

Children stand next to one another behind the starting line. The leader turns his back to them and quickly says "Red light, green light, one two three." The children try to sneak up on the leader but when he says "Three" they need to freeze Anyone seen moving may be sent back to the starting line by the leader. When the leader is tagged, another is chosen.

Weather Vanes

With a marker, write a different direction word on each 4 x card north, south, east, wet. Attach cards to appropriate walls of your classroom. choose a child to be the "wind". The wind calls out a direction. All the weather vanes must quickly turn and face that direction. To cause the weather vanes to turn complete circle, call tornado!

What Time is it Mr. Fox?

One child is the fox and stand several yards away from the other children The group asks "What time is it Mr. Fox? The fox responds, choosing a time from one to eleven o'clock. The children move that number of steps toward the fox trying to get as close as possible without touching him. When the fox shouts midnight! they must try to run back to the starting line without getting tagged. Pick a new fox after each round

That Makes Ten

The children line up on one side of the yard. One child stands in the middle of the yard and calls out numbers. If the numbers add up to ten, the children run and try to reach the other side before they are tagged.

Find The Color

The leader calls out a color and the rest need to run and touch the color before the leader finishes counting to five or ten.

Mirrors

Two players face each other. One is the leader, the other is the mirror. The mirror imitates whatever the leader does.

Red, Red, Red

Children stand next to each other behind the starting line. The leader calls out three colors. No one moves if all three colors aren't the same, but if they do, the children race to a distant wall or tree and back without getting caught.

Sardines

One player goes off to hide while the others count to 25. When the players have finished counting, they call out "Here I come" Everyone goes off in a different direction to look for the person who is hiding. As each player find him he hides in the same space until all the players are squeezed into the same hiding place. The first player to find the hider gets to be the one to hide next.

Cold Potato

Using a pin, poke a hole in a balloon before you fill it with water, so it has a slow but steady leak. Now three or more players stand in a circle and toss the spraying balloon around from player to player. The object being to pass the balloon to the next player before it runs out of water.

Detective

Choose an object to be hidden such as a stuffed animal. One child sits in a chair or on the floor, eyes closed. The second child hides the object. The child that is "it" now opens his or her eyes and I begin to ask questions to the group to help the child find the object. What color hair does the child who took the toy have? What color pants? What color eyes? Is it a boy or a girl?

Direction Games

Touch your right knee, hop on your left foot, take a step with your left foot. Tie a ribbon one side to help children differentiate. Have children pretend to turn off the TV set. Turn right for on and left for off.

Lame Hen

Line up ten sticks, each about 18 inches apart, like the rungs on a ladder. Do the same a few feet away with 10 more sticks. The teams line up 15 feet behind the first stick. At the "go" signal the first player on each team hops on one foot over each stick, all the while squawking like a hen, younger children can hop like a bunny on two feet. At the end of the row, the hen picks up the last stick, hops with it back to the starting line and places it so that it is first in line. The next person then starts hopping.

Catch a Falling Cloud

Have two children raise their arms up high and lock hands. They form a cloud. The rest of the children form a circle and march to music under the cloud. When the music stops, have the two children lower their arms and catch the child going under.

Going to Kentucky

Two children stand in the middle of the circle formed by the rest of the children. After the first run through of the some, the center children choose where they are going, why and what is going to be in their hair. Sing the song again with their choices. Everyone claps and dances in place. On the shake it baby part, everyone shakes down to the ground and back up again. The two in the middle twirl around, pointing until Stop! Whoever they are pointing to on stop is in the middle next.

While going to Kentucky, while going to the fair, I met a senorita with flowers in her hair. Shake it baby, shake it; Shake it all you can! Shake it like a milkshake, and do the best you can! Now rumble to the bottom; now rumble to the top! Turn and turn and turn until you make stop!

Tug Away

Each player stands on a small stump or milk carton, holding onto one end of a rope. The goal is to pull your opponent off his/her stump. Make sure there is a soft surface underneath.

Decathlon Plus

Set up a number of challenges and allot points for the number of completed events. Possible games are - a wheelbarrow race from one point to another, running around cones, long jumping, running around cones, running in place for one minute, sit ups. Older children can do the timing and see if they can better their performance.

Musical Hoops

Put out enough hula hoops so that every child is standing inside one. If you don't have enough hoops, circles of yarn work too. When the music plays, everyone jumps out of his hoop and runs, skips, dances or hops, whichever action is called out. When the music stops, everyone runs to get at least part of their body in a hoop by the time the adult counts to five or ten. Remove one hoop after each round. At the end, everyone must fit inside one hoop.

*Submitted by Sherry

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