MISCELLANEOUS GAMES #1
MOUSE TRAP
o Equipment: None
o Age: 5 - 12 years
o Number of participants 10-30 (with 30 participants start with a
bigger trap!)
4 children become the Mouse Trap. They stand in a circle, facing in,
holding hands with their arms extended and up high. The other children
are "mice" and they run in and out of the trap. One person facing
away calls "Spring the Trap" and the girls of the trap bring down
their arms catching (hopefully) some of the mice inside. The caught
mice become part of the trap. The game continues until only a few
"mice" haven't been caught. Then they become the trap and the game
begins again.
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WIZARDS, GIANTS, AND ELVES
Divide the girls into two groups. Divide the playing area in half,
with a safe zone at each end, as per British Bulldog, and a line in
the middle. This game goes something like "Rock, Paper, Scissors".
Each team decides to be one of the three things, by consensus. They
then meet in the middle and on the count of three each team acts out
their creature (wizards point their fingers and go "Zap" or some other
spell related noise, giants stretch up tall and go "Grr" and elves
crouch down low and stick out their tongues and make silly noises).
Giants squish wizards, wizards zap elves, and elves tickle the giants
on the ankles, so giants beat wizards, wizards beat elves, and elves
beat giants. The team that is beaten has to race back to their safe
zone, with the other team chasing them and trying to tag them. Anyone
who is caught has to join the other team, and the game continues from
there. The game is over when one team is no more. If both teams decide
to be the same thing, nothing happens, and they go back to decide
what to be again.
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FRUIT BASKET
We have played a game called "Fruit Basket" at a closing dinner -
which included girls and parents. It was quite a wild time! I don't
know how much room you have... but anyway ... everyone has a chair
in a circle (or could have a circle within another circle - as long
as chairs in the inside circle were not put too close to each other).
You can just ask girls to pick (choose) a fruit (e.g. apples peaches
pears or plums) or you can go around the circle and assign each one
a fruit (but with 100 players this might take too much time). The
fruit they pick is the fruit they are for the entire game. Then someone
in the centre calls out one fruit name - all the girls that have chosen
that fruit stand up and must change places (and NOT to the chair next
to them). Oh yes, meanwhile the person in the centre tries to sit
down on an unoccupied chair. So - you end up with one person left
with no chair - they then are in the centre and call out another fruit.
Once the game is clear - can call out more than one fruit at a time
- or FRUIT BASKET - which means EVERYONE must stand up and run around
to find another chair. (I've always told the girls they are JAM -
if they just take the chair next to them - but actually they don't
- they tend to run to the opposite side of the room squealing and
it is bedlam!! but a lot of fun (advise - always stop a game sooner
than the girls want to - that way they don't become bored and they
look forward to doing it again) (In guides we adapted this game to
use the 4 world centres instead of fruit)
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SHIPS AND ROCKS
Group divided - one half rocks, other ships (swap roles latter) Rocks
sit in 2 or more rows holding hands eyes closed, and back to ships.
Ships have to get through rocks. If rocks hear ships, lift arms. If
'catch' ship, the ship restarts
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STREETS AND ALLEYS
The girls line up in several rows with an equal number of girls" in
each row (as close as possible) they stand just far enough apart that
their hands touch when they hold their hands out straight and they
do this to form "streets" that are between the lines. Pick one girl
to be the "cat" (it) and one the "mouse". The cat chases the mouse
through the streets trying to catch them. Meanwhile a leader calls
out "alleys" and the girls in the lines do a quarter turn to make
"alleys" that run at right angles to where the streets were before.
The cat and mouse continue chasing but must change directions to follow
the alleys, as they must not go through any of the girls' arms. Call
out "streets" to turn back. Continue chasing and switching streets/alleys
until the mouse gets caught and then pick someone else to be the cat
and mouse. (I hope this is clear it is kind of hard to describe).
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SQUASH THE KING
Put one playing card per person on floor, everyone picks up a card.
If you pick up a King, sit on chair and yell what suit you have. Everyone
who has that suit must sit on your lap. Last one to sit down is out.
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PIP, SQUEAK, AND CHARLIE
Divide your girls into teams of three. Arrange the teams into
a circle, with the girls on each team standing in a line. The final
formation looks like the spokes of a wheel. Girl #1 on each team is
the girl nearest the centre of the circle, #2's are in the middle,
and #3 is the girl nearest the outside of the circle. Name all #1's
"Pip", #2's "Squeak", and #3's "Charlie". Place a ball, beanbag or
bell in the centre of the circle. The leader then calls either Pip,
Squeak, or Charlie. (In this example, Pip is called.) All the "Pip's"
must run all the way around the outside of the circle and back to
their own team. Meanwhile, the "Squeaks" and "Charlies" make a bridge
with their arms. When each "Pip" reaches their own team, she runs
under the bridge and dives for the ball/beanbag/bell in the centre
of the circle. The team of the girl who gets the object first gets
a point! Repeat the game a number of times, making sure to call each
name. One great variation I tried at a very HOT summer camp was to
have a clean garbage can full of water in the middle of the circle,
and everyone was holding a cup. So - you guessed it - once the girls
reached the middle of the circle their objective was to get everyone
else as wet as possible! This was a lot of fun. My current Guide Unit
taught me an almost identical game called "Pizza". Instead of naming
the girls Pip, Squeak and Charlie, they were named Pepperoni, Cheese
and Sauce. If the leader wanted everyone to be running at the same
time, she called "Pizza"! Cool!
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PRINCESS IN THE TOWER
The "princess" has to be rescued from the "Giant". The Princess
sits on a chair doing nothing, her "guardian" points to Brownies at
random sitting in a semicircle who have to creep up to rescue the
princess without being heard by the Giant who is blindfolded - actually
our giants hide behind a convenient curtain in the hall and spring
out when they hear anything. Our Brownies all love the game which
I find quite extraordinary because they are normally very noisy, and
sitting very still is quite out of character for most of them!!
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BUBBLE CAR
CATEGORY: Indoor/ Outdoor (on grass)
EQUIPMENT: None but 2 chairs per team if possible
NUMBER OF PARTICIPANTS: any number . The more teams the better. If
teams are not even , one girl can take 2 names
HOW TO PLAY: Each team stands in a straight line behind a chair. The
second chair is placed some distance away. Guider gives each member
of the teams the name of a car e.g. all the number ones are Toyota,
all the number twos are Ford etc The last person on each team is always
Bubble Car. f the Guider calls the name of a car the team member who
has that name runs from her place, around the far chair and back to
her place. The first girl back to her place in the line wins a point
for her team. The first person on each team could keep the score.
If the Guider calls Bubble car the last person on the team must crawl
under the legs of all the members of her team before she runs to the
far chair. The first girl back to her position at the end of the team
wins the point. The winning team is the one to get to a certain number
of points first e.g. 15
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BEDLAM
This game requires four teams of equal size. Each team takes one corner
of the room or playing field. The play area can be either square or
rectangular. At a signal (whistle, etc.), each team attempts to move
as quickly as possible to the corner directly across from them (diagonally),
performing an announced activity as they go. The first team to get
all its members into its new corner wins that particular round. The
first round can be simply running to the opposite corner, but after
that you can use any number of possibilities, such as walking backward,
wheelbarrow racing (one person is the wheelbarrow), piggyback, rolling
somersaults, hopping on one foot, skipping, and crab walking. There
will be mass bedlam in the centre as all four teams criss-cross.
