MISCELLANEOUS GAMES #2

FIND THE LEADER
The players sit in a circle, with one person 'it'. This person turns their back and covers their eyes while someone is chosen in the circle to be the leader. The leader starts a motion, such as clapping hands, and all follow by doing the same motion. 'IT' now turns around and tries to guess who the leader is. The leader changes the motion often. So as not to give away the secret, the other children watch the leader out of the corner of their eyes, to know what the new motion will be. 'IT' has three guesses to tell who is the leader. Then the leader becomes 'IT' and a new leader is chosen. Other motions you can use include: tapping knees, shaking head, shrugging shoulders, snapping fingers, touching nose.

********************************************************************************

THE 2p GAME
Equipment: 2p coin (or dollar, quarter, pfennig, or any other coin you have at hand). Rules: o The girls can only move by jumping with feet together o "IT" moves by taking large paces o Any player moving outside the boundary is out. o Once a player has moved, she must stand still. She cannot move feet etc. The girls scatter in the playing space - you need a defined space, that is not too large (or the game goes on for ever!), we use a tennis court size for about 20 The leader (or girl who is "IT") holds a coin & stands in the middle o "IT" tosses the coin. o If it is "heads" then the players move 2 jumps (see above) in any direction o If it is "tails" then "IT" moves one pace in any direction. The aim of the game is for "IT" to "tag" another player by touching any part of them with their hand. To "tag" another player, "IT" can reach out in any direction etc., but ONE foot must remain in its original place. Players can of course try to move their body out of reach, but BOTH feet must stay in their original place! (Resourceful older girls soon figure out that they should go for the feet when trying to tag as they cannot move & also how to make their reach longer by lying down etc.!) This is great fun, requires a minimum of equipment (and we all have a coin of some sort don't we!) & can be done in virtually any space! (We have played it in a marquee at a wet camp, in a car park while waiting for a late bus, in the meeting room, even in a swimming pool! If space is limited, restrict or change the size of moves each person can make!)

********************************************************************************

THE FIVE PENNIES
Get the girls to sit on the floor in 2 parallel lines with a reasonable space between each line. Number them 1 - ? along one line and then the same starting at the other end with the second line. (If you ask them to choose a partner first and then sit them diagonally opposite their partners i.e. the two number 1s being partners, etc., it is easier to make sure that they are equally matched.) In the middle of the space between them, put 5 coins on a chair and an empty chair at each end of the space. As you call out a particular number both those girls dash up, pick up one penny and place it on the chair at the end. You will already have told them which chair belongs to each side! They do the same for the second penny while the first girl to pick up the third penny and get it to her chair gains a point for her side.

********************************************************************************

THE SLAPPING GAME
o Good for ages 7-15.
o Equipment: none
o Number who can join: unlimited but it makes for a long game!
The children make a circle, lying down on the floor on their tummies with their hands on the floor in front of them palms down. (This can be done around a table too!) Each child has her left arm linked through the right arm of the girl beside her. And her right arm linked through the left arm of the girl on the other side. So, each girl has two hands in front of her, the left hand of her right hand neighbour and the right hand of her neighbour to the left. One person starts- she picks the direction of travel of the slap and then she slaps her hand on the table. One slap means the slap continues in that direction, and two slaps mean that the direction is reversed. In either case only the hand immediately adjacent to her hand in the appropriate direction of travel is to go next. If someone misses their turn they are out and must remove that hand! (This gives each girl 2 chances at being 'out' which is more fun than messing up once and being removed from the game). The game continues in the opposite direction, with the next hand having the next turn. This is a fast paced game, and can be played in large groups around a circle on the floor, or around tables in an auditorium.

********************************************************************************

HAND CLAPPING
Everyone sits with hands on floor, and then each person moves left hand to be the other side of the person on their left's right hand. Go around circle clapping floor, one hand at a time. Any hand that misses times is eliminated.

********************************************************************************

WHO IS IT?
o Equipment: None
o Number of Children: lots
o Ages: 5-12
All the children sit in a circle. One is picked to do the guessing and she is sent out of the room where she can not see what is going on inside. One person is chosen as IT while she is outside, this is done QUIETLY by pointing! Everyone in the circle needs to be sure that they know who is IT. The girl in the hall is called back in. The person who is IT starts an action and everyone in the circle copies it. Everyone must be cautioned not to be too obvious about watching the person who is IT. Every few seconds IT changes his actions and everyone follows. The person who has been out of the room has three guesses to catch IT! If she does, then IT goes out of the room. If she doesn't catch IT in her three guesses then, IT is revealed and someone else is chosen to leave the room. I always let an adult pick the person who was IT in a younger group, because everyone gets excited and it doesn't do to make enough noise to let the guesser know who is it before they get back in the room!

********************************************************************************

SKITTLES
Divided into two teams and numbered. 3 plastic bottles in the middle between two teams. Shoe/beanbag at each end. Number called, one from each team must try and throw from behind line to be first to hit 2 bottles over

********************************************************************************

WATER CYCLE RELAY GAME
Divide the girls in teams of 5 in a line quite widely spaced. You will need a bucket of water at the start and a Veggie Zip lock bag (those are the large ones with holes in them!) for each team. The girls within the line are also spread far apart.
oOn 'go' the first girl takes and fills the ziploc (she is the Cloud) and twirls while advancing to the next girl. She passes on the bag.
oThe second girl is the Mountain and she runs to the next girl and passes on the bag.
oThe third girl is the Rain and she hops on one foot to the next girl.
oThis fourth girl is the Stream/River and she winds her way - zigzagging to the next girl and passes on the bag.
oThe fifth girl is the Ocean and she takes the bag and Waves all the way back down to the bucket (at the beginning of the line). She fills up the bag and is now the Cloud....(the previous first girl is now the Mountain) get the picture?
The girls have to listen to the directions as they will have to remember 'what' they are (or have become) and the action for it. They will get lots of encouragement and cheering from their team! The relay continues until the first girl or cloud is the ocean and waves her way down to the bucket. You all get a bit wet...the Waves have a great time! (Actually EVERYBODY does!) It's an amusing hands on way to understand the water cycle. Have Fun!

********************************************************************************

THE GREAT CANADIAN SNOWSHOE RACE
Age: I'd think any age but for sure Brownies (7+) and up Equipment - one thing to go around for each team, newspaper sheets ripped into quarters (about 40cmx60cm?) (one pair for each team plus a few extras) Its a relay game. Divide group into even teams (about 5 kids per team but its flexible). Give the first person on each team a set of snowshoes (2 pieces of paper). They put the snowshoes on the ground and stand on them. On "GO" they shuffle to the other end of the area, around the thing and back to the team. If a snowshoe is lost then they have to shuffle back to it and if it becomes ripped they have to go to the "store" - one leader has extra snowshoes and is standing relatively equal distance from each team,- and they must start their turn again. The winner is the team who finishes first with snowshoes in "good" shape (i.e. no rips or tears or only small ones). It should be noted that sock feet don't work very well with this game.

********************************************************************************

KINGPIN
Materials : Six bowling pins, or other easily knocked over objects, four balls - large and soft are best(or more if you have lots of girls). Number of players : as many as want to play. Divide the girls into two even teams. Divide the playing space in half, with a clearly defined centre line. Set the pins up at opposite ends of the playing area in a triangle, with two pins forward and one pin back. Each team gets two balls. On the word "go" the teams try to knock down the opposing team's pins over, while protecting their own. They are not allowed to cross the centre line or stand directly in front of their own pins (although this tends to lead to them tripping over the pin, thus knocking it over). If they knock their own pin over, it counts. Game ends when one team's pins are all down. This game ran remarkably smoothly for about twenty minutes, no arguments or problems, until a parent arrived and took away half the players. It does work best in a fairly large area, to avoid collisions.

********************************************************************************

BEAST, BIRD OR FISH
Players sit in a circle, with one player in the centre. The player in the centre holds a soft ball or sponge which she throws as unexpectedly as possible at one of the circle players while simultaneously calling either "beast" or "bird" or "fish". Then she immediately counts to ten. The person holding the ball must yell out a type of animal in the category named, before the count is completed. no words can be duplicated. If the player cannot name an animal, she must change places with the player in the middle. To make it easier for younger kids, you could play this game after an activity about animals, so they have more ideas. Also, decide beforehand what type of things fit in the categories -- you can include insects as beasts, and aquatic creatures (shellfish, etc.) as fish to give you a wider range from which to choose.

********************************************************************************

PEBBLE COLLECTION RELAY
Divide into teams or patrols. Place at a certain distance a box containing as many pebbles or other small objects as there are players. The first Guide goes and gets the pebbles and gives them to her team an the right-hand side of the file; she then gathers them up on the left-hand side of the file, runs back, places them in the box and returns to her place. The second Guide then runs up etc.

********************************************************************************

JUMP ROPE RELAY
Each file is lined up in two, with a space in the middle. The Guides run 2 by 2, each holding an end of a rope. They run up to the goal and come back passing on either side of the file and making all the Guides jump over the rope. They come back to the head of the file, through the space in the middle, and hand over the rope to the next two Guides.

********************************************************************************

BALL RELAY
The Guides are in two files. Have them number by 2. The number two's take two steps aside: thus you get four files. Each team gets two balls. The balls criss-cross, going from the 1st Guide of one file to the second Guide on the other file, then to the third Guide of the first file etc. The first team to finish wins.

********************************************************************************

BALL LOSE-ALL
The players are divided into two teams: scarves and no scarves or any other distinctive mark. There are no limitations to the ground to be covered. The object is for the players of each side to throw the ball to one another, without letting it fall to the ground, ten times in a row. The players count aloud. The opposite team tries to get the ball and, in turn, must throw it to one another ten times in a row. The ball may not be taken from the hands of an opposing player; it may only be intercepted in the air or picked up from the ground. The ball may not be thrown back to the same player who threw it, therefore you need at least three players on each team. A player may not run with the ball in her hands. At the start of the game the Guider throws the ball high up in the air, and it goes to whichever team catches it. Each time the "referee" blows her whistle to signal a mistake (ball thrown back to the person who threw it, running with the ball etc.), the ball goes to the opposite team.