Author: Hans Hartvickson

Fruit Basket

Grade:

1-3

Overview:

A fruity fun active game

Instructions:

  1. Make a circle of chairs with 1 less chair than the number of players.
  2. Assign each player a fruit (apple, orange or banana).
  3. The student who does not have a seat, calls out a fruit, and the players assigned that fruit must try to change seats, while the caller tries to sit down as well. This switch will leave a new player standing.
  4. The new player may call another fruit, or say “FRUIT SALAD” in which case all of the players will have to switch seats.

Video:

Evolution

Grade:

All

Overview:

Ro-sham-bo with a twist

Instructions:

  1. Players will be competing with each other in ro-sham-bo at different stages in their “evolution.” The stages are egg (player squats on ground), chicken (players squawks and flaps like a chicken), dinosaur (player rawrs and has arms like a T-rex), rockstar (players jams on air guitars), and superhero (player poses like superman).
  2. To play a game of ro-sham-bo, players must play with people on their same level of evolution (eggs play eggs, not dinosaurs). All players begin as eggs, and winning a game makes a player “evolve” up to the next stage. Everyone will eventually evolve into a superhero!

Video:

Bridge Ball

Grade:

All

Setup:

Circle, large group (10+)

Objective:

A funny ball game

  1. Have all players circle up with their feet touching the feet of the players next to them, leaving space between everyone’s legs.
  2. Using open handed, low-five hits, pass a ball along the ground and try to get it through someone’s legs.
  3. When the ball goes through a players legs, that player then has to turn around and play the game backwards.
  4. Once every player is playing backwards, then the game restarts.

Video:

Bob the Bunny

Grade:

All

Setup:

Circle, large group (10+)

Objective:

An interractive guessting game

  1. Have campers circle up.
  2. Have one camper stand in the center and close their eyes.
  3. Campers in the center pass an object behind their backs for 10 seconds while chanting “Bob, the bunny, Bob, Bob, the bunny!”
  4. The camper in the center opens their eyes and has three tried to guess who is holding the object.

Video:

The Kangaroo Hop

Summary:

A relay race

Instructions:

  1. Create straight lanes with track markers.
  2. Line campers up in teams by grade. (even the odds when applicable)
  3. This is a relay race. The student at the front of the line will place a baloon between their knees and hop like a kangaroo to the end of their land and back before passing the balloon to the next camper in line. The first team to have every member complete this wins.

Video

 

Sitting, Lying, Standing

Summary:

Perform a scene where one actor is always sitting, one is standing, and one is lying down

Instructions:

 

Divide players into groups of 3

  1. Break Campers into groups of 3 and give them a scenario (e.i. Making dinner, telling your parents about a bad grade on a report card, or building a fort)
  2. The campers act out the scene in a fun way, throwing each other curveballs by standing sitting or laying down thus forcing the others to change their position

Video

Sentence Stretching

Summary:

Start with a single sentence, and add words until you can’t any longer.

Instructions:

Divide players into groups of 5 or 6

  1. give each group a simple sentence. Example: Jeff ate pizza
  2. Each student takes turn in order adding words to the sentence

Example:

Student 1: Jeff ate the spicy pizza

Student 2: Jeff quickly ate the spicy pizza

Student 3: Jeff quickly ate the hot, spicy, pizza.

Student 4: Jeff sloppily and quickly ate the hot, spicy pizza.

Student 5: Jeff Sloppily and quickly ate the hot, gooey, spicy, pizza.

Video

Crambo

Summary:

A rhyming guessing game.

Instructions:

Divide players into groups of 4 or 5.

  1. That player must then say something like “i’m thinking of a word that rhymes with hug.”
  2. Players ask questions that to help them guess the target word. Example: “Is it something eaten by a spider?”
  3. The reply must be a rhyming guess of what that player was thinking Example: “No it is not a bug.”
  4. If the chosen player is stumped, or someone successfully answers the question the asking/answering player becomes the new chosen player.

Video