Tag: Grades 1-3

Detective

Grade:

2-5

Setup:

Circle Game

Instructions:

  1. Sit in a socially distant circle and pick one camper to be the Detective. That camper must leave the room or move away from the circle and turn their back/cover their ears so they can’t see or hear who is picked to be the Leader.
  2. Pick one camper to be the Leader. The Leader starts actions that the group must copy, such as clapping, dancing, patting parts of the body, or jumping up and down.
  3. Bring the Detective back to stand in the middle of the circle. The Leader discreetly switches to a new action when they’re ready. The Leader must try to switch the action without being noticed by the Detective. As the Leader switches actions and the circle copies them, the Detective has three guesses to identify the Leader.
  4. If the Detective guesses right, they win the round. If they don’t, the group wins. Praise both sides’ efforts regardless!
  5. Choose another Detective and Leader and start another round.

Video:

*Note in this video, the game is called Indian Chief. While it is the same gameplay and a great example, we have our roles called Detective and Leader to keep with the writing theme (mystery!)

I am a Tree

Grade:

3-5

Setup:

No more than 5 people per group

Instructions:

One camper goes to the middle of a circle and says “I am a tree” taking a position as a tree, a second camper goes out and adds to the picture they are painting, and a third person goes out and finishes it. Actors 1 and 2 then leave the scene, and new actors join. Three actors should be in a scene at a time.

Example:

Actor 1: I am a tree

Actor 2: I am a leaf on the tree

Actor 3: I am the grass under the tree

Actors 1 and 2 leave

Actor 4: I am a panda bear

Actor 5: I am a zookeeper

Video:

Gibberish Interviews

Grade:

2-5

Setup:

Groups of three or more

  1. Split the group into teams of 3 (you can have more than three, but not less)
  2. One person will be the reporter, one the interview subject, and the third the translator.
  3. The reporter starts by asking a question. The interview subject then answers the question in “gibberish,” and the translator translates into English.

Video:

Bop

Grade:

All

Setup:

Circle, large group (10+)

Objective:

Form the parts of the animal within the time that the teacher says “Bitty, Bitty, Bop.” (Or Boppity Bop Bop if you prefer)

The teacher stands in the middle of the circle, points at a student, and calls out an animal. That student will form the main part of the animal while the students next to him or her will form the rest of the body. For example, the teacher will point and say “elephant, BITTY BITTY BOP!”The student will form the trunk while their neighbors will form the ears. The students have the time that the teacher says “Bitty, Bitty Bop” to form the animal. If the team makes a mistake, the person forming the major part of the animal becomes the “teacher” and continues the game.

Start with just “elephant,” and demonstrate how students should make it. After students have become familiar with “elephant,” the group can think of other animals or objects that the students can form (demonstrate how to make each animal before including it in the game). Some things that have been used are (Bunny [ears/paws/ears] giraffe [legs, head neck/legs, bowl of Jell-O [half bowl, jell-o, half bowl], etc.)

For the older campers, you can add saying Bop before the caller says Bitty, Bitty, Bop and the caller faking out with just saying Bop (which is responded to with silence).

Video: