Students stand in a circle, with a moderator in the middle. The moderator points to one student and gives them a letter from the alphabet. The student chosen has to quickly fill in the blank of the sentence ” _______ sells _______ in _______” with a name, an item, and a place that all start with the letter they were given.
Examples: Barbara sells bananas in the Bahamas / Harry sells hammocks in Havana / Zane sells Zebras in Zimbabwe
If a student pauses too long or can’t think of items quickly, they are out.
Before starting: Identify the playing boundaries, and make sure all the players understand all the commands. Have all the players line up on a clearly marked line in the middle of the playing area.
Commands:
Roll call: the crew must line up at the midline of the playing area, feet together, toes on the line, salute and say “aye-aye captain!” The crew may not lower their salute until the captain salutes and says “at ease.”
Crow’s nest: players act as if they’re climbing up a ladder to the crow’s nest, the top of the main mast, an area at the highest point of the ship to lookout.
Swab the deck: players act like they’re mopping the deck.
Shark attack: the captain becomes a shark and tries to tag the crew. Those tagged go to the “brig” to dance or perform an designated exercise.
Break time: active crew members can run to the “brig” and tag as many people as possible. Those that are tagged can come back in and play again. Make sure everyone gets let out of the “brig” during break time.
Sailor overboard: crew pairs up and decides which one gets on their hands and knees and which one stands a places a foot gently on the other’s back while acting like their using a spyglass to find the sailor in the water.
Drop anchor: crew lies on their backs with legs up and acts like an anchor.
Pirates: crew closes one eye, puts up a hook finger, hobbles around like they have a pegleg and say “Aaargh!”
Row to Shore: crew gets in lines of 4; players act as if they are rowing to safety, while singing “Row, Row, Row Your Boat”
How to play:
The leader explains that s/he is the captain of the boat/ship and is going give commands to the players/crew to perform a specific movement or sound.
Explain that the crew is sailing treacherous seas and need to work together and follow the captain’s commands to survive.
If crew members does not follow the commands correctly or is the last to follow the command they must go to the “brig” or break-room.
Explain the playing area and designate which end is the “bow” of the ship and which end is the “stern.” The goal is to be the last crew member standing.
Split players into two team, standing on opposite sides of a linear boundary.
Before each round, each team will collectively decide whether they want to be giants, wizards, or elves. (wizards beat giants, giants beat elves, and elves beat wizards).
During the round, each team will line up facing each other by the boundary, then all chant “giants, wizards, elves.”
After chanting, each team will act as whichever character they chose (giants wave their hands in the air, wizards stick their arms out and get low to the ground like they are casting a spell, and elves squat and use their hands as elf ears).
Whichever side has the character that is winning, chases the other team and tries to tag them before they cross the far boundary. Any member tagged has to join the other team, and the round starts over.
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).
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!
Everyone stands in a circle. Ask the group to repeat the words “Zip, Zap, Zop” three or four times, all together. Tell them you have a bolt of energy in your hands. To start the game, send the bolt out of your hands with a strong forward motion straight to someone else in the circle (using your hands, body, eyes, and voice) saying “Zip.” Be sure you make eye contact with the person you pass it to. They should receive it with their whole body and pass it immediately to someone else saying “Zap.” That person passes it on with a “Zop.” The game continues “Zip, Zap, Zop.” If there is a mistake, encourage students to simply resume playing without discussion. Challenge students to NOT make the game about them by using funny voices or taking a long time to choose the next person.
Players sit in circle. Each player has a stack of index cards. Stacks should have as many index cards as there are players in the game. For example, if there are six players, you should prepare six stacks of six index cards each.
Each player writes a funny phrase on the top index card in his or her stack.
Players pass their ENTIRE stack to the right.
Each player reads the index card at the top of the stack, then moves the card to the back of the stack. On the blank card that is now on top of the stack, each player illustrates (no words) the phrase he or she just read.
Players then pass the ENTIRE stack to the right.
Each player looks at the drawing at the top of the stack, then moves the card to the back of the stack. On the blank card that is now on top of the stack, each player writes a sentence describing the illustration he or she just saw. Players are NOT allowed to look at cards other than the one at the top of the stack.
Repeat this process, alternating writing a sentence and drawing a picture until each stack returns to its original owner.
Ask players to share how their phrases changed as they moved around the circle
Partner all campers and if an odd number, partner with AG. Then give an example.
Player 1 starts miming an activity.
Player 2 approaches Player 1 and asks `What are you doing?`
The first player answers something that has nothing to do with what they are actually doing. E.g. if Player 1 is cutting someone’s hair, when asked what they are doing they might say “I’m reading the newspaper”.
Second player starts miming the activity stated by the previous player (reading the newspaper.) and Player 1 now asks, “What are you doing?
Repeat steps 1-4 until game has peaked (should be 6-8 quick rounds depending on the group and work as a short warm up game to get laughs)
Note to AG – Really exaggerate/be silly with the “What are you doing?” sometimes to make campers laugh. Also choose fun or funny activities for your example to get the kids interested. If you do not have a partner, walk around and encourage (Wow! Oh my! That’s cool!) and provide suggestions if needed.
Explain to the students that they are all statues in a wax museum. You, the teacher, are the curator.
Explain that in the beginning, when the curator is in the room the statues do not move or speak. Once the curator leaves the room, the statues come alive and interact with one another. When the curator re-enters the room, the statues all freeze in their current position arid location.
The curator reacts to these changes and may even begin to correct the obvious problems that have occurred while he/she was out. Some comments: “How could this have happened? “My statues must be melting. “I need to turn up the air condition.’
The statues are now allowed to move while the curator is in the room; but you must not get caught. If at any time the curator sees you move, you are out and must remove yourself from the game.
The last statue standing is the winner and becomes the curator for the next round.
Cones to mark the playing field, all campers in a line on one side. One camper is “Lemur Leader” in the middle
Choose a player to be “Lemur Leader.”Lemur Leader stands in the middle of the field
Line the rest of the players up on one side. Players chant: “Lemur Leader, Lemur Leader, may I cross the river?”
Lemur Leader then decides who may cross the river based on descriptive attributes such as “Only if you’re wearing red.”(NOTE: Lemur Leader MUST chose a trait that more than one person shares. No singling campers out please )Those who were described by the attribute attempt to run to the other side of the field without being tagged.
Those who are tagged also become “Lemur Leaders”
Repeat until everyone has been tagged
Tip: For the first two or three rounds, you may want to be Lemur Leader so that the campers have an example. If you have younger campers you may want to continue as Lemur Leader (or co-lead with a camper by providing suggestions and support). If you have older campers you may be able to make one of them Lemur Leader sooner.
Video:
*Note in this video the game is called Uncle Sam. While it is the same gameplay and a great example, we have our leaders called Lemur Leader to stick with the Mister Lemur’s Adventures in Writing Camp Theme 🙂
