Tag: Grades 3-5

Story, Story, You’re Out

Grade:

4 – 5

Setup

Everyone forms a line on “stage”

Objective:

Tell a story with a beginning, middle, & an end flawlessly

Players form a line on the stage. A title for a story, and a story genre is obtained from the audience. The MC starts the game by pointing to a player, who needs to start telling the story. At any point in time the MC can switch to another player, who needs to continue the story flawlessly, even if the switch happened in the middle of a sentence or even in the middle of a word.Players that hesitate, or whose sentences are not grammatically correct or don`t make sense, are “out.” The last player left ends the story.

Video:

Rabbit Tag

Setup:

Open space with cones to mark hutches

Grade:

2-5

Instructions:

  1. One player is designated as the “Hunter.” Everyone else is a “Rabbit”
  2. Set up “hutches” (cones) around the playing field. There should be two less hutches than there are rabbits. The hunter can only tag rabbits who are not at a hutch
  3. All but two rabbits start the game at a hutch. The hunter chases these rabbits.
  4. When a rabbit enters a hutch, he or she is safe, but the rabbit who was previously at that hutch must then leave the hutch. Only one rabbit may be in each hutch.
  5. When the hunter tags a rabbit, that rabbit becomes the new hunter

Video:

Pass the Name Game

Setup:

circle

Grade:

all

Everyone stands in a circle and the teacher will go first, saying their name and making eye contact with someone else while saying their name. Then the teacher will start heading over to that person and that person will then have to say the name and make eye contact with someone else in the circle and start to head over to take their place. You can make this game more complicated by starting another circuit while the first one is already in motion.

Sleeping Spell

Overview:

Detective vs hand-shake enchanter

Setup

Intro Story for the AG to tell the group: A great celebration is being held in the kingdom with royalty from all over attending. However, one of the guests is not what they seem and is actually an Enchanter and is leaving a trail of sleeping royals in their wake. The royals will shake hands but if the Enchanter tickles your palm like this (example) you will shake one other person’s hand and then give a big yawn and fall asleep and sit down. Can the Detective catch the Enchanter before everyone is put to sleep? We will see!

(Note who shows interest in the game so that you can select them later)

  1. Have players circle up and close their eyes.
  2. Let the players know that you will choose the detective by lightly patting their head once and the Enchanter by lightly patting their head twice. (Then select)
  3. Have everyone open their eyes. Request the Detective wave to the crowd so everyone know who they are then have them step slightly away from the circle
  4. Invite the rest of the players to mingle and shake hands before the game begins.
  5. Once a few handshakes have occurred, announce that the Enchanter can start putting people to sleep.
  6. Invite the detective back into the group
  7. Everyone will walk around shaking each other’s hands, but the Enchanter will lightly tickle the palm of their victims while shaking their hands.
  8. When tickled, the victim will shake another person’s hand, then Yawn dramatically and sit down .
  9. The detective tries to decipher who the Enchanter is.

NOTE: This game is more commonly known as Murder Shake/Handshake Murder and the kids may mention it being known as such and make comments that it is “babyish” in comparison. Please hold strong to this theming and remind them that at Adventures in Writing Camp, we write stories and there are many stories to tell! 🙂

Lemur Telephone

Grade:

all

Setup:

line up campers evenly

  1. Line teams up by grade
  2. Counselors tell the first camper in each line a phrase.
  3. Campers then race to whisper their phrase to one another down the line.
  4. The first team to whisper their phrase to the front of the line wins.
  5. Have each camper at the end of their line say their phrase out loud and then compare with the original.

Video:

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: