Cover Up
| Players: | Students work in pairs |
| Equipment: | One penny per pair |
| Area: | Classroom |
| Objective: | Each pair of students face each other with their hands under the corner of a desk. Place a penny in the middle of the desk. On “go” players attempt to cover the penny with one of their hands. A point is scored by the player who covers the penny first. After three rounds have the students find a new partner. |
Thumb Wrestling
| Players: | Students work in pairs |
| Equipment: | None |
| Area: | Classroom |
| Objective: | Each pair of students join right hands with their partner, thumbs pointing up and four fingers hooked together. Their left hands behind their backs. On “go” each student attempts to pin the opponent’s thumb. After three rounds have students rotate and find a new partner. |
Who's Missing?
| Players: | Entire Class |
| Equipment: | None |
| Area: | Classroom |
| Objective: | All students put their heads down and cover their eyes. The teacher selects a clue giver and a hider. The hider hides behind the teacher’s desk. The students now uncover their eyes and begin to ask the hider for clues as to who’s missing. Allow a guess after three to five questions. Once the class has identified the hider repeat this process. Great way for the class to get to know all of the students. |
Geiger Counter
| Players: | Entire Class |
| Equipment: | None |
| Area: | Classroom |
| Objective: | Choose a finder and have him/her go outside the classroom. Select an object or a student as a target. When the finder returns to the classroom, the class claps their hands to help the finder locate the student/object. The faster the class claps the closer the finder is to the target and the slower the class claps the further the finder is from the student/object. The finder has three guesses to locate the target student or object. |
Magic Ropes
| Players: | Entire Class |
| Equipment: | None |
| Area: | Classroom |
| Objective: | Have each student pair perform tasks using the ropes such as creating shapes, letters, and pictures. You can do this cooperatively or in a contest form having student pairs to be the first to form the object. You can also have a student pair form an object while another pair attempts to guess what it is. Balance and loco-motor skills can also be preformed with the rope. "Can you balance on one foot inside the rope?" "Can you balance on three body parts inside the rope?" "How many times can you jump in and out of your rope in 30 seconds?" |
Hot Potato
Players: Groups of ten students
Equipment: 3 Nerf balls
Area: Classroom
Objective: Each group of ten students sit in a circle with their legs crossed. On “go” students roll the ball back and forth on the floor to one another in a random pattern until“freeze” is called. The student who has the ball when “freeze” is called has a point against them. Play the game to five. The object is to earn as few points as possible.
Mum Ball
Players: Entire Class
Equipment: 2 to 4 Nerf Balls or large balls made of paper
Area: Classroom
Objective: Students sit on their desktops. They are not allowed to speak. Students throw ball(s) from student to student. If the ball is caught, then the student remains on his/her desktop. If the ball is missed, the student sits in his/her chair. Bad throws and talking also cause a thrower to return to his/her chair.
Design an Exercise
Players: Entire Class
Equipment White board and dry-erase markers
Area: Classroom
Objective: Choose five symbols such as ?, *, #, and @. Ask the class or a volunteer to assign a movement or exercise to each symbol. For example a number sign (#) could mean that the students turn in a circle and a question mark (?) could mean that students hop on the right foot. Ask for a volunteer to design an exercise routine by listing symbols on the board. As the volunteer points to the symbol, the class performs the exercise.
Kings and Queens
Players: Entire class divided into two groups
Equipment: Colored arm bands, jackets, or pinnies, Two white board erasers
Area: Classroom
Objective: Students sit on desks. One team is the kings and the other is the queens. The team is identified by an arm band, a pinnie, whether or not the players are wearing a jacket, or by gender. Each team selects one player to balance an eraser on his/her head. Teacher calls “kings chase queens” or “queens chase kings”. The team called attempts to knock the eraser off the opponent’s head by chasing him/her. The teacher may also call “switch” at any time which means the chase is reversed. Team names could mirror curricular areas that are being studied at the grade level.
Obstacle Course
Players: Entire class
Equipment: Desks, chairs, classroom furniture
Area: Classroom
Objective: Arrange furniture for students to go over, around, through, and under. Consider allowing each row or table group create their own obstacle course for their classmates.
Balloon Games
Players: Entire class; may be pairs or teams
Equipment: Balloons – a variety of sizes and shapes
Area: Classroom or Multi-Purpose Room
Objective: A balloon can be used for volleyball, sword fights, a balloon stomp, movement challenges, or mini-baseball. A beach ball can be substituted for a balloon.
Ducks Fly
Players: Entire class
Equipment: None
Area: Classroom or Multi-purpose Room
Objective: The leader stands in a prominent position and gives various commands in quick succession such as “ducks fly, goats fly, bats fly,” etc. The class attempts to flap their arms as wings to all the animals that fly and stand still when animals that do not fly are mentioned.
Categories
Players: Entire class divided into two teams
Equipment: Set of alphabet cards or white board
Area: Classroom
Objective: Divide the class into two teams. Each team chooses a leader. Each leader takes a turn selecting an alphabet card. The leader holds up the alphabet card, names a category (category examples include cities, books, songs, birds, states, animals, etc.), and asks a question such as the following, “Give me the name of a city that begins with a “B”. The team that answers correctly first gains a point.
Human Checkers
Players: Groups of six students; three girls and three boys
Equipment: Seven chairs per group of six students
Area: Classroom
Objective: To move the girls to where the boys are sitting and the boys to where the girls are sitting. The game begins as follows:
G G G Empty Chair
Solution: 1. girl moves, 2. boy jumps, 3. boy moves, 4. girl jumps, 5. girl jumps, 6. girl moves, 7. boy jumps, 8. boy jumps, 9. boy jumps, 10. girl moves, 11. girl jumps, 12. girl jumps, 13. boy moves, 14. boy jumps, 15. girl moves.
Human Tic Tac Toe
Players: Entire class divided by gender or pinnies are used to distinguish teams
Equipment: Nine chairs set up in a tic tac toe grid
Area: Classroom or Multi-purpose Room
Objective: Two teams differentiated by gender or with pinnies to be X’s or O’s. The game is played exactly like the pencil and paper version of tic tac toe. Players sit one at a time as the teacher calls either X or O. Teams must remain silent – there is no “coaching” allowed. Once a player attempts to sit in a chair, he/she is not allowed to change to a different chair. The side wins which gets three in a line – horizontally, vertically, or diagonally.