Split the children into four groups. Each group becomes a sea creature, eg dolphins, octopuses, seaweed, starfish, until they all have a name and take their own space at the side of the room. The caller becomes “Mother Sea” and stands in the middle of the creatures. The caller calls each group into the sea and shouts commands to the creatures:

sea is calm - everyone should walk on tiptoes, sea is choppy - everyone should bob up and down, sea is rough - everyone should jump up and down

with arms swinging. If Mother Sea calls “the tide turns”, then everyone must run back to their home bases. Anyone caught becomes part of the sea and helps catch the others when the tide turns again

Place six or seven large hoops on the ground to make islands. All the children move around the hoops pretending to swim in the sea. One person is chosen to be a shark in the sea. When the shark shouts, “Shark Attack!”, all the swimmers have to run to an island. If the shark tigs you before you get to an island you become a shark too! Now the shark shouts “Swimmers in the Sea!” and all the children go into the water again, and swim into the sea until the next shark attack. Only one shark can call out. Any fish swimming onto the island before the shark shouts ‘shark attack’ becomes a shark straight away.

Line the children up and give them the name of a Jungle

animal—ie, lion, tiger, bear, lion, tiger, bear —until

everyone has a name. Someone is the Hunter and stands

in the middle facing the animals. They call out one of the

animal groups who have to run past the Hunter to go to an

agreed place. The Hunter then tries to tig the animals. If

anyone gets tigged they become a Hunter too, and another

group of animals is called over. If the Hunter shouts

“Jungle’s on Fire!” all the animals must cross.

Ask all the players to go and find a space and lie down. Tell

them they are lions sleeping in the jungle and must

pretend to be fast asleep. Now introduce the ‘Hunter’,

someone who is going to move about the lions. If the

Hunter sees any of the lions moving (apart from

breathing or blinking) the lion is tapped on the shoulder

and becomes a Hunter. Hunters are allowed to try to make

the lions move by making them smile or twitch, but they

are not allowed to touch them or shout at them.

Choose someone to be the lion who stands with his/her back to the rest of the players.Everyone else stand in a line about 10 steps away. The lion throws the ball over his head towards the others. The person who catches the ball hides it behind their back too.

The players say “lion, lion, turn around.”The lion turns and guesses who has the ball behind her back.The lion can ask the players to jump up, show one hand, wave, salute, hop, do a quick half turn, bow, disco dance, but not to turn round.The lion gets two guesses. The person with the ball gets to be the lion for the next game.

One person is chosen as ‘Stumpy’ and crouches down on

the ground with his/her eyes closed. The other children

walk up, touch Stumpy on the back and say, “Oh this is

just the stump of an old tree.” They keep on doing this

until Stumpy jumps up and tries to catch someone.

Everyone must run away as fast as they can. If Stumpy

catches you, you become Stumpy and the game

starts again.

Everyone must find a partner. The caller shouts

different body parts for example “Knee to Knee’ and the

children must follow the action. Other body parts could be

head, toes, fingers, hands, ankles, shoulders etc….

When the caller shouts “people to people” everyone

must find a new partner.

Everybody sits in a circle. Someone is chosen as the ‘Guardian’ sits in the middle of the circle, eyes closed, with keys or a beanbag or small ball behind them. One player at a time is chosen to stand up, walk quietly into the circle, pick up the keys and walk around the circle back to their place. If at any point the Guardian hears any movement, however, he can open his eyes and chase the thief around the circle. Both players must run out of the space created by the thief.

One player is Big Doo, who stands about 20 steps away,

with his back to the other players. The players (or

pigeons) start behind a line and silently creep up on Big

Doo. Big Doo may turn round at any time, and can send

any pigeon they see moving back to the starting

line.

If a player manages to creep up and touch Big Doo,

he

becomes the new Big Doo.

You need five or six people to play this game. One person

is ‘The Bottle’ and holds out his/ her arms. The other

children touch her hand or arm and shout. ‘What’s in the

bottle when the cork goes pop?’ The Bottle can say for

example ‘Water’ or ‘Lemonade’ or ‘Vinegar’. The

children shout again, and ‘The Bottle’ says something else

—but if they ever says ‘Poison!’ you must run away as

fast as you can. If you get caught, or if you run away

before they say ‘Poison”’, you become ‘The Bottle’.

Children stand in a line and the caller stands 20

steps away, facing them. Caller calls out a letter. If

that letter is in your name you can move one square

forward. If it is the first letter of your name you

can take two steps forward. The first person to

reach the caller becomes the caller for the next round.

Variations: C aller calls colours, if you are wearing

the colour you take a step forward .

Split the children into four groups, give each group the name of a vegetable and place each group in their own corner of the play space. The Soup Maker stands in the middle and calls in one of the groups of vegetables who move around the Soup Maker in the same direction. The Soup Maker can call in the different vegetables. Once as many vegetables as the soup maker wishes are in, the Soup Maker says “the soup is getting warmer, and warmer…….” As this is said the vegetables move faster and faster around the Soup Maker. When the Soup Maker shouts “it’s boiling!” all the children must run back to their corner, the Soup Maker must try to tag them before they get there. If they are tug then they help the soup maker catch the rest of the vegetables.

Everyone lines up facing the wall. The Caller walks behind the line and shouts “Eyes closed! Hand Out” All the players close their eyes and put one hand behind their back. The Caller walks down the line saying, “Stoney, stoney, stoney …’ all the way down to the end of the line.

At one point during this he places a small stone in someone’s hand. When he reaches the end of the line, all the players turn round. Everyone must keep one foot on the wall. No one knows who has got the stone. It is now up to the person with the stone to run from all the other players and give the stone to the caller who is standing some distance away from the group. As soon as she starts to run, all the other players chase her and try to tag her. If successful, the catcher becomes the Caller. If not, the Caller chooses a new catcher.

Someone is the Caller. The other children (about five) stand away from the Caller but not too far away! The Caller shouts out a category ie colours. All the other players secretly choose a colour. One person from this group approaches the Caller and tells her the list of colours and returns to the group. The Caller then shouts one of colours. The Caller and the person who has the colour then race to each others’ end of the playground and back to their own. Each time they make it to their own end they call out ‘P!’ from Polo, the ‘O!’ and ‘L!’ and so on. If the Caller manages to spell out ‘POLO’ first, there opponent becomes the new Caller. If the opponent beats the Caller, the Caller continues calling in the next game.

You need a cone and a light ball for this game. Place the cone in the middle of a circle. Everyone stands in a big circle around the cone.

Someone is selected to go into the circle to protect the cone and the rest of the players throw the ball to one another, trying to knock the cone over. If the cone is knocked over, the player who threw the ball now protects the cone. *Two balls can be used to make the game more challenging

One person is Ally Bally and has a small ball or a bean bag and stands with his back to the group. He throws the ball over his head and someone in the group catches it and hides it behind her back. All the other players put their hands behind their back too and pretend they have the ball.

They let Ally Bally know they are ready by shouting “Ally Bally, who has the ball?’ Ally Bally has to try and guess who has the ball. To help him he can ask the other players to do certain things in an effort to work out who has it. For example, he can ask any or all players to hop up and down, wave, salute, do a half turn, curtsey, disco dance, polish their shoes.. etc. The players all carry out the actions pretending they have the ball. All Bally then makes his choice.

If he is wrong, he swaps roles with the person who did have the ball.

Everyone must stand in pairs and link arms with their partner. One person in the game is chosen to be a ‘cat’ and one person to be a ‘mouse’.

The cat counts to 5 and the mouse runs away. The cat chases the mouse and tries to tig it.

At any time the mouse can have a rest by linking with any pair. When the mouse takes the arm of a pair, the person on the outside of the new pair now becomes the mouse and the cat chases the new mouse.

If the cat tigs the mouse, the mouse becomes the cat.

The game works best if the mouse keeps changing.

The children must stand in a large circle. Draw a small circle or put hoops/cones down for each child in the circle to stand on. Now give each child the name of a fruit – use only three or four categories, ie apple, orange, pear, banana. Keep repeating this pattern until all the players have been given the name of a fruit. Give yourself a fruit name and stand in the middle of the circle. Now call one of the fruits “Apples!” All the apples must change places and you must try to get one of the empty circles. If you do, the person left out goes into the middle and calls a fruit. If you want everyone to change places shout “Fruit bowl”.

Arrange the players into a large circle. Now stand in the middle with a soft ball. The object of the game is to throw the ball to each person in turn, saying “Head” or “Catch”. If you say “Head”, the person must catch the ball. And if you say “Catch”, the person must head it. Anyone who gets it wrong sits down until there is only one player left who is the winner.

Everyone must sit in a circle with a beanbag in the centre.

Give each of the players a colour for example red, yellow, green, blue.

Call out a colour. Everyone with that colour must run round the circle and try to get back through their own place to pick up the beanbag first.

That player calls the next colour. If the caller shouts ‘rainbow’ then everybody runs around the circle.

One duck walks round the outside, tapping players on the shoulder saying “Duck, duck, duck.”

When they say “Goose” the goose must chase that duck round the circle trying to tig him before he gets back to the space.

Players stand in a circle, number each person either 1 ,2 or 3.

Number 1’s go into the circle.

The other players using one or two soft, large balls try to hit the players in the circle below the knee.

If a player is hit he re-joins the circle.

Players can only aim at players in the circle.

Omce everybody is caught the number 2’s go into the middle.

Everybody lines up behind a line, one player stands in front of them in the middle of the playing area.

Everybody chants “Can we cross the golden river?”

The catcher answers, “Only if you are wearing (red, white socks, a t-shirt, trainers etc)

Those players can cross to the other side/line.

Those left try then to run across without being caught. If caught they help the catcher

The fish begin by swimming around the shark. The shark will call out the following instructions.

high tide- fish ‘swim’ quicklylow tide - fish ‘ swim’ slowlytrawlers - fish go on hands and feettide turns - fish swim in another

directioncaught in the net- fish freezesharks- fish swim to escape being

tagged

Any fish who are tagged become sharks and help catch the other fish.

Players sit in a circle with a large ball.

The first person passes the ball to their left. The ball is then passed quickly round the circle. The person who first passed the ball must get up and run as quickly as possible round the outside of the circle.

It is a race to see if the runner can get back to their own space before the ball.

If people are always beating the ball, you can change the game to counting how many people the ball is passed round before the person running gets back to their space.

Each player needs a beanbag.

One player is ‘IT’ and the other players walk around with beanbags on their heads.

‘IT’ can shout out directions on how to walk, for example slowly, quickly, sideways, tiptoes….. or you can make up your awn.

If a bean bag falls, the player has to freeze and wait until another player replaces the beanbag.Swap the person being ‘IT’ regularly.

This game is played best with 10 or more children.Half the group form a circle(the net) and hold hands, the others are fish.

The net players secretively decide on a number from 1 to 20 and raise their hands high above their heads. The fish run in and out of the circle while the net players all count slowly from 1-20.When the net count up to the agreed number, there arms are dropped to catch any fish inside the net. These players join the circle and become the net.

A different number is chosen and the game starts again.

Any number of players and one tennis ball.

One person is chosen to throw the ball over their head and shout someone’s name at the same time.

The person whose name was shouted out has to chase after the ball and at the same time all the other players have to run away.

When the person catches the ball they shout “FREEZE!” Everybody stops, including the person with the ball. The person with the ball tries to hit someone below the waist. If they do, they throw the ball for a new game.

Put hoops out in a circle. Use only one red hoop (or if all hoops are same colour choose a hoop and identify it in some way).

Each player stands in a hoop on their own. One person is chosen to stand in the middle of the circle with their eyes shut. When that player shouts STOP whoever is standing in the red/ chosen hoop, must do a forfeit. The game continues.

Swap the person in the middle every few turns.

Players should stand in a circle. Each player should balance a beanbag on their head whilst passing a ball around the circle.

The aim of the game is to keep the beanbag on your head. If it drops off you must sit down until there is only one person left standing.

One player is chosen to be the ‘Bomber’ and one person to the ‘Fixer’. The rest of the players are Aeroplanes.

The Aeroplanes fly around and try to avoid being caught by the Bomber. If they are tug they must stand still with their hands on their heads. They can only be freed by the fixer crawling through their legs.

The Fixer Cannot be caught by the Bomber!

Number four corners 1, 2, 3 & 4.

Introduce the game by having 1 player shout out those 4 numbers in any order, for example 3, 2, 4, 1. The other children must run to each corner in that order.

To make the game more exciting introduce a catcher. They can only catch children

when running between corners. When they are at a corner they are SAFE and cannot be tug.

Begin by introducing the children to the following commands:

Stop - Stand StillCaution - Run on the SpotGo - Run Around

Once the children are used to these commands add some others:

One - Run to corner oneTwo - Run to corner twoThree - Run to corner three

Add excitement to the game by chasing the children to each corner, but you can only tig one person at a time. If tug, the infant joins you. Or you can say that the last person to each corner joins the Caller.

Choose someone to be Mr Wolf.

Everyone else stands on a line about 20 steps away from the Wolf. They shout:

“What’s the time, Mr Wolf?”

Mr Wolf turns round and says a time,

The followers take the number steps as the wolf calls forward and call again:

“What’s the time, Mr Wolf?”

The Wolf keeps calling times and the children move closer. But then the Wolf calls “Dinner time” The children run back to the start line with Mr Wolf trying to catch someone.

If you get caught, then you become the wolf!