blanket slide
Arrange an obstacle course for each
team, using five or six chairs. Form two
or more teams, and give each team a
blanket. Mark a starting line with tape or
chalk, and then demonstrate how each
team is to complete the obstacle course.
Begin the game by forming your group
into teams of four or five players each.
Each team will make a ball of tape, sticky
side out, and players will take turns dropping the tape ball onto the papers from
shoulder height or rolling the tape ball at
the papers from five feet away, trying to
pick up papers. The object is to be the first
team to pick up all 10 papers (or to pick up
the most in the allotted time). Teams can
add more tape as needed to make their
tape balls sticky again.
Begin by having one person from each
team sit on the team’s blanket. Have the
other team members grab hold of the
blanket’s edges. The object is for the
team to pull the person on the blanket
around the obstacle course and back. If
team members throw the person off, they
must begin again with him or her. Once
a team gets back to the starting line, a
different team member should jump on
the blanket and the team should run the
course again. Continue this process, and
declare the winner as the first team to get
all its members through.
Grapple Games
banzai bowling
Set up several “bowling alleys” on any
hard surface (enough for one alley per
team). For each alley, you’ll need 10 small
squares of paper (about 1-inch by 1-inch),
arranged in a triangle. You’ll also need a
roll of masking tape handy at each alley.
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Grapple Games
bouncers
foot ball pass
Mark a starting line with masking tape. At
one end of the room, arrange the group
into two single file lines. Place two chairs
about 5 feet from the first person in each
line, and hand a bas­ketball to those
players.
Form two teams, and have kids face
each other. Then have teams lie down
on the floor side by side with teammates.
Teams should have their feet about 3
feet apart from each other. (By the way,
this is a “pants only” game—no skirts!)
Explain that you’re going to see how
long it takes each team to bounce the
basketball around the chair. One person
will start by bouncing the ball to the
chair, around the chair, and back to the
starting line. The first person will then tag
the second person, give him or her the
ball, and go to the end of the line.
Give the first person on each team a ball.
Have teams race to move the ball to the
other end of the line, using only their
feet. If the ball drops, they have to start
over from the beginning.
Continue playing until everyone has
bounced the basketball around the chair.
For more of a challenge, repeat the activity with a foam ball or a beach ball.
circle ball
With masking tape, form a large circle
on the floor and have everyone stand in
the circle. Throw a large, soft ball (foam
or inflated) into the circle. Anyone who
touches the ball is out, even if he or she
catches it. Once players are out, they
stand around the outside of the circle
and join in throwing the ball at the rest of
the group. Players can move anywhere
inside the circle to try to avoid being hit.
When everyone’s out, play again.
104
ice cube relay
Create an obstacle course using
classroom objects, and show kids how
to navigate the course one at a time,
in relay fashion. Give each team an ice
cube of the same size. Explain to kids
that the ice cube must be taken along as
the players navigate the obstacle course.
See who can complete the most rounds
before the ice cube melts away.
Hold several “Olympic” events around
your room. Events might include:
• Foot Standing: Ask everyone to stand
on one foot, and see who can do it
the longest.
• Arm Raising: Ask each person to raise
his or her right arm up in the air. See
who can hold it up the longest without
help from the other hand.
• Toe Standing: Ask kids to stand on
their tiptoes. See who can stand on
them the longest.
• Stare Down: Have kids form pairs.
Tell partners to look directly into each
other’s eyes until one person blinks.
Form new pairs using the winners in
each round until only one person is
left.
purple socks
Form a large circle with enough chairs
so that everyone but one person has a
place to sit. Pick some­one to stand in the
middle, and ask everyone else to take
a seat. The object of the game is for the
person in the middle to pick a seated
person and ask him or her a question. For
example, a question might be “Are you
wearing purple socks?” The response
determines what the whole group will do.
If the answer to the question is yes, everyone must get up and move two chairs in
either direction. When all the kids are on
the move, the middle person will have an
opportunity to get into a seat.
If the person answering the question
responds “no,” he or she is required to
add a second part to the question, such
as “but I know some people here today
didn’t make their beds this morning,” or
“but someone here has visited Europe
before.” If the second part of this statement is true about some of the seated
kids, they must stand up and try to find
other chairs. The person left standing
without a chair is the one who must
remain in the middle and ask the next
yes-no question.
Grapple Games
olympics
105
Grapple Games
push me...pull me
say what?
Arrange kids so they are standing in a
circle in the center of the room, facing
out. As best as you can, al­ternate boys
and girls. Ask kids to lock arms with their
neighbors. There should be people facing
all four walls in the room.
Cut apart the “Famous Phrases” handout
(on p. 110 and on the DVD), and put the
slips of paper in a container. Have kids
sit in a circle. Pull one slip of paper out
of the container and read it aloud. Have
the person on your right say the first
word that comes to his or her mind after
hearing it. Quickly go around the circle,
and have each person do the same with
a new quote. Have a few kids share their
thoughts as to why they chose those
particular words. If you have more than
20 kids or you play the game more than
once, you can find additional phrases,
jokes, quotes, or verses in the following
places: the Bible, a trivia game, or books
of famous sayings. Alternatively, search
online.
Select any four objects in the room, one
near each wall. Objects may include
such things as a doorknob, a window, a
picture, or a chair. If you wish, use only
the walls themselves. Next, select four
people to serve as Taggers. Make sure
these players are facing the four different
objects.
Explain that on your command, each
Tagger is to try to be first to tag his or her
assigned object. Be sure to tell kids that
at no time can the circle be broken. The
process is that while one person may be
trying to reach a doorknob, someone else
might be struggling to tag a window on
the opposite side of the room.
Play and watch as each player pulls
against the others to win. Repeat with
different Taggers and objects.
106
shoe matchup
Form two teams, and have kids remove
their shoes and place them all in one big
pile. Blindfold one per­son on each team.
The object is for the blindfolded person to
return the correct shoes to their owners by
listening to the directions provided by their
team members. If they’re the wrong shoes,
the blindfolded person must take them back
and try again. Of course, both teams will
be shouting directions at the same time, so
chaos will rule!
Form teams of three or four. Give each
team an equal number of paper cups,
and explain how to build a tower by
placing one cup on the floor with the
opening up and then another cup on
top of it with the opening down. Teams
should continue the process, reversing
each cup, as they build their towers
taller and taller. The object is to see
which team can build the tallest tower
in the allotted time. However, the time
limit is unknown, and teams are allowed
to stop at any time. If the tower falls
because a team has decided to build it
too tall, there may not be time to rebuild.
Determine an allotment of time and set
the timer. A good place to start is 25
seconds. For the second round, give
teams one minute, and for the third
round, give teams 15 seconds.
Grapple Games
tower challenge
107