Cooperative games for school age

Fill the bucket Keep a bucket full of water at one end of the lawn and an empty bucket at the other end of the lawn. Carry mugs of water from the full bucket to fill the empty bucket. For older children soak a sponge in water and have them wring it out into the empty bucket to fill it. Shadow games This game can be played on a sunny day when shadows form outside. Or at night with a light. Do silly dances and see what they look like as shadows.

Make animal shapes with the fingers and have fun. Try different actions and see how small body parts can be made big and big body parts can be shrunk.

Float and sink Collect objects from all over the house and gather them in the balcony or the lawn. Take a large bowl of water guess if each object will float or sink. Then put them in the water and see if your guess was right.

Then take a pair of tongs used to make rotis and fish out the objects. Repeat the guessing game — this time your child may make more accurate guesses.

Complete the picture Place a blackboard at one end of the lawn. Each player gets a chalk piece. Each person runs to the blackboard one by one and draws one body part. The game can be extended by adding clothes and hat shoes etc. The sillier the picture — the better it is. Puppet dance Make finger puppets by rolling a small piece of paper or a band-aid round your finger and drawing a face and hair on it.

Play music and do a silly dance. Have the puppets do individual and group dances. Talk about the nice things you can do with different parts of your body Talk about the hands — demonstrate how you can clap, wave and help with the hands. Talk about the mouth. List out the nice things you can say with the mouth. Talk about the feet — how you can run around and help with the feet. Make lists of these nice things on a board.

Have conversations to count your blessings Talk about what you can share and whom you can share with. Talk about how you can be kind and who needs kindness. Talk about what you can do to be helpful. Allow your child to come up with ideas. Throw the dice to complete the face Draw a large face — just a circle is enough. Then make all the parts of the face on different pieces of paper. Give each part a number. Start rolling one player at a time — both dices together.

Add up the number that comes from the sum of the two dices and place the part on the circle. Do this until the face is complete. Where do you want to go Make a list of places on a blackboard. Have a map available. Sit in the circle and roll the ball.

On the second turn, throw the rock into the second square, and so forth. The tricky part is staying on one foot when the rock is in one of the side-by-side squares.

You will need some flags or a strip of cloth to be used as a tail. Players with the most tails collected at a specified time are the winners. Game is good in the gym or outside. Divide the children into teams. They each select one child from each team to be the prisoner of the other team and the two prisoners are placed in jail.

This can be a designated area or a chalk box if playing outside. The teams each line-up and the object of the game is to free the prisoner from the other team. If tagged, that child then becomes a prisoner too and must go to jail. If a child makes it to jail, however, he or she is safe as long as he is inside the prison.

Have children pretend to be gold miners. Paint very small rocks, gold. Hide them in the sand. Give your children small sifters to sift through the sand looking for gold. You can call this game anything you want. An idea is to use brown and green yarn and call it snakes and worms….

Form two teams with one or two kids on each side as captains. They will tie each yarn piece that is brought to them, to the next yarn piece. The team with the longest finished yarn string wins! Idea: This game would also be good for a party —and adapted to the inside.

All the children line up side by side except the player who is the caller. The caller stands at a distance from the lined up players. He calls on each player in turn to take a number of steps toward him. The steps allowed are: baby steps, giant steps, and scissor steps like forward jumping jacks. If the player forgets to ask permission after they get directions— and takes steps toward the caller— they are sent back to the starting line.

The first player to reach the caller is the winner and new caller. Idea: Change the name to the season: Teacher May I? Santa, Snowman, Cupid, Leprechaun, Bunny, etc. A nature scavenger hunt card game. Great for getting kids involved in the outdoors. Pass out an equal number of cards to each player and the first one to collect all their cards items win!

Tic-tac-toe can be scratched in the dirt and is more enticing than on paper—Hangman, too. Or just spread a blanket on the grass for Monopoly or Candyland played in a whole new venue…. The game could be considered a reverse form of dodgeball—instead of trying to hit people in the middle with the ball, players attempt to keep the ball away from them. The basic game is played by drawing a circle on the ground about ten feet in diameter. One person stands in the center the monkey, the piggy or the pickle and the rest stand outside the circle.

This continues until the person who is it catches the ball or gains possession due to a failed catch, etc. Whoever threw the ball last then becomes it, and replaces the person in the middle. Adapted from: wikipedia. Another great idea is to make paddles simply taping tongue depressor sticks to the back of paper plates. Have each kid randomly grab lightly! This is a really fun game which borders on strategy and chaos. Obviously it is important to warn the kids to play this game slowly and gingerly, so that no one gets hurt.

In some cases, it might be preferred to allow kids to release a wrist in order to properly untangle themselves. This is a great team building game for kids because it forces kids to work together toward a solution that everyone is aiming toward.

To make this kids game even more of a team building activity, you can instruct the kids that they cannot speak — thereby forcing them to strategize with body language, which likely increase the team chemistry that the game sets out to teach. And if there are enough kids, then they can be broken up into two separate teams.

And the team that completes the Traffic Lights challenge first, by getting all kids to their side first, wins! The team building aspect here is that the traffic light representative is on the other team, and the kids trying to race across the room are not racing against each-other, but rather collectively, in order to beat the other team of racers.

This way instead of competing with each-other, they must collectively defeat the traffic light, and the other team. This is a really easy activity game to set up, but really hard for kids to solve!

Each kid gets a colored dot, which is then lightly taped onto their forehead. Each kid must then figure out what color dot is on their forehead, but obviously without asking any other kids for help. Depending on the number of kids, there will be only a few colored dots so a few kids will have the same color.

Line up each team, single file, and have each player pass their right hand through their own legs before reaching out their left hands to take the right hand of the person in front of them. The player in front will still have a free left hand, while the rear player has a free right hand.

Rope Circle Divide players into groups of two. Have one partner tie a jump rope loosely around their own wrists one end on the right wrist, one on the left. The players should then attempt to separate from one another without untying the ropes or freeing themselves from their own circles. Ball Builders Divide players into groups of two or three. Assign one player on each team to be the holder, and the rest to be the builders.

The objective is to see how many tennis balls the holder can hold on to at one time, without using their pockets or any other article of clothing. Additionally, the balls cannot be touching anything aside from each other and the holder, and must be held for at least 10 seconds.

Players are welcome to switch roles after a few attempts. Crossing the River This game can be played with groups of two to five participants, depending on age group. The smaller the group, the more challenging the game becomes. In order to cross, they must move as a group without breaking this contact. Shipwrecked Divide players into teams of eight to 10 students apiece, and assign a large hoop to each team.

Note that all team members must be touching the ship at all times during this portion of play. The first team to get every player on board earns one point, and the first team to cross the finish line earns two points. Knots To play this game, divide players into teams of six, and have each team form a circle.

All hands must remain joined until the team is standing in a circle, or in two intertwined circles. Frenzy This is a fun way for students to let out pent-up energy on a rainy day. Invite players to scatter across the playing area the gymnasium is the preferred venue. Next, toss out as many balls or balloons as there are players. To begin, split the class into teams of at least 5 try to stick with odd-numbered teams. Have all players form a circle, facing one another. The next player repeats this step, and so on and so forth, until the ball returns to the starting player.

Once this happens, have the players attempt to pass the ball in the same sequence as before. Once a rhythm has been established, continue by adding more balls to the circle. Birds of a Feather In advance, make up a series of index cards printed with the names of various animals two for each animal you choose. Be sure that each creature has a distinctive sound that children will likely be familiar with. To play, have each student draw a card from the pile. Turn them loose in a safe playing field, encouraging them to keep their eyes closed during play.

Have them imitate their designated animal, repeating the sounds until they locate the student who shares the same animal. Once this happens, the pair is welcome to open their eyes.

The game is over when all of the pairs have been matched up. Amoeba Advance This game requires splitting the class up into two equal teams. When both teams have formed their makeshift amoebas, blow a whistle to signify the start of play. The teams will then attempt to make it to the finish line without breaking up the group. If the amoeba should dissolve during the attempt, the team must repair itself before it can move forward.

Magnificent Marbles In advance, designate a large circle to serve as the giant marble ring. Place three or four partially deflated beach balls and an equal number of smaller targets like multicolored poly spots within the playing circle. To begin play, have ready a supply of bean bags. Invite participants to stand outside the circle and use the bean bags to nudge the balls as close to the smaller target areas as possible.

Players are not permitted inside the playing circle; if a bean bag gets stuck inside, they may attempt to retrieve it only by throwing another bean bag in to try and knock it out. Dry Marco Polo This activity is a good one to use as an icebreaker on the first day of gym class. It bears a resemblance to Birds of a Feather, only students are given a larger role in the setup.