Elephant, Palm Tree, Monkey

Define the boundaries of a large area. Everyone finds a partner and hook elbows. Make sure teams are distributed evenly over the playing area. Each person puts their free hand on their hip, elbow out, creating a hook. Divide a team and make one person the “chaser” and the other the “fleer.” The object is to hook elbows with another team before getting tagged by the chaser. Once hooked up, the person on the other end of this now three person chain becomes the fleer. If tagged, they trade places, with the fleer becoming the chaser, and the chaser becoming the fleer. Anyone running outside of the boundaries also must become the chaser. This game is fun to watch, so much so, players are often caught unawares when they’ve suddenly become the fleer! To add dynamics to this game, have two or three chasers and fleers going at the same time.

Water Hose Tug of War

Poke holes in the water hose and put a small wading pool in the center of the gaming area. Each team tries to pull the other into the pool.

Band Aid Tag

One person is “it.” Whenever someone is tagged by “it” they must hold a bandaid (their hand) on the spot where they were tagged. Then the game continues. When someone runs out of bandaids, (they get tagged three times), they are frozen until two other people come over to them and “operate.” The two other people need to tag the frozen person at the same time and count to five. Let the game continue for as long as it remains exciting and fun. Switch the person who is “it” often.

Guess Who

It is like the board game guess who. You divide the group into two teams sitting in neatly set up rows of chairs. One person from each team is picked to guess who the judge has in mind from the other team. (The judges must write the name down as proof.)

The pickers switch off asking yes or no questions (i.e. does he wear glasses). Any one who doesn’t fit in with the answer must sit down until the picker guesses who.

That team gets a point and two new people are picked and you do it all over again.

Samurai Warrior

1. Everyone stands in a circle around or in a line in front of one person with the Boffer (pool noodles are great!) far enough away as not to be hit.
2. The Samurai swings at the group, either high, at head level, or low at ankle level.
3. If he swings high, the group ducks
4. If he swings low, the group jumps
5. He is not actually supposed to hit the participants with the sword, but if someone jumps when they are supposed to duck or vice versa, they are “out” until the one left is the next Samurai.

ADAPTATIONS:
1)For a no loser’s game, the person who does the wrong thing can become the Samurai

2) For no losers, have two circles and person who goes wrong, switches circles

Capture the Flag

Somewhat of a war game with periods of seemingly inactive play interspersed with moments of great excitement and confusion. Always interesting with endless strategies, with opportunities for coordinated teamwork, individual heroism, and plenty of exercise for those who want it.

Equipment Needed:
2 bandanas, boundary markers. A key to success is selecting a large playing field, at least football or soccer size. If it’s irregular, with trees, bushes, and gullies for hiding, so much the better. Please be aware of safety, this can be a high risk game. I’ve played this many times at dusk (or in the dark) with the occasional fall or sprained ankle.

Setup:
Divide the field in half. The boundaries should be clearly marked, especially the center dividing line. A bandana is placed in plain view on each side of the field, usually as far back as possible.

Object:
To steal your opponents flag and bring it back into your own territory.

Play:
Divide into two teams. If a player is tagged inside the other teams’ territory they must go to “Jail.” This is an imaginary area usually within twenty feet of the flag. The only way to be released is for another member of your team to come and tag you. You are then given free passage back to your own territory. Play usually focuses on some players attacking, others defending the flag and prisoners. You may need to enforce a clear perimeter around the flag to prevent defenders from physically making it impossible to snatch away. If someone is tagged while bringing back the flag, you may take it back to its original location or leave it where the person was caught. The latter option speeds up game play, since they may be only 10 feet away from crossing the center line. Decoys and feints come into play, but let the kids come up with their own strategies. One game may last a couple minutes or over an hour.

Variations:
Nobody like to be in “Jail” forever. For more active participation, especially with younger kids, put a time limit on their sentence, say 5 minutes. Then they are free to go.

If defenses rule the day, try adding a second flag to each side. This spreads out the action and results in quicker games.

Capture the Flag

is a traditional outdoor sport where two teams each have a flag (or other marker) and the objective is to capture the other team’s flag, located at the team’s “base”, and bring it back to their own base. One variation of the game includes a “jail” area in addition to the flag on each team’s territory. If a member of one team gets tagged by a member of the second team in the second team’s territory, the tagged person must sit in jail either for a pre-determined time limit, or until an untagged member runs through the jail. In some cases, particularly if the jail is far from the boundary line between territories, players may be allowed to form a “human chain” from the jail towards the boundary. This makes it easier to be “rescued”, the more players are in jail. The purpose of this rule may be to reduce the possibility of games ending in a virtual stalemate: if one team has nearly all its players in jail, allowing the opposing team to focus exclusively on the remaining members, it can prevent them from effecting either the release of prisoners or the capture of the flag.