5-11 s Inmation compiled & adapted by Lisa McPherson Youth Ministry Co-Ordinator Methodist Church In Ireland www.teaching.co.uk
Cat and Mouse Choose two of the group to be cats, everyone else is a mouse and wears a tail (coloured band) in the back of their shorts. The mice run around and the cats try to catch them by pulling the tails out. Make sure tails are showing bee starting and ask cats to collect tails that they pull out so that no one slips on them. Count the tails at the end and the cat with the most tails is the winner! note: you could use tag rugby tags or just pieces of material An alternative Cat and Mouse Equipment needed - coloured bands or bibs This can be played anywhere but a large space is better. Choose 3 or 4 students from the class to be the catchers or the 'cats' and send them to the end of the hall/ playground to 'sleep'. Give each of the remaining students coloured band or bib to tuck into the back of their shorts (to be their mouse tails). Shout 'wake up cats'. They then chase the mice and try to catch their tails. The cats have to catch as many tails as they can until they are all gone. When a mouse loses their tail they have to sit down. Variations: - Reduce or increase the number of mice. - Allow all of the students to be cats and mice at the same time. They all have to chase each other and catch as many tails as they can. If they lose their tail they can still continue to catch other tails. The winner is the one with the most tails. This means that all students are active throughout the activity. Sharks and Fish Organise the children into pairs. One child is the shark, the other is the fish. The fish follows the shark around and must imitate everything the shark does. Shout out such as 'swim' backwards, move slowly, rest on the floor etc. Toilet Tag Split the group in half. Those who are 'on / it' have to tag others. When tagged, the child becomes a toilet! They have to kneel on one knee, arm up the flush and other knee (foot on floor) flat the toilet seat. To be released, someone from your team has to go to the loo on you and flush your chain. No one can tag you whilst you're on the loo. Swap over after 10 minutes. Pasta PE The children should begin by walking around the room in any direction. On the various commands listed, they should carry out the appropriate action: spaghetti - walk round the room tall and thin arms pointed together; tagliatelli - walk round the room arms pointed side by side; pasta twist - walk round the hall turning round and round; pasta bow - walk round with legs and arms apart, bow shaped; lasagne - lie flat on the floor; macaronimake a circle with arms; pasta shapes - make a 2D shape in small groups holding hands; spaghetti hoops - make a 'hoop' in a small group holding hands; canneloni - roll on the floor; ravioli - stand back to back with a partner.
Hoop Spread 4 different colour hoops around the floor space. Children move around the space (run, skip, crawl etc.) until teacher shouts "hoop". The adult covers their eyes and counts slowly to 3. Children have this time to run to a hoop. The adult says the colour of one hoop. Everyone in this hoop is out. Repeat until you have a winner. Children who are out can close their eyes and select the hoop colour. The Mr Man Game This is an easy warm-up involving no equipment. Say the name of a Mr. Man and children have to move like him. The ones I use are: Mr. Slow - move slowly. Mr. Rush - move fast. Mr. Jelly - shake your whole body. Mr. Muddle - walk backwards. Mr. Bounce - bounce! Mr. Small - crouch and move. Mr. Strong - move flexing your muscles. Mr. Tall - stretch up and move Bumper Cars Age 5-7 Give each child a hula hoop and have them hold it at waist level. Explain that this is there personal space car and they should not touch any other student s car. Give them word directions e.g.: stop & go, stand up & sit down. Have the childre run from one end of the gym to the other. After, give them some directions while they are running, let them run freely around the gym. You can also make it an elimination game e.g.: the last one to stop or sit down has to sit out until there is only one. You can use different movements with the hula hoop like skipping or jumping and spinning Fruit Basket Divide the class into 4 groups and have them move into each corner of the gym or play area. Give each of the groups a fruit name such as apples, oranges, bananas and watermelons. Call two of the fruit names and those groups have to run and change places. They maintain the same name throughout the game. When you call "Fruit Basket" all of the children run and sit in the center of the gym. Beans 1) The children should begin by walking around the room in any direction. 2) On the various commands listed below, they should carry out the appropriate action JUMPING BEAN Jump around the room RUNNER BEAN Run around the room (looking out other people). OR Running on the spot (more suitable younger children than running around the room) BROAD BEAN Stretch your arms and legs out as wide as you can. Walk around the room taking as large strides as possible BAKED BEAN Lay on the floor in a star shape until the next command is given. OR Lie on floor and Sunbathe JELLY BEAN Move around the room slouching and doing silly movements
Wobble like a jelly CHILLI BEAN Shiver and shake FROZEN BEAN Children have to stand very still. MR. BEAN Walk around with a puzzled/vacant expression, muttering under your breath! BEAN SPROUTS Stand on tiptoes and make yourself as tall and thin as possible. STRING BEANS Stand on the spot, making yourself as long and thin as a piece of string OR Find 2 partners, hold hands and run around in space. OR Make a long thin shape OR pretend to play an "air guitar" or violin! BLACK-EYED BEANS Children stand still and 'shadow box' by punching the air in front of them (obviously not touching anyone!) Stand on the spot with one hand over one eye. BAKED BEANS ON TOAST Lie flat on the floor, spreading arms and legs out as far as possible. OR Children lie in middle of area as close to each other as possible OR Find a partner and lay on the floor Bean Bag Scramble Age: 5-11 Divide the class into two teams and tell them to go on opposite sides of the gym. Place an odd number of bean bags (at least two per child) on the center line (spread out to avoid collisions). At each end of the gym place a box or bin (as their goal). On go children run to the center, grab a bean bag (only one at a time allowed) and take it back to put in their team s box, run back and do it again. Once all the bean bags are in goals the children count how many they have. The team with the most bean bags wins. You can make the game more challenging by telling the children that they have to toss it & catch it all the way back to their goal or have them skip, slide, etc. Balls may be used to develop skills such as dribbling, or passing (each child would have a partner). Repeat to give the other team a chance to win. Dodgeball skittles This uses the same basic rules as Dodgeball although you can use more than one soft ball. Divide the sports hall into 2 halves and at each end set up a number of skittles randomly. The game is won when all of the skittles are knocked down or all of the other team are out (whichever happens first). If a player is out, they need to know who got them out (can be out by the ball being caught on the full or being hit below the waist).the moment the person that got them out is out, everyone who 'that person got out' can come back in. This prevents children from sitting out long duration of the game. Skittles cannot be directly guarded (put hoops around skittles to create an 'exclusion area'). Balls must be thrown underarm. Players cannot cross the half way line, once skittle is knocked down, it remains down. An additional idea is to make one skittle a 'life saver' skittle, whereby, if it gets knocked down, anyone on the team trying to knock it down who are already out can come back in.
Hockey Tag A selection of children are chosen to be the "taggers". Each other child in the class has a hockey stick and ball, they dribble the ball into space trying to avoid the "taggers" who are trying to knock the ball away from the player. If the ball is succesfully taken away by the "tagger" then the the children's role is reversed. Raft Game Divide the class into small groups. Give each group 2 gym mats. Start the teams at one end of hall, and tell the children that they have to move to the other end without touching the floor, i.e. start on one mat, jump to the next, pass the back mat ward and repeat the sequence. If any of the teams touches the floor, you might want to send them back to the start! This is a great way to encourage the children to co-operate and builds team spirit. Extenson this activity: As the children are making their way across the hall/yard, one of them should be blindfolded. This makes the team think more carefully. In the middle of the hall you could place some sort of obstacle that the teams have to climb over or go under. You could also put a time limit on the game. You could make the mats smaller or give the teams sacks that can only take 4/5 pupils at one time. This now means that one member has to make several trips back and ward. I call this one 'The Ferryman'. If you're feeling really mean you could encompass all of the above in one game. Human Bop - It You need a CD or tape with a beat on and you call out the actions to which the children respond in the following ways: Kick it - children kick in front of them (ensure they're all in a space first!) Twist it - twist their bodies half way around then back, feet remaining in same place on the floor. Spin it - children turn around Pull it - imagine they are pulling two levers down from above their heads. Bop it - jump in the air. Catch it... Header it... Age: 7-11 Stand in a circle with a group however large. The teacher stands in the middle with a ball and throws it to each person. When the teacher calls "header it" you MUST catch it and when the teacher calls "catch it" you MUST header it. Duster Hockey In the hall / gym, split the children into two groups then number them. For example if there are 20 students in the class split them into groups of ten then number each student from 1-10. Have them sit on opposites sides of the hall / gym, then call out a number i.e. 3 Both number threes will get up and run to the middle of the hall where a duster (preferable a soft one not one with a hard back) and two newspapers rolled up (the hockey sticks) are waiting. Each child takes a newspaper stick and tries to hit the duster into their goal. If someone scores another number is called out and the next two will have a go. If no one scores after a few minutes to make sure everyone has a go call out another
number and the ones playing must drop their "sticks" where they are and the next students have a go. This can also be played in pairs when the teacher calls out two numbers etc. Rolling Rocks Equipment required: 20 tennis balls, 20 marker cones (10 of each colour), 6 small soft balls or size 1 mini footballs. Set up 10 cones with a tennis ball on each at either end of the hall, with a centre line which players must not cross and divide the group into 2 equal teams. The objective of the game is to roll the soft balls to try and knock the tennis balls off the opposing teams cones. The game is continous and is played until all balls are knocked off. Messy Rooms You will need 20 tennis balls. Split the hall / gym in half and split the class in 2 groups. The aim of the game is to have the least amount of balls at your side. The children will roll all their tennis balls to the other side of the room, while the other team tries to pass them all back. After a fixed amount of time, count up the number of tennis balls on each side. The side with the lowest number of tennis balls is the winner! Cups and saucers Place enough small flexi cones on the floor so that there are at least one each child. Half of them need to be placed on the floor in the normal way, and half upside down. This creates the cups and saucers. Divide the class in two, depending on whether they are a cup or saucer and they have to turn the flexi cones over their team. The team with the most cones turned over within a set time, e.g. 30 seconds, wins. The game can be repeated by lengthening the time, travelling in a specific way e.g. hopping, or having an uneven split of cones to start with. Memory Cards The object is to get all four suits of your teams' playing cards. You can have as many teams to accomodate the size of the class. Each team is assigned a card, e.g. Ace, King, Jack, 10, 9 etc... There are cones or domes that are put into rows and colour cordinated. You can also design it differently. The first person on every team must run out to the cones and pick one up. Underneath the cone is a card face down. They must lift the card and if it is not their team's chosen face / number, then they must put it back face down and give the next person inline a five to go next. If it is their card they must bring it back to their team and keep moving until they collect all four. The cone remains empty and if another person picks that cone without a card, it is stil considered a turn. The teams can think of ways to move faster and remember which cones were picked. They can assign each person a colour and they must communicate so they know what cards were picked by the team. Guess the corner Pick on person from the class to be the caller. They have to be blindfolded, or close their eyes.
Name the four corners of the hall / playground (the names can be anything, e.g. flowers, food...) The rest of the class have 30 seconds to run to one of those corners. The caller then shouts the name of one of the corners. Whoever is in this corner is out. Continue in this way until there is only one child left. Tickly Cat Age: 5-11 The person whom is "on" is the cat and she chases the other gymnasts (the mice!), and tags the mice. The mice then "fall asleep" lying on the floor in a star shape and they don't "wake up" until one of their friends tickles their tummy. The game continues until everybody has had a go at being the cat or the time limit the warm up is finished. Up, Down, Stop, Go Age: 5-11 Children have to listen very carefully! On GO - children must stop still. On STOP - children must move around the space either walking or running. On UP - children must sit or lay down. On DOWN - children must stretch up to the ceiling. Commando Split the class into two / three teams. Their aim is to reach the opposite side of the hall. Each team stands in a line at one side of the hall with their legs spread apart. The person at the back then crawls underneath all of the pairs of legs and then becomes the person at the front. Once they have reached the front of the line, the child then has to shout next, so the person at the back knows when to start. Slow but surely the line starts to move ward! Summer Fun This game can be played in the summer when you have use of the field and nice dry soft grass. The commands should be carried out as quickly as possible - children who are not quick enough are out. FRONT - children lie on their front. BACK - children lie on back. SIT - children sit with legs crossed. STAND - children stand up straight. ARCH or BRIDGE - children create arch with hands on floor and feet on floor facing down. STAR - children do 5 star jumps counting out loud as they do each one returning to the position they were in bee command given. SQUATS - same as star but this time doing squat thrust. TURTLE - find a partner and stand back to back (need to be reminded to move away from partner when next call is given to prevent clashes). If you are trying to get children eliminated you can state that they are not to partner with someone they have already had. HEDGEHOG (after a few sessions this changes to road kill - children can be so lovely!) - Children enact squashed hedgehog on floor. 1, 2, 3 and so on - have to get into group of the number given.
Quick Warm-ups without equipment 1 Jumping lines Find a line and jump to and fro sideways. Feet must be together and cannot touch the lines. 2 Follow the leader Pair up and number yourselves 1 and 2 1 will follow 2 wherever 2 goes. Tell pupils to stay away from hard objects to prevent accidents. Blow whistle and stop activity. Change the pupil s roles. 2 will follow 1 wherever 1 goes. Variation different levels-say move lower primary pupils and jog slowly upper primary pupils. Lower primary pupils may run or jog even if you tell them to move so avoid telling lower primary pupils to run as fast as you can 3 Follow the leader ( classes who have been trained to m up in groups of 4, 5 or more pupils in a group). First boy of every group will be the leader. The rest will follow the leader wherever the leader goes. At the command change, the leader will move to the back of the row. The second boy will now become the leader. This activity can go on as long as the teacher desires (can be used as a main activity by prolonging the duration) The area which the pupils run about will depend on the size of available facilities in the school. Remind boys to stay away from hard objects. E.g pillars, walls, fences 4 Touch and come back. Locate distinctive and safe targets e.g lines on the ground, shapes and colours on the floor, fence. Say watch out one another when you move around Say touch the blue rectangle/ white line and come back here Begin with targets that are nearer to the teacher first. Then, progressively go on to targets further away. Please vary the distance and intensity(walk or slow jog lower primary) 5 Category game. Select category calling out to the pupils. Examples of categories those who are boys, those who are 9/10/11 years old, those who are wearing watches. Do not use rascist categories. Those pupils who belong to the category will walk/jog/hop/run to a specified target and come back quickly. 6 Jumping jacks, Jog on the spot ( kick your own buttocks or bring your knees higher in front of you) Do 10 jumping jacks. Jog on the spot as fast as you can. 7 Running along lines Preferably done in a place with lots of court markings. Say walk along any line or jog along any line 8 Wizards and rocks Select two pupils to be the wizards
State boundary clearly e.g you can only move around the badminton courts/ rectangle. Say If you are touched by the wizards, you will turn into a rock immediately. To become a pupil again, someone must run around you two times. 9 Fish and net Select at least 4 pupils to m 2 pairs of nets by holding hand and standing side by side. State the boundary clearly. Both must hold hands all the time. At the command go, nets will try to catch the fishes by touching them. Once there are 4 boys ming a net, the net will split up into 2 pairs again and continue to catch fishes. The game stops when most or all of the fishes are caught. 10 One-legged tag Select 2 or more pupils, depending on the size of the boundary. The selected pupils will be the catcher, trying to touch the rest of the class while hopping on one leg (the catcher may change leg if he/she feels tired)