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Game Type: Large Group

Torpedo

Written by Julia Shafer on . No Comments on Torpedo

Torpedo takes the classic pool game “Sharks & Minnows” and moves it on land.

Setup:

  • You’ll need a large rectangular area. Something like a gym or basketball court works great, but you can easily make the boundaries on your own with tape or other makeshift tools.
  • Choose two members from your group to be the “launchers” who will stand on either side of the long ends of the rectangle armed with dodgeballs (or any other object they can throw to tag players).
  • The rest of your group will line up along the short sides of the rectangle.

 

Gameplay:

When you as the leader shout “Torpedo!” everyone but the two launchers has to run to reach the line on the opposite side of the rectangle like a “torpedo.” While they’re running, the two launchers try to hit as many people as possible with dodgeballs without stepping over their own lines. Anyone who gets hit has to sit down exactly where they were hit, and they become “land mines.” As more and more land mines are added to the game, they must remain stuck to their spot while trying to tag any remaining players or “torpedos” who are racing to the other side. Anyone who gets hit by a land mine must sit down and become a land mine too. The goal is to get both sides to run back and forth every round until they knock out every player but one. The last “torpedo” standing wins the game.

Blanket Race

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  1. Split your group into teams of six people. 
  2. Pick one player from each group to be carried in a blanket. The other five players will be the ones who carry them.
  3. Position everyone behind the starting line.
  4. On “Go!” each team will have five players carrying one person in a blanket. When a team has carried that player to the finish line, they can then run back to the starting line.
  5. Once they’ve reached the starting line, the person who was carried in the blanket last round has to help carry a different player in the blanket this round. Players keep switching in and out of the blanket each round until every player has been carried to the finish line.
  6. The first team to get all of their players to the finish line in a blanket wins!

Spoon Assassins

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You will need someone to act as a judge or referee (who will not be playing the game) to create a list of your students and their individual “targets.”

  1. First, every player will be given a spoon that they must secure visibly on their body (ie. on their shirt, jacket, ankle, head, etc. So long as it’s visible and appropriate.)
  2. The judge will then assign every student the name of their “target.”
  3. Their goal is to steal and collect their target’s spoon, effectively “assassinating” them.
  4. When a player has successfully stolen their target’s spoon, the person who lost their spoon and is now out of the game must tell their “killer” who their target was.
  5. Now, that the “killer” has a new name, their goal is to “assassinate” their target’s target.
  6. The game continues like this until there is only one person with their spoon left. Whoever is the last person to still have their spoon by the end of the game wins!

4 Square Dodgeball

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Setup:

  • Separate four quadrants or squares on the floor (using duct tape, cones, or whatever is at your disposal).
  • Divide your group into four teams (with each team having the same number of players), and position them in their separate quadrants/squares.

Rules: The game is essentially dodgeball with a twist… whenever a player is knocked “out,” instead of leaving the game, they join the team that got them out and move to their square. The game continues until all the players are brought into one square, making that team the winner.

Human Battleship

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If you’ve ever played the board game, then you already know the rules. The trick is making it life-sized:

Prep:

  1. You’ll need to set aside a good sized space to play this game.
  2. Once you’ve marked your playing space, split the space in half with a barrier that’s tall and nontransparent (a curtain, tarp, or room divider would work well). The barrier should be placed evenly between the two sides and should be tall enough so that no one can see the other side. This is essentially the foundation of your life-size battleship board.
  3. You can then place chairs, tables, sheets of paper, tape, or chalk to separate your rows and columns into a grid (traditional battleship has 10×10 grid spaces, but you can individualize your life-size board to best suit your group’s size).
  4. Now that the barrier’s up and the grid is finished, determine what “missiles” your players will be shooting with. Be sure to choose an object that’s relatively soft and light so that students don’t get hurt (a soft dodgeball, beachball, balloon, or even rolls of toilet paper are all good suggestions).

Game Rules:

  1. Divide the group into two teams and separate them on opposite sides of the barrier.
  2. Have everyone choose their grid space where they will remain for the duration of the game.
  3. Once everyone has taken their place, both sides will take turns being the “enemy attacker.” Their objective will be to shoot their shot over the barrier and get it to land on one of the other team’s players, effectively “sinking” the other team’s “ship.” When the other side throws the object and it does not land on an occupied space, the team yells “miss!” However, if they successfully hit an occupied space or the player in that space, the team must yell “hit!” and that player is out of the game.
  4. Players continue taking turns throwing their “missile” back and forth over the barrier until one team loses all of their “battleships.” Whichever team still has players remaining on the board by the end of the game wins!

This game involves a bit of prep work, but it’s a a ton of fun!

Balloon Tag

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  1. Have each player blow up two balloons.
  2. Cut up two pieces of string for every player (should be less than 1ft each).
  3. Give each player their pieces of string. Have them tie one end of a string to one of their balloons and the other end around their ankle. Repeat so that they have a balloon tied to each of their ankles.
  4. On “Go!” players will try to stomp each others balloons. When a player has had both of their balloons popped, they are out of the game.
  5. Whoever is left with one or both their balloons at the end of the game wins

Pair-adox

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The first pair to match up wins

  1. Take a piece of paper and split down the middle into even pieces.
  2. Write out the names of famous personality “pairs” (ie. “Mickey Mouse” and “Minnie Mouse,” “Batman” and “Joker,” and so on). There should be only one name on every piece of paper and a corresponding paper and name to go with the other.
  3. Have the group line up, and tape a piece of paper to everyone’s back’s.
  4. Players must then try to figure out who their character is by asking “yes/no” questions.
  5. Whoever is the first to figure out their famous personality AND find their matching pair is the winner.

The Towel Game

Written by Wesley Lewis on .

1. Have all your kids make a circle with chairs with one person in the middle.

2. The person in the middle has a “towel”. This could be a real towel, paper towel, or really anything.

3. The person in the middle walks around and grabs some else’s hand to form a chain. They can’t let go.

4. They continue going around and around grabbing more and more people, making the human chain longer and longer.

5. The person with the towel, also the person leading chain, should try to tie everyone up by going in and out of the train behind them or weaving around obstacles etc.

6. When the leader decides the human chain is tied up enough they can drop the towel and everyone runs to find a seat.

7. The person left without a seat, and in the middle, gets the towel and starts the chain again.

I know it sounds simple but my kids love it for some reason…lol

Shuffle Your Buns

Written by Wesley Lewis on .

This is a fun game where the goal is simply for the student to sit down.

1. Have all students form a chair circle with 1 student in the middle and 1 empty seat.

2. Have the student to the right of the empty chair move over and sit in the empty chair.

3. The next student will move to fill the empty chair next to them.

4. The empty chair keeps getting filled and it will go faster and faster.

5. The student in the middle should try to sit down.

6. If they get into the empty seat then the person who “should” have moved over but wasn’t fast enough will be the person in the middle.

ALTERNATIVES:

– You could have two empty chairs and two students in the middle.

 

4 Way Steal The Bacon

Written by Wesley Lewis on .

  1. Mark out a large square and then divide it into 4 smaller squares or quadrants. You can make this as big or as small as you like. Depending on your play area. We usually make our large square 60ftx60ft. So each team’s square is 30ftx30ft.
  2. Place “the bacon” in the four outside corners of each square.
  3. Mark a No Guarding line roughly 5feet away from the corner that has “the bacon”. This is to keep each team from hovering over the bacon and taking away all the fun.
  4. Next Mark a “Jail” to the side of each quadrant, to the left of the bacon pile. We usually make a little circle not to far outside of each team’s area.
  5. Divide your group into 4 teams. Try to balance out the faster players.
  6. Explain the rule and Game on!

Rules & FYI:

  • Each team is trying to steal as much “bacon” from the other teams as they can.
  • The team that has the most “bacon” at the end of the game wins. We usually time the game to 30min, taking a break at 15min. There is a lot of running and guarding.
  • If a player gets tagged they go to jail and can only be freed by another player from their team tagging them. They get a free walk back to their corner/quadrant.
  • What makes this game interesting is that you have people coming in from all sides. with a typical 2 team game you know your enemy is right across from you and they are easy to watch. With this version they are coming from several different angles and that makes it much harder to guard your bacon and steal from other teams.