The Games People Play - Tribes Update

In a recent blog post, I talked about our most recent Tribes challenge. Each group got a number of items to use in order to invent a game. These tools included ping pong balls, jump ropes, rag balls, and bean bags. They needed to use at least 2 of these items, but could use all of them if desired.

On day one, children had no problem at all inventing games. After all, that is the child's "work", right? They are constantly inventing games to play, or making modifications to games they already know.

Today, day two, was a bit more challenging. Each tribe had to 1) pick a name for their game, 2) list materials needed, 3) come up with the object of the game (how do you win? how do you lose?), and 4) write down the rules clearly, and in an order that makes sense.

Most tribes assigned roles to make this part easier. One child might be the scribe, while another reads everything aloud to make sure it makes sense, for instance. Everyone was actively engaged in this challenge for about an hour.

I typed up the rule sheets as children dictated. We then got to ask for clarifications if something was unclear - and believe me, a LOT was unclear at first!

After snack, we headed outside to try out the games. All were huge successes.

Here are the three games we invented and played today. Enjoy!

The Mega Dark Fire Flaming Rhinos

GAME TITLE: Time Run

Object: Grab the rag ball and run back in fifteen seconds

Materials: Bean bag, jump rope, rag ball, ping pong ball, sticks

1.   Jump over the jump rope

2.   Whack the beanbag out of the butler’s hands. P.S. The butler is Spenser

3.   Avoid the balls that are on the ground. If you hit a ball, lose five seconds.

4.   Capture the rag ball which is in a small tree

5.   Run back in 15 seconds or less

6.   Have fun!

The Rainbow Mutant Goats Who Like Dragons

GAME TITLE: Ancient Monster

Object: Throw the beanbag and hit the monster

Materials: 4 ping ball balls, a rag ball, a bean bag and a jump rope

1.   Everyone has a ball, except for the monster, who has a bean bag

2.   The monster is in the circle of death, which is made by the jump rope

3.   Throw the rag ball in the circle of death and the monster is released

4.   The monster runs around and if you have a ping pong you can get tagged

5.   If you get tagged, you throw away the ping pong ball so you can’t reach it. Sit down on the ground.

6.   Once you are tagged, if you pick up another ping pong ball you can get back up

7.   Tap the monster on the head with a rag ball to kill him.

The Awesome Pacific Colored Light Sabers

GAME TITLE: Hide the Balls

Object: You win if you find all of the ping pong balls and go back to the beanbag

Materials: rag ball, 4 ping pong balls, jump rope, bean bag

1.   Pick a person who is “it”. It hides all four ping pong balls around the playground while everyone hides his or her eyes.

2.    Pick a person who is “help”.

3.   The person who is it has the rag ball, the person who is help has the bean bag.

4.   If you are tapped by the person who is it you go down. And wait for the help to tap you.

5.   If the help is down, they need to do 20 jump ropes to get back up

6.   The help and the other players try to find the ping pong balls

7.   They try to get the ping pong balls back to the jump rope which home base