More Cooperative Games

Cooperation: Friendship for a Lifetime

Here is an article about games that you can use to teach friendship and cooperation. Cooperative games are great for a variety of people, abilities, and ages.  So get ready to have some fun and learn how to work with your friends!

Warm-up Activities

Bubbles

Divide children into small groups of three. Each group joins hands and becomes a Small bubble. They blow together and take off floating around the room. They can avoid contact with other Bubbles, float around with eyes closed, or touch and join into a large bubble. In the end one Giant bubble collapses to the floor with one loud "POP!"

Obstacle Course
Get some of the children to contribute ideas for obstacles with whatever is in the room or play yard and whatever actions they can create for difficult ways to move in relation to it, scooting on your bottom under a table.

BalloonCity

Materials: Balloon
Place a large number of balloons in a small area. The challenge is to keep them all in the air any way they can without holding them with no hands

Mile of Yarn

Material: Yarn

One child starts with a bright ball of thick yarn, wraps the end of the yarn around her waist, and passes the ball to another child. He wraps it around his waist, and passes it to another child, and so on. Once the whole group has been intertwined in yarn, the whole process is reversed. The last player begins to rewind the ball, passes it to the next child, and so on until the fully wound ball reaches the first child.

Hello!  Hi!  Hola!

Materials: Parachute

Have the children stand up and hold the chute.  Lift it up height and everyone ducks their heads under the chute.  Each person calls out a friend’s name on the other side of the chute.  Lower the chute and ask the children to find another friend who is next to them and say hi.  Continue the game by calling out a color of another child’s clothing and have the group say hello to them as they duck their heads under the chute. 

Walking Statues

Two teams start from opposite ends of the field. The leader stands in the center of the field. The goal is to reach the leader first. Teams can move only when the leader is facing the other team. If individuals are caught moving, they must go back to the start.

Low Activity Games

Paper Chase

Materials: Piece of paper for each team.

Give each child an ordinary piece of paper. The teacher shows the children how to run with the paper, first by holding it on her chest, then, after picking up speed, letting go so the air pressure holds it in place. It is relatively easy to keep it in place running in a straight line. The challenge is to run in circles.

Get ‘me out of Here

Materials: Newspaper and chalk

Divide the children into two teams. Give each an area to patrol, clearly marked with chalk, tape, or lines drawn in the dirt. Give each child a piece of paper to wad into a ball. On the signal "go" the children throw their wads over to the other team's area. On the signal "stop" the children count up the number of wad balls on each side. The object is to have the least number of paper wads.

Backward Get-Up

This may be done with partners or in a group. Have student’s link arms while sitting back to back. On the "go" signal, have them simultaneously stand up and sit back down. (Start with partners and move to a group after they have experienced success.)

Forward Get-Up

Repeat the Backward Get-Up, but have the students sit facing each other with hands joined.

Midpoint Games

Toss the Bird

Materials: Towel

This is a tag game with a twist. The “bird” can be knotted towel or some other soft object suitable for throwing. You can have as many as you think are necessary. The point is that you can’t be tagged if you are holding a bird. People can toss the bird(s) to each

Other to help “protect” each other from being caught. Obviously you will want to have fewer birds than you have people who are being chased. More than one person can be “it.”

High Level Activity Games

Wall to Wall

Find a space to run across from wall to wall or wall to fence. Start with a counting-go game, yelling the loudest "Go!" you can muster, where upon the children run from one wall and stop at the other. Run with different children each time. Count up to different numbers. Count down. Then challenge different ways to run. Tip toes? Knees high? Arms high? Circling? Swinging? Twisting? Zigzag? Backwards? Jumping?

Run, Run Chicken Go Home

Like wall to wall, the children run from one safe zone to the next, but in the middle is the catcher, who calls, "Run chicken goes home" to signal the others to run across the mid space. Anyone tagged becomes part of the catchers for the next run, proceeding until all are caught and the game begins anew.

Elbow Tag

Pairs of children who are linked together arm in arm at the elbow are safe. In this variant of tag, when a third child joins the pair by linking to an available arm, the person on the opposite arm must escape to find a new partner before being tagged.

Freeze Tag

One person is "IT." IT tries to catch the others. When tagged, a child must freeze. Others may touch the frozen child to free him or her. Change who is IT every few minutes until each child has had a turn. Change the boundaries. Change the number of children who are IT.

Safe Tag

In this tag game, the group establishes a specific safe object (tree or climber) or difficult body position (standing on one leg or standing back to back with another child). Change the safe object or pose. Change the number of its.

Hoop Tag

In this tag game the hoops or tires are free zones. Use the same number of hoops as players, minus two. IT and one runner have no hoops. IT chases the runner who can displace any person by jumping into his or her hoop. Only one person can be in a hoop at one time. When tagged, IT and runner change places.

Cookie Monster

All children line up along a wall, fence,  marked line. They are cookies. One child is the Cookie Monster who stands some distance away. The children chant, "Cookie Monster, Cookie Monster, what time is it?" The cookie monster responds with a clock time, choosing any number he or she wishes, e.g., "Eight o'clock." The 'cookies' then count out loud together as they take large steps toward the Cookie Monster, "One, two, three, four, five, six, seven, and eight." The 'cookies' repeat their 'what time' call. The cookie monster continues to respond with time numbers until he or she decides to answer, "Cookie time!" whereupon the Cookie Monster chases the cookies back to the wall.

Closing Games

KickCity

Materials: Soft balls and assorted playground equipment

Place a large number of soft balls in a small area. The challenge is to keep them all moving. Challenge children to kick with their non-dominant foot. Kick it to a friend? Kick between two cones? Kick through a hula hoop? Bounce all kicks off the wall?

Shadows

When the sun is shining, find a space where the children can watch their shadows. Challenge them to make shadows with different characteristics. Tall? Wide as possible. Narrow as possible? Lie on back and make shadows with their legs only? In combinations with others, make a dog shadow? Create monsters? Machines?

Non-Elimination Simon Says

Two games begin simultaneously, each with a leader, who performs various movements which the children mimic when given the command, "Simon says do ____." However, when the leader says, "Do ___." without having said "Simon says,” any child who follows, instead of being eliminated, transfers to the second game, joining in on the next "Simon says" command. In this way there is no exclusion, only movement between the two groups.

Copy Cat

Materials: chute

Hold the chute above your head.  One child goes under the chute and the other children mimic the exercise.  Hold the chute out and have the children mimic the exercise of another student.  Play continues until all children have had a turn.

New Places

Materials: chute

Stretch the chute above the student’s heads.  Call out a student’s name and have them demonstrate an exercise under the chute. Have them move to another place on the chute.  Lower the chute and start the process again with another child doing an exercise and moving to another place around the chute.

Ripples and Waves

Materials: chute and ball

Have the students work together to make the same kind of waves.  Have them work cooperatively together to make small, medium and large waves.  Add a ball and see how long that they can cooperatively work together to keep the ball on the parachute.

Parachute Pulls

Materials: chute

Have the children grab the parachute and cooperatively pull the chute.  Hold out the chute for a count of five.  Have the children and the chute relax.  Try stretching the chute in different levels standing, sitting and above their skills.  Discuss with the children which ones were the most challenging for them.  Talk about the importance of working together.

References:

Cooperative Challenges

http://www.teachervision.fen.com/group-work/lesson-plan/5864.html?wtlAC=GS_2006-04-17,email-gs_15

Learning for a Lifetime

http://www.learning-for-life.org/exploring/resources/99-720/x08.pdf

Physical Games for Cooperative Play

http://northonline.sccd.ctc.edu/eceprog/games.html

Wilmes, Liz and Dick. Parachute Play.Elgin, Illinois: Building Blocks, 2000