Cooperative Games for Children  Games compiled by Tom Drummond, North Seattle Community College, Early Childhood Education Web Site. Laugh a lot to make these games fun. Only if you participate and have fun yourself do these become successful. 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? Zig-zag? 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 run chicken go home" to signal the others to run across the mid space. Anyone tagged becomes part of the catchers for the next run, proceding until all are caught and the game begins anew. HOOPERS
On the ground, place 1/2 as many hoops as the number of children. Children stand outside the hoops. On the command "Run" the children run around the area without touching anyone or the hoops. On the command "Hoopers" each child must find the nearest hoop to jump inside. Vary the actions outside the hoops, e.g., gallop, turn, jump, skip. Combine with Wall to Wall. 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 half as many as there are children. Only one child can be in a free zone at a time. If a child is in a hoop, he or she must leave when another child comes. Children who are tagged become a member of the IT force. The last child tagged becomes IT for the next game. THE BLOB
Establish boundaries. Start by calling yourself the Blob. Chase the children until you catch one. That child then grabs your hand and becomes part of the Blob. Together, still holding hands, you catch others. The Blob grows larger with each capture. Only the outside free hands can tag. The Blob may either tag or encircle its prey. One of the characteristics of the Blob is that it can split up in to different numbers of smaller Blobs, but there must be at least two to a Blob. When one, two, or three children are left, whichever you specify, the game ends. Those children unite and begin the next Blob. CROSSING THE STREAM
Use chalk to draw two lines to represent a stream. Vary the width, with banks nearly touching in some places, widening to no more than 4 feet. Mark the spots where children demonstrate the ability to jump across. Try running leaps. Try jumping with feet together. Have children yell something fun when they jump, such as, "Geronimo!" DEATH LEAPS
Set out a number of hula hoops in a uneven pattern between two safe zones. Inside the hoops a child is safe. Touch outside and you die. Let the children figure out why. The challenge to get to the other side. Draw the safe areas with chalk. Let the children draw the safe spots. DUCK, DUCK, GOOSE
The children sit in a circle, or they can sit in a line in front of a fixed climber. One child, who is IT, walks around the outside of the circle, touching each head, saying, "Duck" each time. Then, after four or five taps, saying, "Goose!" IT then runs around the circle (or the climbing apparatus) away from the Goose, who is now chasing him or her, trying to get around the circle and back to the empty spot and sit down before being caught by the Goose. The old Goose becomes the new IT if he or she fails to touch the child in time. Clap and cheer. CAT AND MOUSE
You need two balls, one larger than the other; Nerf® balls are ideal. The children are seated in a circle. Tell a short story about how the Cat always chase the Mouse and the Mouse is little but quick. The balls are handed from one child to the next as quickly as possible. Start the smaller ball, the Mouse, first and the larger one, the Cat, a few seconds later. The adult can stand or sit in the middle to catch wayward balls. KICK CITY
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? BALLOON CITY
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. No hands? CRAZY LEGS
Children stand in a big circle an arms length from each other. One child is chosen to be Crazy Legs, who kicks a ball around the outside of the circle. At some point Crazy Legs kicks the ball through the ring into the circle and touches someone who becomes Speedy. Crazy Legs tries to run around the ring and back to the empty spot before Speedy catches him or her. Meanwhile the circle children kick the ball back and forth, trying to keep it moving. Add a second ball and a second Crazy Legs. CATERPILLAR
Four or five children are chosen to lie side-by-side, face down, with their arms tight by their sides or stretched over their heads. The child on the end rolls over the other children, then the second child starts. As they finish their roll they lie down quickly in position so the next roller can roll. MILE OF 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. POINTS
In this game, each body part that can support body weight counts as a point. Points include hands, fingers, toes, buttocks, heels, elbows, knees, and feet. To introduce the game, have the children try to balance on two specific points with you. Then have them try their own ideas. Have them try different two-point balancing, then one-point balancing, then three-point balancing. Try challenging them to discover the most difficult ways to balance. At an advanced level challenge them to change from three points to two points without falling, four to two, etc. 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. BLEACH BOTTLE CATCH
Cut off the bottom portion of a gallon bleach bottle to use as a catcher or thrower of Koosh® balls, bean bags, or Nerf® balls. CATCHING THE DRAGON'S TAIL
Gather 10 or more children in a line. Each person places hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them. The first in line is the "head" of the dragon; the last is the "tail." The head tries to catch the tail by maneuvering the line around so he can tag the tail player. When the tail is tagged, the tail player moves to the front of the dragon to become the new head. The old head is now in second. PAPER RACE
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 'EM OUT OF HERE!
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. PEBBLE CHASE
Players stand in line facing a designated safe area some distance away. The leader takes a pebble, presses it between his or her palms and moves from player to player pretending to drop it into the outstretched hands of each. When the leader actually does drop the pebble into a person's hand, the receiver, Pebble, runs to the safe area and returns to the leader, chased by all the others. The one who tags Pebble before he or she returns gets the pebble and becomes the leader. If Pebble returns safely, he or she becomes the leader. BLANKET PULL
Provide a sturdy blanket. The children can use it as a slide by pulling someone around the room, a cradle by gently swinging it back and forth with a doll or a teddy bear inside, a catapult for tossing balls or other soft objects, or a merry-go round by having one or two children sit in the middle while others walk around holding the edges. 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!" HUCKLE BUCKLE BEANSTOCK
Select an object to hide and designate a home base where all of the children can gather at once. A player is designated to hide the object without the others peeking. Then everyone searches. When anyone finds it, they run to home base shouting, "Huckle buckle beanstalk!" They continue until everyone has found it. 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, e.g. scooting on your bottom under a table. GHOST IN THE GRAVEYARD
One person is the ghost. The rest lie in their "graves" hiding their eyes and counting to 20 as the ghost hides. When the count is finished, everyone starts to look for the ghost. The first finder yells, "Ghost in the graveyard!" and all rush back to their grave. Anyone caught before he returns to his grave, lies down and hides his eyes becomes the next ghost. ALL HANDS ON DECK
Establish three areas: one side of the play space is a ship; the opposite side is the shore; in between is a marked area called the deck. One person is the Captain who barks the orders. "All hands on deck!" means all must run to the deck and sit down. "Attention!" means all must stand in military style. "Salute!" means all salute in unison. "All hands on ship!"-all run to the ship side. "All hands ashore!"-all run to the shore side. COOKIE MONSTER
All children line up along a wall, fence, or demarcation 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, 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. Go Back
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