children's games please - help

[hoggie]

OK - I am in need of a few games to keep 14 5-7 year olds occupied for about half an hour. The rules are they must be quiet, not running around games, and they must not involve anything to be collected in afterwards so we are talking about games like "I spy" and "Chinese Whispers" that involve sitting still and thinking.

Any ideas please?

hoggie

[Heidi's_Goats]

Heads Up 7-Up?

[hoggie]

Don't know that one - how do you play?

hoggie

[Snugglebunny]

Wow if I knew anything like that, I'd be set for the summer. I have a 4 1/2 yr old and a 6 yr old, both boys, and heaven knows I am constantly telling them "Can't you just STOP MOVING???!!!"

[hoggie]

LOL - fortunately we only have to do it once. I have millions of games - just none that fit the criteria for this event

hoggie

[Nel frattempo]

- get a deck of cheap cards from $ store / the type with just pictures on them / they spread the cards out and try to then pick up matches / my kids do it where each player gets to uncover two cards at a time / if they do not match, you turn them back over / if they match , you get to keep that match / whoever has most matches = wins

- paper and pens or crayons, anything to draw / one person starts by making only part of a drawing / like just one line....the others try to guess what it is....then the person will draw the next part of it....say they are drawing a house...they would make one line...then another till they had a box shape...then put smoke for chimney....just enough lines to keep drawing and whoever guesses what it is...then gets the next turn...there is no "winner" in this one...just creative drawing...

- paper / pen and crayons - they then take a hot wheel car or an action figure and line them up/ then each child tries to draw one of the figures or cars/ and each person tries to guess which figure or car or whatever item they have in front of them...has been drawn .... my kids stack up all kinds of stuff....food, toys, any item...to draw

- do "eye spy" but with smells.....but this one could get out of hand.....but it can be played by "I spy something yellow smell" and the smell would be the lemon dish soap....or I spy something white and it is a sock....I spy something green and it is the plant....but this one only works if they will not say body odor jokes and if there are things that smell in the room - kitchen works best

- good luck

[Spinner]

I do not envy you. I can't think of any games I know that would keep that many kids quiet for any length of time. Good luck. Are they old enough that you could start a story, then pass the story around the group with each one adding to it? The others would probably get bored waiting for their turn... Maybe a movie?

[Jenn]

Killer- if the kids can grasp it- my 6 yo loves it but we usually play with mixed ages. Sit around table or room facing each other. Pass out papers identical except one is differently marked on one side (we pass out one playing card each, one of which is the ace of spades). One who gets the ace spades/different paper is the killer or assassin. They surreptitiously hopefully wink at another player who must cross arms and not say anything. Players still alive who think they know the killer can name them; if wrong they must cross arms (are dead). Winner is killer if no other survivors or person who correctly names killer.

We try to play anytime we have at least 6 people to do so (so only at house parties usually)- one of DD6's favorite games.

[Pink_Carnation]

Originally Posted by hoggie

Don't know that one - how do you play?

hoggie

Heads up 7up is where you chose a few kids 7 if there is enough and the rest put their heads down with eyes closed and thumbs up. The once that were chosen pick someone and put their thumb down. Then the adult says heads up 7up and everyone looks up and those whose thumbs were put down try to guess who did it. If they guess right they get to be in the next group to put thumbs down and take the place of who put their thumb down.

[highlandview]

Button Button Who's Got The Button - Kids sit in a circle, one kid sits in the middle (it), the kids in the circle put there hands together like they are praying (one kid is given the button), each kid moves there hands back and forth to the kids on either side of them as if they are passing the button (some really are, some aren't). The kid in the middle says Button Button Who's Got the Button. Everyone stops passing. The kids in the middle gets three guesses as to who has the button. The kid with the button gets to be in the middle next.

[hoggie]

heads up and Button Button sound like they might fit the bill. Unfortunately pen and paper games and gard down games are out. We mustn't have anything that needs to be gathered up. Once our wait is up we have to be on our feet and sorted out quickly - no time for gathering stuff up. Killer might be a good one - not sure how fast they will pick that one up.

Luckily this is a one off. Even church parade we usually let the little ones off - and there we can take colouring things etc. To be honest I have one or two kids that I am sort of hoping don't turn up LOL

I will be a nervous wreck trying to keep them in order

hoggie

[hoggie]

No - Royal visit today. Have to keep the kids occupied but orderly whilst waiting for them to arrive. Can't run around. Mustn't have anything to pick up as we will need to get sorted out and into line pretty fast once they we get the word.

Wish me luck - if I don't come back you know I have been thrown in the tower

hoggie

[hoggie]

Well I survived - haven't been locked up for treason and we managed to stop my girls rugby tackling the poor Princess as she came in the gates

Seriously - I am VERY proud of my little Rainbows - they had a very long wait as there were delays caused by weather problems earlier in the day. I gave my two young leaders a list of games they could play with them and they kept them going for ages.

In the end they played "standing still Simon says" (they had to keep their feet in the same place but did Simon says touching nose, bending over to touch toes etc), chinese whispers, a simplified "twenty questions", We tried killer but you'd be amazed how many of them can't wink LOL. played the "pass the button game" but it didn't last long because the littlest ones couldn't "act" passing it on. Oh yes - and we tried "heads up" but due to late arrivals we didn't have enough girls to play until we were just running out of time. They liked it though so we are going to play that at our normal meeting tomorrow.

Thanks for the ideas

hoggie

[IMP]

What about hopscotch???? Jump rope, double dutch, or even that game where you try to act out the name of a tv show, or movie...I forget the name of that. Um, then there are jacks !!! That's a lot of fun, checkers, playing cards, um, musical chairs?

[hoggie]

Thanks IMP - but they needed to be games that you can play standing or sitting still - with no props. Charades might have been one though.

hoggie

[keljonma]

Glad to hear the girls did so well during Princess Anne's visit! I bet you're glad that's over with!

[Ohio dreamer]

Sorry I'm late, nets been down but I'll toss this out anyways never know who may need somthng like this next.

Pico (peek-o) Fermi (fur-me) Zilch I play this with they kids while we are working in the garden.

Someone thinks of a number between 10 and 99. The rest have to guess.

Zilch mean no number are correct (EX thinker # 36 guessers # 89), Pico mean one number is correct but in the wrong place (you don't tell which number is correct...EX thinker #36 guessers # 61), Fermi is when the number guessed has one correct number in the correct location (EX thinker's # 36 guessers # 56)

Hint for remembering what fermi means: one number is firmly in the correct place.

Fun Thread!!

[GrannyG]

Playing Jacks is lots of fun, and the different games that go with them, such as Pigs in the Pen, Around the World, and they come in such pretty colors now. I think the old jacks (metal ones) were bigger than the plastic ones they sell today.