Pink Poogle Toy Forum

Hey guys!

In attempt to make a poopyload of money this summer (i have 0 time to make money during the schoolyear) I've now got a second job with the city's Parks and Recreation program... which means that everyday I'm at one of my city's 5 parks, watching anywhere from maybe 6-14 kids, around the age of 10.

I have a loooong summer ahead of me, and toward the end, the kids get bored because we run out of things to do! We have a little "warming house" building that we stay in with tables and board games and such, we have some woods, tennis courts, b-ball courts, playground, baseball field, and other large grassy spaces... and we have from 8am-3pmish to use them all, so they get used up quickly!!

So, I was wondering, especially since many of you on PPT are crafty parents, if you have any ideas of crafts, activites, or games that I can do with my group of kids. Such things are the ball game spud (where everybody has a number, 1-8, and one person throws a ball in the air and calls out a number. Everybody runs except the person with that number, who catches the ball and yells "spud!". everybody stops running, and the person who has the ball has up to 3 steps they can take and they must hit somebody with the ball!) or home made pinatas, home movies, making trophies out of rice crispy treats that they can eat.... making movie-star hand prints in plaster of paris... and im also looking for water games, since we have "wet and wild wendnesdays" where we whip out water guns, kiddie pools, water balloons, hoses, etc.. anybody have any ideas like this? Crafts ... that take up periods of time to make..... or something they can make and then use like pinatas or... somethign to stimulate the brain... or just take up lots of time on a summers day at the park. I'm open to anything..we have lots of balls/bats/sinks/ anything necessary to do different activities. Any ideas? Thanks!

-TWW

Red Rover, Red Rover, send what'shisface right over!

Always a favorite of mine for some reason... even though I was never called over. Well, I was, but you know...

Mother May I?, various forms of tag, Red Light Green Light...

whats mother may I?

Lessee... there's an 'it' that is called mother, and all of the other kids take turns going "Mother, may I go (enter something here)", and whoever gets to him/her first wins. But if the 'mother' doesn't agree with what they say, she'll say something they can do (I think. Someone may want to correct me)

It goes something like this:

"Mother, may I take ten big steps towards you?
"Yes, you may."
OR
"No, but you can take one big froggy leap towards me."

I think.

Second best way in the world to get your arm dislocated.

But then I guess you could play 'Let's-see-who-can-make-him-scream-loudest' and 'Who's-best-at-popping-joints-back-into-place?'.

Here's a long list.. and some you may have heard already but I added it anyway.


Well my kids and I... we play Treasure Hunt.. just hide something and make some clues and hide them... you know. One clue leads to another clue until it leads to the end of the hunt where the treasure is

A blindfold game: Someone is "it" and is blindfolded and it's like tag from there on except everyone's quiet. (BTW: The it person can be spun after being blindfolded and before the start of the game and this game should be played where there aren't many sharp cornered stuff but places you can hide...)

Sparkle: Spelling game with a ball. Choose a word, then pass the ball around, each person saying the next letter of the word. At the end, say Sparkle. lol. (I had to play this in elementary days)

There's always puppet shows.. that can go in alot of different ways such as a shadow light show thing where you use tissue paper and construction paper (etc) to make stick puppets and shine the light and it'll be colored on the wall.. you know what I mean? Or regular puppets.. hand puppets..

Collages (sp?).. they can cut and paste stuff...

Painting.. Musical Chairs.. Dodgeball..

For a water game.. why not just hot potato?! or something like that with a big water balloon.

Or an similar I Spy game. You choose an item.. relatively small. Place it somewhere around the room and the kids go look for it. Once they see it, they act like they're still looking so that it's not obvious and then they can sit down.

Or a freeze/take a picture type game: Just say the theme is like.. Angry and they freeze and pose an angry pose. lol

This is a recipe activity thing: Apple, peanut butter, and M&M's (or other various candy). Scrape the core out of the apple.. So that there's like room in there and stuff it with peanut butter and some candy.

Theater stuff... make plays.. masks.. Replay a scene from a famous story or something...

I'd suggest against Red Rover, unfortunately it can get violent, and kids can be injured. Lawsuits have ensued over it, so it's generally not recomended to play it. Games of tag are always fun.

I suggest trying "Everybodys It" (My favorite game ever.)

Basically, it's a field game in which everyone is it. So everyone can tag anyone else. If you tag someone at the same time, you shake hands with that person and walk away. If you tag someone, they have to sit down. But! when they're sitting down, if someone runs by within their reach (they can't move off their butt though, they have to sit where they were tagged) they can tag that person who runs by and make that person sit too.

I swear I love this game more then the kids at my camp. And they all hate me because of it. I may not be able to run, but i'm a heck of a lot faster then any one of them! Ha ha ha!

I suggest finding rocks, and making rock bugs, decorating with things like colored paper, paints, bits of whatnot. You get the idea. Egg cartons make great catterpillers; but those are better for younger kids.

Kids getting injured playing Red Rover? And then lawsuits? What is America coming to? A couple of years ago we were playing soccer in gym class outside. It quickly turned into an American version of rugby, and a kid broke his leg. When we took him to the coach, he said to "walk it off." No lawsuits, just an injury. Maybe an unhappy parent or two, but you can't please everyone.

Why Toss the Brick of course.

Trust me, I know. If it were my kids, I wouldn't sue over such a thing as red rover (or any of the other stupid stuff that people sue over), but others will. And it's best to just avoid that.

es.dee, i love some of those ideas! I doubt we'll be playing dodgeball anytime soon though....



oh, yeah! I totally forgot about that game..... I played a similar version where there are just 2 or 3 or 4 people who are it, and ended the same way, including people tagging from the ground.... yeah! Thats a way fun game.. we'll have to try that one!


Hey guys, we also are at the bottom of a hill.... and there is a LOOOOOOOONNNNG flight of wooden stairs... my other park leader and I have been trying and trying to think of a game we can play on some stairs... maybe with a ball... or without. But its basicalyl lots of field on the left, lots of field on the right, and in the middle, a loooot of stairs... im just thinking if theres a good use for them!

-TWW

Siege-ball or battle-ball is good if you can deal with it. You need alot of children, and alot of balls (squishy, but still heavy enough to fly hard). You also need maybe 3 or so judges to monitor all events.

The field (a standard sized one) is divided into thirds, one team gets the left, the other the right, and the middle essentially becomes no-mans land. A smaller field means more intensity.

Each team then can create some small fortifications on their sides, maybe one or two walls to hide behind or something, if you feel creative, you could also distribute some sort of small shields for when they run out from them and go on the attack in order to protect themselves. Do not let them have enough protection to protect more than maybe 1/3 of their team.

The objective of the game is to get everyone 'out'. To do so you hit them with a thrown ball, or tag them with it if you are brave enough to get that close.

To do this each side has to obviously leave their protection and so hurls the balls at each other from their side and tries to hit the enemy. If it hits them they are 'out' unless they catch it. They could try to randomly hurl balls from behind the walls but obviously this won't work. They can also attack from no mans land to obviously increase their accuracy but of course it increases the likelyhood of them being hit. You can't throw the ball if you are in the opponents territory.

In order to get people back 'in' you have to run to the wall or space behind the enemy lines and place a ball down, obviously without being hit by balls.

Game goes on until one side wins by having people left.

It becomes 'Siege' rather than 'Battle' ball depending on the amount of fortification, protection, and freedom you allow. If you let them move their fortifications around into places like no-mans land it is like besieging the enemy. When I used to place people would get both walls and make them into an arrow and charge forth with it.

When I think stairs, I think slinkies. You know when you put one on a step and then it keeps going down... Not really a game but it looks cool

I recommend this game. We used to play it as kids, it was great!!

Of course, it might be difficult with a lot of kids, but you could always set up several games (but the clues can't lead to the same place, apart from maybe the end) and whoever gets to the end first wins. They can work as a team or something.


Another game is to be blindfolded and you have to follow a course. The course is to follow a piece of rope, and it might have to go through obstacles, like under/over objects like tables and things. You can then have it seperate in two directions, like carry on with your route, or take the more difficult course by a thicker rope. This is a great game which I played, but you need to make sure they don't run and things as they could hurt themselves, so supervision should be throughout the course. I did this game in a forest, and it's great fun. Just set up a course, and put in obstacles or use anything you already have in the woods

SARDINES!


Like Hide & Seek, except better. Someone goes and hides, and everyone looks for him/her. The person who finds him first, hides with them. Then someone finds them. Then someone else does. Until everyone is hiding. Then someone giggles or laughs. Then everyone is found.


Usually good with 10-20 people.




We played this in PE once, and it was a lot of fun. This is probably because it was enhanced with trampolines, crash mats, various gym equipment.