Hungry Hippos

OBJECT - Feed the hippos!

GAME TYPE - Four team game.

WHO'S IT FOUR - Group Two and Group Three. You need at least four players to play, but probably no more than 12.

WHAT YOU NEED - Four boxes or laundry baskets, several playground balls, and a fairly large area.

HOW TO PLAY:

1. Divide the players into four teams. There should be one to three players on each team.
2. Assign each team to one goal. This is a hippo, and this is where they will try to score.
3. Everyone must try to score a goal in their own hippo while trying to block goals in other hippos. It may be helpful for teams to divide themselves into offense and defense.
4. If there are only four players, the playing area will be much smaller than if there are twelve.
5. If a ball is kicked into a hippo, that hippo's team scores one point. The ball goes back into play.
6. Players may only kick the ball.
7. At the end of a set time limit, whichever team has the most points wins.

All four teams must cooperate to prevent other teams from scoring while trying to score themselves. This can make the game pretty chaotic, so watch for frustration.

THIS WORKS ON - Competition (trying to score goals against other teams), eye-foot coordination (trying to aim kicks), interteam cooperation (working with other teams to try and defend).

Circle Kickball

OBJECT - Don't knock over any objects.

GAME TYPE - One team game.

WHO'S IT FOR - Groups One and Two. You need at least six people for this game.

WHAT YOU NEED - A kickball and several items for the center of the circle that can be knocked down.

HOW TO PLAY:

1. Put everyone into a large circle, with at least an arm's length between them.
2. First, have the players jsut practice kicking the ball to someone else in the circle. Don't kick it too hard, or the other player won't be able to get it.
3. After everyone has kicked the ball to someone else a few times, put an object, such as an empty soda bottle, in the middle of the circle. Now the object of the game is to kick the ball across the circle without knocking over the object.
4. If the object gets knocked over, set it back up. See how many times the ball can be kicked across the circle before the object gets knocked over.
5. As the game progresses, make it more difficult by adding more objects to the circle. If one object gets knocked down, leave it as an obstacle. Only when everything gets knocked down do you set them up again.

This game is not a competition. People don't get eliminated for knocking down the object, though if someone refuses to follow directions and keeps aiming for the object, they may need to be removed.

THIS WORKS ON - Teamwork (everyone working together to keep the objects standing), eye-foot coordination (being able to aim kicks so the objects don't get hit), following directions (kicking to friends and not trying to hit center object).