Activity Handbook 2012

8/3/2019 Activity Handbook 2012

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Activities

Handbook

2012


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Contents

Introduction

Casino

Blackjack

RouletteHigher or Lower

Race the Ace

Poker

-Poker Hands

Human Fruit Machine

Trash Fashion ShowSummer fete

Wacky Team SportsYou Bet!

Camp Fire

Talent ShowHorror NightSave the egg

Scavenger HuntBeat the Clock

Theme Nights

Boys & Girls Night

Blind DateKaraoke/X Factor

Discos

Quiz NightIndoor Sports


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Hello,

This handbook has been written as a guide to the on-site ac-tivities. It is by no means a definitive guide and should be

used as a starting point for you to build upon and make the

activity your own. . Some students will be returning to

Bucksmore for their second, third, fourth or even fifth year

and they do not want to do the same activities every year.

Equally there will be many first time students at your centre

and it is important that they enjoy the activities. There aretried and tested activities that work well year after year but

it falls on you to give these activities a fresh twist so that

they still work well and engage returners.

Be inventive, be creative, be enthusiastic. Students take

their lead from you. If you build the games up and get in-

volved then the students will soon follow. Even the teenagers

who are acting too cool for school will soon be strutting down

the cat-walk in a bin-bag if the activities are organised, pro-

moted and run in the right way.

Any activities you find to be a great success please make a

note off and let us know at the end of the programme, par-ticularly if it is an activity you have made up at your centre.

Have Fun!

Ben

Please note this is a general guide for all centres and someactivities may not be suitable or even do-able at your centre

or for the age of your students


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Casino

This is one of these evening activities that is usually a huge hit with students and

staff.

The usual recipe for a successful Casino Night is as follows:

All staff manning the event need to break-out their glad-rags. Suits for

the males, or at least smart trousers and a shirt, and nice dresses for the

females.

A selection of casino games that the students can bet on.

Some suitable background music, basically Sinatra and The Rat pack

will have you covered for the night

Games

Blackjack (21) Higher or Lower

Roulette Race the Ace Poker

Human Fruit Machine

Other Ideas

Cocktails (non-alcoholic!) Sweet Cups Auction


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Casino

Blackjack

Typical this works best with 4/5 students playing, otherwise the tablebecomes too crowded.

The basic premise of the game is that you want to have a handvalue that is closer to 21 than that of the dealer, without going over

21. Other players at the table are of no concern.

The value of the cards is as follows:

An Ace can count as either 1 or 11, as explained below.

The cards from 2 through 9 are valued at their face value.The 10, Jack, Queen, and King are all valued at 10.

Players place their bets

Two cards are dealt to each player face up,. You (The Dealer) dealyour second card face down.

You then work your way round the table asking each player if theywant to stick (stay with what they have), or hit (be given anothercard). If a players total goes over 21 they are Bust and lose their

bet. Once you have gone round all players you are now playingagainst the ones who didnt go bust.

You turn over your down-turned card and continue to draw yourselfcards, face-up, following the rule below:

"Dealer stands on all 17s": In this case, the dealer must continueto take cards ("hit") until his total is 17 or greater. An Ace in the

dealer's hand is always counted as 11 if possible without the dealergoing over 21. For example, (Ace,8) would be 19 and the dealer

would stop drawing cards ("stand"). Also, (Ace,6) is 17 and again thedealer will stand. (Ace,5) is only 16, so the dealer would hit. He will

continue to draw cards until the hand's value is 17 or more .

If your score, when you finish drawing cards, beats any player thenyou take their money, any player who has beaten you will need to be

given their winnings. Running odds of 1:1 is generally theeasiest, so if a student bets 10 and bets you, you

giver them 10 on top of their 10 bet.Equipment Needed

2 x Packs of cards

1 x Playing Mat


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Casino Method

Hopefully a link lesson would have been done in the morning classesso students will be eagerly anticipating the casino evening. This cantake a bit of set-up so ensure you give yourself plenty of time to setup the room/rooms. A basic room plan for casino is as follows:

A few days before the casino take an inventory of the equipmentyou have and what you will need. Remember decorations as thesereally help set the mood.

Higher or

Lower? Blackjack

Cash Table

Race the Ace

Roulette

Cocktails

and snacks

Poker

Human

Fruit

Machine

Depending upon the space you have available you may not beable to do this many games so just tailor your Casino to yourcentre.

Make sure you decorate and set up a laptop/iPod with suitablemusic playing.

At the cash table give students a set amount ofBucksmore money and mark their hands soyou know who has been given money and whohasn't


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Casino

Roulette

A very simple game to run, depending on how many options youlet the students have. You can keep it simple and only allow betson red or black, odd or even and single numbers or if you want togo full out you can but make sure you work out the odds before-

hand!

Roulette is all about luck. People place their bets and you as thecroupier spins the wheel, puts in the ball and collects the money.

Betting options are: A Single Number Two Numbers A Row A Corner 1-18 or 19-36 collectively Red or Black Odd or Even First 12 (1-12), Second 12 (13-24) or Third 12 (25-36)

If the ball lands where the student bet then you pay them theirwinnings, if it doesnt you take their money.

The Odds: 1:1 - Black, Red, Odd, Even, 1-18 and 19-36, so a 10 bet

gives 10 winnings 2:1 - Rows or a 12, so a 10 bet gives 20 winnings 8:1 - Corner, so a 10 bet gives 80 winnings 36:1 - single number, so a 10 bet gives 360 winnings

Equipment Needed

1 x Roulette Wheel

1 x playing Mat


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Casino

Race the Ace

A fun game but it does require preparation.The basic concept here is that each of the 4 Aces is a Horse that must

race along a horse track, jumping over fences. This is the track youneed to make:

1. Cellotape a few paces of A3, enough to cover a table

2. Then you have to design your track. Ideally you want around 8fences either draw these on your paper or get creative with

straws and whatever else you can lay your hands on3. Add decoration to your track

To Play the game

1. The 4 Aces start side by side at the start2. Students bet on the Horse they think will win

3. You turn over one card at a time from the remaining pack of cards4. Whatever suit the card you turn over is that is the Ace that moves

forward, eg if you turn over the 3 of club, then the Ace of Clubsmoves forward one fence.

5. This continues until the first horse reaches the finish line6. Whichever student/s bet on this horse wins

7. For ease put odds at 2:18. As many students as you can handle can bet on any one horse,

just make sure you can keep track!

Equipment Needed

1 x Pack of cards

Materials to make the track


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PokerTexas Hold em

Casino

Students love to play poker so make sure you have a poker table.

There are two ways to run the poker table, either let the students run itthemselves and just check on them every now and then to ensure that eve-ryone who wants to play has the chance to play or have a member of staff

at the table to run the game.

The premise of Poker is to have the best possible 5 card poker hand usingthe players two cards they are dealt combined with the 5 community cards

that will be in the middle of the table.

Basic RulesTo ensure that some money is played each round there is the blind andthe small blind. The player to the left of the dealer puts down half of the

minimum bet (the small blind) and the player next to them puts down the fullminimum bet (The blind).

Two cards are then dealt to each player face down. Each player can theneither call, raise or fold. If they want to continue playing then they must

match the minimum bet, they can raise the bet, in which case everyone elsewill need to match it if they want to stay in the game, finally a player canfold, they hand in their cards and cease to play that hand.

Once complete the dealer discards (burns) the top card of the deck, threecards are then placed face up in the middle of the table. Another round of

betting then takes place. Players can check (not betting any more money,but staying in the game), raise or fold. If one player raises the bet then all

others must match this bet to stay in the game.

The dealer burns the card at the top of the deck and places a fourth card inthe middle of the table. Another round of betting takes place.

The dealer burns a final card and places the fifth card in the middle of thetable. A final round of betting takes place. Any players who are left in the

game must show their hand at the end of the betting and whoever has thebest 5 card hand from their 2 cards and the community 5 cards wins the

game.

SimplesEquipment Needed

1 x Poker Set


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Casino

Human Fruit Machine

A fruit machine that uses people as opposed to a machine.

Three people sit in a line in a manner so that they cannot see

each other, or at the very least should be told not to communi-

cate with one another.

Each person should be given a bag/box with a banana, apple and

orange inside. On the count of three a piece of fruit should be

pulled from the bag/box. If three of the same fruit is shown then

the student who was playing wins.

Depending on staff numbers you may want to get students to be

the fruit machine

Suggested Odds: 2:1 or 3:1

Equipment Needed

3 x banana, apple, orange

Decoration


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CasinoOther Ideas

Cocktails

A cocktail table always goes down well, just make sure that they're

non-alcoholic!

Get some fruit juices and experiment before-hand to see what works.

Add in some straws and umbrellas.

Sweet Cups

A simple way to get some of that money back in. Buy some multi-

bags of sweets (any pound shop always sells them) and some plasticcups. Put an assortment of sweets into each cup and sell for 5 a cup

(Bucksmore money!)

Auction

At the end of your casino you can choose to award a prize to whoever

has the most money. If you do not want to do this an alternative is an

auction. You can buy prizes in or be more inventive and offer other

things for the students to bid for. A member of staff may be a studentsservant for the day (within reason) or a student may be able to bid for

15 minutes extra time to stay up with 3 friends. Prizes could be linked

to future activities, eg feeding the fish at sea-life.

Be inventive and make it fun.


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Trash Fashion Show

This is one of those events that can either work really well orcan flop completely so it is crucial that staff get heavily involvedand are enthusiastic. Build this even up during the day and en-sure that there is adequate advertising in the form of posters

building up to the day of your trash fashion show.

The idea for this even is that students make their own clothes

using materials provided to them; bin bags, cellotape, crepe pa-per etc. They make their outfits and then display their creations

on a cat-walk. Judges can vote for the outfit they think is thebest and this person/group wins a prize.

Staff should be heavily involved in this event, making their ownclothes and giving limited help to students.

When it comes to displaying the clothes make a cat-walk, usetables and arrange chairs along the length of your catwalk. Thisreally helps to create the right atmosphere, also play some ap-propriate music whilst the students show case their creations. 3Judges could sit at the end of the catwalk ready to judge what

comes before them.

Equipment Needed

Bin bags

BoxesString

Cellotape

Glue

A CatwalkDecoration


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Summer

FeteAn event thats highly weather dependent. It might be the casethat if you find yourself with a sunny evening change the timeta-ble around and do this then. There is nothing worse than havingto repeatedly cancel an event due to bad weather.

Decorate your outside area with bunting, union jacks, a big ban-

ner etc. Assess the number of staff you have available and as-sign stalls accordingly;

TombolaFace painting (depending on ages at your centre)Apple bobbingSports Day events - sack race, egg & spoon, three legged

race, tug of war.Soak the teacher - make stocks, cardboard box covered in

bin bags. Use wet sponges or waterballoons

English food & drink - cloudy lemonade, strawberries &cream etc.

Anymore you can think of.

Have a set time for the sports events and assure students knowthis time. It might be an idea to have pre-assigned teams before-

hand so students know their team. Keep track of scores andaward a prize to the winning team.

Equipment Needed

Raffle tickets Stocks

Prizes Sponges

Face paints Drinks

Apples Food

A big container BuntingSacks Flags

Eggs & spoons

String

A rope


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Wacky Team

SportsSome of these games have been suggested for the Summerfete but depending on time you may want to make a separateevent of them. On a sunny day this can be a great way to spendan afternoon.

Students are separated into teams, maybe 8 at most.

Team games are played with teams competing for a prize.

Games:Three Legged race (or tie the whole time together)Egg and SpoonSack racePass the water balloon

Teams stand a set length apart and throw the waterballoon to each other the last time to have their waterballoon intact wins

Shoe TangleEvery student takes off one-shoe. All of the teamsshoes are then tied together about 25 metres in front ofthe team. In a relay they must hop to the shoes, untietheirs, put it on and race back. The first team to have

all their members back and fully shoed wins.Spoon and String

A piece of string is tied to a spoon. This spoon mustpass up one members top, down the others, up the nextetc until the whole team is attached, they must thenrace to a certain point. First team wins.

Continued on Next page


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The Final GameA personal favourite. Firstly make sure you have 2buckets of water balloons hidden. About 10 metres infront of the teams place a washing bowl of water withan apple in. 10 metres further on have a plate of flourand a few smarties. Students must run to the water,pick up the apple, drop it again and then run to theplate and find a smartie. Let the game go for a minuteor two then unleash the water bombs, add in someflour and before long the game is forgotten andcarnage ensues. Dont wear anything you dont wantcovered in flour as students will get you! A great wayto end an afternoon.

Head for a shower and prepare for dinner


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You

BetA team game for students in which they bet on a series of chal-lenges performed by other students/centre staff. One memberof staff needs to be the presenter, maybe with a lovely assis-tant (cross-dressing never fails to amuse).

1. The students are divided into teams and given a set amountof points to start with.

2. The Host introduces challenges and picks staff members/random students to try and complete them. The teams mustdecide how many points they want to bet that the studentwill complete the challenge/do it the quickest etc.

Challenge examples:More Keepy ups than a teacherEat 10 cream crackers in a minute

Feel a teachers face and guess who it isMore hula hoops than a teacherRemember items on a tray that is then takenawayFurthest flying paper aeroplaneLike most activities be inventive add your own

3. Points are kept by the assistant and whoever has the mostat the end of the evening wins.

Equipment Needed

Decorations

Football

Crackers

Hula HoopA4 paper

A Board and marker penPrize


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Camp Fire

Depending on your centre this may not be do-able. I cant see the staff

at the Oxbridge colleges being too pleased if you start a fire on the

college lawn

This is a nice evening activity that can easily be tailored to suit par-

ticular levels of English.

This really doesnt take that much explaining.

Make a fire, organise some sort of boundary with logs so students

dont sit too close. Provide some marshmallows, drinks and if possible

a guitar to start some camp fire songs. It may also be an idea to tell

ghost stories. Once more this is an activity that can be a really fun

evening provided that staff are enthusiastic and get involved.

Make sure you ensure that the fire is properly out before you leave for

the night!

Equipment Needed

1 x camp

1 x fire

Marshmallows

Guitar

Drinks

A good singing voice

Bucket of water, just in case


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Talent

Show

Another activity that can be the highlight of a students stay orcan fall flat. Preparation is crucial and its important to let stu-

dents know about the talent show as early as possible and givethem ideas about what they can do. It might be an idea to in-clude a talent show preparation session alongside one of the

evening activity slots.

Hopefully youll have a multitude of different acts signing up forthe talent show, a sign-up sheet is useful. You can then begin toget an idea of the running order together and what equipment

students might need. Sometimes its as simple as finding somemusic for them to sing-a-long to, other things may take some

finding and may not always be possible to acquire.

Staff should also put on a performance, previous years haveseen pantomimes, dance routines, musical renditions. The

more staff involved the better.


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Horror

Night

A night that goes down well at all centres, but again, prepara-tion is key. . The basic premise at every centre will remain thesame, staff dress up, make props and scare students but fromthere this evening activity has plenty of potential so make sure

you put your own stamp on it and truly make it your own.

Previous centres have had ghosts of murdered staff comingback to track down their killer, different themed rooms for stu-dents to explore. This is an activity to have fun with and staffgenerally enjoy it just as much if not more than the students

themselves!

Black out the windows

Scary MusicStaff dress up

Lots of decorationTry and get a story going or small activities in the rooms


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Save the

EggThis classic game is great for pitting teams of students againsteach other. The premise is that students have to make an eggcarrying device so that when it is dropped out of a window the

egg will survive the fall crack free.

1. Divide the students into groups

Allocate each group a certain amount of materialsE.g. 1 plastic cup, 1 carrier bag, a set length of string, 2 bal-loons, 2 sheets of newspaper, a pair of scissors.

NB: If you give a group a roll of cellotape they will use it all towrap their egg, so keep the cellotape yourself and also issue a

small amount at a time to a group when they ask.

2.Give each group a time limit.

3.You may want to award prizes for the best looking, mostoriginal etc

4.After the time period is up get the students to follow you tothe pre-assigned dropping point. (somewhere near a high win-

dow that opens)

5.Either you take all of the devices up to the window or take 1student from each group up to the window.

6.The eggs and carrying devices are thrown out of the window.

7.Someone on the ground needs to inspect the eggs for cracks

8.Those whose egg escapes crack-free are the winners.


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Scavenger

HuntThis is probably more suited to younger students but it depends

on the kind of group you have at your centre and could workwith older students.

Write a list of questions/things to find that will get the studentsracing around the campus.

Questions could ask them to count the number of trees in a cer-tain area; name a particular building; the opening times of

places.

Things to find could include: 3 different leaves, a certain staffmembers signature, a piece of paper that you have previously

hidden somewhere.

The first team back with everything correct wins.

This activity is easy to modify with a theme. For Bucky Kids thiscan easily be tailored to fit in with a themed day. It can turn intosolving a crime where they have to find clues scattered aroundthe campus or can become a pirate treasure hunt or a monster

hunt.


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Beat the

ClockAt various locations around your centres you need to set-up dif-ferent activities. Students will rotate around the activities and tryto complete them/get the best score in an allotted amount of time.Staff at the activities keep score of all the groups and at the endall of the scores are collated and a winning team is announced.An alternative would be that one teacher stays with the same

group for the entirety of the activity, whichever works.

Possible Activities:- An Anagram on the board, students have to make the most

words.- Badminton, students all have a racquet and have to amass

the highest score they can in 10 minutes- The teacher throws the object and a blindfolded student has

to be directed in English to retrieve the object.- Students all sit down in a circle and pass an empty drinkscan around using only their legs and feet. If the can touches thefloor they have to start again. Highest score is recorded.

- Pictionary10/15 words are decided before the activity, soall groups have the same words, and students must nominate adrawer. The others must see how many they can guess in thetime limit.

- Find a long song (American Pie, Freebird) print out the lyr-ics and tip-ex out some words, photocopy this sheet. Studentsmust listen to the song and fill in the gaps.

Equipment Needed

Stop Watches

Badminton RacquetsEmpty drinks cans

Music playing device


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Theme nights are a good way of giving a theme to an otherwiserelatively quiet evening or afternoon (making it a Theme after-

noon). A sports choice or arts and craft afternoon can be rejuve-nated by giving it a theme.

Possible Themes

American ThemeAmerican Football, basketball, baseball,Cheerleading, arrange a BBQ with catering staffand have burgers.

English ThemeCricket, Croquet, football, tennis, Picnic

Scottish NightSplit students into clans. Highland Gamescaber

tossing (use a roll of carpet or wrapping paper roll stuffed withnewspaper), throw a wellie over a high pole, Tug-of-war.

Celidh. Sing Scottish folk songs.

Theme

nights


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Boys & Girls

nightSplit boys and girls into two separate groups

Boys

Burping competition Arm Wrestling A lad Film (Star Wars, Indiana Jones, Top Gun Shandy, lemonade, crisps

Girls

Nail Painting Pyjama Party Twister Hot Chocolate Girly Film


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Blind Date

Find yourself a Cilla and prepare to unleash some Bucksmoreromances.

Organise three chairs in a line and then a fourth chair separatedby a screen.

Find a volunteer from the audience, or a staff member to startwith and get them to wait outside.

Get Three more volunteers and seat them on the three chairs ina row.

Bring in the first volunteer and seat them on the solitary chair.

Get them to say a few things about themselves.

You might wan to have some pre-written questions that the con-testant can ask the three potential dates.

After 3 questions and 3 answers to each, its a good idea to getsomeone to re-cap, in the style of our graham.

The contestant then chooses his date and romance blooms.

To ensure participation you could offer a candle-lit dinner withwaiter service (provided by staff) for the meal that evening orthe next day.


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Karaoke /

X factorKaraoke nights can sometimes work well on their own, and as acouncillor youll find yourself supervising and singing the oddsong.

An alternative to this standard karaoke night is to turn it into anX-factor style competition.

Get contestants to give their song choices to you and make upa board with their name and song on.

Nominate three judges and sit them at the judges table. Makescorecards from 1-10 for the judges.

Each contestant is announced on stage by the host (one of the

staff).

At the end of the song the judges scores are counted andadded to the scoreboard, an audience vote could also be addedwhereby the host turns their level of applause into a score outof 10.

If time allows you could even have a final where the top 3/4

singers sing another song.


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Discos

Discos invariably start slowly but within an hour any shynesshas dissipated and students are having a great time.

Some alternatives to a normal disco are never a bad idea andare given here as suggestions that you may or may not want toemploy. Any theme for a disco needs to be properly advertisedso the students know what to do.

Cross-dressing discoThis relies on students swapping clothes with each other so

may be a bit tricky in the first week when they dont really knoweach other. The cross-dressing disco has gone down well inprevious years, its always the teenage boys who seem to getinto it the most. Just make sure that the students know howthey are meant to dress. Staff should also get involved in thecross dressing spirit, its good for morale.

Masquerade DiscoThis is a disco that can be prepared for in a previous arts &

craft session. Students can make their own masks in an artsand craft session and then wear them to the Masquerade disco.Face-painting can also be offered on the night of the disco forthose who lost/failed to make their mask.

Any theme you do implement needs to be advertised throughposters and announcements in class.


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Quiz night

This needs to be looked at and planned before the night. Youneed to be sure of where you will do it, how many people will bein each round and how youll organise the rounds.

Ideally youll want several varied rounds. Split up the questionrounds with some picture rounds/music rounds/something a bitdifferent. An idea for a structure is as follows:

Introduction make them be quiet and give points to the qui-etest team. Make them be loud and give points to the loud-est team.

Geography questionsSpeed round 1 student from each team runs to fetch a

tooth brush from their room. 1st place gets 10 points 2nd 9points etc.

Sport questions

Strength round 1 student from each team goes up on stageand does press ups. The one who does the most press-ups wins the most points.

History questionsDance round 1 student from each team goes on stage and

the best dancer gets the most pointsScience questionsThe balance round 1 student from each team must balance

a book on their head the one who keeps it on their headfor the longest time win the most points for their team.Entertainment questionsThe ball round 1 student form each team must throw the

ball between their legs and catch it repeatedly. The onewho doesnt drop the ball wins the most points.

Picture questionsThe final LOUD round Each team makes as much noise as

possible and points are awarded.Final scores


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Indoor

SportsDodgeball

Split students into teamsDivide the hall in halfIf students get hit by the ball they are out. If they catch theball the person who threw the ball is out.Continue until a whole team is out

A slight variation on this is that if a team member catchesthe ball one of their team who was out can re-enter thegame. Depends how long you want games to last.

Bench BallSplit the group into two, one half on one side one on theotherSet benches / chairs behind each team. 2 members from

each team stand on the bench behind the opposition.Students must throw the ball to their team member on thebench whilst the opposition try and intercept. If the ball iscleanly caught by their team member on the bench thenthey go and join them on the bench. Continue until anentire team is on the bench.

British Bulldog

Choose 1 or 2 people to stand in the middle of the hall.The other students must run from one side to the other. Ifthey are tagged by the person in the middle they join theperson in the middle trying to tag people. The gamecontinues until all students are out.

Documents

Activity Handbook 2012