Type: Warm-up.
Purpose:
– To be attentive and work on quick decision making.
– Learn how to react quickly to an action.
– To work on focus.
– To raise comfortability of a group.
– To get some energy out and HAVE FUN!
Materials:
A big enough space for the entire class to stand in a circle comfortably.
Procedure:
1. The entire class stands in a circle and the teacher stands in the middle of the circle.
2. LEVEL 1: The teacher points at someone in the circle and says “bippity bippity bop” as fast as she can. The person being pointed at must say “bop” before she gets to the end of her phrase. If the teacher points to a student and only says “bop”, then the student must stay quiet. The goal of the teacher is it get the students to not say “bop” fast enough in the first case scenario, and to say “bop” in the second.
3. LEVEL 2: After this level is well understood by the whole group, it is time to add another dimension. If the teacher points to a student and says “haunted house”, the student must crouch down and in a ghoulish voice say “Come in! Come in!”. The two students to his left and right must use both their arms to make the roof of a house over the crouched student.
4. LEVEL 3: If the teacher points to a student and says “Hawaii”, the student being pointed at would have todo the hula while the students on the left and right would put their arms up like palm trees.
5. LAYER 4: If the teacher points to a student and says “Godzilla” than the student must stomp in place and roar as if he was Godzilla while the student on the left and right must cower and scream.
6. If you have time, you can add more in. (check the comments below for other great ideas!)
7. Finally, once the class gets the hang of it, you can add an “elimination mode”: if a student messes up, he/she must sit down. Go until you have a winner.
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I’ve also seen this done with a few more add ons!
Person in the middle points and says, “Roller coaster”
The person they point at and the two people around them are now riding a rollercoaster, with the two side people in front and behind the person who was pointed at. The person in front is squatting, the middle person is bent down and the person in back is up high as if they are going down a hill.
I’ve also seen “Park bench” used with older kids.
The person in the middle is now at the park. The person on their right gets on all fours and becomes the bench, and the person on the right becomes a tree behind them. The person in the middle sits on the bench pretending to read a newspaper.
In a non elimination version, we also chose a codeword at the beginning of class and when the teacher/leader shouted the codeword, everyone would find a new spot in the circle, and the last person to make it would be in the middle. This way, especially if you’re playing with slightly younger kids, they’re not discouraged if they do it wrong a few times because they’re not eliminated, and the teacher can move the game along if the person in the middle has been there for a while.
These are great suggestions, thanks Katie!
In this non-elimination version, how do you name a winner?
These games are so great for my dramatic pre K kids! Thanks!
Ya… at my drama place we play this game all the time and our director Jade is amazing at it. We have different moves tho, such as jello, elevator, moose, elephant, Charlie’s angels, and more. Our enthusiastic lighting wizard named Terrance, or Collin, or t-dogg, or 90 other names (he has loads of names) made up 2.. 1 called black cat where the person in the middle says “meow” where the two people beside them say “oh no! Bad juju!” Than there is black cow wich was a mispronounced black cat so they so they say bad moomoo. Anyway instead of bop, we say boo. Bibity bobity boo. Or just boo.. this game is hard yet fun at the same time.
I played the game once before and the two actions we used were “James Bond” where the player being pointed at has until the person in the middle counts to ten to put their thumbs and pointer fingers together like a gun and the two people on their left and right have to put their hands on the person’s shoulders, pop their foot up, and say really high-pitched “Oh James!” and “Elephant” where the person being pointed at had to make a trunk with their arm and trumpet like an elephant and the people on the sides had to use their hands to make elephant ears.
I love the idea, I’ve done surfer, where the middle person would be the surfer and the two on the sides were the waves,
Taxi – the person in the middle puts their hands on the “steering wheel” and “drives”, the people on the outside wave their hands and scream “TAXI!”
Monkey – the person in the middle stands completely still, the 2 on the outside are not included.
Elephant – the person in the middle is the elephant trunk so they put their hands together and stick their arms out making the trunk, the people on the outside make elephant ears for the person.
Jell-o – the person in the middle is the jell-o and they jiggle like jell-o, the 2 on the outside create the bowl.
and one of my favorites:
Parent – the person in the middle is the parent, they wag their finger and grumble and the the people on the outside pout and cry.
These are great, thanks Madison!
Palm Tree-Person in the middle has to sway like a palm tree and the two on the other sides have to become hula dancers and sing/hum
Tornado-Person in the middle has to spin around and swoosh while the other two have to scream in terror
We also do “the fake out,” where they’ll say things like pine tree, hurricane, or tomato instead of the real ones to screw people up. If they do mess up, the person in the middle has to go to the middle of the circle. It’s so fun!
I also play this game with my class but have some different actions-
-Washing machine: student spins like clothes and the two on either side make the box.
– Aeroplane: Student pretends to wear goggles and both either side makes the wings.
-Car: Students uses steering wheel and other two bob down like headlights.
Every time we play we try to make up another action. Kids love it.
Christmas tree- person in middle puts arms straight up, two on sides do jazz hands for twinkling lights.
Menorah- person in middle holds up four fingers on each hand, two on sides snap fingers as if lighting candles.
Bouncy House- two sides creates box around the middle person, all three jump up and down
Charlie’s Angels- person in middle puts arms up, person on right turns sideways and makes a handgun, person on left turns sideways and uses walky talky (this one is harder because the two on the side do different things!)
I’ve also always done it where after you say the word like ‘elephant’ then you count to 10 quickly and if they don’t complete in that time, whoever messed up is in the middle!
I love this!! Fabulous game and great suggestions!!
great ideas .thank you
I’ve played this game many times, here are some of the actions I used:
-Toaster
The person pointed to (the person in the middle) jumps up and says ” I’m burning I’m burning” while the people on either side make a box around the toast to act as a toaster
-Moose on a boat
The person in the middle uses there hands as moose ears while the people on either side act as if they are rowing a boat while Sind row row row your boat.
-Elvis
The person in the middle pretends to be Elvis while say thank you thank you very much like Elvis would say it. The people on either side act as fan girls and say oh Elvis while waving there hands at their face as if it is hot outside.
When I play this game we have outs. So each time I point to someone and say an action I count to 3 and if they are no finished with the action by then either all of them are out if they all did it wrong or 1-2 of them are out if only they did the action wrong. At the end when only two people are left we do a stand of, where they face back to back, the the teacher says 1-2-3-4-5. On each number each student takes one step after they have taken five steps, the teacher says go! And the students say me me me me and see who can hold there breath longest. If you have younger kids you can do it where before you say 12345 you ask one of the kids to raise there hand if they know of a fruit. Say the fruit was Apple, you would say your 12345 then you would say Apple! The kids would to asbestos they can to act as an apple, after 10-30
Seconds you would say stop! And you would ask the class to vote on who they thought was the best apple. Then who ever had the most votes would win. I hope all of you found this helpful.
We played this today and here are a few things we used.
Viking: The person who was pointed to would have to put their hands on the side of their head and make Viking ears and scream like like a Viking would scream and the 2 students on the side would pretend to row like they were on a boat.
Blender: The person being pointed to would spin around like a blender would and the 2 people on the sides would put their hands together and make a blender.
Como Cosmic: The person being pointed to would have to make combo cosmic glasses around their eyes with their hands and the 2 people on the sides would have to put their arms out to make wings.
Do all the pupils continue the action while the game continues through the rounds?? Would you do more than one pupil for each action?
Point at a student and say Gandalf, then the student you pointed to must act like they have a staff in their hand and slam it to the ground while saying “You shall not pass!!” And the two students next to him or her must crouch and spin in circles.
We play ‘banana”. Kid in the middle puts up their hands like they are the banana waiting to be peeled and the two on each side ‘peel’ the kiddo.