Outdoor Energisers

1. Ram went to Lanka

Intention: Imitation; feeling free and safe to express oneself creatively

a. Have the group stand in a large circle and explain this active warm-up activity

b. The first person says: “Did you hear about Ram?”

The second person (the person to their right) says: “No, what did he do?”

First person: “Ram went to Lanka!”

Second: “Really? How did he get there?”

First person: “he went to Lanka like this!” – and the first person proceeds to make some repetitive motion.

c. Everyone in the circle repeats the motion. Then, the person to the left of the first person repeats that same series: “Did you hear about Ram?/ No, what did he do?/he went to Lanka. /Really, how did he get there?/he went to Lanka like this” and makes his/her own motion (which the whole groups repeats).

d. The process continues around the entire circle until ending when everyone has done it.

(In large groups, this can be done in several separate groups simultaneously.)

You can add a name game element to this by asking everyone to use each other’s name. So, the first person says 'hey (name of second person)' and the second person says 'hey (name of first person' before the first person asks the second “Did you hear about Ram?”

2. Line up

Intention: Fun

1. Ask the child group to line up.

2. Works best with 8-10 in a line.

3. If you’ve got a bigger group, split them up and challenge each line to complete the task first.

4. Ask the group to form a new line in order of….

• Height, from smallest to tallest.
• Birthdays, from January through to December.
• Shoe size, from smallest to largest.
• Alphabetical first names (A-Z).
• Alphabetical mothers first names.
• Alphabetical grandmother's first names!
• Anything else you think up.

You can increase the challenge level by doing the activity without talking or with blindfolded etc.,

3. Rainmakers

Intention: Creativity, innovation; working as a team in synchrony

1. All of the participants need to sit in a circle.

2. This activity will create a rain storm in your class without actual rain.

3. Each action that is to be done will start with the leader.

4. As the action comes to each player, they will join in.

5. You cannot start the action until it is your turn.

6. The action sequence is; - Rubbing hands together - Snapping - Clapping - Slap thighs - Stomp feet.

7. Then reverse the whole process. This will sound like a rain storm starting and then slowing down again.

4. Will You Buy My Donkey?

Intention: FUNN; Creativity and innovation

1. The players should be sitting in a circle.

2. One student has to become the donkey seller and one has to become the donkey. Both have to come to the centre of the circle.

3. The donkey seller will try to sell their donkey to those in the circle.

4. The donkey seller will choose one person and ask them, "Will you buy my donkey?"

5. The players in the circle have to answer "no thank you" with a straight face.

6. Then the seller will say, "My donkey can do cool things like..." The donkey has to try and do the things that it's seller says it can do. (ex. tap dance, do a somersault, sing song...etc.)

7. The players in the circle have to say "no thank you" without laughing.

8. If the person laughs, they become the donkey, the donkey becomes the seller and the seller gets to join the circle.

5. Ying Yang Yoo

Intention: FUNN; attention

1. Each word has a separate action.

Ying: hand on top of head, pointing in one (either left or right) direction.

Yang: hand under chin pointing in one direction.

Yoo: Regular pointing action.

2. These three words may only be spoken in the correct order, it always must be Ying Yang Yoo. The first person starts and says Ying, doing the motion.

3. If they point to the left then the person to the left must respond Yang, also doing the motion.

4. The person that was pointed at by Yang must say Yoo and point to anyone in the circle. That person then starts again by saying Ying.

6. Evolutionary Paper, Scissors, Rock

Intention: Can be used for FUNN; to bring a large group together; evolution of species etc.,

1. Check that everyone in the group knows how to play 'paper, scissors, rock'.

2. This is a game where two players compete against each other.

3. Each person holds their fist out in front of themselves and both players bump their fist up and down three times while counting together 'one, two, three'.

4. On the fourth time that their fists come down, both players simultaneously form the shape of paper (hand laid out flat), scissors (use index and middle finger to form scissors) or rock (stay in fist).

5. They then compare these two shapes and one player wins based on the following rules: paper beats rock because paper can wrap a rock up, rock beats scissors because it can blunt the scissors, and scissors beats paper because they can cut the paper up.

6. Now that everyone understands the basic rules of paper, scissors, rock you can move on to the instructions for this version of the game.

7. Everyone will start off as an amoeba (wave arms out to sides to make a blobby jelly like creature). Play papers, scissors rock with another amoeba.

8. The winner becomes a fish (put hands together in front of body and make them swim like a fish).

9. Fish then play other fish and losers remain amoebas and play against other amoeba.

10. When a fish wins against another fish, they become an ape (long arms, scratch at armpits, make monkey sounds) and the fish stays a fish.

11. When an ape wins, they become a human and strut about – they have now finished the game.

12. Everyone else keeps playing. At the end, there will be one amoeba, one fish, one ape and one human.

7. Simon Says

Intention: Energizer

1. Players form a line facing the leader, who performs any action saying Simon says do this.

2. If He doesn't say "Simon says" before an action then anyone who imitates the action is the one who will facilitate the game, next.

Variation is to change actions e.g. Simon says to touch your head while saying this you touch your knee, anyone touching their knee is out