Circle Time Energisers
Magic Box (a mime game)
❖This activity encourages both verbal and non‐verbal communication.
❖The facilitator places an imaginary box into the middle of the circle, opens it and then silently
❖demonstrates an object taken from the box, e.g. a baby, football, eating a banana.
❖Children raise their hands when they guess the object.
❖The child who guesses correctly takes something from the magic box and mimes it.
Australian Circle Game
❖A player stands in the centre of a circle, holding a tennis ball. They try to throw this ball to someone in the circle who will drop it. Another ball is also being passed around the circle from one person to another
❖The player in the centre may throw his ball to anyone, but they usually throw it to the person about to receive the ball being passed around the circle. If either ball is dropped, the one who dropped it changes places with the person in the centre.
Pass the Hoop
❖ This activity requires students to hold hands whilst standing in a circle. After placing a hoop on a child’s arm, they then must pass it over their body and then onto the next child until everyone has had a turn
Pass the Mask
❖ Have children stand within the circle and the teacher demonstrates an unusual expression on their face.
❖The facilitator then passes this expression onto the next person in the circle, who has to first mirror the expression back and then transform it into a new one to pass onto the next person in the circle.
❖The game continues until everyone has had a turn.
Names in Motion
❖Ask the class to stand in a circle.
❖One person at a time comes into the middle and says their name and demonstrates an action to accompany it.
❖These actions may match the number of syllables in the child’s name. For example the action may be a jump, spin around and touch the ground.
❖The class in unison then repeats the actions and name.
❖The child in the centre may call again and the class repeats if they were not accurate.
❖The student in the middle then selects another child to have a turn.
❖ A variation to the game would be have students work with a partner and they decide on a series of actions that best fit their names.
Emotion Ball Game
❖Everyone stands in a circle and bounces a ball to somebody else. They person holding the ball has five seconds to name an emotion before bouncing it to someone else. Students must name a different emotion to the person who bounced the ball to them. To make the activity more difficult, introduce
Ghost
❖Three or four people are chosen to be the ghosts. The rest of the group needs to scatter around and choose a spot to stand in.
❖All players need to close their eyes.
❖The ghosts roam around the playing space. Their aim is to stand undetected behind someone for five seconds. If they do this, the person they were behind is out. If the person senses someone is there, they say ‘Is there a ghost behind me’ and the ghost moves on around the circle.
Flinch
❖The children stand in a circle with one person standing in the centre. The aim of the person in the centre is to get the others in the circle out. The child in the centre has a ball, which they throw to the others around the circle. Sometimes however, the person in the middle may only pretend to throw the ball at someone, therefore making them flinch. If someone does flinch when the ball is not thrown to them they are the new person in the centre.
Howdy Doody
❖Students stand in a circle. One person is “IT.” IT walks around the outside of the circle in a clockwise direction. ‘IT’ taps someone on the shoulder and continues walking. The person that has been tapped walks around the outside of the circle in an anticlockwise direction. When they meet ‘IT’, both people shake hands and say ‘Howdy Doody’. Each person continues around the circle in the same direction they were heading, now trying to get back to the spare space before the other person. The last person to get back to the space become the new ‘IT.’
Straight Faces
❖The children and the teacher sit cross legged on the floor. The teacher starts by tapping the person next to them on the knee solemnly. Each player does the same. The first person to laugh or smile is out, and moves out of the circle. Different actions may include tapping a person on the shoulder, head, nose etc.
Poor Kitty
❖The students sit down in a circle. One child is the ‘poor kitty’ and he goes up to another child purring and meowing. The person approached must pat the kitty on the head and say ‘poor poor kitty’. If the child laughs, he must become the kitty and try to make others laugh.
Deadly Shakes
❖Students stand with their eyes closed, and the teacher chooses someone to be the shaker. Once the shaker is chosen, the students start walking around and shaking each other’s hands. The shaker shakes hands by curling up their index finger. If someone’s hand is shaken by the shaker they then shake two more hands and then fall down silently. The shaker continues around the room until all people are dead.
Catch Don’t Catch
❖The students start in a circle with their arms folded. The person in the centre starts throwing the ball to people around the circle. As they are throwing the ball, the person either says “catch” or “don’t catch.”
❖If the person says catch, the person has to catch the ball. If the person says don’t catch, the person shouldn’t catch the ball and doesn’t flinch. If a person misses the instruction or drops the ball they are
Donkey Dodge Ball
❖ Standing in a circle, four students stand in the centre holding onto each other at the waist to form a donkey (chain). The donkey has to try and protect its head and tail from the ball being bowled at them below the waist. If someone hits the head or tail of the donkey they swap places.
Click Clack
❖The leader of the game (teacher) starts by passing the first object to the person on their right and says “this is a click”. The student replies “a what” the teacher clarifies “ a click.” This question and answer sequence continues around the circle.
❖This game can be made harder by adding a second object “clack” going around in the opposite direction.
Pass the Coded Message
❖Children start in a circle holding hands. The aim of the activity is to pass a message around the circle using hand squeezes. For example one long squeeze and two short squeezes. The message must reach the end the same as it began.
Frogs and Lily Pads
Equipment:
Bells
Paper
❖Have the students walk around the centre of the circle while the 'crocodile' plays the bells (i.e. he is asleep). When the bells stop (croc is now awake) and frogs need to jump onto the lily pads. All body parts must be off the carpet. (AIM: encourage co‐operation as there is not enough lily pads for the number of students)
Counting 1-20 (Popcorn)
Equipment:
Chairs
❖Group sits in a circle on the chairs. Students randomly start counting to 20. When you say a number you must stand up. However no other person can move to stand up at the same time. If two people move at the same time, counting starts back at one. (AIM: to have students recognise the pattern of counting
Ball Name Game
Equipment:
Small balls
❖Start with one ball and the group standing in a circle. One person throws the ball to another class member and says their name. This continues until everyone has had a turn. Go around a second time in the same direction as before (i.e. receiving from and throwing to the same person as before).
❖Introduce a second, third ball travelling in the same direction. Try having two balls going one way and a third ball
❖Variation: Play this using small stuffed animals and call it Animal Madness
Fruit Game
❖Everyone sits in a circle. Go around the circle and everyone chooses the name of a fruit or vegetable(students need to listen to the other names). One person starts. They say the name of their chosen fruit/veg and then the name of someone else’s fruit veg WITHOUT SHOWING THEIR TEETH. If teeth are shown then that person is out.
❖This is a game of elimination
Frogs
❖One person says one part of the chant
❖One frog, two eyes, into the pond, splash,
❖Two frogs, four eyes, eight legs, into the pond, into the pond, splash, splash
❖Three frogs, six eyes, twelve legs, into the pond, into the pond, into the pond, splash, splash, splash etc
Helicopter, Palm Tree, Elephant
Equipment:
Chairs
❖Students stand in a circle. Demonstrate how to make:
❖A helicopter: Three people. Middle person has arms out and spins like propellers. People on either side bob down
❖A palm tree: person in middle stands tall arms up. People on either side make swaying actions of palm
❖Elephant: person in the middle uses arms as a trunk. People either side use arms to make ears.
❖One person stands in the middle of the circle and randomly points to someone in the circle (they are the middle person) and gives them the name helicopter, elephant, or palm tree. The people on either sidehelp to form what has been said. Person in the middle begins to move quicker around the circle.
Auto Trip
❖Students sit in a circle and are assigned the names of auto parts. (ie. bonnet, wheel, door, etc.)
❖The storyteller tells a story of an auto trip. As the player tells the story, the parts mentioned get up and follow him/her inside the circle.
❖When the storyteller yells "Blowout" each student scrambles for a seat. The one left out becomes the
Will you buy my donkey?
❖The players should be sitting in a circle. One donkey and one donkey seller should be in the centre of the circle
❖The donkey seller will try to sell their donkey to those in the circle. The donkey seller will choose one person and ask them, "Will you buy my donkey?"
❖The players in the circle have to answer "No thank you" with a straight face. 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 a song...etc.)
❖The players in the circle have to say "no thank you" without laughing. If the person laughs, they become the donkey, the donkey becomes the seller and the seller gets to join the circle.
Four Corners
❖Use four cards with four different suits. Evenly group the children in the class into four or five groups.
❖The aim of the game is to have someone in your group remaining ‘in’ at the end. If one member of the group is ‘in’ then the whole group wins.
❖Assign a different corner of the room to each card suit. Each group now chooses which members of the
❖When everyone is in a corner the teacher randomly selects a card. All children in that corner are out.
❖Continue like this with students moving to a new corner and again randomly drawing a card from the four suits until you have a winning group.
Have you seen Mrs Mumbly?
❖Someone begins and says to their partner Have you seen Mrs Mumbly? The person answers by saying “No but I’ll ask my friend” They then turn to the next person and ask the question. The important part of this game is that people must talk without showing their teeth. The game ends when the message is passed back to the beginning person who then says “Yes I have”.
Zip, Zap, Zoop
❖The first person says either zip, zap or zooop to their neighbour. Zip means keep going round the circle in the same direction, zap means change the direction and zooop means you point both arms across the circle to a person over there and it continues.
Master Blaster
❖One person leaves the circle and two master blasters are selected. The person returns to the middle & begins throwing a ball to people in the circle trying to avoid the master blasters in ten throws. If they throw to a master blaster they call out “Master Blaster” and keep the ball and become the new leader.
Clothes Pin Relay
Equipment:
1 clothes pin per team
bottle per team
❖Divide into teams. Each team member must run from the starting line to a team bottle placed a distance away, attempt to drop a wooden clothes pin into the bottle (Each person has only one attempt to get the clothes pin in the bottle) and run back to tag the next team member, who then repeats the action. The rules are to hold the clothes pin with a straight arm at shoulder height or with a bent arm at waist height (as long as all do it the same way. When all the teams are done the team with the most clothes pins in their bottle wins the game.
Fireman, Save my child
Equipment:
Drinking straw per child
Paper cut‐out of a child, about 1.5 to 2" tall.
❖Each team has a pile of the cut‐out children on a table and a drinking straw for each player. Approximately 15‐20 feet away from the start, place a small pail for each team on another table, chair, stool, or whatever. At the call of "Fireman, save my child", the first player on each team must pick up a child by sucking up the figure against their straw. While holding the figure this way, they run to their respective pail and deposit the figure. The next team member then goes. If they drop the figure en‐route, they must stop and pick up their child, again, by sucking it up with the straw.
Spots
❖The class sits in a circle and are given a number from one to n. (n=total number of players). It is easier for the students if the numbers are in sequence and not random. One student (number five) starts by saying 'I am five spot and I have no spots, how many spots does number eight have?'. Student number eight replies in the same manner and nominates another student. If one of the students takes too long or makes a mistake they are awarded a spot (small sticker). They will then have one spot.
What monster?
❖The students all stand in a circle. The teacher starts the action by saying, “What monster?” The next student in the line turns to the person next to them and repeats, “Have you seen my monster?” This continues the entire way around the circle until it reaches the teacher again. When it reaches the teacher, the teacher turns the opposite direction and says “This monster!” whilst doing scary arm actions. This then continues around the circle again.
Elevens
❖The students stand in the circle and say a number sequentially around the circle. The students may say one number or two. Whoever ends up at the number eleven is out and must sit down. The counting then starts again with the next person. Eg – 1 , 2 – 3, 4, 5, 6, 7‐8, 9‐10, 11.
Catch / Heads
Equipment
1 soft ball
❖The students start in a circle. The person in the centre starts throwing the ball to people around the circle. As they are throwing the ball, the person either says “catch” or “head.” If the person says catch, the person has to bounce the ball off their head. If the person says head, the person has to catch the ball. If a person misses the instruction or drops the ball they are out.
Thunder
❖Students stand in a circle. The teacher leads the thunderstorm, person to the right copies and is repeated around the circle.
❖Starting action: rubbing hands together – “This is the sound of leaves rustling in the wind...”
❖Two fingers tapping – “gentle rain begins to fall...”
❖Clapping – “The rain is getting harder and louder...”
❖Thigh slapping – “The rain is pouring the thunder is rolling...”
❖The actions are reversed around the circle eg. Feet stop, thigh slapping goes to hand clapping, two finger tapping, rubbing hands together, silence – hands in lap. The storm has ceased.
Action Syllables
❖With the group standing in a circle, have the participants each choose an action for every syllable of their name. Example: Elvis has 2 syllables, so he does a hip shake with “El” and snaps his fingers for “vis”. Once Elvis has done his action while saying his name, the whole group repeats. After the 2nd person does his/her name, the whole group repeats, then does Elvis’s again. And so on until everyone has done it.