Warm up exercises ELG
Choose two children to be the cat (catcher) and the rest of the children to be mice. All the mice must have tails (coloured strip of material) visible e.g. in the back of their trousers or skirt. Explain that the cats must catch as many mice as they can by pulling their tails (coloured strip or material). Remind the cats to keep hold of the tails they collect so that they can be counted at the end of the game. If a mouse has been caught then they must sit down. Allow 3-5 minutes to play the game. How many mice can the cats catch?
Extension:
Why not have two teams. Each cat must collect a certain coloured tail, the cat with the most tails of their chosen colour wins.
Why not have different coloured tails. Each colour represents a different amount e.g. 0 points, 1 point and 2 points. This is a great way to incorporate number into the activity. The cat with the most amount wins.
Game: farmers / Equipment: coloured bibs, timer or stop watch and a whistle. / Age: ELG / Group: 15 or more children
Choose 1-3 children to be the farmers and 1-3 children to be the wolves (each group to wear a different coloured bib). The rest of the children will become the farmer’s sheep. Explain that the wolves must catch as many sheep as they can, every time a sheep is caught they must lie on their back and shout out baa to get the farmers attention. The farmer must release the sheep by turning them back over. Play the game for 5 minutes, once the game is over count how many sheep have been caught. Which team won?
Extension:
Why not change the amount of farmers or wolves in each team?
Game: sea, land and air / Equipment: coloured bibs, timer or stop watch and a whistle. / Age: ELG / Group: 15 or more children
Create 3 zones/areas and call them land, sea and air. Explain that this is a listening game, They must listen to the objects being called out. Depending where the objects belong they must run to the correct zone/area e.g. boat- the children must run to the sea zone. The last person to each area must sit out. The last person standing wins.
Extension:
Why not allow the children to shout out the object names?
Game: Tag pairs / Equipment: whistle / Age: ELG / Group: 10 or more children
Choose two children to be it. Explain that they are working together and they must hold hands. Both players must tag as many children as possible whilst holding hands, every time a new person is tagged they must join hands with the taggers or split off into two’s. Children that are caught must tag only in pairs or more. The last person to be tagged wins the game.
Extension:
Why not extend by taggers are only allowed to tag in twos, threes or fours?
Game: Tag ball / Equipment: whistle, balls, coloured bibs / Age: ELG / Group: 10 or more children
Choose 1-4 taggers, explain that they must wear a bib and work together to tag the other children. They can only tag somebody if they are holding the ball. This means that they need to work together and allow each other to take turns to tag by passing them the ball. Every time somebody is tagged they must sit out. The last person to be tagged wins.
Extension:
Increase or decrease the amount of balls the taggers have. To make it harder allow 1 ball for all 4 taggers.