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Activity Duration

Approx 1 hour

Objectives of the activity

Think about why we play “co-operative” games at Woodcraft Folk

Materials required

Flipchart or similar. Largeish hall because few children naturally develop ‘small’ games

Activity

Play ‘Jaws’ or similar game well suited to analysis.
Use the flipchart to brainstorm how ‘Jaws’ works. The themes I might expect (with a little hinting) would be:

Nobody sits out – even when caught children still continue to play
No focus on competition - played for the fun of playing not winning
Easy to understand rules, easy to explain, is obvious when people don’t follow the rules (explain how this last one affects differing ages)

Consider how these themes pervade most WCF games
Split into groups of 3 or 4 and invent a new co-operative game in each group.
Play each game, after each game return to the flipchart & discuss & evaluate

Variations

For older groups consider asking each group to create a different type of game eg circle, running about, ball, thinking

Evaluation

Very good session. It’s very important to try to remember the rules [of the new games] as one of the games will probably be very good. You can use the flipchart for this. This also makes it easy to explain the rules. Some games won’t work. If so, try varying the rules slightly (round the flipchart) before giving up