A Socially Distanced Schoolyard? There Are Games for That

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Students and educators have a lot of “new normal” for the 2020-2021 school year, and the one that sounds the toughest to me is schoolyard distancing. Kids can go unmasked in the schoolyard but must play one meter apart from everyone else. If we want to ease the pain of our teachers tasked with enforcing this new rule, parents need to start playing socially distanced games with our kids now.If you ever took theater classes, these games will sound very familiar. Theatrical training revolves around understanding your spatial relations onstage while maintaining an emotional connection with your partner, so it seems like a great place to find inspiration. Show them how much fun it can be one meter apart and they’ll take the challenge rather than complain.

Zip Zap ZopThis game always makes kids laugh. You clap your hands towards your friend and say “Zip!” The person you pointed to claps their hands towards another friend and says “Zap!” That person chooses someone to clap their hands at and says “Zop!” and you start all over. If you mess up and say the wrong word, you’re out. You can play with any number of people and variations are endless.

Whoosh BallYou play catch with a friend, except it’s an invisible ball. Change the size of the ball just by the shape of your hands. All of a sudden, the ball is on fire! Or it’s an ice ball and it melts in your hands!HopscotchIf you can use chalk in your schoolyard, get one person to create the hopscotch board and another student can make circles where the other players stand one meter apart when not in play. Everyone uses a different landing piece, takes turns throwing it onto the hopscotch grid, and skipping along to pick it up without missing a beat. As one friend finishes, others move to a different circle closer to the start of the game.

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I Spy        We all know this one. “I spy with my little eye something that is… blue!” Then other friends try to guess what you saw. It might get a little hard to find new things after a while, but always a good game to try. It gets our family through a lot of DiDi trips.

Spot the RainbowLook around your schoolyard and find the colors of the rainbow, in order. This will require friends to agree on what colors are in a rainbow, but that’s fun too!

One Word StoriesStand one meter apart and take turns telling a story together. The trick is you only tell it one word at a time. Spice up the game by suggesting a genre of a story to tell, like a fairy tale, comedy, talking animals, Halloween, etc.

Who Am I? And CharadesClassic games that never get old, one friend chooses a kind of person or an object and the other kids ask questions to figure out who they are. If the person who chose only answers yes or no, it can get very tricky.

Simon SaysNothing says you can’t play Simon Says at least one meter apart. One child starts as “Simon,” and gives instructions on what the other kids do. If the “Simon” says “Simon Says” before an instruction, the others have to do it. If she doesn’t, and you do it anyway, you’re out.

Freeze DanceSomeone sings while their friends dance. If the singer stops singing, the other players stop dancing and freeze. If you’re so into the dance that you don’t freeze, you’re out! Sense a pattern?

Mirror Exercise

Stand one meter apart from your partner, and slowly one of you starts to move. Stay very still except for one movement at a time, like a mirror image. The trickiest part is there shouldn’t be one leader. Both partners should feel as though they are working together to move. It’s a great game to build concentration.

Rock Paper ScissorsIt’s always fun to see how long kids stay entertained by this game. Besides the standard rock, paper, and scissors combination, challenge them to create new ones. There’s “Rock, Paper, Dragon,” “Giants, Wizards, Elves,” and “Rock, Paper, Scissors, Magic!” for the Hogwarts crowd.I tried these with my kids at orientation, when they looked around their schoolyard and asked what they would or wouldn’t be allowed to do. Once we got into the swing of some of these games, it felt just as fun as contact tag! There’s one less thing to stress about this school year.

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Photos: Unspalsh, Canva 

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