A fun game to while away those summer holiday afternoons…

To play this game you will need:

• A paved area of garden, patio or path
• some chalk
• some bored children (you need at least two to play the game – the more you have the bigger your play area needs to be)

Here’s how to play:

When you’ve chosen your play area, draw a symbol, letter, number or other simple picture on each paving stone.  Symbols we have used include:

• House, tent etc
• Initial letter of each person’s name
• Numbers (especially ages of participants)
• stars, moon, sunshine
• rocket, aircraft, van, car, lorry
• shapes (square, triangle, circle)
• maths symbols (infinity, =, +, x etc)
• stripes, tick, cross, squiggle, heart, question mark
• emoticons
• anything else you like!
• arrows

Take it in turns to shout out a move, indicating what kind of image the participants need to jump to next.  Some moves we have done include:

• Jump to a face (or body part, if you included hands)
• Jump to something in maths (could be a number or a symbol)
• Jump to a vehicle
• Jump to something you might see in the sky
• Jump to something with only straight lines
• Jump to something with only curved lines
• Jump to something to do with you
• Jump to something to do with the number three
• Jump like a chess piece (specify which piece!)
• Jump at random until the person says ‘now’
• Jump to your favourite picture
• Jump to one you’ve not jumped on before
• Jump as far as you can (or hop as far as you can!)
• Jump to an arrow
• Jump in the direction of your arrow (for one, two or three spaces!)
• Anything else you can think of!

This is a really fun game, and it can last as long as you want!  The summer rain will wash the pictures off every so often so you can draw a new play area next time.