Cooperative games are beneficial for us all, no matter what age. One of the most difficult lessons for people is to be able to successfully work together cooperatively. As a teacher/guidance Counsellor, I loved teaching kids through cooperative games and activities. And, invariably the students of all ages loved playing the games, not realizing they were actually practising a very important life skill. The Plum Village Children’s Manual lists and describes a lot of such games. Note the following:
– Toilet Paper Roll Game – Kids and adults love this one. You pass a roll of toilet paper to the group sitting in a circle and tell them to take as many sheets as they like. When done, ask each person to give as many positive adjectives of themselves as the number of sheets they took. The object is to learn about each other’s strengths and to enjoy working together.
– Togetherness Games – Human Knot – Each person in the circle holds hands with two different people from anywhere, except directly to their right or left. Then you have to untie the knot.
– Wink Flowery – Give each child a piece of paper. One child gets a paper with a flower on it. Sit in a circle and send one child out. If you are the flower, you wink at the other children. If you get winked at, you fall asleep. The child who has gone out must guess who is the flower.
– Circle Time Ideas – Circle Stories. When you get stuck, you can say, “I am a fish” Fish can’t talk! And the next person carries on the story.
Fruit Salad Memory Game – First child names a fruit, the second repeats the first fruit and adds another kind, third repeats the first, second, and their type of fruit, etc. Until everyone has had a turn.
– Recognize Your Friends – A group of children stand behind the curtain and stick only their hands out, or one finger, or one fist, or toes only! Or just say a word, and they have to guess who it is. Then switch, and give other children a go.
– Blindfold Game – Children are blindfolded. They move slowly around the room till they meet someone. Then they try to recognize the other person by feeling only with their hands.
