Games for Educators

Set up

Get in a large circle so that everyone can see and hear each other. Assign one person to lead things off.

Play

The leader creates and displays a pattern of some reasonable length. There are a huge variety of possible patterns for this person to create from, such as:

• Movement patterns: stepping, jumping, waving, nodding, kicking, arm movements
• Sound patterns: clapping, knee slapping, tongue clicking, foot stomping
• Loudness patterns: soft, medium, loud

The pattern created can be a mixture of these ideas, or perhaps it will involve some others. Once the pattern has been shown to the whole group, the leader starts off the pattern around the circle. For example, suppose the pattern is: step, clap, jump. The leader would do the step, the next person would clap, the third person would jump, and the fourth person would step, and so on around the circle.

Goal

Have fun as a group and learn about patterns.