Games and Play for School Morale Part 10

1. Touching the net by a player on the receiving side allows the serving side one point.

2. A ball sent under the net counts one for the opposing side.

3. If the ball strikes any object outside the court and bounds back, although it is still in play, it counts one for the opposing side. A ball sent out of bounds in returning a service scores one point for the opposing team. One point is scored by the opponents whenever a player catches the ball or holds it for even an instant.

Group Games for Adults

CHARIOT RELAY

Players line up at one end of the room. Count off by threes. Each group joins hands, and on the command "Go!" they run to the other end of the hall and return without letting go of hands. The first group back wins.

HURDLE RACE

Place several objects at different distances. Contestants race, jumping over them.

SONG CONTEST

Song contestants are supplied with pencil and paper. Standing on one foot, each writes two lines of a patriotic song. One finishing first wins.

Contestants are supplied with paper and crayon, and asked to draw a picture representing some popular song. The one whose drawing is the best representation wins the prize.

LAUGHING RELAY

Line up players in twos. Partners face and march backwards four steps.

Leaders draw for first chance. One side named Blues, other Reds. If "Blues" have first chance, they try for the s.p.a.ce of thirty seconds to make the "Reds" laugh. All "Reds" found laughing are recruited to the other side. Three turns const.i.tute a game. The side having most recruits at the finish wins.

TELEGRAMS

Give each player a pencil and paper. Ask each to write the name of the city (town or state) in which he was born. Then ask each to separate the letters in the name of his birthplace and, using each letter as the initial of a word, to compose a telegram. Some interesting combinations are the result.

WHIRLWIND

This is an old English game. Arrange as many chairs as there are players in a circle. All the players but one are seated. This odd player takes his position in the center of the circle. His object is to take the vacant chair, but this the others prevent by hastily moving up (to right or left, as the movements of the person standing indicate) so as to fill the empty seat whenever the standing player approaches it.

In this manner, the vacancy is kept at the point farthest from him, and unless he is agile, the player cannot capture it.

THE LAUGHING GAME

Players form a circle. The first player starts with the word "ha," the second says "ha, ha," the third "ha, ha, ha," and so on, each one in turn adding one more ha than has been made by his neighbor. In each case, the ha ha's must be made without laughing, which is almost an impossibility. Before the circuit has been completed the entire circle is in peals of laughter. Each one guilty of laughing drops out of the game. The one remaining longest without laughing wins.

GAME OF OPPOSITE

Players stand in a circle. An extra player stands in the center, holding in his hands as many pieces of tape as there are players in the circle. The tape (or ribbons) are of two colors, red and blue. The opposite ends of each tape are held in the hands of a player. When the leader says "Reds let go," "Blues, hold on," the blues will let go, always doing just the opposite of the command given to be obeyed.

Commands should be given rapidly and in military tone. When word for "all to hold on" is given the entire circle lets go, and so on.

MUSICAL CIRCLE

All players sit in a circle. One in the centre is the leader. To each one is a.s.signed some musical instrument, which he must play. The leader waves his baton, but from time to time he will quickly begin to pantomime the instrument of someone in the circle. For instance, he plays the cornet, and as soon as he does this, the one to whom the cornet was a.s.signed immediately sits back with folded hands until the leader goes back to his baton. Should a player fail to remark that the leader has taken his instrument he is subject to forfeit.

MEMORY TEST

A tray piled high with all sorts of objects, as diverse as possible in character is brought into the room. The players are given one minute in which to take a rapid survey of same. At the end of that period the tray is taken away and the players, with pencil and paper (previously supplied them) write down the names of as many of the articles as they can remember. The one whose list is largest and most correct is the winner.

FINDING A PARTNER

An odd number of players partic.i.p.ate. At a signal (preferably a musical accompaniment), the players, fly or skip promiscuously about the room.

When the music stops each player attempts to stand back to back with a partner. The one left without a partner, as the game proceeds, tries to be successful the next time.

NOSE AND TOE TAG

This game is played like ordinary tag, with the exception that no one can be tagged who has his right hand on his toes and left hand on his nose.

SPIRITS MOVE

A leader and his accomplice are required in this game. The one ill.u.s.trating the game leaves the room. His accomplice pa.s.ses among the players and stopping before one of the number and with hands outstretched says, "Spirits Move." The leader from without replies "Let them move." Again the accomplice pa.s.ses among the number and steps in front of another player, saying, as before, with hands outstretched, "Spirits Move." Again the reply from his accomplice, "Let them move."

He proceeds in this manner until finally he takes his stand before another one of the group saying "Spirits Move and Rest Upon." The leader from without completes the sentence by adding the name of the person over whose head the hands are extended.

The trick is simply this: The one over whose head the accomplice's hands rest is the one who spoke last before the leader retired from the room.

HANDS OVER HEAD

A leader and his accomplice are necessary to this mystifying game. The leader leaves the room while his accomplice pa.s.ses around among the players, occasionally stopping in front of one of them, and with hands extending over the player's head says. "Hands Over Head." The leader answers from without "Hands Over Head." He continues around the circle in like manner until finally he stops in front of a player and with hands extended says "Hands Over Head and Rest Upon" whereupon the leader answers "Hands Over Head and Rest upon (John Smith)" naming the person over whom the hands are extended.

The trick: The accomplice places his hands over the head of the person before whom he has been standing at the time the leader withdraws from the room.

BOTTLES

Any number of couples may compete in this game. Arrange two files of Indian clubs, large bottles or ten pins, five in a file, at a distance of four feet apart with an aisle of six feet between files. Each couple is comprised of a man and woman. The man is blindfolded and to his wrists are attached streamers or reins about three feet long. The woman, at a given signal guides her partner by means of these reins on and around each bottle in the first file, returning in like manner by the second file.

The team succeeding in making the circuit without overturning any of the bottles wins.