An outdoor fitness game called Bombscare

The words:

round the ocean

bombscare

all clear

swim

great white pointer

octopus

piranha

jellyfish





The equipment - a tree about 25 meters away to run around for around the ocean, and a set of benches to jump up on for the piranha bit.

You all stand in a group. the teacher calls out 'round the ocean'. The students all run up to and around the tree and back towards the teacher.

The teacher will then call out another instruction such as 'octopus'. In this one, the students all link arms in groups. The last student left is out, and goes to stand with the teacher.

With jellyfish, they prance about in slow motion waving and fluttering their arms like jellyfish.

Then call 'round the ocean' again. This time when they are half way there, call out 'bombscare!'. The children all crouch down with their hands protecting their heads. When the teacher calls out 'all clear', they can get up and wait for the next instruction.

This time call out piranha. They all run to the benches and jump up onto them, and the last two to jump up are out or any who fall off are out.

The whole point is to get them out, one or two at a time.


I work it like this:

'Round the ocean', count to five and call out 'bombscare'. Then I call out 'round the ocean' again without saying 'all clear'. Several will get up and run - they are all out. (You talk beforehand about honesty and being a good sport.)

The I will say 'all clear', and then 'round the ocean'. When they are almost back to me I will call out 'piranha'. The last two to jump up on the bench or anyone who falls off is out.

Then I will say 'swim' - and they just mill about and do swimming movements. Then I will say 'bombscare'.They all crouch down with their hands on their heads. So I will say 'great white pointer' without saying 'all clear'. That will get more kids out. Then I'll say 'great white pointer', and they will put a hand up on top of their head like a fin and sing the song - da dum, da dum, da da da dum! We all laugh at this.

Then I'll say 'piranha', then after they do that I will say 'octopus' or 'jellyfish' then 'round the ocean again'. And so on. Throw in a 'bombscare' and 'all clear' once in while until only one child is left to get a class reward.