Low Activity – indoors.
Age range: all ages. Purpose: Think creatively.
Duration: under five minutes.
This Game is written and designed by me. It’s inspired out of a Montreal improv competition in which schools had teams of 9 and those not involved in the scene played the furniture.
Split the group in teams of six to nine kids. If there is a wide age range in the group ask one of the older kids to be the leader or captain of the group that helps the littler kids with the ideas. One of the adults could also serve this role.
The host explains the rules of the game. He names the setting (i.e. living room) and the kids shape themselves into that setting (i.e. one becomes a couch, or a chair, or the T.V). Once the teams are finished becoming the décor, the host goes around and looks at them. This is an ideal opportunity to give them encouragement and compliment their creativity.
If you have younger kids, make sure they know that they are supposed to be things that don’t move otherwise this game can get really physical really fast; you can count on at least one kid having the bright idea to become a tiger. If you have older kids, you can pick an impartial judge and make it into a competition, according points to the team that makes the most creative or convincing furniture. Variations of this game can include the “fast furniture game” where the contestants are also judged on speed. The “quiet furniture game” where the kids are forbidden to communicate verbally. Or the ultra difficult: fast/quiet with actor furniture game that includes all the said rules with the inclusion of an actor who has to interact with the setting after it is completed (i.e. sit on the couch, open the door/window, mow the lawn… etc…)
Here is a truckload of ideas for the setting: living room, kitchen, bedroom, tree fort, mini-van, Edmonton, arena, parking lot, arcade, sandy beech, dock, stadium, highway, zoo (at your own risk), farm, tractor, starship, the moon, the Titanic, underwater, castle, swamp, moving van, roof, skyscraper, computer room, sewers, bathroom (ever so popular), fence, turtle shell, McDonalds, classroom at school, backyard, baseball diamond, park, shoe.