Purpose: Ice Breaker or energy building exercise, that can be used to divide students into groups, and also get their attention or allow them to use energy throughout a retreat day.
Preparation/ Required Material: No materials required. The area must be free of chairs and desks, etc… People need to find a partner with whom they will work.
Say:
“Okay, when I say officer on deck every needs to jump to attention, like this (demonstrate standing at attention). When I say submarine everyone must do this (lay on the floor with one leg in the air like a periscope.) When I say scrub the deck everyone must do this (kneel down and pretend to use a brush to wash the floor.) And when I say man over board one of you must jump into the other person’s arms, like this (demonstrate). Now, while we are doing this several of the adults will be watching, and if you do not act quickly enough or if you do the wrong command then they will tap you on the shoulder and that team of two people are then out. The goal is to be the last team here. Okay?”
Bark various commands at some point you can also shout out a command for which they have not been given instructions, like air raid or lights out etc… You can also divide them into groups and assign them battle stations – so that through out the day as you want them to return to these groups you can simply say, ‘MAN YOUR BATTLE STATIONS’ These commands can be used periodically throughout the day to get their attention, use up some of their energy – like after a lunch break you can start playing a game like this 2-3 minutes before you are scheduled to start, just for fun… but it helps to draw people back together – and eliminates some lagging.