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Warm-Up and Energizer Games

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Until now, warming up and cooling down has always been seen as hard work—a boring start to an activity or class where you struggle to keep the children’s attention. But not anymore. When your group take part in these games, they will be engaged fully, having fun, and effectively preparing their minds and bodies for the game or activity that lies ahead. All games are easy to run and require little or no equipment whatsoever.

Descriptions of Warm-up Games and Energizers

Touch Blue

Participants have to find an object or an item of clothing of a specific colour that you tell them. However, they cannot touch something on themselves or another person. The last person to touch the colour is out.  To make this activity game difficult, try using unusual colours or even patterns, making the children run further to reach the objects as well as providing an opportunity to use their creative thinking skills.

Dodgeball

A child in the group is selected by you to be the ‘Dodgeball Master’. All the other children have to try and get from one safe zone to the other (typically the other side of the hall).  Whilst the group are trying to get from one side to the other, the Dodgeball Master must try to get group members out of the game by throwing the ball underarm and trying to hit their legs. Once the participant has been hit they are then out and become a judge. Cones should be used to define a playing area outside. .

Buzzy Bees

All the children have to get into pairs, they then run around separately, buzzing and pretending to be bees. The person nominated to be ‘it’ then shouts ‘Buzzy bee, buzzy bee touch…’ they then have to run back and find their partners and whichever body part has been called out they have to touch together. e.g. ‘touch knees’, they have to touch their knees together.

Ladders

First, pair up the group members and sit them down, with legs flat, leaving space between pairs to prevent injury from occurring. Now give each pair a number starting from the number one.
Once all pairs have a number, you then call a number and that pair will jump up, step over the other pairs legs one at a time then run round the whole of their team and sit back down in their original place. The first one to sit back in place is the winner. Alternatively, you can play as a team. After the first pair has completed their turn, the next person gets up and runs, until the whole team have been and the leader declares a winning team.

Clumps

This is a very simple run around game.  Children start by running around, the leader then calls out a number and the children have to form a clump of that many people. You do not necessarily have to penalise anyone who does not find a group - it is just for fun!

Jack in the Box

Choose one person to be the leader; everyone else must stand in a circle around them. When the leader shouts, ‘Jack in the box’ participants must squat down. When the leader shouts ‘Jack out of the box’ participants must all jump up. The leader can repeat the commands, say them fast or slow in an attempt to confuse the children. Anyone who does the wrong action is then out of the game.

Stuck in the Mud

In a boundary area, one person is ‘it’.  They must then run around trying to tag as many people as they can.  Once a person has been caught, they then have to stand with feet shoulder width apart and can only be freed if someone crawls between their legs.

Traffic Lights

An easy warm-up game to play, which is ideal for younger children. On the word, ‘red’ the children have to stand very still. On the word, ‘amber’ they walk around.  On the word, ‘green’ they start to run.  If any of the participants do the wrong thing they are out and can act as a judge for the remainder of the game. The leader can make things confusing by shouting, ‘Speed camera’ - slow motion, ‘roundabout’ - sit and spin etc. .

Penguin Race

Participants start of by slapping their hands against their thighs and running on the spot mimicking how a penguin runs. The leader should get participants do this slowly to start with, so they get to use to it and get them to speed up at a later stage. Leaders should introduce further commands such as, left bends right bends and double bends, which all include speeding sound effects and actions whilst still running on the spot. 

Everybodys It

Good warm up game. Everyone in the group is it and they must try and tag each other, if they get caught they must stand still with both hands in the air, the only way to free them is for another person to give them a high ten and then the game continues.

Band Game

Everyone starts with a band tucked into their shorts or trousers. The idea of the game is to get as many bands as possible from the other participants. Children can only steal if they have a band tucked in to their own shorts or trousers. When a child loses all their bands, they continue jogging until the time is up.

Bump Tag

The leader must select a cat and a mouse from the group.  The aim of the game is for the cat to chase the mouse, if the cat manages to catch the mouse they then become the cat and have to do the chasing. Everyone else in the group must pair up and stand side-by-side spread out in the activity area. The mouse changes throughout the game by the mouse linking to the side of a pair, the person on the opposite side to where the mouse has linked themselves, then becomes the mouse and the cat has to chase them instead.

Freeze Tag

Similar to ‘stuck in the mud’. During the game there are 2 different coloured balls, 2 ball carriers are selected from the group. The blue ball carrier can freeze people by touching them with the ball. The Yellow ball unfreezes. When the yellow ball is handed to someone that is frozen, they defrost and become the yellow ball carrier instead. The blue ball carrier stays the same throughout the game. More than one of the same coloured ball can be added during the game to make this game faster paced.

Sticky Parts

All children are given a beanbag. When instructed by their leader, all children have to run, skip or hop around until the leader calls out a body part. Once the leader calls out the body part, all children have to try to balance the beanbag on that specific body part. The last person to complete this is out of the game. The winner is the person left after all rounds. They then get to take over from the leader in the next game and give instructions to the rest of the group.