Running game ideas:

Compiled by Donna Riner, May 2023 

Hungry Troll:

  1. establish a playing zone. One person is the hungry troll, and they stand in the middle of the playing zone while all others line up on one side of the zone. 

  2. The goal of the hungry troll is to tag and “eat” the other players. 

  3. The players goal is to get to the other side of the zone without being tagged. 

  4. Each player chooses to be an animal in the forest (deer/butterfly/salamander/frog/snake), they act out their animal during the game.

  5. The troll stands in the middle and says: I am hungry and want to eat animals that have _____specific animal adaptation____. Animal adaptations are physical characteristics that make them able to survive in their environment. Examples include four legs, slimy skin, eight legs, wings, for example: All of the players that imagine they are animals with wings must run across and avoid being tagged. 

  6. If they are tagged, they become trees who cannot move from their standing position, but can reach out with their hands and tag players who also become trees. The game ends when the hungry troll and the trees have eaten all the forest animals and a new troll can be chosen.

Running and Screaming:

This is the perfect quick, time-filling, outdoor game to play with campers who are loud and energetic. 

  1. All campers line up in a wide open area, a soccer field sized area is perfect. 

  2. Everyone takes one big deep breath and starts running as far as they can while also yelling, using the same breath of air they started with.

  3. The goal is to make it as far as possible on one breath of air. Running stops when the camper can no longer yell. The person who makes it the farthest wins.

  4. Educational moment: short bursts of energy are anaerobic activities (ex. sprinting), but long-term activities (ex. running a mile) are aerobic – using lots of oxygen. 

Seated group game idea: Poison Dart Frog

  1. All campers sit in a circle facing one another, they are all frogs, and silent.

  2. One camper is the investigator, they sit in the middle of the circle, ready to investigate.

  3. Campers close their eyes and a counselor chooses one frog in the circle to be the poison dart frog. This player can poison other frogs by sneakily sticking out their tounge at the other frogs. Their mission is to poison all the frogs and not get caught by the investigator who has three chances to choose who the poison dart frog is to save the other frogs. 

  4. All the frogs must be making eye contact with one another and looking around, staying silent. They may act out a dramatic poisoning if they get poisoned by the dart frog.