Game: Serve It Up

Type/Purpose: Obstacle Course/Race/Relay

Materials:

• Spoon and serving utensils of different shapes and sizes (teaspoons, tablespoons, slotted spoons, ladle, spatula, etc.). The more and the more random, the merrier.
• Small round-ish objects, about 50-100 total (marbles, small bounce balls, cotton balls)
• At least 3 “Home Bases” (Hula Hoops, 4 cones in a square shape, etc.)
• One more large object to hold the round-ish objects (baby pool, hula hoop, etc.)

Set-Up:

• Find a space, indoors or outdoors, with lots of room for movement.
• Put the “Home bases” on the edge of the boundaries.
• In the direct middle, place the baby pool (or other large object) and spread out the round-ish objects.
• Place the serving utensils within the boundaries all around the baby pool.
• Divide the group into 3 groups and place them behind one of the boundaries.

Play:

• The object is to collect as many of the balls as possible, but this is how it works:
• Only 2 people from each team can be in the playing field at any one point in time.
• When a player enters the playing field, they may either
  • Collect a serving utensil and place it in their hoop OR
  • Use a utensil already in their hoop, and scoop as many round objects with it as they can, and return them and the utensil to their hoop.
• When using the utensil:
  • Players may use their fingers to scoop the items onto the utensil, HOWEVER…
  • When lifting and transporting the items, they may not use their spare hand to keep the items on the utensil.
  • If any items fall off in transport, they may not retrieve them at that time.
  • Obviously, bigger utensils can hold more objects.
  • When scooping objects, a player CAN scoop items out of another team’s hoop to place in their own.
• When retrieving a utensil:
  • A player may go into another team’s hoop and take their utensil.
• A player MAY NOT enter the playing field 2 times in a row. When a player comes back from the playing field, somebody has to take their place before they can go back in.
• Play continues until one team has all of the ITEMS or the game has reached its peak.

Extra Ideas:

• If playing outdoors, use ice cubes instead of objects.
• Include some flat utensils as well.

Teachable Moment: Consider the theme “Striving for the Goal.”