Ten-minute games for kids

[Speak With Bread]

Hi all! So I'm working as a summer camp counselor for a bit and am trying to plan an assortment of ten- to fifteen-minute break-time activities for brainy elementary and younger middle school kids (ages, oh, about eight to twelve). It's been quite a while since I was in elementary school, and it will be a while before I have kids of my own (I hope), so I was wondering if anyone had any sure-fire suggestions to keep them entertained and not trying to kill each other. Thank you! :)

Edit: I'm in charge of planning suggestions for everybody, and we have approximately two hundred and twenty kids in eighteen groups, so the more suggestions, the better! :)

[Wade42]

Off hand, I'm thinking of stuff like 20 Questions, or I Spy. It works pretty well for my kids, but I have some younger than that range.

Here's one: Choose a category (Places, Animals, etc.). Then everyone takes turns thinking of an example that starts with a particular letter of the alphabet... so, first person thinks of an city/state/country/whatever that starts with A, second person thinks of a place that starts with B, etc. Feel free to omit Q/X/Z. Or not.

[bluemax]

Do kids still play Kick the Can or Steal the Bacon? I remember enjoying these as an 11/12 year old scout.

[Kael]

Songs with rounds in them are a good 10 minute diversion. Lets all the kids be active, make noise and get some energy out. Races are fun.

[Mightynute]

If you've got a fenced-in area, ten minutes lets you get in three three-minute rounds of MMA with 30-second breaks in between rounds. It's important to let kids rest at that age.

[ceolstan]

Card games. Poker is educational, develops a keen appreciation for and understanding of probability, and teaches important life lessons.

Physics craft projects: Give them toothpicks, tissue paper, and glue. The goal is to be able to build a container for a raw egg that can prevent the egg from breaking.

[Speak With Bread]

Thanks, everyone! Card games we've got, physics projects are for class rather than breaks, and categories is a big hit. What's MMA, and how do you play Steal the Bacon?

[ABailey]

MMA is usually played with colourful shorts with angry eyes across the back. People take turns hugging each other in an eight-sided ring. Whoever is the best hugger wins. Extra points if one of the kids is deaf, but he must be referred to as the 'Georges'.

[fire]

And Steal The Bacon is like Hide The Salami?

[RepoMan]

Jesus, you people.

[bluemax]

Steal the bacon is like capture the flag mixed with red rover and tag. Basically you put a flag (can be any object that is easy to grab) in the center of a reasonably sized area. You split the kids into two teams, and have them line up facing each other with the "bacon" in the middle. Then you basically call out a name per side and the kids advance to the center. The goal then is to grab the "bacon" and run back past their line before the other person tags them. Award a point for getting back safely or a point to the other team for tagging first. First to some arbitrary number wins.

[Bill Dungsroman]

Jesus, you people.

Hahahaha didn't take long this time, did it?

[Hunty]

Go for a kickabout. A football - the round sort, that is - a patch of flattish ground, and four spare jumpers is all you need.

This will keep kids entertained for anywhere from five minutes to three hours. It was pretty much all I did in any school break from the age of four.

It's not competitive, the two goals are just there to give it a vague sense of direction. It doesn't matter in the least how terrible they are at football, or whether the game devolves into silly running around and hoofing. That's the joy of the kickabout, and it just makes them all the more agreeably exhausted, right?

Failing that, I second MMA, mostly because the thought made me laugh.

[Talisker]

I was a camp counselor for a couple summers; Amoeba Tag and Octopus Tag always worked pretty well (see http://www.ultimatecampresource.com/...mp-games.html; I think they call the second one "Shark and Octopus tag").

I wish we'd thought of the Slow Motion tag written up on that site, that one sounds awesome, and would well in smaller spaces. (we were at an outdoor camp, ie, plenty o' space for ramming around)

[JoshV]

Lawn Darts.

[Speak With Bread]

...how did I not know last summer what MMA was? Bad Speak! Bad!

[jpinard]

One game I like to play with my nephews & nieces (which I might have made up myself) is called 5-line (best with a minimum of 3 people). Each person draws 5 lines on a piecer of paper then hands it to the next person. They add 5 lines as well. By the time they get it back will be vastly different than what they originally envisioned. Continue until you have a completed piece of art. Sometimes we decide the line is only straight, and sometimes we allow small circles as a circle is technically a bent line.