Awaken Enthusiasm
Owls & Crows
- Awaken Enthusiasm
- Review of concept
- Day / clearing or road
- 6 or more
- 5-13 years
- Rope, 2 blindfolds (of different color)
This is an excellent game for reviewing newly learned concepts. Divide the group into two equal teams, the Owls and the Crows. Have the teams line up facing each other about four feet apart, place a rope between them. About 15 feet behind each team, place a bandanna which designates Home Base. The leader makes a statement aloud, and if the statement is true the Owls chase the Crows, trying to catch them before they reach their Home Base. If the statement is false, the Crows chase the Owls. Anyone caught must join the other team. Before you begin, practice by giving a few easy statements, and asking the players to just point to where they'll run.
Since the players will be continually changing sides, it's helpful to mark clearly the way to run if the statement's true or false. You can use a blue bandanna to signify the true direction - "true blue" and a red one to show false. Or you can use signs or natural features and say something like "true tree" or "false fence."
If the answer isn't obvious to the players, or they forget which way to run, you'll get some of the Owls and Crows running toward each other, and others running back to their Home Bases. During the pandemonium, the leader should remain silent and neutral. When the action has calmed down, he can reveal the correct answer.
Your statements, however, should be as precise and accurate as possible for the age and experience of the players. For example, if you say the sun rises in the east, would that be true? For younger children it might be. But older students probably know that it is the earth's rotation that makes it appear that the sun is rising.
Here are some sample statements: Sensory: "The wind is coming from behind the Crows." Conceptual: "A deciduous tree keeps its leaves all year long." Observational: (after showing them a leaf) "The leaf had five points and five veins." Identification: "This seed comes from an oak tree." Other statements you might want to use are: warm air rises; habitat ... means where a plant or animal lives; birds have teeth; and, ducks, turtles and squirrels are warm-blooded.
* from Sharing Nature with Children, © 1998 by Joseph Cornell
