Change Places
Swap places across the circle according to your flashcard.
Prepare
A clear room or the playground.
Chairs or cones or chalk marks in a big circle (one for each child).
A flashcard for each child, but the same three flashcards, e.g. for the topic Food, lots of apples, grapes and bananas.
If you’re playing with something that’s easy to draw, they can make their own flashcards.
Play
Every child sits on a chair in the circle (or stands by a cone or a chalk mark).
Hand out the flashcards. They will hold this throughout the game (or stick it to their shirt) so they don’t forget their fruit.
Say ‘apples’ and all the apples swap chairs (but everyone else stays in their chair).
You might first want to get the apples just to stand up (whilst showing you their flashcards) and then find a new chair.
Continue calling out different fruit and see if the children can get faster.
When you say ‘Fruit Salad’, everybody swaps places.
Let a child lead it (but beware: they may be tempted to say ‘Fruit Salad’ every time!).
Extend
Shout out other characteristics of the fruit (e.g. ‘Red fruit’ – then only the apples swap; ‘Round fruit’ – then the oranges and apples swap; etc.).
Play for your topic
Each child is an animal – but theme it to a type of animal, e.g. spring animals (frog, chick, bee, butterfly). They all change on ‘Springtime!’ Extend with other characteristics like ‘Lives in the air / water’ etc.
Each child is one of the three necessities for growth, i.e. soil, sun and water. They all change on ‘The plant grows!’. Extend with other characteristics like ‘This brings heat and light’ or ‘This is where the roots grow’. Alternatively, each child is a rose, sunflower or daisy. They all change on ‘Flowerbed!’ Extend with other characteristics like ‘Red flowers’, etc.
Each child is spring, winter, autumn or summer. They all change on ‘Four seasons!’. Add other characteristics like ‘There’s snow’.
Each child is rain, wind or sun. They all change on ‘Crazy weather!’ Extend with other characteristics, like ‘It’s wet’ or ‘It’s very hot’.
Each child is a different form of transport, e.g. bus, car, plane, boat, etc. They all change on ‘Traffic!’ They can move as their transport. You can extend it by saying, ‘land’ or ‘water’, etc.
Each child is an emergency services job – police officer, fire fighter and doctor. They all change on ‘Emergency!’ or your country’s emergency number. Extend with other characteristics like ‘Works in a… hospital!’.