This summer program was developed to provide hands-on experience on a variety of fire and life safety skills. Children participate in a number of events to enhance their experience, including a morning full of physically literate activities with us, the Northumberland Sports Council. Firefighters have to have high endurance and strong muscles and bones. What better way to train these Jr. Firefighters than with some fun and inclusive games!
Games We Played
Stop. Drop. and Roll Tag
- Define the playing space (if you have more kids or a very active group make a larger playing space if you a small or a more hesitant group make a smaller playing space
- Assign 1-3 children to be “It”
- If the other children get tagged by those who are “It” they must stop. drop and roll then they can resume playing again
Partner Ball Toss
- Sitting Down
- One player sits down while the other player stands behind them. Each person has a ball
- The player who is sitting down throws the ball up to the person standing behind them and the player who is standing up drops the ball into the hand of the person sitting down
2. Standing Up
- Stand across from your partner (about 1-2 giant steps away)
- Try throwing and catching with your partner. Every time you make a successful catch and throw take a step away from each other and try again
- The leader should use the following cues for the “ultimate physical literacy experience”
- Throw and catch using your right hand only
- Throw and catch using your left hand only
- Throw and catch using 2 hands
- Throw and catch using your elbows…
Rescue the Kitten
- Assign partners for the group
- 1 partner is blindfolded
- The other partner will stick 3 picture of kittens around the room
- The able seeing partner will then try to verbally guide the blindfolded person to the kittens that need to be rescued
- To make this harder, set up obstacles the blindfolded person must get around
Minnows and Sharks
- Assign 1-3 children to be “it” or the sharks and have them stand in the middle of the playing area
- The rest of the children or the minnows will line up on one side of the playing area with a soccer ball (or any type of ball). If there are some really good soccer players in the group I will make them dribble a football
- Minnows try to get to the other side of the playing area without getting their ball taken away
Chain Reaction
- Assign one child to be the detective. Make them leave the room.
- Assign another child to be the dance teacher. This person picks the dance moves the rest of the group will do/ follow
- All of the children (including the dance teacher) makes a circle and the detective is invited back into the playing area and stands in the middle of the circle.
- The dance teacher chooses some dance moves and the rest of the group has to follow those dance moves. The detective is trying to guess who the dance teacher is.
Volcanoes and Craters
- Spread out a bunch of disc cones or red solo cups (some facing up = craters) and some facing down (volcanoes)
- Divide the group of students into volcanoes and craters
- The object of the game is for the volcanoes to try and turn all the craters into volcanoes and for the craters to try and turn all the volcanoes into craters!
- You can make the kids go all at once or make them go in one at a time!
Grand Portage
- Split the group into teams of 3-4
- Place one hula hoop 5m away another hula hoop 10m away
- Each team has 5 bean bags they must get into the first hoop then from the first hoop into the second hoop (each bean bag MUST go into the first hoop before it can do into the second hoop)
- To start player 1 brings a bean bag to hoop 1
- Player 2 can then bring that same bean bag to hoop 2 or they can choose to bring another bean bag to hoop 1 ec…
- Get the kids to do a different locomotor skill each round
- Run
- Hop
- Blindfolded
- Skip
- Crab walk
More great games can be found here: Maximum Engagement in Physical Activities activity suggestions based on age – My FAVOURITE Resource
OR check out our physical literacy for children page on our website by clicking here!
Click here for more info on the Hamilton Township Fire Department!