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A Sample Cooperative Game
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Defend the CityDefend the City is a game created at Academy MetroWest that addresses problem solving, risk taking, and team work in an enjoyable, imaginative context. Equipment needs: A large play area, several folding mats, lots of foam balls, lots of small plastic cones and miscellaneous (non-breakable) objects with which to build a city. Setup: Lay the folding mats on the floor of the play area so that they are all touching each other in one fashion or another. This is the "zone" on which the children will build their city. Play: At the start of the game, the children are given a period of time (usually 5 minutes) in which they are to construct their city. They do this by arranging small cones and various other types of equipment (often cardboard cylinders, hockey nets, pails, etc...) in any type of setup they wish. During this phase of the activity, children are frequently required to negotiate and compromise with their peers regarding the setup of the city. If 6 children are playing the game, there are frequently 6 different sets of ideas that need to be combined to form one coherent city. This segment of the game affords counselors opportunities to help children work on skills relating to expressing their ideas effectively and responding appropriately to the ideas offered by their peers.
Once setup of the city is complete, the action-packed segment of the game begins. The story of the game has the counselors being space aliens, bent on destroying and taking over this new city. The children are defenders of the city they have just constructed. Both the children and the counselors begin the game with a good number of foam bombardment balls. Approximately 10 yards from the city, designate an area as the counselors' space ship. It is from this area that the counselors begin their attack. When the game begins, counselors run towards the city and begin firing balls (they can be thought of as lasers) at the city with the intention of knocking down as many structures as they can. While they are doing this, children are defending their city by throwing balls at the counselors. If hit by a ball, a counselor must return to his or her spaceship before trying to attack the city again. Children must be in the city in order to throw balls at the counselors. When counselors are able to destroy part of the city, the children may set it back up during the course of the game. Time outs are not called for reconstruction and the children know that what they fix may be destroyed again shortly.
After a short period of time, there will be no more foam balls left on the city. If the children wish to continue to defend their city, they must take a risk and leave the city to collect more balls. Once they leave the mats, however, they are not safe. When a counselor sees a child leave the city, he may throw a foam ball at that child. If the child is hit while not in the city, he/she must sit down where he/she was hit. That child can come back into the action when another defender recognizes that he/she is hit, leaves the city and tags or frees the "victim." If all children are down, counselors may destroy the city and win (this usually does not happen). Generally play continues for a designated period of time (10 minutes usually does the trick). After that time elapses, a time out is called. If it appears that more than half of the city is standing, then the defenders have saved the city. If the city appears on the verge of being destroyed, then the aliens have taken over.
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