Captain Says

Materials

• None

How to play

1. The facilitator is captain and everyone else is crew. Leave enough room to move both hands, including while seated.
2. Follow an instruction only if it begins “Captain says,” for example, “Captain says, raise your right hand.” Practice 2–3 times.
3. If the instruction lacks that prefix, keep your previous pose. Decide from the words even if the captain moves.
4. End after about 10 instructions. Nobody is eliminated for a mistake. Let a willing child become captain.

Ways to adapt

Preschool children: copy instructions that all include the prefix. Younger primary school children: mix calls with and without it. Older primary school children: sometimes make the captain’s actions differ from the spoken instruction.

Sources and references

• 真宗大谷派 青少幼年センター「ひとりからはじめる子ども会 ゲーム集」No.16 船長さんの命令（PDF35ページ） ↗