Activity Overview
Clean Up Your Own Backyard is one of the kids' favorite games both at home, in the neighborhood, and in gym class at school. We found a way to put our big basket of lonely mismatched socks to use and a way to give the kids a quick and intense release of energy and laughter all at the same time.
You can use balled up socks, wads of newspaper, or lightweight balls. The object of the game is to crawl around on all fours and grab as many pieces of trash as you can and throw it into the other teams side/ backyard. The team or person with the least amount of trash in their backyard is the winner.
Materials Needed
- a basket of unpaired socks
- soft foam balls, or ball pit balls, or newspaper wads
- A rope, chalk line, or a net
- a timer
How to Play
- Select an wide open backyard area to play and dived the are in half with a rope or a chalk line. If you have a volleyball net, this works great as well.
- Roll your mismatched socks into pairs and spread an equal amount in each backyard. If you have other lightweight items like foam balls or ball pit balls or balled up newspaper you can use them too. Scatter them equally on each side.
- Divide your players into two teams and set them up on their assigned side of the playing field. Each team's side is their own backyard.
- Players should all get down on their hands and knees.
- Someone starts by saying On your mark, get set, go! At this time, all players crawl around on all fours collecting balled up socks and balls and tossing them as fast as they can to the other team's yard, while the other team does the same into your yard.
- The team with the fewest socks and objects in their backyard after two minutes is the winner.
- All players clean up.
