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Saturday, 21 April 2007 |
This is a simple little game that needs to be played outside on a sunny day. Have your players line up in a straight line facing one direction and shoulder to shoulder. Take the tarp and lay it out on the ground in front of the group. The group should be standing between the tarp on the ground and the sun. You should be able to see the players’ shadows (if it is sunny) on the tarp. The tarp represents an ancient painting by a famous artist (the group can help the Group Leader figure out what that means). The goal for the group is to shield the painting from the sun so it will not deteriorate, because as we all know sunlight is bad for very valuable rare paintings. Players do this with their shadows. But before the game begins, the Group Leader will need to size the tarp to the group. If the line your group is in is longer than the tarp, you will not need to fold the tarp to make it shorter, but you will need to fold the tarp to make it less wide. So, fold the tarp long ways until the top of the players’ shadows are just at the top of the tarp. This will make the game challenging but not impossible. If the line of your group is shorter than the tarp then you will need to make the tarp shorter, so fold it until it is the same length as the number of players you have, or even a little shorter than that. Then fold tarp down to make it as wide as the top of the players’ shadows. If this is all too confusing, fold the tarp until it is rather small. Play the game. raise the challenge by making the tarp larger until the group’s shadows no longer can cover it. So once the tarp is ready, the Group Leader can explain the goal to the group. The group’s goal is to completely cover up the painting so that no light reaches its surface. Players do this by casting shadows on the painting using only their bodies. Players cannot touch the painting at any time. Once the shadow has been cast and it totally covers the painting, the game is over. This can lead to some discussion about problem solving and using resources which can be a good segue to the rest of your day if you play more problem solving games.
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