Active, imaginative play with friends helps kids to practise many key skills and improve a range of abilities. This classic game is easy to adapt to keep it fresh and inviting. Instead of running, try a version where the players have to skip, hop or crawl around the circle. Or change the words to fit a favourite theme such as pirates, fairies or unicorns!
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Fun fact!
The Guinness World Record for the largest game of Duck, Duck, Goose was made in 2011, when 2,145 students formed a massive circle around their school football stadium.
About the activity
Get the children to sit in a big circle on a nice patch of grass. One child is chosen to be the ‘goose’, and walks around the outside of the circle, patting the heads of the other players – the ‘ducks’. With each pat, the walking goose says ‘Duck’, until they decide to choose one player and shout ‘Goose!’ instead. Then the chase begins! The chosen duck must get up and race after the goose before he/she completes the circle and sits in their spot. If the duck manages to catch and tag the goose in time, they sit back in their original place and the game continues in the same way for the next round. If, however, the goose completes the circle and sits down without being tagged, they become for a duck for the next round – and the game continues with a new goose.