Simple Outdoor Game for Groups of Children

With the summer brings many opportunities for playgroups, nurseries, play schemes, primary schools and large family groups to get their groups of children out into the warm sunny great outdoors. Now that winter is well and truly behind us, there is no need to spend any more time cooped up inside, dealing with energy riddled kids bouncing off the walls looking for ways to vent their excitable natures.



Groups of children can be tough to handle, but when taken outdoors safety and security become paramount. With this fun outdoor game for groups of kids, you will be able to keep them engaged and having fun so you can stay in control.



Rounders



Rounders is a bit like baseball or softball and needs a minimum of about 10 participants. Played with two teams in a wide field like a football pitch, you need 4 bases set out in a diamond shape with about 10 metres between each one. You also need a bat and a ball. One team are ‘fielding' and spread out across the field with one player on each base, one player in the centre of the diamond and one behind ‘home base'. The other team is batting and, in turn, stand over home base with the bat. The fielder in the centre (the pitcher) throws the ball to the fielder behind home base and the batter tries to hit the ball. They have three attempts to hit the ball, if they fail, they are out of the game and the next batter takes the bat. If they hit the ball, they must attempt to run around the diamond to get back to home base and score a ‘run'. The fielding team can catch the ball before it hits the ground taking the batter out of the game, they can also get the ball to a base the batter is running to in order to get them out.



The number of runs the batting team gets is their score, and once all their players have been caught or stumped out the teams swap so that the batting team is now fielding and the fielding team are now batting. Once the new batting team are all out, the team with the highest score wins.



Rounders is an excellent summer game for kids as you can have as many people playing as you need, you need minimal equipment, children (and some energetic adults) of all ages can play together at the same time and above all it is a fun and exciting game. Next time you get the chance why not give it a go? Playing this game, whether or not it is educational supplies children with sportsmanship and good exercise. Similarly, preschool equipment should always contain balls and other items for sport.