Wood Chip Monster - a Great Game to Play at the Park

I've worked in recreation for my local city for 11 years and have come across plenty of outdoor games. Some were hits and some were misses. Some lasted one day, others have lasted till today. One that has seemed to survive a pretty long time is one my staff come up with for our after school program. It's called "Wood Chip Monster" (we called it that because our parks have wood chips instead of sand or rubber as its floor) and doesn't need anything other than a playground and an imagination.

You will need to find a park that does has have more than one structure (IE. slide, jungle gym, bridge, or whatever kids play on). But once you have that, you are good to go. Here's how to play:

This game is a variation of tag. One person has to be the wood chip monster. Everyone else is trying to escape from the monster. But the only place you can be 'safe' is when you are on structure. If a person who is not 'it' foot hits the ground, they they can be tagged. The monster could not climb the structures (unless talked about beforehand, see below)

The monster can also force everyone to move to another structure (this helps make the game move along) by yelling 'SWITCH' in a pre-designated area in the middle of the playground. Once this is yelled everyone has to move to a different playground structure immediately while trying to to be tagged. When the monster yells 'switch' he can freely move around to tag someone. But this can only be done once during a monster's turn.

Once someone else is tagged they become the wood chip monster. The game resets with the old monster becoming a person trying to to be tagged.

Now here's where you can tailor the game to your particular playground. At my playground we had different painted colored area's on different structures. For example we had one piece of equipment that had a ladder, bridge, and slide. The ladder was painted yellow while nothing else on that entire piece of equipment was painted yellow. Before the game started, we would designate a color that you monster could climb and you tag you. It added another layer to the game. You can pick a color or whatever is unique to your playground.

Having played this game a thousand times, I can attest to the fact that it's one game that will be around a long time. I loved playing it just as much as the kids did.