In honor of the movie March of the Penguins (which is a great movie to see with your kids, by the way, if you haven’t already), I offer this game, called Hop of the Penguins. I first found this game in Family Fun’s book, Boredom Busters (Disney, 2002).
The endearing thing about this game is that it came from a real event in the animal kingdom – penguins having fun. According to the book, when researchers first observed penguins hopping aboard ice floes and going for a ride, they figured it was to avoid predators or some other practical thing. But what they finally decided was that the penguins were just having fun.
So have a little of your own icy-day fun with this version of penguin hopping.
Hop of the Penguins
1. Lay a bunch of pillows to represent ice floes in a path around a large room. Set the pillows about two feet apart, closer for really young children. (Don’t use small, slippery couch pillows that might slide if you child jumps on one. Use smooshy stay-put pillows). Move any breakables or anything with hard edges.
2. Have the kids act like penguins and line up single file.
3. Now it’s time to take turns hopping from pillow to pillow. The penguin must land on the pillow with both feet. If not, they have fallen into the water and they are out.
4. For a noncompetitive game, just have the kids start over if they don’t land on a pillow until they can finish the path. For a competitive game, keep moving the pillows farther apart until everyone is eliminated except the last penguin–the winner!
You might want to play some music or turn on a DVD of March of the Penguins while your kids play this game.