This is a great game for both indoor and outdoors. It’s a great rainy/wintry day indoor game, because it’s very active and doesn’t require a lot of space, especially when trees can be used as “corners.” In more innocent times, it was called “Pussy in a Corner.”
Number of players 3+
Ages: 5+
Space: Open living room, open basement, or outdoors.
All the players but one takes their places in goals at the corners of the playing area. The odd player goes from one corner to another saying “Kitty wants a corner!” The player the Kitty says this to replies “Go to my next door neighbor!”
Meanwhile, any two of the other players watch their opportunity to change places, which they must eventually do. Their goal is to change places when the Kitty’s attention is on other players, because the Kitty is trying to reach his goal of getting one of the vacated corners.
The fun of the game is trying to draw the Kitty’s attention away by making a lot of gestures and signals to each other to switch. It requires the players to pay close attention to one another, and since non-verbal communication is most affective, it puts a premium on watching, as well as listening to other players. The Kitty can also throw a wrench in the works by “faking out” the other players, appearing to go toward one corner while changing direction quickly to go to another.
Whichever player doesn’t get a corner becomes the Kitty for the next round. If the Kitty doesn’t get a corner right away, or if none of the players are moving, she may call “All Change!” and then all of the players must change places, hopefully allowing the Kitty to get a corner.
This can be a fun game to watch, especially in a smaller playing area.