Picket Fences | Playworks

To develop teamwork, listening, and leadership skills.

Equipment Needed: Large area with a wall or fence at one end of it, colored half cones or poly dots to mark starting points for teams.

Explain that this game is a relay race.
Do a demonstration with three or four of the students (with you being the first player running to the wall/fence and then guiding the student through). Remind students to keep their arms extended in the fence/chain so that the next person can run more easily under them.
Divide the students into two or more teams (there should be at least six students per team). If you have an orange and a purple half cone/poly dot out, for example, divide the students by “Orange-Purple” so they know which cone or dot to line up behind)
At the start of game, each team should be lined up behind their cone facing the wall/fence

Create teams, and use as many different colored half cones or poly dots there are as teams (one class should have just two teams; a group larger than 30 should have three teams).
Set the cones/dots side by side about 10 feet apart from each other and at least 100 feet from the wall or fence.

On the leader’s whistle, the first person from each team runs to the wall/fence.
Once the first person gets to the wall, s/he puts their hand to it, keeping a space between the wall and his/her body by extending their arm out to touch the wall. They then wave to the next person with their free hand to signal that the next person may now run now.
The second person in line advances and runs under the first person’s arm (in between the wall and the first person’s body) and then connects to their extended hand on the other side. Once connected, s/he waves to the next person in line with his/her free hand.
The third person in line advances and runs in between the first person and the wall, then under and in between the arms of the first and second person, and then connects to the second person’s extended hand. S/he then waves to the next person in line.
The race continues with each player running under and in between each students’ arms until the last person on each team is connected to the end of the “picket fence” or “people chain.”