15 quick and easy circle games to help fill time

One person is going to be the detective. Once chosen, the detective should leave the circle and turn their back to the group. Make sure they can't see or hear what’s happening in the circle.The detective role could be played in pairs if people don’t want to take part alone.

The person leading the came should now silently choose someone to be the murder, such as by pointing at them or by hovering their hand over a player’s head.

When ready, the detective should be called back to the circle and stand in the middle. They need to try and figure out who the murderer is by looking out for who might be winking. Meanwhile the murderer will 'kill' people off by winking at them, without the detective catching them.

If a player is killed, they should die (dramatically if they want to!) and then sit or lie down in the circle.

The detective only has three chances to guess correctly who the murderer is. At the end, the murderer can become the next detective and the game starts again.

Make sure any actions are things everyone can do. If winking may be difficult, you could change it to sticking your tongue out at someone.

Everyone should stand in a circle with an adult volunteer or young leader in the middle.

The person who’s leading should spin round and shout ‘splat!’, while pointing to one person, chosen at random. The person who’s been pointed at should duck down.

The two people either side of the person ducking should point at each other and shout ‘splat!’ as fast as they can. The last person to shout ‘splat!’ is out and should sit down.

Repeat this process and keep the game moving along quickly to test reflexes.

If a different person to those either side of the person ducking also shouts ‘splat!’, or the person pointed at doesn’t duck down, they’re out and must sit down too.

The game continues until there are two players left. The two players should stand back-to-back. When the person leading the games signals, they should slowly walk away from each other.

When the person leading shouts ‘splat!’, the two players must turn and shout ‘splat!’ at each other. The first to shout is the winner.

Clearly point at the person who needs to duck, as well as shouting ‘splat!’, to make the game accessible to everyone.

Everyone should create a circle, with their feet touching, but their legs open so that a ball can roll through. They should lean over slightly, so they can defend the gap between their legs using their arms.

Someone should throw a ball into the circle. Everyone passes the ball to each other by rolling it with their trunks (hands) and the aim is to get the ball through each other’s legs.

If the ball goes through someone’s legs, they need to go and get it and bring it back to the circle. They then need to put one arm behind their back, leaving only one arm to hit the ball.

If the ball goes through their legs again, they need to turn around and can use both arms again, but they will now be facing backwards.

If the ball goes through again, they put their arm behind their back again.

If they do it again, they’re out and the circle needs to get smaller, until it’s the last person standing.

To make it harder, add in another ball.

One person is going to be the detective. Once chosen, the detective should leave the circle and turn their back to the group. Make sure they can't see or hear what’s happening in the circle.The detective role could be played in pairs if people don’t want to take part alone.

An adult volunteer or young leader should point silently to one person in the circle who’ll be the rhythm master.

The rhythm master begins to sound a rhythm by clapping their hands, patting their knees or shoulders, stomping their feet and so on.

Everyone in the circle must do the same and copy the pattern. They should make sure to keep up if it changes, as the rhythm master should keep changing the action.

Ask the detective to come back to the circle and stand in the middle as the group continues to make their rhythm. The detective gets three chances to guess who the rhythm master is.

Remind everyone that they should try not to stare at the rhythm master because they’ll give away their identity to the detective. They could deliberately look at someone other than the rhythm master.

You could play this game in a quiet environment, by removing any noises. The actions need only be facial movements, or moving/waving arms or leg movements.

Someone should stand in the middle of the circle. They should the ball back and forth between themselves and the surrounding players. 

Whenever they throw the ball to a player, they must say ‘drop it’ or ‘catch it’. When the player receives instructions, they must do the opposite. 

For example, players must catch the ball if the centre player says ‘drop it’ and drop the ball if the person in the middle says ‘catch it’.

If someone gets it wrong, they’re out and need to sit down. Keep going until there’s only one person left, who can be declared the winner!

Everyone should stand in a circle. Make sure there’s lots of space on the outside of the circle for people to run around.

For this game, everyone will need to remember where they were stood. You could use floor dots, chalk, masking tape or cones to mark everyone’s space. 

Choose one player to be ‘it’.

‘It’ should move around the outside of the circle and tag a player.

Once tagged, both players then need to race around the outside of the circle in opposite directions, trying to get back to the empty space first.

The player who gets there last will then be ‘it’ and the game continues.

If anyone doesn’t like to be touched, 'it' doesn’t have to tap people on the shoulder to name them. They could shout their name when they’re behind them instead.

Everyone should stand in a circle and put one hand up, as if they’re about to give someone a ‘high five’. You may want to remind everyone of each other’s names.

Someone should stand inside the circle and call out the name of one of the people in the group.

Upon hearing their name, that person should try to call out another name of someone at least two spaces/people away from themselves.

Meanwhile, the person in the middle tries to high-five the hand of the person whose name was called and before they’ve the chance to call another name.

If the person succeeds, the person who got high-fived stands in the middle. The tagger joins the circle, in the space the person was just stood in.

Then the game begins again and the person in the middle calls out someone else’s name and tries to high five them.

If the person calls out someone else’s name in time, the person in the middle has to try to high-five whoever’s name was called out instead. They keep going, until they successfully high five someone who hasn’t had chance to call out another name.

If someone pulls their hand away before it gets slapped, or if they say their own name or the name of the person in the middle, they go into the middle of the circle.

The first player begins by saying, ‘I went to market and bought a ___,’ adding an item they would buy. For example, ‘I went to market and bought an apple.’

The next player in the circle continues, adding an item of their own. They should say ‘I went to market and bought [insert the name of the first player’s item] and a [adding a new item purchased].’

For example, ‘I went to market and bought an apple and a water bottle.’

Taking it in turns, each player around the circle continues to add to the list of shopping items. Any player who makes a mistake is out. 

Keep going until there’s only one person left, who can be declared the winner!

If a player has difficulties communicating verbally you could explore doing this activity without speaking – why not try using actions and remembering the sequences? This game could be played in pairs.

Someone should think of an appropriate message to secretly pass around the circle. When they’re ready, they should whisper the message to the person next to them in the circle.

The whispered message is passed in order from person-to-person, and the last person announces to the group the message they heard. The message may have changed as it's been passed along, which can be very funny!

After the first round, choose someone else to select the next message.

To make it more competitive, you could play this in two teams and, with the same message being given for both teams, see who gets the most accurate message down their line.

If a player has difficulties communicating verbally you could explore doing this activity without speaking. You can also play this by passing a sequence of actions, instead of a message. To play this way, everyone should get into two lines, with everyone facing one way. The first person should think of a sequence and tap the next person on the shoulder to turn around when they’re ready. They should pass on the sequence to the second person. The second person should then turn around, tap the third person to tell them to turn around and pass on the sequence of actions, and so on, until the sequence reaches the end of the line.

Choose one person to begin as ‘it.’ During each round, ‘it’ should choose a person, fictional character, place or thing. However, they can’t say what the chosen item is to the other players.

Everyone else can take it in turns asking ‘yes’ or ‘no’ questions about the item as they attempt to figure out what it might be. However, only a total of only 20 questions may be asked. An adult volunteer or young leader should keep count of the questions asked.

If at any stage of the game a player guesses correctly, play ceases and the winner becomes ‘it’ for the next round.

If no one can guess the answer after all 20 questions are asked, ‘it’ reveals the item's identity, and a new round can begin.

This game could be played in pairs if people don’t want to take part alone. You could also have some cue cards with suggestions of things to choose for anyone who may need some extra support.

Everyone should sit in a circle. Everyone needs to think of three statements about themselves: two truths and a lie.

An adult volunteer or young leader should choose someone to say all three of their statements.

People who struggle with making choices could find all the options a bit overwhelming, so they might need extra support or to work with a young leader/volunteer to be able to choose something.

The rest of the group tries to figure out which one’s the lie. People could write down or vote for their choice. Keep going round the circle until everyone’s had a go.

Choose someone in your group to be the ‘it’. Without telling the group what the object is, ‘it’ should look around and choose an object that they see. 

‘It’ should say ‘I spy with my little eye something beginning with...(the letter the object starts with, for example ‘T’ for ‘tree’).’

The rest of the group then need to try to guess what the object is. Once the group identifies the object, the person who makes the correct guess then becomes ‘it’ for the next round.

This game could be played in pairs if people don’t want to take part alone. You can also make it easier by using colours, such as ‘I spy with my little eye something that’s blue.’

Choose someone be the caller. Everyone else will need to get into a circle and place their hands on the tops of their thighs.

The caller will say one of three things, in no particular order:

• ‘In the pond’ — everyone puts their hands forwards into the circle (the pond!)
• ‘Out the pond’ — everyone puts their hands in the air above their heads.
• ‘On the bank’ — everyone puts their hands on their thighs.

If anyone moves their hands to the wrong place or at the wrong time, then they’re out of the game and must sit on their hands. Keep going until there’s only one person left, who can be declared the winner!

The aim of the game is, as a group, to count out loud from one to as high as possible, without any two or more people saying the same number at the same time.

Anyone can speak at any time, saying any number of numbers. They numbers need to be said in order from 1 upwards. However, as soon as two people say a number at the same time you must start again.

The only rules are that you can’t go round the circle and take it in turns to say numbers. You also can’t point or gesture at people to indicate who’ll be the next person to speak. How high can you get?

The object of the game is to pretend you’re passing a steaming hot potato in your hands, making sure to let go of it as quickly as possible, so you don’t get burnt. You’ll need a beanbag or ball to be the potato.

Standing in the circle, pass the beanbag or ball around the circle, while music plays in the background. If anyone drops the ‘hot potato’, they can pick it up and keep playing.

When the music stops, the person holding the ‘hot potato’ is out. Keep going until there’s only one person left, who can be declared the winner!

If it’s been dropped when the music stops, the person who missed catching the ‘hot potato’ is out.

Instead of playing music and stopping it, everyone can sing a verse of a song together while you play, When the verse ends, the person holding the beanbag or ball is out. We find one rhyme that works well is: ‘One potato, two potato, three potato, four. Five potato, six potato, seven potato, more!’

Extreme hot potato: If you want to make the game harder, people who drop the ball could also be out. If you want to make it even harder, everyone should put one hand behind their back and play one-handed, or everyone can stand on one leg to play. To make it difficult, you can also ask everyone to clasp their hands together and volley the ball, rather than throw and catch it.

Potato soup: For another version of this game, tell everyone you want to make potato soup. Place a large hula hoop in the middle, with everyone sitting in a circle around it. Every time someone is out of the game, they become a potato that gets added to the pot of soup, so they must stand or sit in the hoop. Everyone will enjoy squeezing into the soup together when there are a few of them!

If anyone struggles with fine motor skills, you could use a larger ball. You could also roll it to each other, rather than throwing and catching. However, remember that accuracy isn’t important in this game and people can retrieve ball as needed.

Make sure there’s a way to include everyone in this game or activity. If anyone doesn’t feel comfortable playing the game or taking part in the activity, give them the opportunity to take on another role instead. Some examples are timing the games, scorekeeping, playing or stopping music, or refereeing.

The games or roles, such as the detective in wink murder, could be played in pairs if people don’t want to take part alone. People could run in pairs in games, such as Circle Tag, too.

Remember, people who struggle with making choices could find all the options a bit overwhelming, so they might need extra support or to work with a young leader/volunteer to be able to choose something.

For anyone who may not be able to hear the activities, consider printing them a version on paper that they can read at the same time. You could also provide written instructions electronically to allow use of magnification software. Try to use size 12 font and either ‘Arial’ or ‘Nunito Sans’, as this is easier for lots of people to read.

Take time and have patience while telling everyone what to do. Give short instructions clearly and concisely. If you need to, pause, then repeat the same instruction using the same words.

Remember to keep instructions short and precise and be prepared to repeat these. It’s best to break information up into smaller 'chunks', so the person doesn’t feel overwhelmed. You can check for understanding by asking questions, such as ‘What do you need to do first?’.

You could have a practice round of the game to make sure everyone knows what they’re doing. Let young people help explain to each other what to do, too.

Remember when giving instructions, some people may not look at you or make eye contact. This doesn’t mean they're not listening. Eye contact can be painful for some people and shouldn't be forced.

If a player has difficulties communicating verbally, you could explore doing this activity without speaking. Remember not to speak for a young person but help them to develop their communication. For example, a closed choice can be easier to make than an open question.

If a young person mis-says a sentence, you could repeat it after them in the correct form - this will help them learn for next time and is much more useful than saying what they said is wrong or ‘correcting’ them.

To select someone, the game leader doesn’t have to tap people on the shoulder to name them, so make sure they know if anyone doesn’t like to be touched.

People can move at their own pace, so you don’t need to make it competitive unless it works for everyone. You could adapt the competitive element so everyone can be involved and without needing to run.

Avoid shouting or using whistles. Some people may not understand why you're shouting and could find this distressing, particularly if they're hypersensitive to noise. 

During games, make sure individuals who need to can clearly see the person speaking, as they may find it helpful to read lips or body language.

If it’s too noisy and anyone doesn’t like the noise, the person leading the activity can remind everyone to be quieter. You could provide ear defenders for the person to wear. You could also have a noise level warning system to let everyone know when it gets too loud, allow people to take noise breaks, and shut external doors and windows to help reduce noise.

To take part in a noisy activity, a young person with a hearing impairment might find it more comfortable to turn their hearing aid off. If this is their regular practice, you'll need to make sure that it's turned on again afterwards.

You could play some games in a quiet environment by removing any noises. For example, in Rhythm Master, actions need only be facial movements, or moving/waving arms or leg movements. In Broken Telephone, you could pass a sequence of movements down a line, rather than a spoken message.

Make sure any actions are things everyone can do. If anyone needs support in throwing the balls or beanbags, let them work closely with someone else to help them achieve this.

If anyone struggles with fine motor skills, they could use larger materials. You could swap out the items, such as beanbags, for something easier to handle, such as foam footballs.

A lot of these games can be played sitting or standing, either on the floor or on chairs. Make sure to adapt to whichever way works best for everyone and make sure any actions are things everyone can do.

Choose an area that’s suitable for all members of your group. You could visit the area early and remove any large or obvious obstacles. Think about the space you’ll be in and the equipment you’re using in advance to make sure it’s accessible to everyone in the group, including wheelchair users.

The equipment and circle should be laid out in a way that’s accessible to everyone, so making sure there’s access for everyone to move round the outside of a circle.