Benefits of the game

 

Playing four corners is great for theatre and drama students, but could also be used for PE or general classroom/playground games for any glass. It’s great for concentration, listening and body movement. It is fun and allows students to rely on their sense of hearing. It’s great to use at the start of the class for focusing your group ready for the tasks ahead. It also uses energy up with body movement so the players will concentrate better in the next activity.

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Good for all ages.           Good for all group sizes.

 

How to play

 

Assign the four corners of the room a colour and make sure everyone knows which one is which. Nominate a student to stand in the middle of the room with their eyes closed. Keeping their eyes closed they loudly count to 10 (players must be able to hear it). On the count of ten all players should be standing in one of the four corners. The player in the middle then points to a corner and says the name. All players in that corner are out of the game and must move out of the playing space. Continue like this until only one player remains. They are the winner and they become the new counter in the middle of the room. Play for as many rounds as you want.

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Tips for playing

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• There is no last minute moving! Players that are not in a corner on 10 are eliminated. This will make it easier for you in the long run, because students like to move at the final moment and undoubtedly make noise when they move to the new corner and will probably be out, but then all the people in that corner will argue that it wasn't fair. So to stop this and make your life easier, if students aren’t in a corner at 10 they are out!

• Having visual colours in the corners can help students with remembering them. I put a coloured paper on the wall or use a cone.

• Have children use themed voices to count- especially good if you want to practise accents.

• Allow students to stamp feet and ‘set up’ the person in the middle. It’s waaaaaaay more fun this way.

• Challenge students to move in a certain way for example on hands and knees only, or like zombies.

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Love 2 Learn English also writes plays and shows for children/schools with no licence fees. Simply pay for the script and use it how you want.
Check out the Scripts & Monologue pages here.