Circle Games

The Farmer’s In His Den

Age: 2-6

Equipment: None

The children stand in a circle holding hands. One child is selected to be the farmer (maybe the birthday bay/girl) and stands in the middle. Everyone then sings the song.
On the second verse the farmer chooses a child from the circle to join him as his wife. With each new verse the last child to be selected chooses another child to join the group in the middle.
The last child is the ‘bone’ and becomes the next farmer.

The farmer’s in his den,
The farmer’s in his den,
Eee, aye, andio,
The farmer’s in his den.

Other verses:

Age: 5+

Equipment: Scarf for a blindfold

All the children sit in a circle.
One child is blindfolded and stands in the middle of the circle.
The child is spun round until he lose s his sense of direction, and is led to a child in the circle.
He sits on the child’s lap and says “Squeak, Piggy, squeak!”
The child then has to oink/squeak three times and the blindfolded child has to guess who it is.
If he’s correct, the “Piggy” puts on the blindfold and has a turn; if he’s wrong, he is led to another child.

Age: 5+

All the children stand in a circle
One child is given the ball – the ‘hot potato’ who quickly shouts out the name of another child before throwing the ball to them.
If the child catches it, he immediately chooses another child to throw the ball to.
If he drops the ball he is out
The last remaining child is the winner.

You could roll the ball between seated children if they are too young to throw and catch.