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Indoor or Rainy Day Games

Polaroid

This is like one of those story-building games, only it's all about building an image. Nothing changes or moves. I like to play it with my eyes closed because it's easier to build the image.

It's called "Polaroid" because the image develops, like a polaroid picture.

One player starts with anything, like, "a penny." Someone else adds a detail the he or she actually imagines when picturing a penny - a 1978 penny. The next player adds yet another detail. "on a red checkered table cloth." Again, the direction here is not to tell a story, not to try to be cute, but simply to say what you're seeing.

Psychiatrist

One person leaves the room. Everyone in the circle decides on a certain rule to follow when answering the psychiatrist's questions. Examples might be:
--tell the truth when legs uncrossed, tell a lie when legs are crossed
--answer all questions with five word phrases
--begin all sentences with a vowel.
When a rule is decided upon, the psychiatrist comes back into the room and starts asking questions to people in the circle. They continue asking questions until they recognize the pattern. They have three guesses to try and figure out the rule.
When the psychiatrist guesses correctly or guesses three times incorrectly, the round is over, and someone else gets to be the psychiatrist.

Huckle Buckle Beanstalk

Pick a smallish object. Hide it in plain sight, where nothing has to be moved to find it. The kids look for it, and when they find it, instead of picking it up or point to it, they sit down off to the side and say, "Huckle Buckle Beanstalk!" by leaving it there, everyone gets a chance to find it. If they need help, you can play the hotter/colder game. The first one to find it gets to hide it the next time.

Honey if you love me…

The group starts in a circle with one person in the middle. This person tries to get others to laugh by saying “Honey if you love me you’ll smile.” The person on the outside must respond without smiling or laughing saying "Honey, I love you but I just can't smile." The person in the middle can do various things, without touching anyone, to get another person to smile. If the person does smile then they will become the center person.