Captain's Coming is a group activity that can be done at a distance.
Here are the instructions for this very easy game:
- Step 1. Mark a large play area to represent the deck of a ship. Use plastic cones to mark the bow and two long lines that represent the port (left) and starboard (right) sides of the ship.
- Step 2. Stand at the bow of the ship and ask the children to stand in a single long line between you and the stern of the ship, with two metres between each child.
- Step 3. You are the captain and you shout out commands to the “sailors.”
- Step 4. You can make up more silly commands, but you have to tell the sailors before playing so everyone understands them.
- Step 5: You can eliminate sailors until there is only one remaining and that sailor becomes the captain for the next round of play, or you can simply limit each round to two minutes and choose a new captain each time.
Some commands:
- “Captain’s Coming!”: Sailors must stand at attention and salute. If they fail to stand still at attention, or if they laugh or giggle, they are “dismissed” and must sit down.
- “At Ease!”: Sailors remain standing, but they can relax and stop saluting.
- “Starboard side!”: Players run to the right.
- “Port side!”: Players run to the left.
- “Swab the Deck!”: Sailors pretend to mop the deck.
- “Hit the deck!”: Sailors drop down to the ground as fast as possible.
- “Beached whale!”: Everyone lays on the ground and acts like a beached whale (wiggling, writhing, and making weird sounds).
Let's climb aboard and get this sailing adventure started!
