Will you be an elephant or a palm tree in this fast paced game?
How to play
Begin with everyone standing in a circle.
One person stands in the middle and points to someone in the circle, saying ‘elephant’ or ‘palm tree’.
The person they pointed to and the people next to them in the game then need to make either an elephant or palm tree position together.
To make an elephant the person pointed to leans forward clasping their hands and swinging arms to form a trunk. The person on the left makes the elephant’s left ear by holding up the left elbow and touching the top of their head with their left hand. The person to the right of the elephant trunk does the same with their right arm. This forms the elephant’s right ear.
To make the palm tree, the person pointed to stands with arms straight up (the trunk). Those on each side hold up their outside arms, hands drooping, to make the fronds.
You can play just for fun or you could have the last person to get into position has to sit down and see who is the last standing!
Variations
You could try out these extra positions to make it a bit more complicated for older groups:
Vomiting Kangaroo — The person in the middle makes as if they vomit and bend over forwards. The two people on the side hold their imaginary bucket out.
Toaster — The person in the middle jump up and calls out ‘ping’. The people either side hold hands together to show ‘catching’ the toast.
Mixer — The person in the middle stands with both arms up in air (to symbolise a spoon/mixer). The people either side turn around in a circle.
Or you could even make up some of your own!
Take it further
This is a really fun game to play by itself, but you could also use it as an introduction to a more discussion based session. Use this opportunity to talk about elephants and the ivory trade, maybe about endangered species in general. You could also talk about palm oil and the importance of buying products which contain responsibly sourced palm oil.
Thanks to Peace Pledge Union and our members.
If you enjoyed playing this game in your group, you could also try playing Human Noughts and Crosses
