Four Up

An active game to keep a constant number of people standing

Instructions

Four up is a game that is usually played in a circle, although it should still work as long as you can all see each other. It is a great game to focus attention, bringing all the players together to cooperate and achieve a collective aim.

How to play

All sit in a circle.

Four people stand up — they are only allowed to remain standing for a round of 10 (ie 10 seconds). However they may sit down sooner if they wish.

As soon as one of the four sits down, somebody else in the circle must stand up to replace them. Again, only for a maximum of 10 seconds.

The object of the game is to make sure that no less than four and no more than four people are standing at any time.

Take it further

This is taken from the book Games, Games, Games, a publication with around 250 group games. The games are essentially co-operative in nature and develop skills and attitudes which encourage learning together and supporting one another.

If you enjoyed playing this game in your group, you could also try playing The Rule of the Game. Or see if a bit of practice trying to guess what people are going to do has helped you work out the Lowest Unique Number!

It is great we are starting to have face to face activities again – make sure you and your group stay safe by following our latest guidelines on physical meetings.

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