Group activities – fun

All those who

This is high energy game, great for any time you need to raise the energy, or run off some steam. It also highlights some of the things the siblings have in common

You will need

A chair for all the siblings

How to do it

• The siblings are seated on chairs in a circle with the leader standing in the middle. There is no chair vacant for this person.
• The leader calls out ‘All those with a brother or sister who is disabled/has autism/other condition change places’. All the children change places. The leader does this several more times with examples like ‘All those who get angry with their brother or sister at times change places’ or ‘All those who like chocolate change places’ or ‘All those wearing trainers change places’. Choose phrases which will get a lot of children to change places.
• Now tell them that from now on the leader in the middle is going to run for a chair whenever the group changes places. Each time the person left without a chair becomes leader.
• Whenever you have a turn at being leader you can include an ‘All those’ which is about the experience of being a sibling e.g. ‘All those who get a bit embarrassed when out with their brother or sister change places’

Knots

A fun game that involves working as a group and learning to cooperate

You will need

Some space

How to do it

• Ask siblings and vounteers/staff to stand in a small circle/s of 6 to 8 people. Say ‘Each person needs to hold two hands from two different people, but you must not hold the hand of your neighbour/person next to you.’ Check that each person has done this bit correctly.
• Tell the group to untangle without letting go of any hands to create a circle – some people may end up facing in and some facing out. Sometimes you get two interlinked circles.
• Once the group have done this once they will want to do it again to see if they can do it faster next time.

Twin Tag