Great ideas for games at Level 1

[Jules]

The Sausage Sandwich Game was sent in by Sue O'Sullivan, who won an Ortlieb shopping pannier in a recent i-Contact competition. Thanks Sue, we love this game for its silliness but also because it teaches good Level 1 control skills whilst making training fun!

A game I ask children to play in the playground is “Sausage sandwich”.

2 Children are bread slices and 1 child is the sausage. The “bread” children cycle around with the”sausage” between them led by one child who is the waiter, not a race, (so not aloud to “ketchup!”), with one sandwich behind the other - we have had as many as 6 sandwiches going round.

The children can either be called out if their sandwich breaks up or they all ride around for a certain time and the winner is the most complete sandwich for the most time.

Sounds silly but the children love it.

The other entries were also great and will be posted on here shortly. Thanks to all who entered. See this month's i-Contact for a chance to win a Bikebin.

[xpc316e]

I really like this idea - I am doing some Level 1 tomorrow and will try it out - thanks for posting.

[Jules]

Thanks. When I get round to it I will put some more up.

[billynibbles]

Here's a couple we use in our level 1 sessions.

a) The pedal-up or pedal-ready game. Children ride is a large circle around instructor. At the call of "STOP" they have to carry out an emergency stop. The rider who fails, or is last to get their pedal ready is out (although a certain amount of 'blind eyes' have to be turned if it's the same kid out first time every time! Likewise, on the shout of "GO!", anyone forgetting to look back is out.

b) A mixture of slow and fast riding skills. Split the group into teams of two. Get one child to ride as slowly as possible to the end of the playground, giving the other as many chances as possible to ride full circle around them. The winning team is the one with the most circles. Get them to swap roles at the other end and come back. The real skill comes from seeing how close to the rear of the slow rider the 'circler' can come, whilst giving the slow rider just enough room when passing round the front.

c) Then of course, there's always that old fall-back, riding in a figure of eight, through a cross point of four markers in the centre of the area. The riders have to give way to eachother alternately, and practice their slow riding skills as they should be encouraged not to put their feet down. It sounds like a recipe for disaster, but the kids love it - where else would they get 15 mates round on a safe patch of tarmac to get this going?

[xpc316e]

I often set out two concentric circles of cones; the riders are numbered and ride around the outer circle and when their number is called, they peel off the outer circle and ride around the tight inner circle. They do this until the next rider's number is called and they come into the middle. The first rider rejoins the outer circuit in a gap of ther choice. It is great for promoting eye contact between road users and they have to get used to judging gaps, speeding up or slowing down to get into them, letting other riders into gaps, etc.

Once they are proficient, I call two riders into the inner circle at once; this means four riders are trying to enter and leave the circle at changeover time. It gets chaotic but there's never been a crash. I even finish up by calling 'all the odd numbers' etc.

I also use King of the Ring to follow this up as you already have the outer circle of cones layed out. Riders circulate around the inside of the outer circle after the inner circle has been removed. The instructors then walk around gradually nudging the cones inwards to make the circle tighter. There must be no overtaking and anyone leaving the circle, or putting a foot down is out. Riders who are out can assist in nudging in the cones. The winner is the last one riding.

I sometimes use three hoops on the ground and beanbags for the riders to throw into the hoops. Hoops have differing scores according to how far away they are from the riding line. Riders keep their own point score. It makes them forget about taking hands off the bars if they have a beanbag to throw. If they are reluctant to do that I allow them to try to hit me with the beanbags - that usually does the trick! I also give them their beanbags as they ride past a helper and make sure they have to change hands with the bag. All good fun.