Good for younger children. Very physical. Aids memory and develops listening skills.
Sit the group in a circle. Give each person the name of a sheep in sequence around the circle, e.g. Shaun, Shirley and so on until all have an animal name. When the teacher calls out the name of a particular animal, all those with that name have to run clockwise around the outside of the circle and back to their place. It’s basically a race to get back to your seat first and the last one back loses a life. Each participant has 3 lives. The additional twist is that at any time (while the participants are running) the teacher can call out *Sheep Go Baa-ck* and all those running must immediately turn and run in the opposite direction back to their places.
*Sheep Go Baa-ck* can be called at any time and any number of times! This encourages participants to concentrate and listen carefully for the command. Once all three lives have gone, that participant plays no further part in the game.
Watch out for children forgetting their sheep name, forgetting their place and pushing as they are running – it can get quite frantic! Also make sure you know who was last back to their seat.