Home Age - Older Children Cat and Mouse

Cat and Mouse

by Kit
Published: Last Updated on 4.3K views
silhouette of children running

aka “Streets and Lanes”

This does need a large number of players. E.g. school groups or similar sized parties. It is also good for helping develop group co-ordination. However, be aware that as only two people are running at any one time and players are often standing for long periods with their arms outstretched this can get very boring and tiring. So it is unlikely everybdy will have a chance to run in either role.

One person becomes the ‘cat’ (catcher), and another the ‘mouse’. All other players stand to create an evenly spaced grid, all facing the same direction, with their arms outstretched. Players creating the grid don’t need to be touching hands as it’s more important they are each effectively standing at the corner of a square and their outstretched arms creating one side of the square with a largish gap between each line of players that the cat and mouse can run down.

However, when the leader gives a signal such as calling “change” or blowing a whistle, all players standing with their arms outstretched have to turn through 90 degrees so their arms now create paths at right angles to what it was before. It is worth getting the group used to changing position on command before starting the game.

Cat and mouse start at opposite ends of the grid. With the objective of the cat needing to catch to the mouse, but neither of them can cut through the barriers created by the arms. The leader can call “change” as many times as they wish.

Round ends when cat catches mouse or failure to do so in a given time limit.

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