This appears to be a rather popular game spotted being promoted by @TheDramaCentre. It is semi-energetic, in that there are brief bursts of activity – not everybody running around at the same time. Good for larger indoor spaces/halls with space to move around. Possibly a warm-up or cool-down game, or even a party game.
We’ve come across various rules, but they always seemed to lack some useful details so the ones explained here hopefully cover everything.
Everybody needs to find a chair to sit on and you also need one additional empty chair. Chairs can be arranged how you like, eg in a circle, all facing the same way, in a line in an alternate facing fashion or randomly. However, you need to make sure it’s possible to move between the chairs and every chair is accessible.
Pick one person to become the ‘penguin’. They have to leave their chair and find an empty chair to sit in – which at this point is the empty chair at the start. However, the penguin can only move with their knees locked together creating a sort of penguin-like movement. Everybody else has the role of blocking the penguin from sitting on the chair, by sitting on it themselves. Everybody but the penguin can move normally but they cannot go back and sit in the last chair they were in. That chair is out of bounds until somebody else sits in it.
Players can and are encouraged to communicate with each other to help.
Once the penguin has sat down on an empty seat the game stops and another player is designated as the penguin.
Too easy?…. see what happens with two or three penguins on the go at once.
Some versions of the game don’t mention having an empty chair at the start. It’s the penguin’s chair that becomes empty and the penguin then just has to wait to see who will move to occupy it and leave their chair empty.