Students and educators have a lot of “new normal” for the 2020-2021 school year, and the one that sounds the toughest to me is schoolyard distancing. Kids can go unmasked in the schoolyard but must play one meter apart from everyone else. If we want to ease the pain of our teachers tasked with enforcing this new rule, parents need to start playing socially distanced games with our kids now.

If you ever took theater classes, these games will sound very familiar. Theatrical training revolves around understanding your spatial relations onstage while maintaining an emotional connection with your partner, so it seems like a great place to find inspiration. Show them how much fun it can be one meter apart and they’ll take the challenge rather than complain.

Zip Zap Zop

This game always makes kids laugh. You clap your hands towards your friend and say “Zip!” The person you pointed to claps their hands towards another friend and says “Zap!” That person chooses someone to clap their hands at and says “Zop!” and you start all over. If you mess up and say the wrong word, you’re out. You can play with any number of people and variations are endless.

Zip zap zop from a distance

Whoosh Ball

You play catch with a friend, except it’s an invisible ball. Change the size of the ball just by the shape of your hands. All of a sudden, the ball is on fire! Or it’s an ice ball and it melts in your hands!

Hopscotch

If you can use chalk in your schoolyard, get one person to create the hopscotch board and another student can make circles where the other players stand one meter apart when not in play. Everyone uses a different landing piece, takes turns throwing it onto the hopscotch grid, and skipping along to pick it up without missing a beat. As one friend finishes, others move to a different circle closer to the start of the game.

I Spy        

We all know this one. “I spy with my little eye something that is… blue!” Then other friends try to guess what you saw. It might get a little hard to find new things after a while, but always a good game to try. It gets our family through a lot of DiDi trips.

“I spy with my little eye…”

Spot the Rainbow

Look around your schoolyard and find the colors of the rainbow, in order. This will require friends to agree on what colors are in a rainbow, but that’s fun too!

One Word Stories

Stand one meter apart and take turns telling a story together. The trick is you only tell it one word at a time. Spice up the game by suggesting a genre of a story to tell, like a fairy tale, comedy, talking animals, Halloween, etc.

Who Am I? And Charades

Classic games that never get old, one friend chooses a kind of person or an object and the other kids ask questions to figure out who they are. If the person who chose only answers yes or no, it can get very tricky.

Does anyone know why it’s called Simon says? Who’s Simon?

Simon Says

Nothing says you can’t play Simon Says at least one meter apart. One child starts as “Simon,” and gives instructions on what the other kids do. If the “Simon” says “Simon Says” before an instruction, the others have to do it. If she doesn’t, and you do it anyway, you’re out.

Freeze Dance

Someone sings while their friends dance. If the singer stops singing, the other players stop dancing and freeze. If you’re so into the dance that you don’t freeze, you’re out! Sense a pattern?

Mirror Exercise

Stand one meter apart from your partner, and slowly one of you starts to move. Stay very still except for one movement at a time, like a mirror image. The trickiest part is there shouldn’t be one leader. Both partners should feel as though they are working together to move. It’s a great game to build concentration.

Rock Paper Scissors

It’s always fun to see how long kids stay entertained by this game. Besides the standard rock, paper and scissors combination, challenge them to create new ones. There’s “Rock, Paper, Dragon,” “Giants, Wizards, Elves,” and “Rock, Paper, Scissors, Magic!” for the Hogwarts crowd.

I tried these with my kids at orientation, when they looked around their schoolyard and asked what they would or wouldn’t be allowed to do. Once we got into the swing of some of these games, it felt just as fun as contact tag! There’s one less thing to stress about this school year.

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Photos: Unsplash and Canva

Of late, there have been several online discussions among college students on whether they can leave school during the Mid-Autumn Festival and National Day holidays in October, as many universities pursue a “closed management” policy for Fall 2020. In a recent press conference, the Ministry of Education (MOE) has addressed these concerns, stating that students and teachers can freely enter and exit their campus premises during the two October holidays, just like during weekends and outside of class hours. However, Wang Dengfeng, director of the COVID-19 leading response group at the MOE, encouraged students and teachers to not leave unless absolutely necessary.

Wang made these remarks in response to questions regarding conflicting information that teachers can freely enter and exit schools, but not students. He emphasized that the entry and exit policies for students, faculty, and other working staff should be consistent with the Technical Plan for the Prevention and Control of The Epidemic in the Fall Semester of Colleges and Universities, which was circulated to all tertiary education institutions by the MOE.

“Some schools may have clearly-defined requirements and policies, as the Fall semester has just started in schools, and epidemic prevention and control work is based on time. For example, students, faculty, and staff in Beijing universities must hold a negative nucleic acid test certificate that is valid within seven days before they return to campus. If you travel outside during the October 1 holiday, while coming back, one may have to go through such a procedure”, Wang said. He stressed that schools need to make reasonable arrangements based on the actual situation and the prevention-control requirements that are in place.

Not sure what to do? You’re not alone.

At the same time, Wang also said that a one-size-fits-all approach is not encouraged, but every prevention and control measure must be in place. “The premise is to ensure the normal order of campus education and teaching. In devising the regulations and requirements for epidemic prevention and control, one has to adapt to local conditions. Moreover, we must continue to understand and accept these measures, so that we can not only control the epidemic but also return to normalcy in education and teaching.”

While there are currently no local COVID-19 cases in Beijing, the Ministry of Education isn’t making room for complacency in their COVID-19 response. With the upcoming Mid-Autumn Festival being simultaneously celebrated with National Day for the first time in 19 years, they’re keen to avoid a third wave of infections originating from the campuses of Beijing’s prestigious universities.

KEEP READING: COVID-19 or Plain Old Flu: My Experience Getting a Nucleic Acid Test

Images: Beijing Communications University & Unsplash