Begin with all the children in a circle, on chairs or cushions. Each round begins with the teacher, who is outside the circle, calling out the following phrase: “The west wind blows on everyone who…”, continuing by referring to some characteristic that more than one child shares, such as blue eyes, black hair, blue pants, and so on. All the children who share that characteristic must then get up and switch places with each other. Each child must find a different seat from the one he or she was occupying before the call.
Care should be taken that children do not push or collide with each other when switching seats. The circle should be wide enough to give all the children space to move when they are called.
Variations
All the children sit in a circle except one, who is chosen to be the game-caller. The game-caller stands in the middle of the circle and calls out the phrases that the teacher would call out in the basic game. When the children get up, the game-caller tries to find a seat along with everyone else. Whoever is left standing at the end of the round then becomes the new game-caller.
Example calls
Calls to begin each round must start with the phrase “The west wind blows on…” and end with some characteristic that is shared by multiple children. Calls may be specific (i.e. very few people get up) or general (i.e. many people get up), but they should always be clear. Examples include:
The west wind blows on…
- …everyone who has brown eyes.
- …everyone who’s wearing green.
- …everyone whose first name starts with a T.
- …everyone who was born in Canada.
- …everyone who likes pizza.
- …everyone who knows how to speak French.
- …everyone who’s been on an airplane.
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