The Banana Game¹

This game is great fun. When I played this game with the children (Primary 1) in my Sunday School class, they enjoyed it so much that they want to play it again.

This game can be used to teach kids about kindness ... that we have a choice to be kind even when people are mean to us. The object of this game is to get three bananas of the SAME colour and not to have a monkey!



Introduce the Banana Game

• Game Pieces
  
  Introduce one stack of cards: 4 different coloured bananas + 1 monkey. Each stack is a horizontal row (of the Game Sheet) ... cut up and stapled together (see full-size Game Sheet ).
  
  
  
  Bananas are of eight different colours: red, green, blue, yellow, black, white, purple and brown.
  
  
• Game Objective
  
  In this game, the objective is to get three bananas of the same colour and to not have a monkey. The first one to accomplish this goal must shout "Ba-na-na-na!"
  
  
• Game Play
  
  To play the game, ask another player for a banana that is a colour you want (i.e., one that is the same colour as one of your coloured bananas).
  
  Ask, "May I have a red banana?"
  
  If you are the other player then you can do the following (depending on what you have in your hands) ...
  
  
  1. If you have a red banana + monkey
     then give either one; it is your choice.
     
     
  2. If you have a red banana + no monkey
     then you must give the red banana to the person.
     
     
  3. If you don't have a red banana
     then say, "Sorry! Go climb a tree."
     
     
  Then it is the other person's turn to ask; you can ask for any coloured banana but not the same colour as the one you had just given away.
  
  Note: If the children are shy then you may want to stipulate an additional rule: "You cannot ask the same person again and again. Ask 3 other different persons before you can ask the same person again."

Play the Banana Game

Play the game until there are several children who had achieved the goal. Prepare a small snack/toy for each of the winners.

Ask the children

1. Who has no monkey?
2. Why did you give away your monkey?
3. How many of you have >1 monkey?
4. How do you feel when your friend gave you a monkey?
   
   
5. How do you feel when someone pushes you?
6. What do you feel like doing? Cry, shout at him, push back, etc
   
   But God tells us to be kind to each other (Eph 4:32) – memory verse
   Jesus said, "Love your enemies and pray for those who persecute (hurt) you."
   
   
7. How many of you have 2, 3, 4 monkeys?
8. Why didn’t you give away your monkeys?
   
   Note: You may want to award a prize to the one who did not give away any monkey because it is not nice.

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¹ The inspiration for this game came from the Attention Grabber (Old Monkey) of Lesson 7 :: Hands-On Bible Curriculum :: Grades 1 & 2, Fall 2006



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