Builders and Bulldozers

With lots of cones spread out in the play area, children are in two teams and move around flipping cones upside down (Bulldozers) or the right way up (Builders)

Set up

Spread cones out over a large area, with about half upside down. Divide the children into two teams, one team are the ‘Builders’ and their job is to flip all the cones up the correct way. The other team is the ‘Bulldozers’ and they have to flip as many cones as possible upside down.

Tip: To reduce set up time with larger groups, provide each child with 1 or 2 cones, allocate them as a 'Builder' or 'Bulldozer' and then ask them to set their cone(s) up the appropriate way within the playing area.

How to play

Step 1:

On the educator's command of 'GO', all the children run around flipping cones according to their team allocation (Builders or Bulldozers)
Children must keep moving around and cannot just keep flipping the same cones

Step 2:

After the end of the allocated time (1-3 minutes), the educator calls 'FREEZE' and counts up how many cones are the correct way up (Builders) or upside down (Bulldozers)
The winning team is the team with the most cones matching their team allocation

Step 3:

Swap teams, and play again!

Variations

Make it easier

Have all children on one team and see how quickly they can flip all the cones over
Spread the cones out in a smaller space

Make it harder

Use different forms of locomotion to move between cones e.g., jump, gallop, skip, hop
Educator calls out a specific colour of cones to flip e.g., only blue cones
Spread cones out in a larger space

Activity information

Age: Three year olds, Kindergarten / Pre-school, Foundation, Year 1, Year 2, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6

Participants: 4 +

Equipment: Cones

Duration: 5 minutes

Skill focus

Explore these skills for teaching tips

Balancing Running Dodging

Skill teaching

Remind children to keep their heads and eyes up to avoid any collisions.

Activity summary

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