Think Outside the Box

The students are trapped inside their ordinary, everyday thinking minds. Commonplace minds lead to poor communication between people of different backgrounds. Martin Luther King Jr. believed that all people must be able to communicate in a non-violent way. The inside of the play area represents the trapped minds. If you have a basketball court, use the outer perimeter lines to represent the boundaries of their commonplace minds. If not, place traffic cones around the outside to represent their minds' boundaries of thinking. The object of the game is to get out of their everyday kind of thinking and begin to think outside the box. Thinking outside the box allows the students to escape the apathy of ordinary life and reach new heights of communication and understanding.

Equipment: One hoop for each student and extra hoops to scatter around.

The game:

• Begin the game in scatter formation. Each student finds personal space inside their everyday minds (the area inside of the basketball court).
• Give each student a hoop to stand in. Scatter some extra hoops throughout their everyday mind area.
• Now, tell the students that they are trapped by ordinary thinking. They are used to always thinking the same way. As long as they stay inside a hoop, this kind of thinking allows a normal but isolated life. Once they step outside of a hoop, they will be entering a world of chaos and misunderstanding that their ordinary thinking will not be able to cope with. However, if they are close enough to an empty hoop, they may jump into that hoop. Hoops may not be shared.
• While standing inside of a hoop, you may not move the hoop. However, if you are able to pick up an empty hoop, you may toss it or roll it to a new location.
• On the "go" signal, students try to jump or leap into empty hoops and manipulate other empty hoops so that they can land outside the play area and think outside the box If they touch the floor inside, they must pick up an empty hoop and begin the game in the center of the mind (center circle of a basketball court). Once outside the play area, they may pick up an empty hoop, and begin the game again from the center.
• Time the game for about ten minutes. See how many times each student can successfully leave ordinary thinking behind by successfully jumping or leaping outside the box. Play again, and see if they can beat their previous score.

Variations:

1. Vary the number of extra hoops.
2. Give each student a beanbag. They may toss the beanbag into an empty hoop. If the toss is successful, they may touch the floor inside the play area and move to that hoop. If the toss is unsuccessful, they must play the game as above, until they are able to pick up another beanbag.
3. Half the students begin the game inside a hoop in their ordinary thinking mind. Half the students begin the game outside the ordinary thinking mind, holding a hoop. The students on the outside attempt to roll or toss their hoop so that the students inside can take advantage of these hoops to get themselves out. The students outside may enter the inside at anytime to retrieve a hoop, but they must always throw or roll it from the outside. Once successfully leaving ordinary thinking behind, those students may help others think outside the box by rolling or tossing a hoop. See how long it takes to get everyone outside the box, then switch rolls.
4. Play the same game, but use other scenarios. For example, the interior of the play area is a minefield. Stepping outside the hoop causes the player to explode. He must start again from the center of the minefield. The interior of the play area may also be a huge swamp, a dark cave, or deep jungle.