Sleeping Lions !

The game of Sleeping Lions never ceases to amaze me!

As someone who works with kids all the time I just don’t get it  !!!

This is the Wikipedia translation of the game of sleeping Lions

Sleeping Tigers (also known as “Dead Dogs,” “Dead Donkey,” or “Dead Fish”) is a children’s game.

“All but one or two players are “tigers“, and lie down on the floor, eyes closed, as if they were sleeping. The remaining one or two players (“hunters“) move about the room attempting to encourage the tigers to move. The hunters can’t touch the tigers, but may move close to them, tell things to them, jokes, etc. Any person who moves must stand up and join the hunters.

Sleeping tigers is also sometimes used in schools as an exercise. All the children will play “tigers” and the teacher will play the “hunter”. Usually in this case the teacher will make no effort to make the “tigers” move, because in this case the real aim of the “game” is to calm the children down after playing other exciting games.

Variations of the game can include: dead soldiers, sleeping logs, standing scarecrows, snoozing tigers and dead lions (Somerset)   “   

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleeping_lions

The game is really all about pretending and stillness. The latter being something kids rarely do willingly! During my 18 years of working with children and delivering  Dance, Fitness sessions,  holiday activities, and Birthday parties I have never come across a child who doesn’t like this game !……Have you ?.

The part that fascinates me is that if you ask children to relax lye down, go to sleep or shut their eyes, they can’t help themselves but to poke one another, fidget or pretend to snore !.

So what is it about Sleeping Lions that captures children into a coma-like state?  ..Why is pretending to be asleep such a great game?. I wonder if the fact that it’s a game gives normally boisterous children the “ok “ to relax because actually it’s a game, so in a Childs thinking,  it’s not really real??

It never ceases to amaze me the skills some players have developed to maintain complete and utter stillness!  Even when being tickled and poked.

I love the way children adapt the rules to help catch out the last few sleeping Lions that have been perfectly still. I have heard statements such as “that person is moving because they are breathing and the chest is going up and down! “  And the best one so far   “their eyelashes are moving “ …!!??

During the research, I did for this blog I have failed to find a similar children’s game to Sleeping Lions. Most games incorporate an element of movement. Even the other popular game of Musical Statues which includes stillness is really all about the contrast of vigorous movement too sudden stillness and maintaining the last moving position.

Some research indicated that there could be a link between the Biblical story of Daniel and the Lions Den.to the game of Sleeping Lions. Daniel moved among the Lions because he believed in God so the Lions left him alone and went to sleep.

 

Whatever the origins of this game and the variations, I do know that every single adult who has ever used this game to help calm children down is grateful for its existence!!

 

I would love to hear your thoughts and stories about Sleeping Lions, or whatever you call it!