Four Corners

Children choose one of the four corners of the room after the workshop leader calls out a sequence during a theater game.

Objectives: managing emotions under pressure, spatial awareness, and awareness of others

Age: 6 and up

This game can be used as a warm-up exercise or as a playful activity at the end of a session.

The rules are very simple, but the game offers many interesting possibilities and, in my experience, participants enjoy it enormously.

Preparation

In a large enough space, identify four corners that are some distance apart.

Then establish their order: first corner, second corner, third corner, and fourth corner.

How to Play

Participants walk around the space.

At a certain point, the workshop leader calls out a sequence of four numbers. Each number indicates, in the established order, how many places are available in the corresponding corner.

After listening to the entire sequence, participants must choose and reach one of the corners that still has space available.

For example, if the sequence is:

6 – 3 – 8 – 5

A maximum of six participants may go to the first corner, three to the second, eight to the third, and five to the fourth, for a total of twenty-two available places.

For the first few rounds, to make sure everyone understands the game, I set the combined capacity of the four corners higher than the number of participants. This allows everyone to learn the rules and always find a place.

Later, I set the combined capacity two or three places lower than the number of participants. Anyone who fails to find a place in time is eliminated, and play continues until only one winner remains.

In my experience, it is rare for the same participant to win twice in a row and, more often than not, the winner is a girl.

Please Note

The winner is not the person who runs the hardest or moves the fastest. The winner is the person who thinks the fastest.

You will see many participants shoot toward the first corner without even listening to the other three numbers, while someone else will find a place simply by walking.

Participants must resist the emotional impulse to sprint immediately. They must think, assess their position in the space, and decide which corner will be easiest for them to reach—but only after listening to all four numbers.

If, because of their age or temperament, participants struggle to manage this process and end up arguing about who arrived first, separate listening from the start. When the numbers are called, everyone must freeze; anyone who moves is eliminated. They may start running only when the workshop leader claps.

With younger children, I identify the corners using four colors rather than ordinal numbers: red corner, yellow corner, green corner, and blue corner. When I call out the sequence, I pair each number with its color:

8 red – 4 yellow – 6 green – 3 blue.

I encourage participants to self-regulate whenever it is unclear who arrived first. When in doubt, I let both of them stay.