Marco Polo

Number of Players:

3+; more players = more fun!

What You Need:

• Swimming pool
• swim-ready children

Activity:

The game is played by three or more persons.

At any time there is one distinguished player, "It", who must swim around the pool with his or her eyes closed, attempting to tag the other player(s).

The "It" player can only sense where the other players are by sound, but may call out "Marco!", at which point all the other players are required to yell "Polo!".

When the "It" player succeeds in tagging another player, the latter becomes "It".

Notes:

• There are a few common minor variations:
• Fish-out-of-water allows the non-It players to get out of the pool (thus protecting themselves from being tagged by the water-bound "It"), however, should "It" call "fish out of water" while some one is out of the pool, that person becomes "It". If there is more than one person out of the water, the person who is "It" has the choice of picking anyone out of water to become "It".
• Mermaid on rocks is a variant itself of fish-out-of-water. This is when a person is sitting on the ledge of the pool with their legs in but their body is out. When the "it" person calls mermaid on rocks, and someone is doing this, they are it.
• Alligator Eyes allows "It" to call out "alligator eyes" or "submarine" and then swim underwater with eyes open for one breath. Usually, "It" is limited to one use of alligator-eyes. Other variations on this rule allow "It" to look around underwater but not to move until he or she is above water with eyes closed once again.