Your first order of business is to make sure that the total number of players is divisible by three, for example 12,15,18, etc. If your numbers are off encourage an adult or two to play to even things out.
For every three players you need one animal, so if you have 15 participants you will need five animals. For each animal, on three separate small slips of paper write down the name of an animal and the sound that animal make, for example a Cow says Moo!. It may seem like overkill to tell the players that a cow says “moo” but for an animals like a dog it could say bow-wow or roof. You want to be sure that the kids are all making the same sound when looking for each other so specify each sound.
Once you have completed three slips for each animal your total number of slips should match your number of players. Fold the slips of paper, put them in a basket and mix them up. Explain to the kids that they must keep their animal a secret until the game starts, then have each kid select a slip of paper from the basket. For younger kids that cannot read yet let an adult help them out. Have the children spread out in a large open area.
When all the kids know what animal they are and are spread out you can start the game. Once you begin the players are not allow to talk, they can only make their animal sound. The challenge is for them to find the other kids making the same animal sound. So the kids scream out their animal sound repeatedly while searching for the other kids making the same sound. When a player finds one of their like animals they join hands and search together for the third. When all three animals have found each other they sit down as a group to declare that they are finished. The team to finish first is the winner, but let the game continue until all of the animals have found their matches.
Suggested Animals and Sounds:
Bee – buzz
Bird- tweet
Cat – meow
Chicken – cluck
Cow – moo
Crow – caw
Dog – roof
Donkey – heehaw
Duck – quack
Frog – ribbit
Goose – honk
Horse – neigh
Owl – woot
Pig – oink
Roster – cock-a-doodle-doo
Sheep – baa
Turkey – gobble