Wax Museum: The Guard and the Moving Statues

At night, the wax museum figures sneak toward the exit while the guard makes the rounds. When the guard turns around, everyone must freeze in character.

How to play

1. The guard (the teacher at first) stands at one end, facing away. Everyone else starts at the other end and picks a museum character: soccer player, opera singer, explorer, ballet dancer, scientist (2 min).
2. Statues move forward in character. When the guard turns, they freeze in a pose of that character. If the guard sees someone move, they call the name and that person goes back to the museum exit (4 min).
3. The guard asks a statue a question (“Who are you?”) and the statue answers with a single gesture without fully breaking the pose (5 min).
4. Round with two student guards. Anyone who reaches the wall scores a point and starts again with a new character (4 min).

Rules

• Walk forward; never run.
• Anyone caught goes back to the start; nobody is out.
• Statues must match their character: if it's unrecognizable, the guard can ask for a change.
• The guard can't turn around more than once every three seconds.

Variations

Adaptations

• Visual impairment: they play guard and detect movement by the sound of footsteps, or move forward with a sighted guide.
• Limited mobility: they move in a wheelchair with trunk-and-arm characters; a cone shortens their distance to the wall.
• Insecure students: they can pick characters from a list and reuse them.

Learning goals

• Control the body to go from movement to total stillness.
• Keep a character through movement and posture.
• Accept the guard's calls with good sportsmanship.

Equipment for a class of 25

• cones: 4

Teacher tip

Mark the start and the wall with cones about 15 m apart. The usual mistake is running and stopping: if the guard sees a run, it's back to the start.

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