About Our Community Games
Lake Treeby has been designed as a place that enhances your health and wellbeing, which includes getting to know your neighbours. So we’ve designed plenty of spaces to challenge you, meet neighbours or just get together and play with family or friends.
Already established at Lake Treeby is Hopscotch, Foursquare and Noughts & Crosses games. Read below to see how to play each game and where to find them.
Noughts & Crosses
Location
Neighbourhood Park, Corner of Everwell Way and Bountiful Way.
How To Play Noughts & Crosses
- Clear the board and make sure it is blank, with no Noughts or Crosses showing.
- Decide who is going to be Noughts, who will be Crosses and who is the first player (crosses goes first). It’s a good rule to let the youngest player or least experienced player to go first.
- Each player takes a turn to place either an O or an X on the board.
- To Win: The first player to line up three of their symbols in a row wins. The three in a row can be in a horizontal, vertical or diagonal line.
- Draw: If all nine squares are filled and no player has three in a row, the game ends in a draw.
Tips
- The player who goes first usually has the highest chance of winning. With nine squares, the first player has an opportunity to mark their symbol in five of them, while the second player can only get four.
- Make sure you pay attention while playing, one wrong move could end your game!
- Always look to win or block a win move first.
- Try to think what your opponent is likely to do after your move and out-guess them.
- There is a higher chance of the game becoming a draw than one person winning.
Hopscotch
Location
Community Corner at the corner of Midsummer Way and Lycaste Parade
How To Play Hopscotch
- Start with a small stone or pebble as your marker.
- Players take turns throwing the stone marker onto square 1. The stone must land inside the square without touching the lines or bouncing out. If the stone lands outside the square or on a line, the player loses their turn.
- The first player to land their stone in square 1 then hops through the pattern, making sure to avoid the square their stone landed in.
- For single squares, players hop on one foot, while for double squares (like 3 and 4), they can jump with two feet placed down with one in each square. Players must keep their feet within the designated squares and not touch the lines while hopping or jumping. If a player steps on a line, touches the border of a square, or steps on the wrong square, they lose their turn.
- Once players reach the end of the grid, they turn around and hop or jump back to the starting line.
- On their return trip, they again skip the square with their marker stone and pick it up on the square before it.
- After returning to the starting line, they hand the stone to the next player in line.
- After successfully completing the course with their marker stone in square 1, players throw the stone onto square 2 for their next turn. A player must always hop over any square where the marker stone has been placed.
- This continues until the player has successfully completed the entire course with the stone in each square.
- The first player to do this wins the game.
Getting out: A player is out if the marker fails to land in the proper square, the hopper steps on a line, the hopper loses balance when bending over to pick up the marker and puts a second hand or foot down, the hopper goes into a square where a marker is, or if a player puts two feet down in a single box.
Tips
If it’s getting too easy, switch up the rules a little. use your other foot to hop or hop backwards or sideways.
Foursquare
Location
Happiness Way, opposite Rose Shanks Reserve and near the Sit Up / Core Exercise Station.
How To Play Foursquare
- One player is in each square and the other players wait in line.
- The player in square 4 is the server. That player begins the play of the game.
- Play begins when the server drops the ball once into her/his square then hits it into a different square (serves the ball). The server must keep both feet in the service box until the serve is completed.
- The ball can only bounce once in any square.
- Each player needs to hit the ball with any part of his/her hand into an opposing player’s square after it has bounced only once in his/her square.
- If the ball lands on a line, or goes out of bounds before it bounces, the player who hit the ball needs to return to the waiting/cheering line for another try. If a player hits the ball and it bounces again in her/his square, s/he also needs to return to the waiting line.
- If a player catches or holds the ball, that player needs to return to the waiting line.
- If the ball bounces more than one time before it is hit into another square, the player who let the ball bounce needs to return to the waiting line for another try.
- If the ball is returned before it is allowed to bounce, the player who returned the ball early needs to return to the waiting line.
- Anytime a player moves out of the game into the waiting line, a square is left open. The person in front of the line advances to square 4, and the remaining players advance to close the gaps between 1 and 4.
