Man from Mars is a fun active game for kids.  You can easily play this game in a gym or you can set up outdoors with a little effort. Partner this game with other space themed activities to make a fun theme week!

Set Up for Man from Mars

If you are playing outdoors use cones to create a large rectangular field of play.  The area inside the rectangle is the playing space, anywhere outside of the cones is out of bounds  If playing in a gym, use the standard thick black line of the gym as the in and out of bound.

Depending on the number of kids participating select 1-3 people to be “The men/man from mars”.  Have the kid or kids who are the men from mars stand in the middle of the playing space. All other participants, the earthlings,  will stand on one end of the gym (the shorter end).

​Game Play

When everyone is ready, the earthlings yell in unison, “man from mars, man from mars, can you take us to the stars.”  In response the men from mars select a color, let say, for example they choose purple, then the men from mars yell, “only if you are wearing purple”. If an earthling is wearing purple they then have to run from where they are on one side of the gym across to the other without being tagged the men from mars.  If a moon man tags an earthling they to become a moon man.

Next, the earthlings again yell, “man from mars, man from mars, can you take us to the stars”.  The men from mars decide on a color and yell “only if your wearing (color)” The same rules apply this time however the earthlings maybe running from either side of the gym.  

Every time a child is wearing a color that the moon men yell they must run across the gym without being tagged.  The game is done when only a few earthlings remain. 

What similar games do you know?  How can we make this game better? Share your thoughts below.