Ages: 3-5, 6-8, 9-12
Location: Car
Skills: Language, Thinking, Social

What you'll need:
A van or car load full of children (a minimum of three but four is ideal)

Background: Keep a group of children occupied when you're in the car. It also helps to keep the noise level down to a dull roar -- something that's helpful when you need to be concentrating on the road!

What to do:
Ask the first child to whisper a story to the second child. Have the second child whisper it to the third child. Have the third child whisper it to the fourth child. Have the fourth child repeat the story out loud so that everyone can hear.

After the children have had a chance to laugh about how a message can get "lost in translation" when it's repeated from person to person, briefly talk about what they can do to ensure that real phone messages don't get garbled. Teach them methods like repeating the message back to the speaker to ensure that they understood the message correctly in the first place.