1. Form a circle, with everyone sitting on the floor (or seated around a table.)
2. Ask everyone to take off one of their shoes and place it directly in front of them.
3. Teach the words to this simple ditty:
   “I PASS THIS SHOE FROM ME TO YOU.
   I PASS LIKE THIS AND I NEVER, NEVER MISS.”
4. Instruct everyone to pass the shoe in front of them to their left-hand neighbour once for every beat of the song.
5. Practice the passing of shoes for one full stanza a couple of times.
6. The group aims to keep one shoe in front of every person at all times.
7. When the group says “AND I” everyone should hold the shoe that they just picked up for two full beats, although continue to make the ‘passing’ motions.
8. Practice the passing of the shoes with this new routine.
9. Aim to sing five full stanzas of the song while still passing the shoes correctly.

Video Transcript for I Pass This Shoe
presented by Mark Collard

Each person needs to have a shoe directly in front of them. Sit as you feel comfortable, but if it’s possible to do it indian style or otherwise, just so as long as you can access your shoe. You need to be able to get to your shoe. Can you you reach your shoe from there Mark? Okay, alright.

Here’s what’s going to happen. First of all, I’m going to share with you a little ditty and it goes like this, it’s just two lines, it’s very quick, and it goes like this:

I pass this shoe from me to you. Ready?

(I pass this shoe from me to you.)

That’s the first half. The second half is:

I pass like this and I never, never miss.

(I pass like this and I never, never miss.)

Put the two together now:

I pass this shoe from me to you, I pass like this and I never, never miss.

Great, you’ve got plenty more time to practice it, but that’s the basic ditty. Now you’ll notice, apart from the fact that I love that song, I was kind of like grooving to it as it was going, like a little bit of a rocking because there is actually a beat to the exercise.

Starting with the shoe in front of you, with each beat you pass the shoe to the person on your left. Now of course as you pass to the left the person on the right gives you their shoe, so you have one that always ends up in front of you.

So just one complete verse you will be passing shoes on the beat ending up with shoes moving in a left hand direction. So are you ready?

So, I pass this shoe from me to you, I pass like this and I never never miss. Are you ready?

I pass this shoe shoe from me to you, I pass like this and I never, never miss.

Okay hold it there.

Go back to, go back to having one shoe each. You were ready.

Now here’s what happens, there’s just one small chink in the armour you might say, is that when we get to the never nevers, as I call them, you need to hang on to that shoe for an extra two beats.

And it goes like this: “and I never, never miss.”

On the miss let it go, come back to grab your new one. So it’s always letting go until I get to the never nevers. And I never never miss, and then you let go. So do just one verse to see how well we succeed, and I’ll emphasise the never nevers to know that it’s time to hang on to that shoe. Okay, are you ready?

I pass this shoe shoe from me to you, I pass like this and I never, never miss.

Stop. See, you got everything you need to know now, but there’s just one thing I’m going to set up for you. And it’s never, ever been successful and I’ve been doing this for well over twenty years around the world. No group has ever made it to five verses and ends up with just one shoe in front of each person.

Now I know I’m putting the pressure on here. We’re only going to do two verses in the good name of sequencing to build up to that peak experience. So we’re just doing two verses now, remembering to hang on to the never nevers. Are you ready?

Two verses only just to prepare you. Are you ready? Here we go.

I pass this shoe shoe from me to you, I pass like this and I never never miss.
I pass this shoe shoe from me to you, I pass like this and I never never miss.

Hold it.

(Laughing.)

We’re pretty good over here I want to say. Pretty good.

Form a circle, and invite everyone to sit on the floor facing the centre. Ask each person to take off one of their shoes and place it on the floor directly in front of them.

At this point, I explain that I would like to teach everyone to sing a little ditty with me. It’s very simple, it goes  like this:

“I PASS THIS SHOE FROM ME TO YOU.
I PASS LIKE THIS AND I NEVER, NEVER MISS.”

Now, imagine me singing this tune, swinging my head slightly to the left and right as if keeping time to a beat. Basically, there’s one beat for every word, except for the words “AND I” in the second line which is treated as one beat together.

Practice singing this a few times, and then introduce the shoes for the first time, asking everyone to copy what you are about to show them.

Clearly demonstrating, I hold my own shoe in front of me, and starting with an elongated “IIIIII…” (to signal the start of the song,) I physically pass my shoe to my left-hand neighbour.

And then on “PASS” (the second word of the tune,) I place this shoe in front of them.

On “THIS” I pick up the shoe that now sits in front of me (with thanks to my right-hand neighbour,) and pass it to my left-hand neighbour, and so on, for the whole song.

Basically, you pick up or pass a shoe for every beat of the song. Err, except on one occasion! However, I suggest you practice the full stanza at least once before you get to the fun part.

It’s now time to announce the dead-beat ‘Never-Nevers’ as I like to call them.

Explain that when your group has picked up the shoe in front of them on the “AND-I” beat in the second line of the tune (just before “NEVER, NEVER,”) they must hold onto the shoe for two full beats. So, they will pick up the shoe on “AND I,” tap the shoe in front of their left-hand neighbour on “NEVER.”

Still holding the same shoe, they tap it in front of themselves on the second “NEVER,” and finally pass and place the shoe in front of their neighbour on “MISS.” You will definitely need to practice this little ‘hiccup’ in procedures a few times.

The whole point of this exercise is to sing five full stanzas of the tune while passing the shoes correctly, ie one shoe should remain in front of each person at all times.

Yeah, right, good luck with that! As you might imagine, it rarely happens, as people often get tripped up on the “Never-Nevers.”

Ordinarily, I build up the confidence and skill set of my group before I launch into a full-blooded attack on five successful stanzas. We undertake two stanzas, then three and then finally five.

You can present this exercise sitting on seats, but the process of passing and placing the shoes (or whatever item) is problematic. That said, this set-up does provide a wonderful challenge for the group to manage if you think they’re up to it.

Got no shoes? Or, you don’t want, or don’t think people will want to take their shoes off? Check out the Variations tab below for alternatives.

Beware the group that tires quickly of playful exercises such as this one. It won’t be long before not only does the shoe passing routine break down, but some folk may be attracted to the idea of tossing the items across the circle to a friend.

You could integrate I Pass This Shoe as part of a well-designed SEL program to promote and maintain healthy and supportive relationships, not to mention, enjoy an outrageously fun time together.

Specifically, this activity offers opportunities to explore and practice the following social & interpersonal skills:

Self-Awareness

• Experiencing Self-Efficacy

Self-Management

• Demonstrating Self-Discipline & Self-Motivation
• Use Planning & Organisational Skills

Social Awareness

• Taking Other’s Perspectives
• Demonstrating Empathy & Compassion
• Respecting Others

Relationship Skills

• Communicate & Listen Effectively
• Seeking and/or Offering Support
• Build Positive Relationships
• Work Collaboratively

Responsible Decision-Making

• Demonstrating Curiosity & Open-Mindedness
• Identifying Problems
• Making Reasoned Judgements
• Identifying Solutions
• Anticipating & Evaluating the Consequences of One’s Actions
• Promoting Personal & Collective Well-Being

You can learn more about SEL and how it can support character education here.

There is no specific health & wellness perspective to this activity other than promoting the benefits to one’s well-being of enjoying a good laugh. In a small way, you could argue that the focus required to successfully pass the shoes speaks to the benefits of being mindful but I wouldn’t stretch this idea too far.

If you can think of more explicit ways in which I Pass This Shoe could be purposefully integrated into a health and wellness program, please leave a comment at the base of this page.

• Pass This Object: Distribute an array of different-sized soft objects (emphasis on soft.) Much like shoes, passing a variety of shapes, weights and sizes is ideal for testing your group’s passing prowess. In any case, I still like to sing the words “SHOE” as part of the ditty even if they are not being passed.
• Double Shoe Challenge: Two shoes in front of each person, using two hands, one shoe goes one direction, the other the opposite direction. Arghhhh….
• Take a look at The Passing Game to set your group a passing challenge.
• Take a look at Down By The Banks to enjoy another nonsensical group game.

In the western culture most adults tend to think of play – true play – as only a guilty pleasure because it’s a distraction from ‘real’ work and responsibilities. But play is fun, and anything but trivial. As Dr Stuart Brown (founder of the National Institute for Play) says, “…play is a basic biological drive as integral to our health as sleep and nutrition.” So, how often do you truly play. That is, how often do you give yourself permission to participate in any kind of purposeless, all-consuming, restorative activity? Let me introduce an opportunity for you…

Not in my almost 30 years of presenting this next exercise has any group been able to achieve a perfect 5 out of 5 score. Yes, I know I may be setting you up for failure, but I’m willing to give you the benefit of the doubt, and invite you to have a go…

Coupled with one or more reflection strategies, here are some sample questions you could use to process your group’s experience after playing this fun, passing game:

• What was the hardest part of this game? Why?
• Was it difficult for you to enjoy the game? Why or why not?
• Can you recall a time when everything was running smoothly? What did you observe at these times?
• How might this activity reflect on the ability of our group to work together?

Fun ‘Community-Building’ Games Session

What You Need:
12+ people, 60 mins, sheets of paper, pens, shoes

• I Pass This Shoe – silly circle game to warm-up your group
• Knee Impulse – ideal siting-in-circle game to generate plenty of laughs
• Finding Nemo – quick, addictively fun group game which develops observations skills
• Pruie? – more difficult, follow-up variation to Finding Nemo
• Pictionary – one of the most successful small-group activities I know