Youth Group Games   Youth Ministry GAMES Here's a Great way to bring kids and parents together for a fun night around your city. Here are the last 2 years we did and if we can help you plan give us a shout. Check Back May 08 we will post the On Campus version for Families of all ages. Amazing Race 2005 Amazing Race 2006 These are a great collection of games and skits for any Youth Ministry or Young Life Club and the best thing is they are all Free! Enjoy and do all these stupid games to advance the Gospel of Jesus Christ. REPEATABLE Championship GAMES POSSIBLY DONE YEARLY.I KEYS: These games must be built into a tradition that kids look forward to each year. Literally, we want kids to be begging to have a chance to participate in them before they even happen. Poopdeck Here's a great game for 10 to 100 participants. Play in a fairly large room or outside. Clearly mark off three sections on the floor with tape, chalk, etc. One section is the poopdeck, one the main deck, and the last the quarter deck. Begin with everyone standing in the poopdeck area. Call out the name of a deck (even the one that they are standing in), and the kids then run to the deck or section that you have called out. The last person into the section which you have called is out. If kids are in the poopdeck, for example, and you call out poopdeck, any kid who crosses the line, jumps the gun or in any other way (except being pushed) goes out of the poopdeck, is out. The game continues rapidly until one person is the winner. Hints on directing this game: * Give them a few trial runs to warm up and for new kids to get the hang of the game. * Call the decks loudly and distinctly. * To get them really frustrated, point to the opposite deck from which you call. Here are additional "decks" you can add to the original Poopdeck game to complicate things further: second deck, third deck, fourth deck, promenade deck, boat deck, sun deck, bridge deck, flight deck, hanger deck, upper deck, forecastle deck, and cabin deck. If you like, add special activities to each area, such as having kids flap their arms while in the flight deck. In addition, the following commands, if interspersed with deck commands, can generate a great deal of playful confusion: * Hit the deck!—Players must drop to a prone position. * Clear the deck!—Players must step completely outside the marked area and may not step back in, no matter what other command may be issued, until they hear "On deck!" * On deck!—Players are free to step back inside the marked area. Date used: GIRLS WRESTLE FOR GUYS 4 freshman/ sophomore guys sitting on chairs in a line facing out. 5 upper class girls. Play musical chairs. Girl must be in guys lap with arms around neck. Play up ‘fighting to the death for your man’. Make a world champion belt for them to wear the rest of the night, possibly put the names of past winners on it so that it can become a yearly tradition that kids look forward to for club. You may even include the last guy’s name as well. Use big time wrestler uniform and music for the sell. Date used: CHUBBY BUNNIES Due to Several Requests I have to say DON't Do Chubby Bunnies. It can kill your kids and I know you don't want that. What we have shifted to is Banana Peppers. They are more fun, they make kids drool all over the place and you can't choke and kill students. So here's how to play. Several kids in line stuff pepper in mouth one at a time and say Bunos Dias Amigos’. Last one who can say it with all the peppers in mouth, wins. Need bags to spit them out at the end. Most winners will hold about 13-18 before going out. Possible trophy, giant sombreo. (be careful not to let kids choke!) Date used: HUMAN BOWLING Go to local bowling alleys and ask for 12 old pins, they should be able to give you some as they get beat up fairly often. Get a creeper(sled on wheels used to slide under a car to due maintenance), or some other sled on wheels(skateboard). Get a motorcycle helmet. Put girls on the sled with the helmet on and have them put their hands behind their back and let a guy (or vice versa the guy and girl thing) bowl them down into the set of 10 pins (they must be spread out well1 you will need to practice to see how far). Usually bowl 3 competitors and let them do a frame a piece. You will need 2 folks to set the pins up again quickly and one to catch them so they don’t go through the pins and head first into the wall. Most good sleds can really move up to 20-30 feet or so, so have a good runway. There are great sound effect CD’s with bowling sounds for the background. Also, you have the two extra pins - paint them gold and do them up right into trophies, give one to keep and put the names of the winners on the other as your running trophy. For a sell, have a "human cannonball’ fly in on the sled and smack the pins (helmet, chest protector, goggles, shin guards, elbow pads, etc.). Date used: TURKEY BOWLING 4a great thanksgiving tradition. See pin directions above. Also get a 1 16 pound frozen turkey and drill 3 holes in it where they would be placed in a ball. Same game as above game. Have 3 contestants bowl a frame. You may want to put down cheap black plastic (at any hardware store) for an alley. Also please have someone at the end of the pins to catch the turkey or you may put a nice hole in a wall. For a trophy, you may be able to make a turkey out of an old bowling ball (body) and pin (as the head). Use feathers and a red sock as a goblet and paint the ball with winners names. This sell is obviously the job for any turkey! Date used: JELLO or FOOD TWISTER This game is best done when it is warm outside so that when it is over, kids can hose down outside. Obviously, it will be messy, you may need to do it outside and will need to think of other clothes for them when it is over, have towels, etc. If you try to replace circles on a twister mat with pie tins of Jell-O, the tins will merely slide off. I recommend using a square of cheap black plastic, and attaching the pie tins to a 4x4 grid by pushing a bull clip through the bottom of the pans and plastic, and then spreading out the tips under the plastic to hold them down. You then may fill them in with Jell-O (already made) night before club. Have a good spinner, kids who will go for it and play in bare feet. This trophy may be a plaque that looks like a twister board with a past winner in each circle. "The Twist" by Chubby Checker maybe background music and the sell possibly with a kid who can come in with their legs behind their head (those sick twisted individuals!). Date used: GOOD MORNING VIDEOS Tell parents ahead of time. Get to kid’s homes early and videotape them being woken up. Show video in club. You may find it funny to mix in movie clips. The classic mistake is that people always make this to long, it should not show more than I min per kid. Be creative on who wakes them up (wake up fairy, Tour interrupter characters, a spin off Movie character, etc.) Also, you must have a great light on your camera or hand held when you video, don’t expect the moms to have good lighting - they won’t. Use a sleepytime bed head pajama character to sell, pajama’s with footies and great pattems are funny, sleepytime music is on any kids tapes. No real winner or trophy needed to make this one a tradition, just remember, always leave them wanting more. OTHER COMPETITIVE GAMES KEYS: Often times people frown at competition as if it is evil. Instead, we need to teach kids how to compete in fun and godly manner. Many times competition is the only way to pull an unchurched kid into what we are trying to do; likewise, many kids have only had bad examples of competition growing up (how many times have we all seen parents be bigger idiots about winning and losing than kids!). We have a great opportunity to teach many things to kids though this tool, we may even end up modeling success in failure (the story of the gospel itself - our failure and God’s grace). We must teach campaigner kids to cheer for everybody. We must lift up the kids and teams that lose for being so awesome to take the risk and play. We must teach them that losing is not life and death and that we all are in this together. Find some funny lines like "winning is everything, but losing is nothing’ and ‘it’s not whether you won or lost, but how good you looked doing it... and you looked the best’ to keep things in perspective. These games are often designed to pull kids in to just have some plain, old, crazy, off the wall fun! Date used: NAME THAT TUNE WITH MARSHMALLOWS (OR SQUIRT GUNS) Four guys vs. four girls (maybe one each class). Use TV tunes CD’s (they are expensive but have many uses and are worth the investment). One from each team steps up with a big pot on their head and a big spoon. When they think they know the answer they beat on their heads for a bell. Correct answer and each member of the other team puts in a marshmallow. Wrong answer and your team puts one in plus another one if other team gets right. If it is going too slow, you may want to have bonus rounds for double penalties with anyone on the team being able to sound in and guess (need 8 spoons then). Have rags for them to spit out marshmallows as they drop out. Also, may be done with kazoo or current music. Obviously a great sell is a game show host. DR Guy/girl teams again. One guy vs one girl at a time. Each has squirt gun and squirts other while song is playing until they get it right. Date used: EGG, SAUSAGE, PANTYHOSE RODEO Guys put raw egg inside pantyhose and pull over head. Girls ride piggy back with half a Polish sausage (put the sausage in pantyhose also or it will break immediately and they will have nothing to swing with). Try to break other guy’s egg, make sure guys know they cannot hit each other. Four teams, lots of room, knee pads for guys if it is a hard floor. and towels to clean up! A cowboy rodeo sell will work. Have some good country wild west music for this ride also!   PIE ROULETTE six kids in circle pass a pie around. when music stops, kid with pie has choice to pie person on right or self. If kid pies others, he’s out. If he pies self, stays in. Winner gets some prize like $25 camp scholarship. If they all pie themselves add honey to pie, spam, whatever it takes. Use marshmallow fluff for pies. This may be another game to use your game show host for a sell. PILLOW JOUSTING 4 guys and 4 girls (pair up classes). Senior vs. Soph, then Junior vs. Frosh.. then Championship round each girl will be on the back of her guy as he is on all fours. The key rule: The girl’s feet Cannot touch the ground at any time, she must keep them wrapped around the guy. Give each girl a pillow and let them try to knock each other off! Call the feet rule close and the championship round will be better. The guys cannot knock each other over, only the girls. You may want to put helmets on the girls. A medieval jousting uni would be great for a sell and music in the background will do a lot for this one. SHAVING CREAM HAIRDOS One can of Barbasol per couple. Guys spray into girl’s hair and sculpt a hairdo (or vice versa). Crowd votes on winners. You may want to give a hint to a few kids ahead of time in secret - create an Abe Lincoln look, punk rocker spiked doo, Mickey Mouse ears, roman headgear, etc. A hairdresser or fashion consultant character could sell this event. Background music "you are so beautiful" or something heart wrenching about beauty. EGG ROULETTE dozen eggs; (4 raw - 8 hard boiled). Two people alternate picking and egg and smashing it on other person’s head. You may want to choose 4 folks have 2 rounds and a final round. Also, in the final round, have 8 eggs (5 hard boiled and 1 raw) and hold them in a bowl above their heads to pick. Put your finger on the raw egg and before club explain the skit to all 4 contestants (because you don’t know who will be in the finals!). Play the first rounds for real (possibly girl vs. girl, guy vs. guy, and battle of sexes for final round) and in final round they pick the hard boiled eggs 5 in a row (because you told them not to pick the one with your finger on it till last). Each time you are really in their faces to nail one another, when the final egg is up in the final round you are going crazy only to have the finalist smash it on your head! Make a kid a hero! GIRLS MAKE-UP GUYS BLINDFOLDED (OR VICE VERSA) blindfolded girl applies make up to guy, 34 sets of folks. Have it go in stages: first, you can really save his skit with good wigs for the guys (they will look much more funny with them on) eye shadow, cheek powder, lipstick etc. Have good music in background.. Theme from Wonder Woman works (off TV disk) or Aretha Franklin "Respect". Have kids vote for winner, and have towels for guys to wash off. This is a great skit to sell before homecoming, sady hawkins, or prom... play up the fact that guys get ready in 5 minutes for dances and do not appreciate all the work the girls do. You may even have the guys hold goofy corsages. EGG DROP or TOOTHPASTE DROP guys lay on floor with Dixie cup in mouth. Girls on another guy’s shoulders crack eggs on guys forehead holding them and then drop eggs into cup. Three each, team with most in cup wins, you may want a glass measuring cup to pour it in for the win. You will need a drop cloth underneath the guys, plus towels etc. to protect their clothing, plus different towels for them to clean up. I also suggest breaking down and buying the huge jumbo eggs, and you will need a container to collect their shells quickly. Obviously a sell involving basketball will be a natural, you may want basketball Globe Trotters theme in background and a funny kid calling play by play. Also similar skits done with toothpaste and coke bottles on chest, or bottle to be filled up with water and girls use sponge TAPE HEAD Place ski masks on two to three kids and wrap head with duct tape, sticky side out (this will take some time - think through what else can be going on as they do this - camp sell. club cards. whatever). Put a bunch of objects on the floor or a table (we want kids to see them going for it). Use small and larger objects such as yam, paper clips, ping pong balls. whiffle ball bats, fuzzy dice, etc. Kids roll around or head bang for 1 minute to collect items. Most on head wins. You may consider selling this skit as a young Life version of ‘head banging dancing. Have the heavy metal music in the background and the seIl folks can come in slam dancing etc. HUMAN CHRISTMAS TREES Each class decorates someone with ornaments, garland, tinsel, popcorn, lights, etc. Plug them in for the finale and vote for winners. You must really have a lot of lights and great ornaments to make this one worth it. Think through how to hang the ornaments (for example, putting old sweats on each kid so they can hook them in the sweats and not ruin their clothes). Obviously this is a Christmas skit, music while decorating is also a must. SURGICAL GLOVES ON HEAD several kids pull surgical gloves over head down over nose but not mouth. Inflate by inhaling through mouth, exhale through nose. Hold onto sides with hands. Pull on by getting on forehead first, then pulling back, over and down. A doctor may be involved in this sell, music in background (such as Good lovin’ or something with doctor in it) with kids cheering them on is a must. BALLOON STUFF IN SWEATS two teams inflate and pass balloons to kid who stuffs them into oversized sweat shirt and pants. Girl leader counts for girl; guy for guy by popping balloons with pins. Three minute time limit. Pop all extra balloons so kids aren’t throwing them during talk. You may have different sized and different shaped balloons. Fat Albert music in background (off TV tunes CD). For a sell you may have a little person in huge sweats already stuffed with balloons come in to Fat Albert. Maybe you could even do a spin off of one of these ridiculous gas x, turns, commercial PIE EATING CONTEST Two to four guys race. ‘On your marks, get set...’ then stop and take away fork. Repeat and add whipped cream. Last time, hands behind back. These must be kids that will go for it, have a drop cloth and towels to clean up. Music in background. A ‘momma’ character with apron, wig. etc. may be a part of the sell. TALK OR GET SQUIRTED Give outgoing kid topic like belly button lint. He must talk about it for two minutes. If he stops or repeats himself, herself, he/she gets squirted. These must be funny kids who can really talk. For a sell on this one you may use a ‘valley girl’ character who just talks and talks nonstop interrupting club. You may consider giving the kid a bullhorn or mic (you can get wet) so kids can hear him/her. MARBLE IN CLEAR TUBING Wrap 15 feet of clear tubing around a small girl. Have three different pairs of guys get three marbles from one corked end out the other by lifting and spinning girl. Fastest time wins. Can use Tuba Ruba game also. Tell teams to plan it out so they don’t just shake girl. If you have the bucks to buy two lengths of tube (it can be expensive), it may be even better to do two groups at once racing. Background song ‘I’m all shook up’ ‘Twist and Shout’ etc. For a sell you may consider the girl coming in with 20 hoola hoops talking about how she just loves to hoola hoop, you have a 3 dimensional version of hoola hooping.   WHEELBARROW-EATTING RACE 3 couples. Set out Iine of food items beginning with small stuff. (i.e. M&M pile and getting larger up to jello or plate w/ spam). Girls wheelbarrow guys down row as guys eat items. Music in background and toweIs to clean up with. For sell you may have a girl wheelbarrow in a guy in total crash uni gear helmet, chest protector, etc) and have him crash and burn into crowd. You being the helpful leader that you are decide to teach them how to do it YL style. BANANA SPLITS IN GUYS MOUTHS Lay guys on ground, girls stand over them and drop ingredients into guy’s mouths. Banana. Chocolate syrup, whipped cream, nuts, cherry. Can blindfold girls. Put garbage bag on guys and use drop cloths, also have towels to clean them up with. Bananaman (superhero) could sell this skit. Also, music in background involving food, ice cold, bananaman theme (green hornet). EAT THAT FOOD [Just like ‘Name that Tune’. Two guys add one ingredient at a time to a cracker trying to out bid each I other to eat that cracker. 10 gross ingredients. ‘I can eat that cracker with sardines.’ ‘I can eat that cracker with sardines and jalapenos.’ etc. A great game show host can really spice this deal up along with some fun sound effects off a CD. You may even do 2 pairs and then a championship round with different foods. Have a bucket or bag just in case there is a surprise ending. EGG BLOW I AND 2 half inch clear plastic tubing. Use funnel to put egg into it. Two kids standing 5 feet apart try to blow egg into opponents mouth. Leader must hold tube so kids don’t blow egg into crowd. Make sure eggs don’t have Salmonella. Also have towels to clean off. Or the same set up as above only set it up ahead of time so tube gets pointed at leader’s face at last second GIFT WRAP A CHICKEN OR A DUCK three kid teams. One has to hold duck other two wrap with paper, ribbon, bow. Crowd votes for winner. check local farms or mail order duck firms. Good luck getting out of jail from the SCPA and all the sentimental kids in club that hate you now. You may be able to sell this as a problem you had trying to wrap a ‘special’ gift for your nephew or niece or whatever. Asking for their expertise, bring up the teams hand them the goods, and then bring in the ducks! You may want Christmas music in background. LICORICE RACE 3 guy/ girl couples (this is a safe skit for a couple if one of the two is shy & would never want to be in a skit alone). Tie a lifesaver in the middle of a long (or 2 pieces) piece of licorice. Guy and girl at each end race to eat licorice and life saver first without using hands. If it drops on floor they must go get it without using their hands. This sell could be done by a Dr.Love, Antonio Amore character and is good near dances, homecoming, etc. Any weird love song or song about kissing will do. Or just your love character’s theme music. DEULNG CANDLES For this skit you will need to figure out a way to connect a candleholder (Preferably with 3 candles each) onto some type of helmet. Pull up 4 kids and have two semi final rounds and a final round where kids are about 10 feet apart with squirt guns trying to knock out the others fire. You may want to hand them bigger and bigger guns (up to a super soaker) until someone wins. Caution, your room could get very wet. Music Billy Joel ‘we didn’t start the fire", ‘come on baby light my fire’, etc. or maybe even theme song from the movie The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly. Obviously a challenge to a duel will be a good sell. Have towels, know your water supply, and you will need two very good lighters. SHOOTIN MATCH Put a dab of shaving cream on the end of 3 to 5 kids nose, each kid has a squirt gun: place them strategically around the room, they have to shoot the shaving cream off of the nose of the person on their right. Clearly explain if they start shooting the crowd on purpose, they will be executed (yes, speak the truth in love)! You again may use a wild west sell and music for this one. Have towels and know what will get wet. You may need to practice shooting to get a feel for this one! OREOS ON PLEXIGLASS Put Oreos open faced on sheets of plexiglass. Pull up 2 to 4 kids and blindfold them as they race to smash their face up against the glass and lick off the oreos. Have extra open faced oreos ready for when they knock them off. And, it helps to have the plexiglass framed so that it does not wobble as much. SPONGE ON THE BACK OF HEAD RELAY [4 guy/girl teams. Girls sit on chair with a pie tin on lap. Tie sponge to back of guys head with bandana (even better if you can really attach sponge to bandana - it slides out too easy). Race to see who can getmost water from a 5 gallon bucket into tin in 2 minutes. Girls can only use hands to hold tin on lap. Any goofy love song will work for background music. Sponge man or toilet paper man could sell this skit as an absorbent picker upper. COWBOY KING get 5 ore more guys to be blindfolds horses, and girls are to be the riders. The rider has a cup of ice (ammo). The rider guides the horse by pulling on ears to turn. The only command they can yell is ‘FIRE". When this command is yelled, the horse spits the ice in it’s mouth in an attempt to hit an opponent. Rider reloads horse with her supply of ice. If you get hit twice, you are out. If it is a hard floor have knee pads for guys, also cowboy sell and western music. MILK THE PLATEX GLOVE 2 to 4 kids are to race while milking rubber gloves. Set up the gloves on saw horses or around chests of guys on all fours to make the cow. Make very small pin holes in the tips of the fingers of the gloves. Have a measuring cup to see who wins and a container for each to milk into. Cow sound effects and country music in background. A local yocal dairy man character could sell this one. FACE TO FACE BALLOON RELAY Buy about 5-6 rolls of thick (foam mounted) double sided sticky tape. Make 2 teams of 4, can be battle of classes, sexes, whatever. Cover each persons face with the double sided tape (1 strip down nose, across forehead, on cheeks, down chin, etc. and place a large, yet not completely filled balloon on the first person in each line. The object of the game is to jam your face into the persons next to you and pass the ‘balloon down without using your hands. If it falls to the floor, have that next person go on the floor and jam their face in the balloon to pick it back up. Try this once on your own, you may want the relay to go down and back. An Antonio Amore, Dr. Love, relationship doctor could sell it, any music with romantic flair could work in background. Keep crowd cheering. LIFESAVERS ON FACE 3 couples. Each girl gets 3 packs of lifesavers and 2 minutes to lick and arrange on guys face. Vote for winning couple. You may make a lifesaver hat out of a foam circle, spraypainted to add to the decor. you may also consider having 2 girls per guy decorate. BANANA STAB get 2 kids: tie their left hands together and give each kid a banana. He has to peel the banana with one hand and stab the other guy in the face with the banana. Kind of like Michael Jacksons "beat it. video! scary. I COUPLES EAT TAFFY APPLES ON STRINGS One couple from each class. Taffy apples taped to string tied onto broom handle. Fake starting and I stop once to add chocolate syrup, again to add whipped cream, last time to blindfold GIRLS PUT ON GUYS FOOTBALL UNIFORMS Two small girls race to put on biggest guys unies. Take all pads out of pockets and include chewed mouth guard. Maybe to add even more action to the skit, whoever is in uniform the fastest could run to grab a ball and get it over the finish line. They may end up tackling one another to get to the finish. Marching band fight song music will add to atmosphere with kids cheering. BALLOON POP RELAY 2 teams of 3 guys and girls. Race to see which team can run up as a couple and pop a balloon a leader places between them by hugging. Go through lines a couple of times fast and end with a water balloon. Perhaps we could sell this one with slam dancing idea? GUYS MAKE WINE Three pounds of grapes in each cooler. Two guys crush with bare feet for two minutes. See who gets the most juice out of spout. Drink as tie breaker. Have measuring cup and big glasses! GIRLS SIGN GUYS FEET Five guys have three minutes to see how many girls they can get to sign their bare feet. Permanent markers? GUYS PUT ON HOSE WITH HOCKEY GLOVES Blindfolded guys put on pantyhose wearing hockey gloves. Then maybe they could have to grab sticks and shoot an egg at a target or something. FEED THROUGH PANTYHOSE Girls feed guys through pantyhose: applesause, cottage cheese, pudding, orange juice with pulp. Spit into cup to measure. Maybe this could be a relay or a cooking show deal. NECK PASSING RELAY Pass objects chin-to-neck down and back guy/girl lines. Orange, frozen vegetable package, water balloon, etc. Obviously this one could be a Dr Love sell on how to teach people to "neck". JELLY BEANS IN ICE WATER Girls fish out jelly beans with toes out of ice water and feed to guys. Three couples race. ICE STUFFING CONTEST Three guys weigh in (have a good scale) and then are stuffed for one minute with ice cubes by two girls each. Max weight gain wins. Need 20 pounds of ice per guy and big coolers to dump ice into after skit. ICE CREAM FEED Pairs lay down head to head and feed ice cream to person behind them. First team done with bowl wins. THREAD FROZEN FREEZE POP OR SPOON Punch hole in end of frozen freeze pop. Tie to 20 feet of string. Team passes freeze down sleeve and out pant leg of each team member. (Also has been done with frozen tub of margarine.) BLOW UP TOILET PAPER Four person team from each class. Object is to see how long they can keep one square of toilet paper in the air by blowing on it. POP BALLOONS BY BITING THEM couples race to see how many balloons they can pop by biting them as they are placed between them. Have some with shaving cream in them. Go fast and have each ½ of room count out loud for their couple. FEED BARIES 3 couples. Have girls dress like moms and guys in a diaper (use Depends or sheets) and bibs and bonnets. Have guys sit on girls laps and girls feed them a gar of gross baby food and a full baby bottle. Girls burp guy. First burp wins. Cut bigger hole in bottle or it takes forever. SPACE ALIEN DOGS 3 guys in front of club with 32 oz tumblers around their necks 3 girls in back of room blindfolded with 1 dozen hot dogs each. The girls throw the dogs to the guys who catch them in their cups w/o using their hands. CLOTHES PINS ON FACE Only for tough guys. 3 guy/girl teams. Girls hang as many pins on guys ears, lips, etc. as they can in 2 minutes. CANDLE BLOWING CONTEST 2 guys facing each other at a table each with a candle. a big cup of water, and some matches. The object is to drink your entire cup of water but you can only drink when your candle is lit. Can’t use hands for anything other than drinking water or lighting candle so options are to drink, blow out opponents candle, or light yours. Explain clearly to kids and referee. SHOE SHUCKING 2 teams of 4. Lie on back in circle with feet raised to meet in the middle balancing a bucket of water. Each team member must remove shoes without spilling water. Can be a class competition. M&M TRAINING 2 couples. Guys go upstairs and instruct girls that they will "rain" their guy to do a certain action using only M&M’s as rewards, nothing else (they cannot speak, act out, etc.). Bring guys down and explain that they will be trained and rewarded as they move towards correct action. Give each girl a different action like getting guy to sit down and take off a shoe and smell it or stand on a chair and bark and scratch his head. PLUNGER AND TENNIS BALL 3 guy/girl teams. Put business ends on both ends of a plunger. String a tennis ball from the middle Have couples put their heads in the cups and using only their heads flip the ball around the plunger. Three wraps fastest time. Kind of like teatherball! HOBBY PANTOMIME Take 3 people out of room. Bring in first person and act out detailed, exaggerated actions of your hobby. Bring in next person and have first act out for the second. At end ask each what they thought they were acting out. Can also do changing a diaper, washing an elephant, etc. BLIND SHOE GRAB (CINDERFELLAS) 5 girls and 5 guys. Each girl takes off a show. Mix them up, blindfold guys. Girls must remain seated and verbally guide their guy to find their shoe across the room and come back to put it on her. PB&J 13 girls barefoot make peanut butter and jelly sandwiches with their feet. Feed to 3 guys with their feet. First guy to eat entire sandwich wins. Put ingredients in bowls. WORLDS MOST DEHUMANIZING SKIT Fill nylon with applesauce or honey. Pull over guys heads. First one to eat all the stuff wins! Wow we are reaching on this one! BALLOON TRI-AThALON 3kids 3 events, each kid participates in all three events: 1. have them blow up balloon until it breaks. 2. have them blow up balloon not using their hands, only their mouths. 3. have them blow up balloon with their nostril. Strobe LIGHT VOLLEYBALL Take a rope of some sort and have a large sheet or sheets draped over the rope so that the opposing teams cannot see each other and turn on strobe lights with kicking music. If you have a large club, consider putting all the guys up at he net and letting them play each other first, then the girls up front to play each other. This will help keep over aggressive idiot guys from killing girls and from groping them in the dark as well. Think through it. A beach volleyball sell in the cold winter makes this a winner to even sell sand volleyball at Camp. Mixers What are Mixers? Mixers are activities that include the entire club. Kids arrive at club with a few friends or by themselves, and they naturally will gravitate to people that they know. After a good mixer, kids are comfortable with others in the room. A good mixer that is led well will draw in the kids on the edges. If we can get everyone involved they are invested in what is happening at club and not just observing. Ameba Race Tie several crowds of people together with a rope around their perimeter and have them race each other's group as a large "Ameba." Armenian Egg Crush Kids knock their hard boiled egg against another persons hard boiled egg. The egg that doesn’t crack wins. Have the winners face off with other winners. Back To Back Start by pairing up. Sit back-to-back and lock elbows with the person behind you. Now stand up together. Next do it with 4 people, then 8, then 16, then 32 etc. Balloon at your back Establish a starting line and a finish line, and have kids form teams of four to six. Give each person a balloon to inflate and tie. Have the first two players of each team stand back-to-back at the starting line and wedge two balloons between their backs while the other team members simply hold their balloons. The entire team must then walk to the finish line without dropping any balloons. When the team reaches the finish line, have three team members wedge three balloons between their backs. Then the entire team must walk back to the starting line, where they should add a fourth person and balloon. Continue until the team is transporting all their balloons without dropping any of them. The first team to carry all the balloons across the playing area wins. Balloon Contest Divide the club in half. Have two different colors of balloons. Have half of each team try to pop the other team's balloons, and the other half try to keep their team's balloons in the air. Balloon Gauntlet Girls are given rolled up newspapers, and they are lined up in two single file lines. The two lines are parallel, facing each other with approximately three to four feet between them. The boys tie balloons to their pant belt loops and must "run the gauntlet". That is, they must run between the two lines of girls who try to pop the balloons by hitting them with the newspapers. The object is to see which boy(s) can avoid having their balloon popped. Balloon Golf Use low profile boxes for the holes, balloons for the balls, foam pipe insulation for the clubs. See how many swings it takes to get in the hole. Balloon Pop Relay Participants line up, run to a chair across the room, blow up a balloon, pop it by sitting on it and run back. First team that finishes wins. The less people you have on each team, the better. Kids will get bored if they stand in line too long. Balloon Rockets Divide kids into groups of 5. Give them all the supplies they need to make a balloon rocket. They will need one toilet paper tube, four large balloons, four clothes pins and tape. Balloons are taped to the toilet paper tube. Clothes pins are used to seal the end of balloons until take off. Attach twine to the other side of the room and pull it taught across the room. Insert end of twine through rocket tube and let them fly. Set up more than one twine runway in order to have races. Barnyard This is a good game to divide people into teams. Have pre-made cards for more than enough kids. Come up with as many animals as you want teams. If you want four teams, have four animals. If you predict 35 kids that night make forty cards, four groups of ten. Each group of ten cards will have a particular animal written on it (so you will have 10 chicken cards, 10 cow cards, 10 donkey cards and10 pig cards). Hand out cards randomly to the kids and tell them to not tell anyone their animal. When you give the signal, have them make the sound of their animal as loud as possible until they find their entire group. The first group to totally find each other wins. Birdie on the Perch All girls stand in a circle, and the guys form a circle around them. Everyone must be paired off with someone of the opposite sex in the opposite circle. When the music plays, the girls walk clockwise and the guys walk counterclockwise. When the music stops, they must find their partner, and the girl must sit on the guy’s knee. The last couple to find each other will be out. A variation for this game is to have a leader calling out two parts of the body as the music stops. For instance, “elbow to ear.” Each couple must find their partner and touch one person’s elbow to the other’s ear. Bite the Bag Everyone lines up in rows. In front of each row is a paper grocery bag. Without touching the ground with hands elbows or knees they must bite the bag & pick it up. If a person fails to pick up the bag, they are out. For each round have a bag ready that you have cut shorter. By the end a few may be picking up a paper off the floor with their mouth. Body Spelling Divide into two groups. Give a person a phrase like "blow your nose." They must relate the phrase to their group a letter at a time using their body to form the letters (no finger spelling). As a variation, time the group. The group who has the most correct guesses wins. Boy Relay The boys line up in several teams. The girl members of their teams divide in half and each half lines up one side of their boys’ team. So you have a line of with a short line of girls on each side of them. At a signal, four girls from each team (two from each side of the boys) pick up the first boy. One girl takes one leg, another the other leg and one girl takes each arm. They ten carry the boy across the room and deposit him on a chair. The girls race back to the team, get to the end of the line and the next four carry the next boy. First team to carry all boys across is the winner. Girls will have to carry more than one boy. Bring Me Four teams find items that are announced from up front. Items might include: 5 fruit of the loom tags, longest belt chain, biggest ball of gum, family pictures, love letter, etc. Really think through things they can come up with and have only one person from each team to deliver the items. Bubble Gum Sculpture Materials: bubble gum and a towel or two. Divide your group into groups of 4 or 5. Get two volunteers out of each group. (Don't tell them what they're volunteering for) Give them a plate or flat dish(we used cookie sheets). Give everyone bubble gum, and tell them to chew as quickly as possible. Have them chew it only until it is soft, and then give it to the volunteers in their group, and start chewing the next piece. As the group is chewing, the volunteers need to be working on their sculpture. Set a time limit of 10 minutes. Give them creative ideas of what to make such as pizza, turtle, etc., but it has to be something difficult. Have someone judge the sculptures. Burrito Races Divide into small groups of 5 to 7 people. Each group is given supplies to make a burrito racer frozen burrito, 4 wood screws for axles, 4 washers for wheels, toothpicks, raisins, celery, carrot, etc. Be creative with the items to decorate the racer. For the race, get 2 12 ft. plastic rain gutters (these double for ice cream troughs later in the year). Lift both rain gutters to the same height and let the cars go. The burrito racers tend to fall a part but that’s half the fun. Butt Bumpers Everyone grabs ankles and tries to knock others over by bumping into them. If you get knocked over you are out. Camera Cram Mount a camera on a tripod. This can be a class competition. Explain to them they must try to fit as many people as possible into the view of the camera just like they were cramming into a phone booth. The winner is team with most in the picture. Candy Teams This game works very well as a mixer for large crowds. Gather a few distinctly different types of candy and tape them under the chairs of your audience before the meeting. Keep in mind when deciding how many types of candy you use that you will want the teams to be as evenly numbered as possible. Have your MC explain the activity as follows: 1. Groups must look underneath their seat, grab the candy bar and then find the other people in the room with that candy bar. 2. Once all team members have found their group, they must eat their candy and present their wrappers to one person on the team who will bring them all to the MC. This gets the crowd up and interacting and provides a boost of energy to your meeting. It is also a good idea to have some high energy back ground music. Card Questions Use a deck of cards to divide into groups and answer questions. Card 1 answers question 1, card 2 answers question 2 and so on. What is 1 achievement you’re proud of? If you could change 2 things about school, what would you change? What are 3 ways to make you laugh? What is your routine be4 you go to school in the morning? What were you doing in 1985? be specific as you can. What are your top 6 movies of all time? What is your favorite thing to buy at a convenience store like 7-eleven? How would you describe the perfect d8 (date)? What were your favorite tv shows when you were 9? Why? Where do you see yourself 10 years from now? Explain. Charades On The Wall Before the game create a list of one or two syllable words. Clear a large space on the wall. Form 2 teams. Have each team choose a representative to start the game. Explain to kids that you'll show their selected team members a word that they must convey to their team. Tell the kids they must convey the word in only one way: by using their heads as imaginary pencils to spell the words on the wall. Play several rounds so each team member gets a turn at writing on the wall. The team that's able to guess the correct answers in the shortest amount of time wins Cheese Dishes Divide into 2 teams with a spokesperson for each side. Alternate listing one dish having cheese as an ingredient. No dish can be repeated. Each team has 5 sec. to give their answer. Chocolate Bar Scramble Great game for groups of 6-10. Place a chocolate bar in the center of the table. The candy should stay in its wrapper and, to make the game last longer, you could wrap the candy in gift-wrapping paper as well. Each person sitting around the table takes a turn at rolling the dice. The first person who rolls a six gets to start eating the candy bar -- but only after he puts on a pair of mittens, a cap, a scarf; only after he runs once around the table; and only with a knife and fork. While he is getting ready (according to the instructions above) to eat the candy bar, the group keeps taking turns rolling the dice. If someone rolls a six, then the person who rolled the six before him relinquishes his right to the candy bar, and the second person must try to eat the candy before someone else rolls six. The game is over when the candy bar is finished. Christmas Carol Quiz 1. Bleached Yule 2. Castaneous_colored Seed Vesicated in a Conflagration 3. Singular Yearning for the Twin Anterior Incisors 4. Righteous Darkness 5. Arrival Time2400 hrs _ WeatherCloudless 6. Loyal Followers Advance 7. Far Off in a Feeder 8. Array the Corridor 9. Bantam Male Percussionist 10. Monarchial Triad 11. Nocturnal Noiselessness 12. Jehovah Deactivate Blithe Chevaliers 13. Red Man En Route to Borough 14. Frozen Precipitation Commence 15. Proceed and Enlighten on the Pinnacle 16. The Quadruped with the Vermillion Probiscis 17. Query Regarding Identity of Descendant 18. Delight for this Planet 19. Give Attention to the Melodious Celestial Beings 20. The Dozen Festive 24 Hour Intervals Answers: (Don’t include these on the quiz . . . duh!) 1. White Christmas 2. Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire 3. All I Want for Christmas is My Two Front Teeth 4. O Holy Night 5. It Came Upon a Midnight Clear 6. O Come, All Ye Faithful 7. Away in a Manger 8. Deck the Hall 9. Little Drummer Boy 10. We Three Kings 11. Silent Night 12. God Rest Ye, Merry Gentlemen 13. Santa Claus is Coming to Town 14. Let it Snow 15. Go, Tell It on the Mountain 16. Rudolph, the Red_nosed Reindeer 17. What Child is This? 18. Joy to the World 19. Hark! The Herald Angels Sing 20. The Twelve Days of Christmas Christmas Gift Exchange Have everyone bring a wrapped gift. The gift can be a used item or something they buy for $3 or less. Have the group sit in a circle with the gifts in the center. Have the first person pick a gift and open it. The next person can take that gift or pick a wrapped gift. If someone takes a gift that you chose, you must pick a new wrapped gift at that time. When everyone has a gift, start round two by having everyone stand. They then trade gifts (they may not say no to a trade) for one minute. You can not trade directly back. Only through a third party trade can you get that gift again. In round three have everyone sit in a circle and pass their gift 2 people to the left. Round four is where you trade again but only if you want to trade. Cinderfella Each girl takes off a shoe. Mix them up, blindfold guys. Girls must remain seated and verbally guide their guy to find their shoe across the room and come back to put it on her. Circle to the center Circle around an empty garbage can holding hands. If you touch the can or the can touches you in any way, you are out, and if you break hands with the person next to you, you both are out. And the last man (or woman) standing wins. Clothespin bite relay This is set up like any relay with multiple teams, each team with 5 clothespins. Have the first person in line attach the clothespins to their shirt, clothes, or body part, run around a certain designated point and return to have the clothespins removed by the next person in line . . . with their teeth! They then attach the clothespins to their own clothes and run. Team to finish first, wins. Clothespin Tag Give each person 4-5 clothespins. Explain that when the music begins, they are to get all clothespins off of themselves and onto someone else. Turn off lights and turn on strobes and music. You may want to put girls on one side of room and guys on another (divide it with a volleyball net or something). Explain that when the lights come on, one or two folks should have about 100 pins on them - pull them up and parade the winner. Here is one more possible key to this mixer. At the end collet the pins by dressing a tough kid or leader up in very protective gear (motorcycle helmet with face shield, chest protector, turtleneck, scarf, gloves, shin guards, thick pants, etc.) and put a bulls eye on their chest. Tell everybody to grab all their clothes pins and throw their pins at him. Kids can’t believe they are doing this. Sweep them in a corner and go on with club! Also, a possible sell is a kid in real wrestling outfit and headgear coming in to music, maybe dejected because he can’t pin anybody - so you must find the easiest person to pin! Commercial Slogan Trivia 1. Fly the friendly skies -- United 2. When it absolutely, positively has to be there overnight -- Fedex 3. I love what you do for me -- Toyota 4. Make a run for the border -- Taco Bell 5. It's everywhere you want to be -- Visa 6. We build excitement -- Pontiac 7. The happiest place on earth -- Disneyland 8. Obey your thirst -- Sprite 9. Before you dress -- Caress 10. Strong enough for a man but made for a woman – Secret Deodorant 11. Squeezably soft -- Charmin 12. They're great! -- Frosted Flakes 13. This is my planet -- Reebok 14. Don't leave home without it -- American Express 15. A different kind of company, a different kind of car -- Saturn 16. Generation next -- Pepsi 17. Just do it -- Nike 18. The quicker picker upper -- Bounty 19. There's no wrong way to eat a ________ -- Reese's 20. Made from the best stuff on earth -- Snapple 21. Get your burgers worth -- Burger King 22. It's what a ham-burgers all about -- In-N-Out Burger 23. The best part of waking up is ________ in your cup. -- Folgers 24. Snap into a ______ _______ -- Slim Jim 25. What do you want on your _______________ -- Tombstone Pizza 26. The real thing -- Coke 27. If it doesn't get all over the place, it doesn't belong in your face -- Carls Jr. 28. Pizza, pizza -- Little Caesar's 29. Two for me, none for you -- Twix Common Ground Form equal-sized teams of three to six. Give each team a sheet of paper and a pencil. Tell teams their challenge is to list everything they can think of that all team members have in common. For example, team members might all attend the same school, or all like the same brand of shoes. The only rule is that they can’t list similar body parts, such as “We all have eyes.” Tell teams they have three minutes to create their lists, so they need to work quickly. When time is up, find out which team has the longest list and ask team members to read the similarities they listed. Then ask teams who had similarities not already listed to share them. Cookie Hockey Spread Cardboard out on the floor. Assign one person to be the shooter & one to be the goalie. Shooter trys to score a goal using a cookie as a puck and a regular hockey stick. Shooter gets 2 cookies then it’s the next shooters turn. Goalie must eat each cookie that is blocked. If the goalie misses a shot the next goalie steps in. Get more than one setup going at once to involve more kids. Dance Tag For this game, it is better to have roughly an even amount of guys and girls. Around 25 players are needed for the game to be fun. Have all of the girls stand in a circle facing outwards, and all of the guys stand in a circle around the girls (facing the girls); each guy taking the hands of the girl in front of him. Select a few people (guys & girls) to start the game without a partner. These people must run around the outside of the circle trying to tag someone of the same gender. Girls tag girls, and guys tag guys. Once a runner tags someone he or she gets the partner of the tagged person, and the tagged person becomes a runner. Only the person on the outside of the circle can be tagged, so if a guy comes running in your direction, the guy & girl should swing around so the guy is on the inside of the circle and the girl is on the outside. EXAMPLE: Bob and Sarah are partners. Sarah starts on the inside of the circle and Bob starts on the outside. Along comes Willy, running around the circle in their direction. To save himself from getting tagged, Bob swings around to the middle of the circle, with Sarah on the outside. All is well. Willy missed a chance to dance with Sarah, so Bob still has his partner. Then, all of a sudden, Sarah feels a tap on her shoulder. She turns around and sees Alyson there, trying to get a dance with Bob. Sarah, because she is on the outside of the circle, must let Alyson dance with Bob. Sarah now becomes a runner, desperate to find a partner to dance with. (end of example) The game is almost as fun to watch as it is to play. Watching all of the couples twirling around as people run by if quite funny. If you have a much larger group, you can have people running around the inside and outside of the circle. You can also add more runners if the game gets too slow. If there are significantly more girls than guys or more guys than girls, you can designate some girls to be guys or guys to be girls. This game can be played for quite a while if everyone is into it. It's best to use your own judgment and stop the game before it is becomes boring. Donut Popsicle Stick Compete in teams. Pass the donut down the line using popsicle sticks in the mouth. Dress Up Relay Have kids run to a pile of clothes. Put all the clothes on. Take them off and run back. This is great for getting kids into a theme night when they won’t dress on their own for the night (Disco or Western). Egg Designs Have kids bring hard boiled eggs (have extras made up if kids forget). Supply colored felt tip markers for kids to decorate their eggs. Electric Fence For this game you need two poles and a piece of rope or string. The rope is tied between the two poles, about four feet off the floor. You can divide into teams, or, I recommend that you do this as a group (great activity to make a group work together as a team). The object of the game is for the entire team to get over the "electric fence" (the rope) without getting "electrocuted" (touching the rope). Team members go one-at-a-time, with or without help from his or her team-mates. What makes this game interesting is that even though one player goes over the rope at a time, the other team members can help any way they want. Once a person is over the fence, however, he or she must stay over the fence and not come back around to help anyone. The last person on each team must somehow get over the fence without help from the other side. If you do this with multiple teams, competing with each other, have them each send one member over at a time. You can start with a low rope and make the rope higher and higher each turn. Teams can be eliminated entirely if one person touches the fence, or you can eliminate individual members only as the rope gets higher and higher. Make sure your teams are evenly divided according to height, age, and sex. Encore Divide into teams. Yell out a word that is commonly found in songs (love, road, river, girl, baby, need . . . ). The teams must sing a song in unison (together) using that word. The first team to do it wins a point. Play as long as they like it. Food & Beachball Throw a beach ball out in club. Have kids throw it around while the music is playing. Whoever hits it last before the music stops, that person comes up, picks out a bag and has to eat whatever is in it baby food, onion, candy bar, apple, pickle etc. Fruit Basket Upset Have group sit in a circle. "Number" people off, but instead of saying, "one, two, three, four, five" say "apple, banana, orange, kiwi, peach" or whatever fruit you like. The more people you have, the more groups you may want. The last person is "It" and stands in the center of the circle. "It" yells out a fruit name. Everyone with that name must exchange seats with someone else with that name. "It" tries to take one of the empty chairs before they are all taken. Whoever is left without a chair is "It". Rather than yelling a fruit name, "It" may yell "Fruit Basket Upset." Everyone must change seats. Variation: "It" may yell more than one fruit at a time. This gets more people up and moving. Variation without the fruit: Have the person in the middle yell out certain characteristics that they have (hair color, color of clothes, gender, etc.) instead of a fruit, and people with those characteristics must get up and move. Have the person in the middle yell out "I am" or "I have" then the characteristic (I am blonde, I have a blue shirt on, I play on the soccer team, etc.) Geometric Fun Draw shapes on poster board that are large enough for everyone to see from up front. Divide into teams and when a shape is shown each team tries to be the first to make that shape. (shapes like square, triangle, dot, line, letters, etc.) Giant Twister Make a twister game by painting large colored dots on an extra large tarp. Use a regular Twister “spinner”. Have the whole group play at once. Grape Toss Divide into teams of about ten. Each team gets into a circle and appoints one member to be the grape tosser. He gets a bag of grapes (or small marshmallows if you prefer) and stands in the center of the circle. When the signal is given, he tosses a grape to each team member in the circle, one at a time, and the team member must catch the grape in his mouth. The tosser cannot toss to the next player until a successful catch is made. The first team to toss all the way around the circle is the winner. Guess the Alias Each player writes a name on a slip of paper and passes it to the judge. After the judge receives all the slips, he mixes them up and writes the names on the board. The judge picks a person to start. The person (Frank) chooses someone in the game and guesses what their name might be. "Bob", I think you're Cinderella." If Frank is correct, Bob is now on Frank's team. Later, if Frank's name is guessed, both Frank and Bob join the other's team. Frank continues to guess people's names until he guesses wrong. The last person he asks now gets to guess. Play continues until all but two players have been guessed. The winner is the player with the most people on his team. Guess the Leader Everyone gets in a big circle. Pick a volunteer to leave the room after you explain the game. Once that volunteer is out of hearing range, pick a volunteer in the room that wants to be leader. Everyone must slyly watch this person and imitate what they do when the other volunteer comes back into the room (cross legs, cross arms, yawn, stick out their tongue, etc.). The person who was out of the room will come back in, stand in the middle of the circle and try to see who is the leader (the one everyone is watching). The leader can get bold and make faces, throw their hands in the air, etc. when the person's back is turned and before the person in the middle has a chance to see who started it, everyone is doing it. Give the person in the middle three guesses. Then find a new volunteer and a new leader. You can have the leader be the next volunteer if he is guessed or any way you see fit. Guess the Task Everyone gets in a big circle. Pick a volunteer to leave the room after you explain the game. Once that volunteer is out of hearing range, choose a simple task that the volunteer is to do when he or she enters the room (walk in and tie a certain kids shoe that is untied, take off their own coat, say the pledge of allegiance, etc.) The volunteer must come in the room and try to start doing certain tasks (unaware of the task to be done). The kids in the room help direct this ignorant person by clapping when this person gets even close to doing the task. Louder and faster clapping means the person is getting hotter (closer to completing or discovering what the task is). Silence means "you're way off- keep trying stuff". Gum Relay This is a relay for two or more teams using sticks of chewing gum, work gloves, and shopping bags. Individual sticks of gum (wrapped) are placed inside the shopping bags, and each team is given a pair of work gloves. The idea is to put on the gloves, run down to the bag, pull out a piece of gum, unwrap it and chew it (with the gloves on), run back, and then pass the gloves to the next person. The team that finishes first is the winner. Gum Sculpture Divide club into four teams and pass out 3-8 gum balls per kid (depending on the size of club). Each team picks a sculptor, chews gum and designs something in 5 minutes. Judge for originality, funniest, etc. Build on cookie sheet and have rubber gloves for sculptor. Gum commercials (off a commercials CD) will work for background music or even TV shows. Also for a sell, you may want a brat guy or girl interrupting, chewing gum and stretching it out of their mouth etc.. Gun, Gorilla, Karate Played like Paper, Rock, Scissors except that you play using the entire body. Pair everybody up and have each couple stand back to back. On the count of three, they turn around and act out either gun, karate or gorilla. Gun kills gorilla, gorilla kills karate, karate kills gun. Eliminate everyone until you have one person still alive. If a pair does the same movement three times, they are both out. Head Through Arms Cross your wrists and place your palms together. Now lace your fingers. Keeping your fingers locked, rotate your hands down and towards you until your hands are up and near your face. Now make a gap between your wrists and fit your head through without unlocking your hands. Heads to Cup & Stand Pair up and have one person lay down with a cup held to their forehead. The other person stands with their toes near the top of the other persons head. They must bend down to touch the cup to their head too. Now they must stand and twist around so they are looking at each other with the cup between their foreheads. At no time can they touch the cup with their hands. Honey, If You Love Me The group sits in a circle facing inward. One member of the group is "it." The objective is for this person to make another smile. He goes around the circle, picks a person, kneels, and asks him/her, "Honey, if you love me, won't you please, please smile?" The person must respond with, "Honey, you know I love you, but I just can't smile," without smiling. If he/she smiles, that person becomes "it," replacing the first. If the person "it" does not convince a person to smile, he/she must approach another until he/she does. The person "it" may do any gestures he/she wants to make the person smile (e.g. make funny faces, do a stunt), but cannot touch the person. This is a circular game, meaning it does not end. A good length for this game would be 20 minutes, or when most of the group has been "it." Hootie & The Blowfish Form 2 lines. Person at front of line is given a ping pong ball. They put the ball in their mouth and spit them across the room. Use a hula hoop as a target (or a fishing net for blowfish theme). Shoot for distance at the end for few remaining participants. Have leaders retrieving, cleaning w/ bleach water and drying the ping pong balls. Hula Hoop Chain Have 2 teams form lines by holding hands. They must pass hula hoops down the line without letting go of their hands. Works best if you have multiple hula hoops. The team to get all their hula hoops down the line is the winner. Human Christmas Tree & Gift Divide your group into teams. Have as many teams of 10 to 15 as you want. Designate one person "the Christmas tree," and another as the “gift” the other team members "the decorators." Each decorator has a bag full of Ornaments, lights, and Tree decorations. Include construction paper, scissors, pens, wrapping paper and Christmas bows. Give each team 10 minutes to decorate, when finished turn off all the lights and plug in Christmas Trees. Student lights up like a tree. It’s great in a dark room. Islands Pieces of cardboard of various sizes are the islands. While music is going everyone must “swim” around the islands. When the music is stopped everyone must get on an island. Encourage them to squeeze on and help others stay on the islands. When the music is started again everyone must swim around the islands and someone removes a few islands. If someone does not make it on an island they are out. Eventually you will be down to a few people remaining. I Have Never Have everyone sit in a circle except one person. When everyone is seated the person in the middle says something that they have never done(ie. I have never had braces, or I have never worn a dress). All the people who have never done that have to get up and find an empty seat (from someone else who just got up). The person stuck without a seat is now in the middle. Jelly Bean Trade Everyone for themselves. Everyone is handed 10 jelly beans. They are to try to get 10 of one color by trading with other people one at a time. First person to get ten of one color wins. Jigsaw Jack-o’-Lanterns This is a great competitive team mixer for the fall. Cut up pumpkins into 8-10 pieces. Break your group into teams of 5 or 6. Have a supply of round wooden toothpicks. Give each group two minutes to put its "jig-saw puzzle" pumpkin back together, using the toothpicks to hold the pieces in place. The first team done or the team with the most "together" pumpkin after the time limit is the winner. Pumpkins must be able to stand up alone to be considered a winner. King Of The Goats Choose a “goat” from the group (or one from each team) and have it removed while the groups are given instruction. The crowd (one group) is instructed to stand on the sidelines and shout instructions to the goat, while the circle group (the other group) is told to from a circle holding hands. The goat is to be put in the center of the circle blindfolded. At the signal, the goat is to start chasing the circle and the circle is to move as a whole to avoid being caught. When the goat is ready to start, the circle group is instructed in his presence to move silently and to make no sound. The goat is to listen to the sideline crowd for instructions where to go to catch the circle. As soon as the start signal is given, the crowd starts shouting instructions to the goat, such as, “Go to the right, the right, now go back, straight ahead.” The minute the game starts, the circle team, instructed before the goat arrived, immediately disbands and joins the crowd, leaving the goat in a an empty field. Let the goat run for a short time or until the goat guesses what is going on. Be sure you choose someone for this who can handle it. King of the Throne Call out actions for group to do (last ones are out) king on the throne...(2 people lock arms for guy to sit) queen on the throne...(2 people lock arms for girl to sit) 5 person pyramid dead bug... (lay on back and wiggle arms & legs in the air) cannon ball... (tuck into cannon ball position) Piggy Back Kleenex & Straws Pass a Kleenex down a line of people using only straws. Knee Slapin’ Names This game is designed as a "get-to-know-ya" kind of game (usually for no more than about 30-35 people). Have everyone sit in a circle or as close as you can get. Then, have each person give their name and make sure each name is clearly said so that all others can hear it. After going through the names once or even twice, have someone start in the middle by asking someone to call the name of another person in the room. The person in the middle proceeds to find the person and try to whomp'em with a rolled up newspaper (or pillow) before that person can say both their name and someone else's name in the room. If they get whooped before they can say their name and someone else's name, they are now "it". Also, if the person whose name is called fails to say both their name and another person's name, they will have to be it. The person who is in the middle takes the place of the person they whoop. This helps people learn each others name and mixes kids around with each other. Leader Trivia A contest by teams, Jeopardy style, with "answers" in categories of leader trivia. A great way to let kids get to know their leaders. Lifesaver Toothpick This is a simple game with any number of evenly divided teams. Everyone gets a toothpick and places it in their mouth. Get the teams in some sort of single file line, row or circle. Start the front or beginning person with a Lifesaver candy on their toothpick. They must pass the life saver from their toothpick to their neighbor’s toothpick without using hands. First team to pass it all the way down is the winner. Limbo Everyone must walk under a stick by leaning backwards. Hands may not touch the ground. Each time everyone makes a height the stick is lowered more. Play limbo music throughout. Line Up By Divide group into 2 or more teams then have them line up by: shortest to tallest oldest to youngest smallest shoe size to largest alphabetically by first name (a to z) darkest hair color to lightest person wearing the most red to the least by birthdays Jan. to Dec. (don’t count year) by how close you live to here (close to far) line up guy-girl, guy-girl lifesaver toothpick relay Mafia (also called "Killers") This game is good for smaller groups or over-nighters. The object of the game is to not get killed. Unfortunately, it takes a lot of explaining, but once you get it, it will quickly become a group favorite. You need at least 8 players to make the game interesting. You need a deck of cards, or slips of paper with the identities on it. For 10 or more, there should be 2 Mafia, 1 Angel, 1 Cop. The rest townspeople. For smaller groups, have only 1 Mafia. Try not to play with more than 30, because it turns into a huge shouting match. Distribute the identities secretly. Everyone should keep their identity a secret, but if they choose to they can reveal it as part of strategy later. Here is an outline of how to play each round: 1. Narrator says "Town go to sleep." All players put their heads down and close their eyes. 2. N: "Mafia wake up" Only the Mafia open their eyes and look at narrator. 3. N: "Mafia, who do you want to kill?" Mafia have to point to someone in the room and agree on that person. Narrator nods to let them know they understand. 4. N: "Mafia go to sleep" Mafia close eyes again. 5. N: "Cop wake up" The cop opens eyes. "Who do you think it is?" Cop points to someone they suspect is a Mafia. Narrator either nods yes or no. Now the cop has an advantage for later. "Cop go to sleep" 6. N: "Angel wake up" Same deal. "Angel, who do you want to save?" Usually, the angel points to him/herself, in case they were picked to be killed off. But sometimes they are gracious and point to someone else to be saved, especially if they have an idea who has been picked by the Mafia. "Angel go to sleep" 7. N: "Town wake up" At this point, everyone opens their eyes, and the narrator announces who is dead, or that no-one is dead (if Angel managed to save them.) Everyone gasps in surprise, and then the accusations fly. 8. Narrator asks for accusations as to who the town thinks the Mafia is. It's usually a good idea to limit it to 2 or 3 per round. To make it more interesting, I always insist on the accuser making up some creative reason why they are accusing so-and-so. (like, "I heard them leave their house last night" or "look how muddy their shoes are!") 9. Narrator then allows each of the accused to defend themselves. This whole process can get really rowdy, and you need to be careful not to offend the sensitive kids. Narrator must remain neutral, but can egg on either side with "facts". 10. After a few minutes, the narrator should announce that it's time to vote. By a show of hands, go through each accused. The one with the most votes gets "lynched" by the town and is therefore dead. 11. Repeat. When someone is "dead" they cannot participate in the accusations. They are not allowed to talk. However, they get to keep their eyes open and find out all the answers to the mystery. Remind students not to cheat, because the temptation is great to do so! The game ends when both Mafia are killed off (town wins) or are the only ones left (mafia wins). The advantage of being the cop is that they can say "I'm the cop, I know the Mafia is so-and-so." However, they should be careful, as sometimes the town doesn't believe them and the cop ends up getting killed off! Also, you can play that once the Angel is killed off, that's it, or that he/she can continue to save people because they don't technically die. Make the Most of It Have kids form small teams of three or four, depending on the size. Give each team a pencil and a supply of paper. Have each team choose someone to be the recorder. Tell teams you’ll call out a category and then they’ll have three minutes to write down as many items as they can think of that fit in the category. The group with the longest list wins. Use the following categories, or think of others yourself: (Automobile models, Tree varieties, Vegetables, Sports team, Italian foods). For the next round, have groups exercise their imaginations by making lists that fit the following categories. You may want to increase the time allowed to five minutes. (New uses for tires, New subjects to take in school, New uses for paper bags, New inventions you’d like to see.) For the final installment of the game, have kids test their brain-power by thinking of as many solutions tot he following problems as possible. (Someone just delivered twenty-five turkeys to your door, You found a canvas gym bag full of money, You’re stuck in a blizzard, and the only things in your refrigerator are ten oranges and a loaf of bread) Map Game This game is good for small groups. Obtain several road maps (all identical) of your county and before the game draw a large number, letter or symbol with a pencil (i.e.: number 8). Make a list of all the towns that your pencil crosses or comes near. Have the kids divide into small groups and give each group a map and the list of towns. On "GO" they must locate the towns and figure out what they symbol/number is that the towns form when they are connected with a line. No guessing allowed (a wrong guess disqualifies them) and the first group to come up with the correct answer wins. Matchbox Nose This is a relay -- kids pass a matchbox cover down their row from nose to nose without using their hands. Melt the Ice Cube Divide the group into 2 or 3 teams. Have a large block of ice for each group. The team has to melt the ice block in any way they can (i.e. crushing, breaking, friction, body heat etc.). Milk Crate Stand This is a quick game that can be used in many different ways. Get as many milk crates as you have teams. Turn the milk crate upside-down. The object is to see how many of their team they can get to stand on the milk crate for more than 3 seconds. The team with the most people off the ground wins. Money Elbows Raise your elbow with your hand open near your ear, and your fore arm parallel with the floor. Place a coin on your elbow. In one motion, quickly lower your elbow and catch the coin with the hand of the same arm. Add coins to see how many you can catch. The person who can catch the most coins wins. Movie Trivia Divide into 6 groups by your favorite movie type (comedy / action / romantic / Disney / scary / sci-fi). In your group have each person share what their favorite movie is. Show a movie clip. Each group sends up their expert on that movie. Line up in the order they arrive up front. Rapid fire, each person must share trivia from that movie (ie. actors names or quotes from the movie). Pausing repeating an answer or wrong answer means you’re out. Repeat with new movie clip. Mr. Potato Head Break the group into teams of four kids, and give each team a potato, toothpicks, and vegetable pieces. The object is for each team to make the funniest, most creative potato person possible. If you desire, you can turn this into a competition between the teams and give out prizes. Musical Partner Body Parts Everyone finds partner of other sex, guys in an inner circle, girls in an outer circle. When music starts, guys move clockwise, girls counter clockwise. When music stops leader yells out two body parts. They must find their partner and connect. Last pair to do so is out. Elbow-ear, nose-knee, foot-forehead, butt-butt, thumb-nose, etc...but keep it clean. Musical Squirt Gun Can be played with a group ranging from 6 - 30 (can also be played outdoors). Group sits in a circle on chairs or on the floor. A loaded squirt gun is passed around the circle until the music stops or the leader says "Stop!" The person who is holding the squirt gun at the time must leave the game, but before he leaves, he can squirt the person on the left twice or the person on the right twice or each person once. The chair is removed, the circle moves in and the game continues. Last person remaining is the winner. The gun must be passed with 2 hands and received with 2 hands. It is best to have another loaded gun standing by for when the 1st runs out. Emphasize only 2 squirts!!! Music Trivia Play short portions of popular songs. The first person to guess correctly wins and is tossed a small candy bar. It works best if they raise their hand and the leader calls on them otherwise you can’t tell who yelled what. Name Connecting You start with a name (Tom Cruise). The other team must come up with a name starting with the last letter of the name (Edward Scissorhands). We had it going for a long time until we ran out of names for Y's and got into arguments over whether or not people really existed. We did another variation of the same game with songs. Fewer fights that way. Neck Passing Relay Pass objects chin-to-neck down and back guy/girl lines. Orange, frozen vegetable package, banana, water balloon, etc. Newspaper Gossip Select a very short story or news clip from the paper. Have everyone sit in a circle. Give the news clip to the first person and have him read it to himself. He must then whisper the story to the person on his right. The story continues this way around the circle until the last person hears the story. Hey must then tell it out loud. Naturally the story will be somewhat different. Newspaper Hunt Students work in teams to find items in the newspaper that the leader calls out. Need identical papers for each group. Newspaper Towers Supply groups of about 6 with newspapers and masking tape. They compete with the other groups to see who can make the tallest free-standing tower. Over Under Relay Line up teams (however many you want). The object is to pass an item (a balloon, a ball, a bucket of water, unrolling TP etc.) over their head and under the next person’s legs and so on through the entire line. First one to the back (or back up, or the back person runs it to the front of the line, etc.) wins. Paper Glen Need stacks of newspaper. Start with two teams w/equal stacks of paper. This game is played in the following four parts: First team to crumple their entire stack wins. Team to get most of the paper on the other side of the room wins. First team to cover entire team w/ paper wins. First team to put all their paper in trash bags wins. Pass It On The entire group forms a circle. Everyone is given an object which can be large, small or any shape (i.e.: bowling ball, trash can, shoe, etc.). On a signal, every one passes his object to the right, keeping the objects moving at all times. When a person drops any object, he must leave the game, but his object stays in. As the game progresses, more people leave the game making it harder and harder to avoid dropping an object since there are more objects than people. The winner is the last person remaining. Pass the Bag When music starts pass the bag to the person next to you (you can not throw the bag). When the music stops if you have the bag you must take one bite of what's in it. Items for bags: Raw onion, apple, candy etc. Have gum on hand for onion eaters. Pass the Hotdog This game was inspired by the baseball games where vendors will pass a hot dog down the row to the person who wants it. For this game a person is passed to get the hot dog and then passed back with the dog. Then they eat it. To pass have everyone sit in two rows facing each other with legs stretched out. Feet from one row should extend to the backs of the other row. Person being passed should lie down, looking face up, they are then passed with everyone lifting with their arms and moving them forward. If there are enough people they can be split in two groups and race. Pays to Make Friends Plant several people in your crowd who have a one dollar bill, a certificate to something, or any prize of your liking. Tell everyone that they need to go and introduce themselves to and learn the names of as many people as they can meet. Have your "planted people" give the prize to the 15th person that introduces themselves to them. Once the prizes have been given announce who received them and who had the prizes. Pencil Passing Pass a pencil down the line using just the upper lip and nose. Penguin Football Give each person a rag about 4 inches wide and 2 feet long (sheets torn into strips work well). Each person then ties the rag securely around his knees to make running impossible. Players can move only by shuffling their feet. Now divide into teams and play football using a Nerf ball. The game becomes hilarious when players must hike, run, throw and kick with their knees tied together. Of course, this opens up the possibility of playing Penguin Baseball, Penguin Volleyball, Penguin Soccer and countless other games. People Bingo Kids run around the room trying to find people who match the description of each Bingo square. Make a Bingo sheet using 8 1/2 x 11 paper with large squares (5 rows across by 5 rows down). In the top of each square place a description (examples below). Be sure to include several descriptions that only YL leaders meet. In the center square write "My Name". The person fills in their name in this "free" square. Leaders can learn kid's names by looking at the center square as they sign kid's sheets. Each person needs a Bingo sheet and a pen or pencile. A person can only sign a sheet once.. A freshman guy Someone who owns their own YL hat Someone who does not have their license Someone who rode with their boyfriend or girlfriend Someone who can do a back-flip A girl who has not shaved her legs in a week A person who is an uncle or aunt A person who went to Castaway Someone who has bench-pressed over 250lbs. A person with a fake ID An Honor Roll student A person who weighs under 100 lbs. Someone who went to the football game A senior girl Someone with size 10 shoe A person who kissed someone yesterday The youngest Young Life leader A person over 6’3” A person with a birthday this month A person with over $40 on them Someone who has gotten a ticket this month A person who goes to campaigners Someone who is going to sign up for YL camp A person who is at YL for the first time A varsity athlete Pictionary A word is given to one member of each team who tries to draw symbols and pictures to lead his/her team to guess the word. You may not use numbers letters or the "number sign" (#). Anything else is okay. You also may not say anything or do any kind of gestures, to help your team guess the word. You may point to a team member who is on the right track or very close to saying the answer, but no other gestures may be used. You may nod your head to say "yes, that's right" or "no, wrong". Use Pictionary cards if you have them, or make up a list of words yourself (maybe use a certain subject or topic of the club, i.e., Santa Claus, Reindeer, Christmas tree or pencil, teacher, school, etc.) Whoever has the most points (words guessed) at the ends wins. If it is a tie, give each team another word and see who can do their word the fastest. Plastic Egg Hunt Hide plastic eggs outside. Inside each egg is a pi