For this game you need to make your own money on your computer (be sure it's clearly phony or it might be a federal offense!). Give each person 10 of the $ notes. They are to try to win as many as possible from their peers by challenging them one on one doing one of three things:
As people enter the room, give everyone a pre-typed sheet of paper with each letter of the alphabet (x-optional) on the vertical left side.
Example:
A____________
B____________
C____________
D____________
Everyone attempts to find out something about others that starts with one of the letters.
Examples:
Joanna broke her arm in Primary School.
Alana plays basketball.
Nathan’s favorite chocolate is Snickers.
Evan’s dad is a dentist.
Put the person’s name and info on a line. Cannot use the same person for more than four times. Set a 5-7 minute time limit and see who has the most. Have several (small group, have all) people share interesting discoveries about each other.
The Point: Getting to Know You
This is a good game to divide into teams for the day/evening. Have pre-made cards for more than enough kids. Come up with as many animals as you want teams that night(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 and 10 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. First group to totally find each other wins.
This is also a great way to split your group up into teams for more games!
Put a twist on the game by putting in only ONE card that says "donkey" and giving it to a very secure student (but don't tell him/her they're the only donkey).
After all of the animals have found each other, there will still be one poor kid out there Hee-Hawing his head off to no avail!
Want a real quick, fun, and tasty way to break your audience up into smaller groups? Try this one!
Gather a few distinctly different types of lollies and tape them under the chairs of your group before the programme. Keep in mind when deciding how many types of lollies 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 lollie, and then find the other people in the room with that same lollie.
2. Once all team members have found their respective group, they must eat their lollies 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 background music.
Pass out about 4-5 clothes pegs per kid in the room and instruct them to pin them on their own sleeves. Explain that when the music begins, the object of the game is to get all pegs off themselves and on to someone else. To add another dimension, turn the lights off and have strobe lights etc on.
Explain that when the music stops, one or two people should have about 100(or whatever your number) pegs on them - pull them up and parade the winner.
At the end you won't want them playing with the pegs all night during the talk, so dress a tough kid or leader up front in protective gear (motorcycle helmet with face shield, chest protector or thick jacket, scarf, gloves, shin guards, thick pants, etc.); and put a bulls-eye on their chest. Tell everybody to grab all their pegs and bring in your human target and play music as they peg them. Kids can't believe they are allowed to do this, and when you stop the music, all your pegs are gathered up at the front.
Any size room. Easy game used to divide your group into teams. Simply yell, "Form a group according to . . . (see suggestions below)." If you're looking for a certain number of people per team, just say, "Form a group of 7!" If you end up with a remainder, then have leaders go around and divide the leftovers into teams.
Variation: Once in their groups, the game leader reads a question from the list below (or write your own) and everyone in the group answers. When the majority in the crowd have answered, leader directs them to mingle again.
Clumps: height, hair color, # fillings (teeth), # siblings, shirt color, number of people in your immediate family, month of birth, favourite colour, year level, middle initial, school you attend.
Give everyone a number. They have to arrange themselves in numerical order by communicating with each other without speaking or holding up fingers. They make up their own sub-language or sign-language and it often is pretty amusing. For Round Two, have people arrange themselves in order of birth or in calendar months etc.
Great for large or small groups. Give out the "Find Someone Who" list to students and have them go from student to student looking for someone who meets the descriptions on their list.
Example: Find someone who is wearing blue pants. The student who fits this description signs their name. Students then go off to find someone else that meets another description on their list. The winner is the one who has their sheet filled out first and most accurately. You should read aloud the list with the person's name who signed it. Have the student who signed the list verify the information.
Example: Find someone who can belch the alphabet. If Jo signed that item, have Jo come up and demonstrate.
Items needed:
Sample "Find someone who" list:
Items Needed:
You can either pre-make paper hands or have each participant trace their own hand on paper and pin it on their back. Then the whole group walks around and writes a one word POSITIVE description of the person whose back they are writing on. (ex. Nice, Pretty, Fun, Exciting, Loving, Kindhearted, etc.)
Allow enough time, depending on group size, for everyone to circulate. Then have students come up front and read what everyone said about them.
The Point: Motivator for positive self esteem.
Every man for himself. 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 all ten of a color they want wins.
You may play this game as a quick up-front game or even as a 4-person tournament. 2 contestants, each armed with a squirt gun, will take five paces and turn to duel. On each of their foreheads, you will have attached an berocca tablet with double stick tape (possibly use big rubber bands if tape doesn’t work). They draw and shoot the water at each other, the first one to dissolve the tablet on the other's forehead wins. Use swim goggles for each to protect their eyes. The tablet will fizz and foam all over the place.
Have towels close by for clean-up. A cheesy western song (think Clint Eastwood or Lone Ranger) and some “cowboys” or “cowgirls” add to this one.
This game works great for smaller groups of students. All you need is a couple large bowls, some Alphabet Soup, a few paper plates…and some cleaning supplies. Here’s what you do.
Choose two contestants from your group and put each of them in front of the two large bowls filled with Alphabet Soup. When you say go, the contestants bury their faces in the soup, suck up a mouthful of the yummy goodness, and run a few feet to where the paper plates are waiting. There, they “deposit” the soup from their mouths onto the plates. Then, using their hands, they move the letters around to make words.
Set a 2 minute time limit for the game. Players can return to the bowl of soup as often as they like for more letters, but the person with the most words at the whistle, wins.
Have fun, but clean up your mess!
Variation 1
The person with the most syllables wins.
Variation 2
The person who spells a chosen word first, wins. (For instance, the name of your city, the name of your youth ministry, or Lithuania.)
Give each team a roll of masking tape and 30 balloons. On "Go!" have members of each team roll the masking tape (sticky side out) around one of their teammates below the neckline. Next, have kids blow up their balloons as quickly as they can and stick as many as possible to the taped-up team member. You can either end the game here awarding the Balloon Master to the one with the most balloons attached in the time allotted, or you can set up an obstacle course and when the balloons have been attached, have the player go through and back to their team. Balloons that fall off during the race may not be re-attached. The team whose player has the most balloons still attached is the Balloon Master.
Select three volunteers to compete against each other. Each student receives a large balloon. The first to blow up their balloon using only their nose so far that it pops, wins.
Want a game that builds excitement as it goes? This one is for you. Play this as an upfront game for a guaranteed hit with your group.
Bring 5 volunteers up to the stage. Have each volunteer sit in a chair on the stage FACING the audience. Each volunteer will then be blindfolded.
Get a leader to pass in front of the volunteers holding a bag/box with 5 inflated balloons in it. The volunteers will quickly grab one as the leader passes by. One of the 5 inflated balloons will also contain shaving cream.
After the contestants have their balloon, the game leader says go! The 5 volunteers then simultaneously pop their balloons. One volunteer will be covered with shaving cream. He/she is now out of the game.
Remove the creamed volunteer and repeat the same process with the remaining 4 volunteers. Remember to keep the volunteers blindfolded.
Keep going until only 1 volunteer remains. He/she is the winner. Make sure to have a cool prize on hand for him or her.
If you have a large group, you may want to use a video feed to cue in on the volunteer that has the loaded balloon. This ensures that every kid in the room can see the startled response of the shocked volunteer. Also, you will want to use darker colored balloons to mask the shaving cream from anybody that might be cheating. Don’t fill them too much because that will be a dead giveaway to the volunteers NOT to choose that particular balloon. And finally, this is supposed to be a quick game, so make sure you don’t slow it down by
3 or 4 kids race to shave a balloon. First put shaving cream all over the balloons. The trick is that when the balloon breaks, the shaving cream goes all over, so be prepared! A little nick put on the razor's edge beforehand will assure that the balloons will break.
Water Balloon Shave - 3 couples come to the front of the room. The boys sit in chairs facing the audience and hold a large water balloon on their heads. Their girl partners cover the balloons with shaving cream, and with a single edged razor blade (no razor, just the blade) try to "shave" all the soap off of the balloon without breaking it. Whoever is the first to succeed is the winner.
This game works great as an upfront game. All you need is one banana per participant.
Bring up about 4 students, have them take off their shoes and socks, and hand each of them a banana. Make sure the crowd can see them really well; if necessary, employ the use of a live video feed.
When the leader says go, the contestants are supposed to peel the banana with their feet as quickly as they can. They can use both feet to do so.
Judge the winner by speed and final condition of the banana.
If you are super brave, you can have someone from the crowd eat the 1st place banana! Make sure to give them a good prize if they can eat it in under a minute.
Note
It is SO important that everyone be able to see this game happen! If there is any doubt, use a live video feed on the screen(s).
This can either be played as an upfront game, or if you have a smaller group, you can have everyone play.
Have a team peel and cut up a banana into equal parts. (Don’t tell them what comes next until they're done.) Then tell them they must put the banana back together using pins, needles, tape, or whatever. The team with the best reconstructed banana wins.
If you do this with a big group, use a video feed to a big screen and time the "surgery" so it doesn't drag.
The point: Things taken apart (relationships, reputations, etc.) aren't as easily put back together.
Advertise a “bear hunt” for your next group time. Get everyone excited. Here’s how you play it.
Bring 4 students up front and tell them they are going bear hunting. Bring out 4 bowls that are filled with lots of whipped cream and a few gummi bears throughout.
When the leader says GO, the 4 students must find the gummi bears hidden/buried in the whipped cream using only their ACE! No hands.
The student who finds the most gummi bears in the allotted time, wins. Make sure they get a great prize!
Call up between 4 and 10 volunteers (depending on the size of your group) to make two-person teams. Have an apron (or rubbish bag with a hole cut out for the head) and one chair for each team. The person standing behind the chair puts on a blindfold. The person sitting puts on an apron and places hands on hips. The person standing threads their arms under the seated person’s armpits.
Place a bowl in one hand of the blindfolded teen and a spoon in the other. They will feed their partner (ice cream, mousse, Jelly, etc.). The first team finished to the best of their ability wins! Or, you may award prizes for the messiest eaters, cleanest eaters, or the one that got the most into their partner’s mouth, etc.