by Jay Thomas | Fri, Mar, 2015 | Youth Resources
A collection of icebreakers and energisers ideal for youth groups or training events. PASS THE ENERGY Participants stand or sit in a circle, hold hands and silently concentrate. The facilitator sends a series of ‘pulses’ both ways round the group by discreetly squeezing the hands of those next to her/him. Participants pass these pulses round the circle, as in an electric current, by squeezing the hand of the person next to them and literally ‘energising’ the group. BLINDFOLD PAIRS An obstacle course is set out on the floor for everyone to look at. Participants split into pairs. One of the pair puts a scarf around their eyes, or closes their eyes tightly so they cannot see. The obstacles are quietly removed. The other member of the pair now gives advice and direction to their partner to help them safely negotiate what are now imaginary obstacles. THE LONGEST LINE This game requires a lot of space and may need to be done outdoors. Divide into teams of eight to ten people. Each team must have the same number of members. Explain that the task is to create the longest line using participants own bodies and any clothing or things in members pockets. Participants are not allowed to collect other things from the room/outside. Give a signal for the game to start and set a time limit, such as two minutes. The team with the longest line wins. AN ORCHESTRA WITHOUT INSTRUMENTS Explain to the group that they are going to create an ‘orchestra’ without instruments. The orchestra will only use sounds that can be made by the human body. Players...
by Jay Thomas | Tue, Dec, 2014 | Youth Resources
A collection of youth group games suitable for groups both large and small. Can be used as icebreakers or as stand alone games. Grog You take apart a torch and hide the parts throughout the play area. One kid is the Grog, which is a monster that can freeze you in place by tagging you. Everyone has to work together to find the parts, assemble the torch , and shine it on the Grog to defeat “it.” Sardines Sardines is hide and seek, backwards. One person hides in a dark place, and then as people find them, they join in hiding, until one person remains. This was my groups favourite game to play on sleepovers at the church. Scatterball Dodge ball with a twist. To start, everyone must have a hand on a nerf ball. Throw the ball up in the air and everyone scatters. Somebody grabs the ball in the air or off the ground. Whoever has the ball can only take two steps. After two steps, the player must throw the ball — dodge ball style — at another player. If the ball hits a player, that player sits down right where they are. BUT, they can still play, they just can’t move from their seated spot.
If a player is hit by the ball and catches it, then the throwing player sits down. At any time sitting players can snag the ball if it rolls by, and they can throw it at standing players trying to get them out. The game ends when only one player is standing Lifesize Clue The youth group gathers in the evening when the church...
by Jay Thomas | Thu, Jun, 2014 | Youth Resources
Around the world The leader begins by saying the name of any country, city, river, ocean or mountain that can be found in an atlas. The young person next to him must then say another name that begins with the last letter of the word just given. Each person has a definite time limit (e.g. three seconds) and no names can be repeated. For example – First person: London, Second Person: Niagara Falls, Third Person: Switzerland Supermarket The first player says: “I went to the supermarket to buy an Apple (or any other object you can buy in a supermarket that begins with an A). The next player repeats the sentence, including the “A” word and adds a “B” word. Each successive player recites the sentence with all the alphabet items, adding one of his own. For example; ‘I went to the supermarket and bought an Apple, Banana, CD, dog food, envelopes, frozen fish’. It’s not too hard to reach the end of the alphabet, usually with a little help! Watch out for ‘Q’ and ‘X’ Tall stories The leader starts a story with a sentence that ends in SUDDENLY. The next person then has to add to the story with his own sentence that ends in SUDDENLY. Continue the story until everyone has contributed. The story becomes crazier as each young person adds their sentence. Tape it and play it back. For example; ‘Yesterday I went to the zoo and was passing the elephant enclosure when SUDDENLY…..’ Once upon a time Ask each young person to think of either the name of a person, a place or...
by Jay Thomas | Thu, Jun, 2014 | Youth Resources
Following on from Huge Collections of Icebreakers post here is another large collection of icebreakers that can be used with children and youth groups. Fact or fiction? Ask everyone to write on a piece of paper THREE things about themselves which may not be known to the others in the group. Two are true and one is not. Taking turns they read out the three ‘facts’ about themselves and the rest of the group votes which are true and false. There are always surprises. This simple activity is always fun, and helps the group and leaders get to know more about each other. Interview Divide the young people into pairs. Ask them to take three minutes to interview each other. Each interviewer has to find 3 interesting facts about their partner. Bring everyone back to together and ask everyone to present the 3 facts about their partner to the rest of the group. My name is? Go around the group and ask each young person to state his/her name and attach an adjective that not only describes a dominant characteristic, but also starts with the same letter of his name e.g. generous Grahame, dynamic Dave. Write them down and refer to them by this for the rest of the evening. Conversations Each person is given a sheet of paper with a series of instructions to follow. This is a good mixing game and conversation starter as each person must speak to everyone else. For example; Count the number of brown eyed boys in the room. • Find out who has made the longest journey. • Who has the most...
by Jay Thomas | Mon, May, 2014 | School Resources
Over the past few years I’ve supported a number of young people at our local high school. In my work I’ve drawn heavily on the following mentoring resources which provide a good number of challenges, activities, quizzes and exercises. Each booklet is designed to allow mentors to dip in and out of them whenever they need to. It is not envisaged that every exercise is used consecutively – instead only when appropriate to your discussions. Also the exercises should be used only be used as prompts for discussion and not take the place of Mentors initiating conversation. These conversations are what makes the mentoring experience so special. Mentor Manual: Target Setting Mentor Manual: Studying 1 Mentor Manual: Self- Assessment Mentor Manual: Getting to Know Each Other and Improving Communication Mentor Manual: Icebreakers Mentor Manual: Assertiveness You can become a patron of Children & Youth through Patreon. In return for your monthly support, we offer first access to a range of youth and children’s work resources. Thank you for being part of the C&Y...
by Jay Thomas | Mon, Apr, 2014 | Children's Resources
Circulate The group forms two concentric circles with the same number of participants in each circle, the people in the inner circle facing outwards and the people in the outer circle facing inwards. The inner circle remains stationary and the outer circle moves one person anticlockwise every 30seconds, having this amount of time to say their names and any other aspect considered relevant to introduce to the other person. Reflection – Ask in the group how many names and characteristics they have learned about each other. Ask them to announce some of the most interesting aspects. Ask how important it is knowing more about the people you will work with in order to feel more comfortable talking and listening with one another. Truth Game Tell participants that they must introduce themselves to the group, with two true statements/facts about themselves and one lie. Ask a volunteer to start. Whoever guesses the correct lie goes next. Follow the Leader All but one participant stand in a circle, with one player in the middle. The middle player closes her eyes, and the rest of the group quietly chooses a leader. Middle player opens her eyes and tries to find the leader. The whole group follows the leader, in everything he does. As soon as the middle player guesses who the leader was the game is over and that person is the new person in the middle. This works best if movements are clear, not too fast, and if the group follows the leader as fast and as precisely as possible. Clapping The group sits down in a circle. One person turns...
by Jay Thomas | Sun, Apr, 2014 | Youth Resources
A collection of youth icebreaker games using post-it notes. Ideal when you have limited resources. Hidden Treasure Write several icebreaker questions on the stick side of post-it notes and stick them to the board. Each child takes turns choosing 1 sticky note and answering the questions on the back. He then chooses another child to answer the same question. Two Truths and a Lie Give each child 3 post-it notes. On 2 notes they write something true about themselves,; on the third – something false. The children sharing in groups of 4-5 and try to guess which statement is each players lie. Question Mixer Write the name of a well-known person on a sticky note (write enough so everyone in the group has one). Stick a post-it note on each child’s back and they have to ask each other yes/no questions 1 at a time until they have figured out who is on their back. Get to Know You Have each child write 5 facts about themselves on a post it note, then put the notes on the board. Leader(s) write one too. Choose one and read it aloud. Try to guess who wrote it. When you get the right child, that person takes a turn with the remaining notes. Continue until all the notes are gone. A Matched Set Children write 5 fun facts about themselves, turn the paper into you. Write each fact on a post-it along with a matching one with the child’s name. When young people are not in the room, put the post-its all around the room. Children then race to match the names...
by Jay Thomas | Sat, Apr, 2014 | Children's Resources, Youth Resources
Group Games Blanket Flip is a great game for team building, small groups, or on the spot volunteer game. You’ll need to blankets of the same size and type to make things even for competition. A good size is 5 X 5. Recruit 6-10 volunteers per team. Have them lay the blanket out flat on the ground. Everyone stands on the blanket. They must turn their blanket over without any team member touching the physical floor under the blanket or around it. Hands down is a great game for small groups or large groups. Students gather in a circle on their hands and knees. Everyone will place their right hand in between the hands of the person to his/her right. If done correctly, everyone’s hands will be inter-woven and overlapping. The leader starts by slapping their hand on the ground which starts a domino effect. The hand immediately to the right must slap the ground and then the hand immediate to that hand must slap the ground, and so on. If someone slaps the ground twice in a row then the direction of the ground slapping domino effect reverses Huckle Buckle is a game that is a lot of fun for a large group. To start the game have everyone find a partner. Once everyone is paired up send one partner to one side of the room and the other partner to the opposing side. Partners will line up across from each other. The leader will call out, “huckle buckle” followed with a body part. For example, “huckle buckle knees!” The teammates race as quickly toward each other as...
by Jay Thomas | Sat, Apr, 2014 | Children's Resources, Youth Resources
A collection of upfront games that can be played in a number of settings. Can also be used as icebreakers. Banana Eating “Competition” Items required: 2 young people who are ‘in on the game’, some scarves and some peeled bananas Pre-prep – Before you start your event pick 2 young people to let in on this…tell them they when you ask for volunteers they need to put their hands up and pretend they don’t know what’s going on but when the competition starts they need to sit in the crowd. The Game! Ask for some volunteers (pick 1 genuine volunteer and the 2 young people who are in on it) Explain to them that they will be taking part in a banana eating contest but will be blindfolded so they don’t know how they others are doing. Sit the 3 volunteers down and blindfold them. Then hand a plate of bananas to the genuine volunteer and pretend to hand a plate to the others. Shout go and let the timer run for a couple of minutes…encourage the crowd to cheer for all 3 even though there’s actually only 1 volunteer sat their eating bananas. Eventually announce they he has one and get him to take off the scarf only to notice that the 2 chairs next to him/her are empty Wotsits Face Duel For this game you need some cheap shaving foam and some Wotsits. Invite up 4 volunteers and pair them up. Explain that one in each pair will need to cover their face in shaving foam (get them to do this) Then when you say go they have 1...
