LINEUP GAME
Get in groups of five to ten people each. First group that gets itself into order according to the category you name, wins. For example first letter of middle name, shoe size, height, birth date, etc. Just be sure to pick subjects that people can line up easily.
INSTANT ID
Divide into two teams. Have two people hold a large, thick blanket up like a curtain. Have a person from each team stand facing each other with the blanket between, then quickly drop the blanket. First one to correctly say the other person's name earns a point for his team. This game often produces hilarious results.
BALLOON GAME
Tie a balloon on a string (at least two feet long) to each person’s ankle. The objective of the game is to be the last person with an unpopped balloon around one’s ankle. Note: this game takes some prep work. Balloons must be blown up and string cut in advance. It is a fun game, though. Don’t try this in someone’s living room if you want to be invited back!
SHOE PILE
This activity provides a good way to have students meet new people.Have everyone take off one of their shoes and throw it into a big pile. Then everyone needs to go pick up a shoe from the pile and proceed to find the person who belongs to that shoe. This works well for a large group.
M&M GAME
Pass around a bag of M&M's and have each person take as many as they want. For each color of the M&M's have a question that they have to answer. For instance, red can be, "Describe your first crush." You can play this with Skittles or other colored candies.
CLUMP GAME
Call out numbers and have the kids get into groups of that number. Variation: Find people who have a certain thing in common, such as same shoe size.
AURA
Get into pairs and face each other. Place your palms on other's palms between you a little above shoulder height. Both close eyes, pull palms apart (approx. 12 inches) and turn around in your spot 3 times together at the same time. The goal is to reconnect palms after spinning while keeping your eyes closed.
- Have each person describe him/herself by using the first letter of his/her name. For example: My name is Steve and I like Spaghetti, my favorite candy is Sugarbabies and my favorite animal is a Snake.
- Throw a Koosh ball or pillow or another small non-threatening object to someone. That person says his name and describe why he loves his Koosh ball (let them be as creative as they want to be!). He throws it to the next person, who must introduce herself and the person who went before her, including the "why I love this Koosh" story. Do this until everyone has been introduced.
Sentence From a Name. Have everyone pair up with someone they don't know. Each person writes his first name on a piece of paper and exchanges it with his partner. After a minute or two getting to know each other, each person makes up a sentence with words starting with the letter of the other person's name. For example: KEVIN: Koalas Enjoy Vegetables In November.
Finding A Perfect Match
You’ll need a handout with questions and places for signatures underneath each one. Have each person answer the questions on the blank provided (not the signature blank), and make sure they use ink so they can’t change their answers. Then get on your soapbox (yes, again) and have them mingle and find people who answered things the same. When they do, get their signatures under the answers they have in common. A good limiting rule is that you can’t have one person sign more than two of your questions, but Mister Spiffy says that isn’t really necessary. Want some help on good questions to ask?
- What year were you born?
- What color are your eyes?
- What is your favorite baseball team?
- What is your favorite flavor of ice cream?
- Can you roll your tongue?
- If you had to choose from eternal youth, endless wealth, and a year’s supply of dog food, which one would you pick?
- If you could obliterate the career of one musician, who would it be?
- What is your favorite movie?
- If there was a warrant for your arrest and you had to escape the country, where would you go?
- If you were in a situation where you could shoot the Taco Bell dog and throw its body in a rapidly flowing river without ever being caught, would you do it?
- Have you ever done anything you shouldn’t have with a magnet and computer accessories?
- Do you suffer from any of those things that prohibit you from going on roller coasters (i.e., motion sickness, back and neck pain, heart conditions, under 46 inches tall, et cetera)?
Ah, the possibilities! The person who has all their questions signed (or at least the most, if none could find all of them) wins
"I Got My Name Because My Mom Liked the Beastie Boys"
Ah, names. What better way to introduce yourself than to share your name? None, according to Mister Spiffy’s immense knowledge. Have each person stand up and tell what they know about the reason they have their name ("I’m named after my great-great-great grandma who did cartwheels through cow pies because she thought it would get her a man"). It can be your first, middle, or nickname, or if you happen to know where your last name comes from that always works too. Mister Spiffy’s got a fairly amusing history to his name, but that’s a different story entirely.
"My Picture
Truth or Dare, Without the Dare
Everyone sits in a circle. Ask a question and go around the circle, with everyone answering it in their own way. This can be a ton-o-fun if you ask the right questions, therefore Mister Spiffy provides for you a list of questions that will help get the laughter started.
- What was your most embarrassing moment (or at least one of them)?
- If you were a pie, what kind of pie would you be?
- If you were to choose a vegetable most resembling your personality, what vegetable would you pick and why? Mister Spiffy’s note – a tomato is a fruit.
- Choose one word to describe yourself
- Choose one word to describe the person on your left
- What thought first crosses your mind when you hear, "Once upon a time…"?
- Which Disney character are you most like, and why?
- What is the most attractive trait you could hope for in the opposite sex?
- Who was your favorite character in "Star Wars"?
- If you were to grow a mole on your forehead, what shape would you want it to be?
- What is the best carnival ride you’ve ever been on?
- Have you ever swallowed a coin or other monetary element?
WORD GAME
Equipment: 3 and 4 letter words written on the back of old business cards (So they are easy to shuffle.)
Age: Guides and up
Number: Teams of 4 or 5 girls
Each team picks a word at random from the pile of cards. Then they attempt to spell out the word, using their bodies for the letters and the other teams try to guess the word. The first team to guess correctly is the next one to pick a word.
This game teaches cooperation at the very least. You can also have the words related to some theme; camping, first aid, etc. It does not take very long, and the girls usually enjoy it.
Jane Maddin
MADHATTER'S TEA PARTY
We did this as an icebreaker at Transition 97 this past winter. You need an odd number of people in each group. We used 7, but 5 would work as well. Three would really be too small.
Give each person in the group an open ended question like... "the best thing that happened to me this week was..." or "I really hate it when...", etc. Be creative and make sets of questions for each group so each group has the same 7 questions, but each person only has one question.
Now have them line up their chairs so there are 3 down one side facing 3 down the other side, and have one person at the top or "head" of the table, the Madhatter.
The Madhatter starts by reading her question out loud to the group. Then one side of the "table" starts, and the 3 people on that side make eye contact with their partner opposite them, and answer the question out loud. You need one timekeeper for the whole room, who times one minute. The room can get pretty noisy. The timekeeper yells switch, and the other "side" of the "table" gets a turn to answer the question. Believe me, they haven't had any time to think about their answer, because they've been too busy listening!! After one more minute, the timekeeper yells, "Teacups" and everyone moves one chair clockwise, which puts a new Madhatter at the head of the table, and she reads her question, etc., until all of the questions have been read and answered.
Lots of fun, very hectic, and VERY noisy.
Claudia Lister
FAMOUS FOLKS
Good game, especially for people who don't know each other (trainings, etc.)
Make up a list of famous pairs (Laurel and Hardy, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, Lord and Lady BP, etc.)
Make name tags for each name.
Pin a tag on the back of each person as they arrive (make sure everyone has a partner!)
They first guess who they are, then have to look for their partner.
Barb Wright,
CHAIR-SIT ICEBREAKER GAME
Everyone gets a chair and sits in a circle. The Guider has a list of items she reads out. If any of them apply to you, you move the appropriate number of seats clockwise.
Examples:
- Anyone with one brother, move one seat clockwise. If you have two brothers, move two seats.
- Anyone with black hair, move one seat clockwise.
- Anyone who is a Spark, or has been a Spark, move two seats clockwise.
- Anyone who lives in _____ Area move one seat clockwise.
- Anyone over the age of 21, move one seat counterclockwise.
- Everyone wearing brown shoes, move one seat.
- Everyone in Guides, move one seat. etc.
The idea is to move all around the circle, and end up back where you started. It becomes fun because if you move, but your neighbour doesn't, you sit on her lap! Sometimes, you can have three people occupying the same chair!!
Make sure you have lots of categories so that everyone gets lots of chances to move, e.g. all Branches of Guiding, all hair colours (at different times, of course), and so on.
Katherine Town
ARTIFACT GAME
Ice Breaker (good with people who know a bit about each other already)
Each person is told ahead of time to bring ten objects with some meaning to them to whatever event you are doing this at. When they arrive, give them a bag with a number on it and get them to carefully place their objects into it. Then make sure each person gets someone else’s bag. They have ten minutes to write down ideas about what the person who owns the objects is like, and to try to guess who they are. It is best if you don't do the guessing until after everyone has had their say. This would also work as an end of camp game, to see what people have learned about each other.
Margaret Fraser
NAME ACROSTICS
"As people arrive, hand them a pencil and card. Ask them to print their full name in capitals vertically at the left of the card. They move about, trying to find persons whose last names begin with those letters. For variation, use the monthly theme or other word along the left of the card."
[Personally, I think I'd just have them write their first names and then find people whose last names start with those letters. 1) some people have pretty long names when you put the FULL name together...might have trouble fitting 2) just having the first name on the card forces them to TALK to each other to find out the last names. Just my 2 cents]
Joan D.
MOUSE TRAP
- Equipment: None
- Age: 5 - 12 years
- Number of participants 10-30 (with 30 participants start with a bigger trap!)
4 children become the Mouse Trap. They stand in a circle, facing in, holding hands with their arms extended and up high. The other children are "mice" and they run in and out of the trap. One person facing away calls "Spring the Trap" and the girls of the trap bring down their arms catching (hopefully) some of the mice inside. The caught mice become part of the trap. The game continues until only a few "mice" haven't been caught. Then they become the trap and the game begins again.
Jane Maddin
STREETS AND ALLEYS
The girls line up in several rows with an equal number of girls" in each row (as close as possible) they stand just far enough apart that their hands touch when they hold their hands out straight and they do this to form "streets" that are between the lines. Pick one girl to be the "cat" (it) and one the "mouse". The cat chases the mouse through the streets trying to catch them. Meanwhile a leader calls out "alleys" and the girls in the lines do a quarter turn to make "alleys" that run at right angles to where the streets were before. the cat and mouse continue chasing but must change directions to follow the alleys as they must not go through any of the girls arms. call out "streets" to turn back. Continue chasing and switching streets/alleys until the mouse gets caught and then pick someone else to be the cat and mouse. (I hope this is clear it is kind of hard to describe).
Jenneth Curtis
FIND THE LEADER
The players sit in a circle, with one person 'it'. This person turns their back and covers their eyes while someone is chosen in the circle to be the leader. The leader starts a motion, such as clapping hands, and all follow by doing the same motion. 'IT' now turns around and tries to guess who the leader is. The leader changes the motion often. So as not to give away the secret, the other children watch the leader out of the corner of their eyes, to know what the new motion will be. 'IT' has three guesses to tell who is the leader. Then the leader becomes 'IT' and a new leader is chosen.
Other motions you can use include: tapping knees, shaking head, shrugging shoulders, snapping fingers, touching nose.
GOLDEN RULE GRACE
(Tune: Ol' Texas... echo each line.)
I'm goin' to break
This bread with friends
Pray I please God
Before this day ends.
I'll try my best
To live this day
By the Golden Rule
Each and every way!
GRACIAS SENOR
Allelu, allelu, allelu, alleluia.
Gracias senor
Allelu, allelu, allelu, alleluia.
Gracias senor
Gracias senor alleluia
Gracias senor alleluia
Gracias senor alleluia
Gracias senor.
HALLELU
(Hebrew version)
Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah
Hodu lashem
("Ho" as in "hoe", "du" as in "do", "la" as in "tra la", and "shem" to rhyme with "hem")
Hallelu, hallelu, hallelu, hallelujah
Hodu lashem
Hodu lashem, Hallelujah
Hodu lashem, Hallelujah
Hodu lashem, Hallelujah
Hodu lashem<
ANOTHER “INDIAN/NATIVE” THANKS
The eagle give thanks for the mountians.
(arms like wings, then become mountain peaks)
The fish give thanks for the sea.
(hands together like swimming fish, then wave motion)
We give thanks for our blessings,
(arms raised in front like receiving something being passed down from a height)
And for what we're about to receive.
(arms lowering, hands like they are holding something)
ALLELUIA, AMEN
(tune: Happy birthday)
Alleluia, Amen
Alleluia, Amen
Alleluia, Alleluia,
Alleluia, Amen
MAY
(Tune: When Irish eyes are smiling)
May the road rise up to meet you,
May the wind be at your back,
May good friends be there to greet you
And your table never lack.
May your life be filled with laughter,
And your heart be filled with song.
May God shine His light upon you,
As you live your whole life long.