LEADING GAMES
There are three aims to leading games…
- To have fun.
- To build community.
- Develop individuals.
Top ten tips!
- Assess risk.
- Be sensitive to each individual playing the game.
- Be inclusive.
- Know the game really well.
- Have fun.
- Be confident but flexible.
- Be extravagant with points.
- Include competition if it makes the game more fun.
- Choose your game carefully.
10. Carry useful equipment with you.
Top games books
Play it & Play it again – Wayne Rice and Mike Yaconelli, Youth specialities, Zondervan.
Games 1,2,3 – Youth Specialities, Zondervan.
Everyone’s a winner – Ruth Wills, Scripture Union.
Theme games – Lesley Pinchbeck, Scripture Union.
Top 10 games with young people
1. Jelly baby chat
Make sure you buy enough jelly babies for everyone to get at least 2/3 pieces. When you start playing, tell each player to take 2/3 jelly babies and remind them NOT to eat any of them… yet! Point out to the players that each different colour of jelly baby means something. If you have a board/screen, write what each colour means. Feel free tochange what you want them to share, but here are a few favourites:
Green – best ever holiday
Black – last film you watched
Red – where would you most like to go in the world
Yellow – best food
Orange – what animal would you like to be
Pink – what frightens you
2. Wizards, Giants, dwarves
Divide your group into two equal teams. Explain that this game involves three different characters – Wizards, Giants, and Dwarves. Each character has a different action: Wizards – waving a pretend wand; Giants – stretching up in the air; Dwarves – crouching down low. In the game wizards destroy giants, giants destroy dwarves, and dwarves destroy wizards.
In their teams, they must decide which character they are all going to be. This needs to be done quietly so that the other team cannot hear what choice they have made. Once both teams have made their choice,they turn and face each other in two straight lines. On your command they must perform their action to the other team. The team which has the superior character wins, and must chase the other team to a designated line or wall. If they catch any of the retreating team before they reach their “safe zone”, they swap teams. If both teams choose the same character, then they regroup and choose again. This game can be played as a “best of 3/5”, or until one team is emptied of members!
3. Tray duelling
Divide the group into two equal teams. Get them to line up facing each other, sitting on the ground or chairs. There needs to be 3 or 4 metres between the teams. Each team needs to be allocated numbers. Before the game, make a stick out of rolled up newspaper held together with sellotape. You will also need two plastic trays (these need to be lightweight so as not to injure any of the participants, but tough enough not to break when they hit the ground!). One tray and one stick are placed at either end of the playing area.
When a number is called, both players with that number come forward. They pick up the stick in their dominant hand and the tray with the other hand. The tray must be balanced on their fingertips. They then must hop on one foot and attempt to knock their opponent’s tray to the ground using only their stick. This game is lots of fun but requires enthusiastic and careful refereeing. It is great to see players who may not succeed in other traditional games winning a duel in this game!
4. 1-100
This is a great game for a small group of 6-8. The game is played around a table. Give each player a blank sheet of paper. Place the dice and the pencil in the centre of the table. Players take turns to throw the dice. If a player throws a six then they pick up the pencil and begin to write numbers 1 to 100 on their sheet. While they are doing this the remaining players continue to pass and throw the dice. When a six is thrown, the player who throws it can “steal” the pencil from the player who is writing the numbers and they then begin to write the numbers 1 to 100 on their sheet. If a player throws a six again they continue writing their numbers from where they were interrupted the last time. The first player to reach 100 wins.
5. 1,2,3,4 (Finger grabbing Game)
This is a sitting down circle game. On the count of 1, everyone slaps their right knee. On the count of 2, everyone slaps their left knee. On the count of 3, everyone puts their Right Index Finger in the air. On the count of 4, put your left hand hovering above the person to your left’s finger. On the word “Go”, try and grab the person on your left’s finger, while trying to stop the person on your right grabbing your finger!! This game may sound complicated, but it is not!
Alternative: On 1= raise finger, 2= hover other hand flat above neighbour’s finger, 3= try and grab.
6. Big Buckie
The group (8 people, or as many are playing) sits in a circle. The Leader (Big Buckie) names the chairs: Buckie 1, Buckie 2, Buckie3…with the last chair in the group being known as Wee Buckie. Leader and group starts game off with chant of, “BBBBBBBBIG Buckie…Oh Yeah…Big Buckie, Big Buckie, Big Buckie”. Start four beat clapping rhythm of your choice (suggestion of slap thighs, clap, click right fingers, click left fingers)...while clicking fingers of right hand, leader says “Big Buckie” on clicking fingers on left hand leader selects other player by saying Buckie (and the relevant number of the person they have selected), e.g. “Buckie 6”.
While maintaining the rhythm, the game continues by Buckie 6 following similar instructions as above clicking right hand fingers saying Buckie 6 followed by clicking fingers on left followed with (say) Buckie 3. When the rhythm is broken, or a person makes a mistake, they become Wee Buckie. The group moves round and changes to the respective number of the chair they are sitting on and thegame restarts with the leader saying “BBBBBBBBIG Buckie, Oh Yeah Big Buckie, Big Buckie, Big Buckie.”
The object of the game is to NOT become Wee Buckie, but Big Buckie.
7. Hey Harry (equipment required: lipstick/marker)
Sit group in circle. The leader starts by saying to the person on their left: “Hey Harry!” 2nd person replies, “Yes Harry!” 1st person: “Tell Harry!” 2nd person then turns to the 3rd person and says: “Hey Harry!” and repeats. Encourage this to go quickly – it is imperative that leaders are strict with the language used as this causes mistakes. When a mistake occurs, that person has one spot of lipstick applied to the back of their hand. They become known as “One Spot”. The game then continues with person A saying,“Hey One Spot!” Person B replies, “Yes Harry”, Person A replies, “Tell Harry!” For each mistake made, you add one additional spot of lipstick.
Alternative: (Elimination)
Rather than using lipstick, have group place hands on their own knees. When a person makes a mistake, they become known as “One Hand”, and place one of their hands under their leg. The game continues. If the same person makes consecutive mistakes, totalling three, they are eliminated from the game, i.e. “One Hand”, then “Two Hands”, then out.
8. Pictionary
All you need for this game are some sheets of paper, and some coloured pens. Cards are made up with suggestions of what to draw written on them. People from each team take it in turn to pick a card, and then draw what it says. They are given a minute to do this and, during this time, their team are allowed as many guesses as they want. If their team cannot guess what it is, then the other team are allowed one guess. Points may be awarded for how fast someone guesses what is being drawn.
9. In a tangle
Group stands in circle and each person puts left hand in the circle and takes hold of another person’s left hand. Each person then puts their right arm in and does the same again (to a different person). The group then must try and untangle themselves back into a full circle, without letting go of each other’s hands.
10. Splat!
The group stands in a circle. The leader of the game pretends to put a pie in one person’s face and says “Splat!” That person ducks down and the two people either side have to try and “splat” each other like the leader “splatted” the original person. The person who reacts slowest is out and sits down.
This person then doesn’t exist in the game anymore. The game continues until only 3 or 4 people are left. However, if the person the leader “splats” doesn’t duck down quickly enough, then they are out themselves.
Top 10 Games with children
1. A What?
Everyone sits in a circle and the first person starts off by passing an object (the more innocuous the object the better) to the second person and says ‘This is a carrot’. The second person then asks ‘a what?’ The first person says, ‘a carrot’. The object is then passed on to the third person while the second person says ‘this is a carrot’. The third person asks, ‘a what?’ and the second person turns to ask the first person ‘a what’ and they are told ‘a carrot’ – which they then tell the third person. Each time the object is passed on and someone says ‘a what?’, the message goes all the way back to the first person and is passed all the way back to the person who originally asked the question. (It gets really interesting when you pass a second object round the other side of the circle saying ‘this is a potato’!)
2. Balloon Tig
Everyone in the group is given a balloon which has a length of wool tied to it, which they then tie round one of their ankles. The object of the game is to stamp on other people’s balloons to burst them – while protecting your own balloon. The winner is the person who still has their (un-burst) balloon at the end.
3. Bus Bits
Divide into groups of 4 to 10 (two or three teams is best). Give each child in the team the name of a part of a bus, such as steering wheel, window, etc. Each team has the same names and number of parts. Once the children are lined up, tell a story about a bus and as each part is mentioned that child needs to run up, tap you on the shoulder and run back to their space. The winner scores a point for their team. When you mention ‘bus’, the whole team have to run up to you and back to their space.
4. Five Pins
Everyone stands in a circle. Five children are selected as pins and they stand in the middle. At the command ‘pins down’, any one or all of the five pins can return to their space in the circle but they must be replaced by other children so that there are always five pins standing in the middle.
5. Giant Footsteps
Have all children stand in a line at one end of the room and tell them to take a step forward if the following statement applies to them: ‘If you have a brown front door, take a step forward’, etc. The winner is the child who reaches you first. The game starts again with the winning child making the statements – which means you can join in!
(Alternative: silent footsteps, children at one end of room, one child at the other end, facing the wall, eyes closed. Children then tiptoe forward, but if the child at far end turns round, everyone must freeze and the last person to stop moving has to go back to beginning.)
6. Head & Catch
Children stand in a circle. The leader stands in the middle with a ball. The leader then throws the ball to each child in turn saying either, ‘head’ or ‘catch’. If the leader says ‘head’, the child has to catch the ball. If the leader says ‘catch’, the child has to head the ball.
(Alternative: ‘catch’ and ‘drop’)
7. Snow Storm
Divide group into two teams: have teams face each other with a clear line in between. Give each child three snowballs (paper crumpled into a ball). When you shout ‘go’, they need to throw their snowballs to the other side and constantly chuck back any that land near them. After two minutes shout ‘stop’ – the winning team is the one with the least snowballs.
8. Tadpole
Divide the group into two teams. One team stands in a circle with one person in the middle. When the word ‘go’ is shouted, this person throws the ball to a person in the circle, who passes it back to the person in the centre of the circle; the person in the middle throws the ball to the next person in the circle, who throws it back, and so on. As they do this, they count how many catches they can manage. If the ball drops, they start at zero again. Meanwhile, the other team are lined up and, when they hear the word ‘go’, the first person runs round the circle, then tigs the next person to run round until everyone has done this. They then shout stop and find out how many points they have to beat, as the teams then swap over.
9. Tangle
Group stands in a circle and each person puts their left hand in the circle and takes hold of another person’s left hand. Everyone then puts their right hand in and takes the hold of a different person’s right hand. Then they need to try to untangle themselves into the circle again without breaking hands.
10. Zip, Zap, Zoom
Everyone stands in a circle, and someone starts by putting their hands together with forefingers stretched out, turning to the person next to them and saying ‘Zip’. The next person can then decide whether they are going to go the same way (back to the first person) by saying ‘Zip’, turn in the other direction by saying ‘Zap’, or go across the circle towards another member of the circle, saying ‘Zoom’. Everyone needs to be watching out in case the flow of the game suddenly changes direction.
(To play this game as an elimination game, whenever a mistake is made, that person drops out until one person – the winner – is left.)
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