Young Life/WyldLife Mixer Ideas
The All-Out Mixer of Mixers
Hand out a sheet with instructions, crank up some music and let kids and leaders go at it trying to complete all the mini-mixers below. Give a prize to the first 3 or 4 to complete the list.
- Find 10 people and build a 4-3-2-1 pyramid.
- Have someone wrap toilet paper around you 2 times.
- Play Rock-Paper-Scissors twice with someone.
- 4 girls pick up one guy as high as you can. One on each arm and leg. Gently put him down.
- Do 5 Jumping Jacks with 3 others.
- Take someone else's shoes and socks off – keep one of the socks and a shoe until the end.
- Find someone to listen to you say "toy boat" ten times quickly.
- Get three other people to link arms with you and do the cheer: "lean to the left, lean to the right, stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight!"
- With two other people, face the front of the room, put your hand over your heart, and say the "Pledge of Allegiance" in unison.
- Do this one last – Find 2 people who have completed the rest and stand in the middle of the room "barking" like a dog as loud as you can!
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Animal, Bird, Fish
One person (A) in the middle goes to any person (B) in the group and says either "animal," "bird" or "fish." B must name a specific one of these that has not yet been said during the game, before A counts to 10. If B succeeds, A stays in the middle and quickly approaches a new victim. If B gets stumped, he or she goes to the middle, and A sits down in his or her place.
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Balloon Feet Smash
Have two large balloons per kid (two different colors) and two already-cut strings per kid (about 18 inches long). Split the room in two, one side one color, the other side the other color, and have each kid tie one balloon to each ankle (if the strings are longer, there is less chance a kid will get his or her ankle stepped on). Turn the lights off and the strobe lights and music on ("1812 Overture" works well since the balloons popping sound like fireworks), and see which side of the room has more balloons left of its color.
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Battle of the Sexes
Start by going to a popular sporting event (maybe a HS football game) where there are lots of middle school kids. Ask guys questions that girls would know the answer to (ex. what is the difference between a French manicure and an American manicure?) and girls questions that guys would know (ex. what is a southpaw?). Show the video at the beginning of club and pause it after each person is asked a question, and then let the guys/girls decide whether he/she got it right or wrong (taking turns of course). Kids get to see themselves on video, which is huge, and its just hilarious watching people not know answers to the simplest of questions.
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Biddleybump
This is a good game to help your kids learn one another's names. Have everyone get in a circle with someone in the middle. Tell kids to learn the names of the person on their right and left. The person in the middle points to someone and says "right" or "left," and the person who was pointed to must say the name of the person on the side indicated before the person in the middle says "Biddleybump." If the person in the middle says "Biddleybump" first, then the person he or she pointed to becomes the person in the middle, and the former person in the middle takes his or her place in the circle. If not, the person in the middle picks someone else and continues until he or she wins and is replaced. This game will last as long as you allow it to.
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Big Red Challenge
Give everyone in club a stick of Big Red chewing gum. They can eat the gum, but they need to thoroughly lick the wrapper, smack it on their foreheads and leave it there. Everyone will have a big, red rectangle in the middle of their foreheads. See who can leave it on the longest. The cinnamon oil starts to burn after a couple of minutes. And then it starts to burn a lot! Pass out Wet Ones to folks to wipe off their foreheads because it will keep burning if you don't remove the oil. There will always be a few diehards who leave it on all through club. Hand out big packs of Big Red gum for prizes.
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Bubble Gum Sculpting Contest
Buy multiple colors of gum and give everyone a piece as they come in. Have them group up by gum color, chew their gum, and sculpt something on a paper plate. Most creative (and stickiest!) design wins.
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Celebrity Guessing Game
Before club print up pages of mailing labels with names of famous people on them. As kids arrive, stick a tag onto each kid's back so they don't know who they have. They must go around and ask yes or no questions to figure out who they are. Can't ask one person more than one question.
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Drop the Blankie
This game works best if a majority of kids know each other's names. Leaders hold up a blanket to divide the room into two teams who cannot see one another. One person from each team goes up to the blanket at a time. On the count of three, the leaders drop the blanket and the first person to scream the other's name gets a point.
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Fruit Basket
Make a circle of chairs with one less then the total number of kids there. Name kids the fruits (like 1234, 1234 but you are doing apple, banana, orange, pineapple). Use 4 fruits for about 25 kids; maybe 6 if you have more. Then the kids sit in the seats, have the leader odd man out and put in middle so he calls out the fruits, and starts the game. The person in the middle calls out "apples", and the fruit has move from the seat they are in to another seat. You keep going, banana, orange, etc. People run around the person in the middle tries to steal a seat amidst the chaos. If you don't want to call out 1 fruit do 2. Once in awhile call out "fruit basket" and everyone has to switch. The chaos is fun.
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Group Charades
One person from each team comes up front. Leader has signs with one word written on each they hold up behind them as they face their teams. People up front can't look at the sign, and team members can't speak. Team acts out the word for the person to guess. Keep score.
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Gun, Gorilla, Karate
Played like Rock, Paper, 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 the same pair does the same movement three times, they are both out.)
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Human Knot
Have kids gather into a large circle. Each member of the group needs to place his or her right hand into the center of the circle. They are to grab a hand of another person (not directly next to them). Then each member raises his or her left hand and places it into the center of the circle. They are to grab another person (again, not directly next to them, and not the same person's hand that they grabbed with their right hand). The object is to untangle themselves into one large circle or two linking circles without letting go of either hand.
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Killer
Kids go around the room shaking hands. One person is nominated the killer for the round, and they also go around shaking hands – but each time they shake a hand they tickle the other person's wrist. If your wrist gets tickled, you must take five steps and fall to the floor. It is important to take five steps. The objective is to figure out who the killer is before you get killed. But always remind kids they must take the five steps, and dead people do not laugh or talk – so they do not give away the killer to the rest of the group. If you accuse wrongly, you are also out.
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The Name Game
Divide the club into four teams. Everyone writes the names of famous people on pieces of paper for two minutes. You will need a lot of slips of paper and a pencil for each person. The teams nominate someone to go first. All slips of paper are then thrown into a hat the leader holds up front. The nominee then has 30 seconds to see how many names he or she can get his team to guess by giving clues. The only rule is they cannot say the name of the person or a word that rhymes with it. When they get it right, they pull out another name. Then it's the other team's turn. Keep track of how many each team guesses to select your winner.
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Newspaper Roulette
One person is "it" and stands in the middle of a circle with a rolled-up newspaper. He or she begins by saying the name of someone in the circle. This person then must say the name of someone else before the person who is "it" smacks them on the leg with the paper. This continues until someone gets smacked. No name can be repeated during the same turn. Whoever gets smacked is then it.
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Q-Tip War
This is a good mixer for the whole club. Split the club in half and put a tape line down the middle of the room. Each player gets a straw, and each side has a certain color of Q-tip (blue vs. pink or whatever other colors you can find). The object is to get as many of your team's color on the other side as possible by shooting the Q-tip through the straw. Try it in the dark with a black light, as well. A great game if you don't mind the mess. Give extra points for the team that picks up the most Q-tips at the end, or else you end up with them being shot all over the room during the talk. Eye protection might be a good idea.
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Play-Doh Pictionary
Divide into teams. Have a representative come up front from each group. Whisper a Pictionary word (like "dog") to the representatives, and they must run back to their group and, without talking, mold that word with Play-Doh. Put a leader on each team because kids will cheat.
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Raffle
You have to teach them this ... but it's easy!
Leader: What time is it?
Kids: Raffle time!
Leader: What time is it?
Kids: Raffle time! Raffle, raffle, raffle, raffle, raffle (until you can't understand what they're saying ... say it faster and faster and faster)
Leader: I need a volunteer to draw the winning number.
Take that kid's raffle ticket and hold it.
Leader: Drum roll, please.
Get all the kids stomping their feet and making a bunch of noise as the volunteer draws the ticket from the hat.
Leader: And a hush fell over the crowd.
Kids: (whisper) Hush.
Get them all quiet. The volunteer kid reads one number at a time (the tickets usually have six-digit numbers. When they have a matching number, the kids yell "whoo," and when it doesn't match, they yell "aww." So you have whoos for the first four numbers and then awws start on the last two digits.
Have whoever wins come up front, and make a big deal of giving him or her a prize, with everyone. Give those cheesy dollar store prizes, and they love it! The raffle draws attention to the front of the room and to the leader. It is also a good way to track how many kids are at club using the numbers on the tickets and a way to make sure a leader says "hi" to every kid there as the tickets are passed out.
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Secret Agent
Before the game starts pick three or four "secret agents." They can be either kids or leaders. Tell the crowd that there are secret agents in their midst and it is there job to find them. They have to find them by introducing themselves to people and answer a funny question about themselves. Ex: Middle name, favorite fast food, how many siblings or pets, etc. Tell them that the 4th person to introduce themselves to the secret agents will win a prize. When the 4th person introduces themselves to the 1st round secret agent, the agent yells I've been found and brings the person up to get their prize. Give out candy bars, cash, gift certificates, coupons for $ off upcoming YL clubs or camps. Do three or four rounds, one agent per round. Keep the number around the 4th or 5th person to find the agent otherwise the game looses a lot of momentum and kids get bored. This is a great way for leaders to meet new kids. Fun music to play in the background is Secret Agent Man or Mission Impossible.
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Shoe Contest
Have every kid take off a shoe and throw it into the middle of the room. Turn lights out and they have to find their shoe.
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Shuffle the Deck Mixer
Hand everyone a playing card as they come in. During the mixer, call out different combinations that they have to form a group with. Example: four of a kind, a flush, two pairs, etc.
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Snap, Crackle, Pop
Cut off the front panel of several cereal boxes — one for each group you want to form. Then cut up each panel into puzzle shapes — one for each person in the group. Mix all the pieces together and give one to each person and have them compete to find their cereal and their group.
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Switch If ...
Start with one less seat than you have people and everyone sitting. One person will be in the middle of the circle. Person in the middle of a circle says, "Anyone with braces," and all people fitting that description have to get up and change seats; person in the middle takes one of those seats, and the last person w/o a seat is in the middle.
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Tongue Color Teams
As each kid enters club, give them a jawbreaker and tell them to begin sucking on it. Later on, have everybody split into groups by the color of their tongue. Make sure you have enough jawbreakers to go around.
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Train Wreck (with a twist)
Split the room in half and send each 'team' to the opposite wall (everyone must be touching the wall). Blindfold one person on each team. Then place an item between the two teams (we used a pumpkin) where everyone can see it. Tell them they must run across the room (causing a 'train wreck') and sit along the opposing teams wall (everyone except blindfolded person who stays). Once everyone on your team has reached the opposing teams wall and is sitting down they can then yell back to their blindfolded team member directions to find the item (the blindfolded person is now allowed to roam the room). The blindfolded person who reaches the item first wins or gets a point for that team. Your entire room of middle school kids will be screaming directions (very loud). Play a few rounds switching which person gets to be blindfolded.
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WyldLife Rescue
This is a great mixer along the lines of Human Bingo. It gets kids moving around, meeting other kids and leaders and burning off some energy. Here are the things kids have to try to be the first to get "checked off" to win:
- Kitten in the Tree
Stand on a chair and meow like a cat caught in a tree. Have a rescue worker lift you off the chair, then have that person initial here: ______ - Illin' in the Woods
Get three other people, and pretend you're on a hike in the woods by walking all the way around the room in single file. Upon circling the room, the person with the shortest hair suddenly falls ill to an unknown virus, and the other three have to carry him or her to safety (which happens to be the front of the room). Have two hikers initial here: ______ - Castaways
You and another person stand on chars in the corner – that's your uncharted desert island. After your ship sank, you've been living there for five years. Get the attention of someone on the far side of the room by yelling, "Help! We're stranded!" When that person comes over to you, consider yourself rescued. Have one of the other people initial here: ______ - Bad Fall
Lie down on the floor and start yelling, "I've fallen, and I can't get up!" As soon as you find someone willing to help you, hug each other and pretend to cry tears of joy. Have them initial here: ______ - Fire
Get three other people. Two of you pretend you're in a burning house. Yell, "Fire!" 10
times. Once you've completed this, the other two people can be the firemen. They should pretend they're spraying the fire, yelling, "We'll rescue you!" five times. Once this is all done, have two of those people initial here: ______
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