Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

Ready, Aim, Starburst! – Youth Group Games

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Youth Group Games
Image courtesy of cbcastro, Flickr

Ready, Aim, Starburst! is a great youth group game because of its versatility – there are many different ways to play it based on how many young people you have participating.

Here’s how to play it:

Resources

  • Large bag of Starburst candy
  • Masking tape or sidewalk chalk
  • Pen & paper (optional – to keep track of scores)

Location

Ready, Aim, Starburst! can be played both indoors and outdoors. To make it easier to prepare though, we’d recommend playing outdoors using the chalk.

Preparation

Create 5 concentric circles on the ground using the masking tape or sidewalk chalk (if playing outside). About 10-20 feet away (depending on how hard you want the game to be), create a straight line on the ground, also using the tape or chalk.

Rules

To play this youth group game, give a player 10 pieces of Starburst and have them stand behind the line. They then have to throw each piece of candy towards the circles, trying to have them land as close to the center circle as they can.

Scoring

Players earn zero points if the candy lands outside of the circles. They then earn 1 point for having the Starburst land in the outer circle, 2 points for the next circle in, through to 5 points for having it land in the center circle.

If any of the pieces of candy land on a line, they earn the higher number of points. i.e. if it lands on the line between 3 and 4 points, they earn 4 points.

Options

As we mentioned above, the best thing about this game is how versatile it is. Here are some different ways to play it:

  • Up Front – If you have a very large group, you may want to select a handful of youth to play this up front. As all the action happens on the ground though, make sure all the non-playing young people can see what’s going on. If playing outdoors, have them stand in a circle around the playing area. If you’re indoors on a stage, try to hook up a video camera so that it can be displayed on screen for everyone to watch
  • Lock-in / Games Night – Organize a knockout tournament so that everyone can play. Create brackets or pair everyone up and have them play against each other. The winners of each round go through to the next round until you have an ultimate winner
  • Teams – Create several sets of the concentric circles and split the youth into the same number of teams, giving each team 10 Starburst pieces. The young people then take it in turns throwing all the pieces of candy so that they each get a turn. If you have enough volunteers, allocate one per team to keep track of their scores

Prize

If you want to offer the winning player / team a prize, give them all the Starburst!

Discussions / Meetings

This game can be played simply because of how fun it is. It can also be used before a session to lead into a particular topic that’s going to be covered during your meeting or discussions.

Here are a few topics it could be used for:

  • Helping youth set goals
  • Teaching youth how to set SMART targets
  • For Christian youth groups, it could be used as an illustration for how sin is “missing the mark”
  • To emphasize team work – e.g. if you played the team version, the winning team may have had a player(s) who didn’t score many points, but as a team they were able to work together to succeed

If you liked this idea, check out all of our other games for youth groups.

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Youth Worker Interview Questions – Part 1

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Youth Worker Interview QuestionsQ: I have a job interview coming up. What kind of youth worker interview questions can I expect to be asked?

A: I find that questions in youth work job interviews often fit into three categories:

  • Questions about you
  • Questions about how you work (with coworkers and youth)
  • Questions about the specific role they’re asking you to do

These questions are all designed to get to know you better and to judge your suitability for the role. It’s also becoming more and more common for youth to sit on the interview panel, to perform their own interview or for you to have to do an activity with some young people to see how well you engage with them.

This week we’ll offer some of the possible questions; over the next few weeks we’ll follow up with possible answers and things to consider when answering.

Here are a few youth worker interview questions you might expect from each category:

Questions about you:

  • How long have you been a youth worker? What experience do you have – either paid or volunteering if you are new to youth work?
  • Do you have any training or qualifications? If so, how do you think these will help you in this role?
  • What are your strengths when working with youth? What are your weaknesses?
  • What kind of ideas do you have for this program or organization’s youth work?

Questions about how you work:

Co-workers

  • Do you prefer to work alone or with a team?
  • Share a time when you worked with, or in the case of a supervisory role, led, a team. What worked well and what would you improve?
  • Share a time when you disagreed with your supervisor about a youth work-related decision.
  • Name three things that are important to you in a supervisor.
  • Share about your time management skills.
  • What computer skills do you have? What social media and online tools are you familiar with or proficient in?

Youth

  • Describe a time you had an angry youth to deal with.
  • What steps would you take when planning a youth trip?
  • How would you handle a youth who is vulnerable and shows an unhealthy interest in spending time with you, particularly alone?
  • What are three things you think are most important when working with youth?
  • How would you get a shy youth to open up in a group or mentoring session?
  • How would you describe your style as a youth worker?

Questions about the specific role:

  • How much experience do you have working with (insert type of youth work you are applying for here – e.g. foster care, black, Muslim, LGBTQ, refugee, Latino/a, at-risk, homeless, etc.) youth?
  • (Faith-based) What theological training do you have and how would you engage youth in the discipleship process?
  • Please create a session plan around (insert topic for type of youth work you are applying for here – e.g. youth leaving prison, youth excluded/expelled from traditional school, sexual health awareness, bible study/church small group, global youth work, etc.) and be prepared to present it with a group of youth (or to the interviewers). You have 20 minutes to plan and 10 minutes to present.
  • What are the three most important things to remember when doing _____________ activity with youth?  (This may be a question for those planning youth trips or working at youth activity centers)

Depending on the age of the youth you might be working with, the questions they ask during the interview may relate to your personal preferences (music, films, activities, video games) or they may ask what kind of plans you have for them if you were to get the job.

These are just a few of the possible youth work questions you might be asked. Check out our other posts in this series for more ideas on how to answer interview questions:

You may also find our post on how to dress for a youth work interview helpful.

Question: What youth worker interview questions have you been asked in the past? Add to our list in the comments below.

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Image credit Roland O’Daniel