Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

Balloon Soccer Relay – Youth Group Games

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Youth Group Games
Image courtesy of Sharon Drummond, Flickr

If you like to organize fun and competitive youth group games, here’s another one to add to your collection – the Balloon Soccer Relay.

This is a great relay game for teenagers, but can be played with young people and kids of any age. It’s therefore perfect for using even when you have a wide range of ages taking part in youth group activities.

Here’s how to play it:

Resources

  • Balloons
  • Cones
  • Masking tape

Location

This game can be played both indoors and outdoors, providing you have enough space to play. It’s best not to play outside on a windy day though, as otherwise the balloons can blow everywhere.

Preparation

Blow up the balloons – do one for every team and have a few spare just in case any burst during the game.

At one end of the playing area, lay out a line of masking tape – this will be the starting line. Alternatively, you can use a line of cones if you have enough of them.

In a parallel line about 20-30 feet away, make another row of cones. There should be one cone per team and they should be about 5 feet apart.

Teams

Split the youth group into same-sized teams, ideally with at least four people on each team.

If you have a small group and so only have enough players for two or three on each team, have the teams do the relay two or three times round to make the game last a little longer.

Balloon Soccer Relay Rules

Have the teenagers line up behind the masking tape (and with a cone in front of them at the other end) and give the first person in each team a balloon.

Explain that they have to kick the balloon like a soccer ball from the start line, around their cone and then kick it back to the start line. The next person on their team then has to do the same thing and so on.

The only part of the body they’re allowed to use is from their knee down – no hands allowed!

Winner

The winning team is the one that has all their players complete the relay game first.

Difficulty Level

If you want to make the Balloon Soccer Relay harder to play, here are a couple of ways you can do this:

  • Make players use their right foot to kick the balloon up to the cone and then their left foot to kick it back
  • Add extra cones along each team’s course that they have to dribble the balloon round, like it’s a soccer drill

If you liked this idea check out all our relay games, as well as all our other games that are great for using with youth groups.

Question: How could you make the Balloon Soccer Relay even more fun – or difficult? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

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10 Gross Would You Rather Questions

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Gross Would You Rather Questions
Mmmmm…… slug……

We’re currently running a series where we’re publishing 10 Would You Rather questions with a different theme each week.

There are food ones, Christian ones, travel ones and loads more. This week, the questions are all gross!

Beneath the list are some activities that you could use that tie in (loosely!) with the gross questions.

10 Gross Would You Rather Questions

Would you rather…

  1. clip someone else’s toenails or pick their nose?
  2. not shower for a month or not change your clothes for a month?
  3. lick the sidewalk in Times Square or the toilet seat at home?
  4. have a baby throw up on you or pee on you?
  5. swim in a pool of sour milk or sit in a bath with rotting fish?
  6. eat a cockroach or drink a squished slug?
  7. be trapped in the earwax or boogers of a giant?
  8. not be able to stop burping or farting?
  9. sweat loads but not smell or smell but not sweat?
  10. have someone sneeze all over your hair or have someone else’s pimple burst over your face?

Discussions / Activities

501 Would You Rather Questions
Get the book – 501 Would You Rather Questions

As a whole, the Would You Rather questions above don’t really lend themselves to any particular youth group activities or discussions.

A few of the questions though could be used to tie into youth work sessions on a particular theme. For example:

  • Question 2 could be used to explore some of the issues that homeless people face
  • Question 4 could be used when discussing sexual health (as one of the consequences of having children after not using contraception)
  • Question 8 could be used in a session about etiquette
  • Question 9 could be used when discussing bullying

If you liked these ideas, check out all our other Would You Rather questions here.

Question: What other gross questions can you think of? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

You can also connect with us by:

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Image courtesy of graibeard, Flickr

 

Getting To Know You Game – Youth Group Games

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Getting To Know You
If you want to play this youth group game…pull a funny face

If you want to plan a fun team building activity for your youth group, here’s a great ‘getting to know you’ game that your teenagers will enjoy as it’s also a little goofy.

Here’s how to play it:

Resources

  • List of statements
  • List of actions

(Having pre-prepared lists is optional – this is something you could wing if you need a game to use on the fly or if you’re just feeling creative.)

Preparation

None

Location

If it’s nice weather outside, this is a good youth group game to play outdoors, especially as it should give you a little extra space. It can just as easily be played indoors though.

Instructions

Have your students get into a large circle, with at least a foot or two between them providing there’s enough space where you’re playing (this is so that they don’t bump into each other doing some of the game’s actions).

Explain that you’re going to make a series of statements to help both them and you with getting to know each other better. If the statement applies to them, they have to do the action you say straight after.

For example, you might say “If your favorite color is purple, hop on your right leg”, so anyone whose favorite color is purple needs to get hopping.

The key thing with this is that they have to continue doing all the actions throughout the game. If there are loads of statements that apply to them, they might therefore have to hop on their right leg while scratching their head with their left hand while rubbing their stomach with their right hand while blinking quickly while sticking their tongue in and out, etc!

The only time they would stop doing a certain action is if a new action requires that they use that part of the body, or if it conflicts with another action.

For example, if they’re hopping on their right leg and then another action later on is to pretend they’re kicking a soccer ball with their right leg, they don’t have to hop anymore (unless you want them to land on their back by trying to do both).

Similarly, if they’re hopping on their right leg but then they have to stand on their left leg only, they’d stop hopping on their other leg.

Tips

  • Start off with easy actions that get gradually harder as the game progresses – this means the game gets even more fun as you go along
  • Have your volunteers take part as well
  • For tiring actions – like hopping on one leg – change it up by using that body part for a different action later on (although there’s no guarantee the corresponding statement will apply to the young people who are already hopping)
  • Be safe! Due to all the different weird movements, make sure the students aren’t going to hit / kick / fall into each other. If playing this outdoors, it’s therefore best to do it on grass rather than in the parking lot.

List Of Statements

Here’s a list of some different statements you can use in this getting to know you game:

  • If your favorite color is purple…
  • If you like playing soccer…
  • If you have a brother…
  • If you can speak more than one language…
  • If you like playing video games…
  • If you like Mexican food…
  • If you have brown eyes…
  • If you were born in September…
  • If you’ve been on a cruise…
  • If you like broccoli…
  • If you want to be a firefighter when you’re older…
  • If you like drinking water…
  • If you suffer from hayfever…
  • If math is your favorite subject…
  • If you have a pet dog…

For ideas of other questions you could use, check out this worksheet or these getting to know you scavenger hunt ideas.

List Of Actions

Here’s a list of actions that can go with the statements above:

  • …stand on your left leg only
  • …nod your head
  • …rub your stomach with your left hand
  • …hop on your right leg
  • …pretend you’re throwing a football with your right hand
  • …close your left eye
  • …scratch your head with your right hand
  • …stick your tongue in and out
  • …blink really fast
  • …pretend you’re kicking a soccer ball with your left foot
  • …look upwards and point up at the sky with your left hand like you see Superman
  • …open your mouth wide
  • …turn around in a circle slowly
  • …sit down on the floor
  • …whistle as quietly as you can

If you liked this idea, you can find loads more getting to know you activities here. We also have many more youth group games that you can use.

Question: What other statements and actions would you use with this game? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

You can also connect with us by:

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Image courtesy of rickpilot_2000, Flickr

 

10 Travel Would You Rather Questions

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Would You Rather QuestionsEvery week, we’re publishing lists of Would You Rather questions with different themes – you can check out all the questions in the series here.

This week, all the questions relate to travel and the wider world. Beneath the list, we’ve also given some suggestions of some other youth group activities you can use that will tie in to this travel / global theme.

10 Travel Would You Rather Questions

Would you rather…

  1. have a two week vacation on a remote island or go on a cruise?
  2. climb Mt Everest or walk the entire length of the Great Wall Of China?
  3. eat a curry in India or pasta in Italy?
  4. take a train in India or a bus in South America?
  5. go on a safari in Africa or kayaking in Antarctica?
  6. travel by camel or elephant?
  7. see mountain gorillas in the wild in Rwanda or go scuba diving in the Great Barrier Reef in Australia?
  8. go to Paris for Valentine’s Day or the North Pole for Christmas?
  9. visit Japan or Brazil?
  10. travel across the US from east to west by train or by car?

Discussions / Activities

501 Would You Rather Questions
Get the book – 501 Would You Rather Questions

These questions are a great icebreaker to use when planning some youth group activities that encourage your young people to be globally minded (here’s why that’s important).

To help with your planning, here are some different resources, ideas, activities and games you can use when planning this type of youth work session:

If you liked these questions and ideas, check out all the other Would You Rather questions in this series.

Question: What other travel / global youth group activities would be good for using with these questions? And what other travel-themed questions can you think of? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

You can also connect with us by:

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Back To Back Balloon Relay – Youth Group Games

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Youth Group Games
Image courtesy of Ilario Prospero, Flickr

This week’s addition to our youth group games is a fun and challenging relay game for teenagers.

It’s also a great way of encouraging team building between your young people by having them work together towards a common goal, in both pairs and as part of a team.

Here’s how to play the Back To Back Balloon Relay:

Resources

  • Balloons
  • Cones / chairs

Location

If you have a large enough room, this can be played indoors. If playing outdoors, it’s best to play this on a grassy area rather than in a parking lot or anywhere else that has a concrete floor.

Preparation

  • Blow up the balloons – you’ll need one per team, plus a few spares just in case any burst
  • Mark out a line at one end of the room using some cones or chairs – one for each team. Leave about 5 feet between each one so that players have enough room to move without bumping into each other
  • At the other end of the room (or 20-30 feet away), lay out a duplicate row of cones or chairs that’s parallel with the other line

Teams

Split the youth group into smaller teams – the same number of teams as you have cone lanes. Ideally, you’ll want to have an even number of players on each team.

Have each team group themselves into pairs – they’ll probably find it easiest if they’re paired by similar height.

Instructions

Give the first pair in each team a balloon. Have them stand back to back and put the balloon between their backs – they may need a teammate to help with this.

When you say ‘Go’, they have to walk to the other end, around the cone or chair and then back to their team, with the balloon staying between their backs the entire time.

Once they’ve made it back to their teammates, the next pair has to do the same thing, and so on.

Back To Back Balloon Relay Rules

If the balloon drops to the ground, they have to stop where they are, place it between their backs again and only then can they continue.

If the balloon bursts, they have to return to the start line and get another balloon from you.

Too Easy?

If the youth group finds this game a little too easy, play it again but set an additional rule that if the balloon drops to the floor, that pair has to return to the start line and try again.

Too Difficult?

If you think your young people may struggle with coordinating with their partner, give them a couple of minutes before you start playing to come up with a strategy.

(n.b. The best way to make sure they walk with the same rhythm is to have one person in each pair say ‘Step, step, step’ as they’re walking along, so that they keep sidestepping at the same pace.)

Safety

Your youth will be trying to complete this game as quickly as possible, while potentially being off balance while doing it.

If you’re playing inside, it’s therefore best to move anything that could cause an injury if they lost their balance and fell onto it. This is why it’s also best played on grass if you’re going to be doing it outdoors, rather than in a parking lot.

Winner

The team that has all their pairs complete the course first.

If you liked this youth group game idea, check out all our other relay games for teenagers.

Question: Can you think of any ways to make this balloon relay even more fun? We’d love to hear your suggestions in the comments below.

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