Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

Water Balloon Baseball – Youth Group Games

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Water Balloon Baseball
Image courtesy of Benjamin Lehman, Flickr

Summer’s a great time for youth group games – the weather’s good so you can play them outdoors, plus it gives you an opportunity to play water games.

This week’s idea is a wet twist on a regular classic – Water Balloon Baseball. Here’s how to play it:

Resources

Preparation

Fill up all the water balloons and put them in buckets that are filled with water – this helps prevent them from bursting.

The number of balloons you need will depend on how many young people you have playing – we’d recommend having at least 100 prepared, but for a larger group you’ll need far more.

Set out the cones in the shape of a baseball diamond. If you don’t have cones available, you can use anything else as markers instead.

Teams

Split the youth group into same-sized teams. For smaller groups, two teams is fine. For larger groups, split them into more than two teams, but make sure the total number of teams is an even number so that they each have another team to play against.

If you do play with more than two teams and have enough resources, have several games going on at the same time – that way you don’t have loads of young people standing around getting bored while they wait to play.

Water Balloon Baseball Rules

The first person on a team should line up to bat. The pitcher tosses a water balloon at them and the batter tries to hit it. The batter gets up to three attempts to hit it and burst it – if they miss it all three times, they’re out.

If they hit the balloon and it bursts, they should run to first base. The pitcher is allowed one water balloon to throw at the batter – if they hit them, the batter’s out. If they miss, the batter should try to run from first to second base, with the pitcher getting one more water balloon to try to hit them.

If they miss, the batter continues from second to third base while the pitcher tries hitting them again with one balloon, then from third to home. If the batter manages to get to home plate without having being hit by any of the four water balloons while rounding the bases, they get a home run.

The next member of the team tries doing the same thing – the team keeps going until three players are out, then the other team gets a chance at trying to hit the ‘baseball’. Keep playing until every player has had a chance to bat at least once.

Pitcher

It’s up to you who you choose to have as the pitcher. If you want to make it fair and consistent for each player, you or another volunteer could be the pitcher.

Alternatively, players on the opposing team could take it in turns at pitching.

Fielders

Not necessary!

Question: Are there any other rules or ideas you would add to Water Balloon Baseball? Let us know in the comments below.

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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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Baked Bean Land Mines – Youth Group Games

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Youth group games
I’m a Brit, so this had to be the image used!

If you’re interested in playing a somewhat messy outdoor game, this week’s addition to our list of youth group games should do the trick – Baked Bean Land Mines.

Here’s how to play it:

Resources

  • Cans of baked beans
  • Can opener
  • Masking tape
  • Blindfolds
  • Wet washcloths & towels (for after)

Location

Preferably somewhere outdoors with a reasonable amount of space, although it can be played inside with a tarp (or on hardwood floors).

Preparation

Mark out a pathway on the ground using the masking tape. Two lines of tape should be used to create a path for the players to walk through, rather than just one line being used to walk on.

See the image below for an example path. It can widen and narrow as they walk along, or the lines could be equidistant the whole way if you prefer.

Once the path’s marked out, add some piles of baked beans at various points along the path. These should be large enough to make it hard to avoid, but not so large that it’s impossible for them to step over. If you have enough beans, also run a trail of them all the way along the strips of masking tape.

Team Options

There are several ways you can play this game depending on how many young people you have in your youth group:

  1. Up Front – Select 4-6 people to play, with everyone else watching
  2. Small Group – If you don’t have more than 12 or so people, you might have time for everyone to take part
  3. Large Group – Select 4-6 people to play, but have everyone else in the group give incorrect directions to those taking part

Instructions

Once you’ve selected who’s going to be playing, split them into pairs. One of them will be a guide, while the other will be the person following the guide’s directions.

The person being directed needs to take off their shoes and socks and put on a blindfold. If possible, do this before they get to see the pathway so that they don’t have any idea what kind of direction the path takes.

Move the person being directed to the start of the pathway. Their guide then has to direct them along the path to the end, avoiding the baked beans if possible and ensuring they stay within the lines on either side.

Do this for all the pairs taking part. The winner is the team that steps in the least amount of baked beans.

Timer

Make this youth group game even more frantic by adding a time constraint. This will make the blindfolded player hurry when following directions, increasing the likelihood of them stepping in some beans.

Alternative Options

If you don’t want to use baked beans, canned peaches can be nice and squelchy too.

For youth groups that don’t have any outdoor space and don’t have a tarp available for playing this indoors, use dry food instead – Pringles, oyster crackers or corn flakes will all work well for this.

Discussion Ideas

This game is a great introduction into a discussion about following directions or communication. It can also work well as a way to highlight the importance of working as a team and trusting each other.

For Christian youth groups, it might be worth playing the large group version listed above, where everyone is calling out incorrect directions and the blindfolded player has to listen carefully for their partner’s correct directions. This can then be tied in with John 10: 1-5, focusing on how it’s important to follow Jesus rather than the paths that other people may encourage us to take.

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

Question: What would you do to make Baked Bean Land Mines even more fun? Let us know in the comments below.

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Getting To Know You Icebreaker – Youth Group Games

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Getting To Know You IcebreakerThis Getting To Know You icebreaker provides a good opportunity for your students to learn more about each other, so it’s perfect for using when you need some team building activities.

It also helps you and your volunteers get to know your young people better, something that’s particularly helpful if you’re with a new youth group or if it’s in the forming stage of group development.

Here’s how to play the icebreaker:

Resources

  • Pens
  • Paper
  • Scissors
  • Balloons – one per person, plus some spares in case any get torn

Preparation

Cut the sheets of paper into strips – enough for one per person – and number each of them from 1 to however many students you have.

On a separate sheet of paper, write down the names of all the youth and allocate each of them a number (don’t let them see this list though!)

Icebreaker Instructions

Give each of the teenagers a piece of paper and a pen and ask them to write down three facts about themselves. Explain that as the objective of the game is to help them get to know each other better, they should try to write facts that other people wouldn’t already know about them.

Once they’ve done that, roll each of the slips so that they’re a thin cylindrical shape. Carefully slide each slip of paper into a balloon so that it doesn’t rip, then blow up each balloon and tie the end.

When putting the slips in the balloons, check the number against the list of names to make sure the blown up balloons aren’t handed to the same person.

Give each young person a balloon, taking it in turns to burst it. They then have to read out all three facts from the slip of paper and guess which member of the youth group wrote it.

Tip

Once you’ve finished playing this icebreaker, collect up all the slips of paper and write the corresponding teenager’s name on it (this could be a good job for one of your volunteers).

Keep hold of these slips and try to memorize the facts about each of them over time. This will help when having conversations with them in the future about their interests and might also help you plan youth group activities that interest them.

Discussion

Once the game’s over, you could take some time to have a discussion about some of the different facts they learned about each other. Did anyone hear a fact about someone else that was also true for them?

This discussion has the potential to go in a couple of different directions:

  1. Youth find that they have things in common with other members of the group
  2. Youth find that they have nothing in common (or nothing mentioned during the icebreaker anyway)

If the first option happens, highlight this as a way in which they have common ground with each other, thereby helping them to bond.

If the latter happens, use this as an opportunity to celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of your group. If you’re a church youth group, you could also use this as a way to talk about the church being one body made up of different parts.

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

Question: What would you do to make this Getting To Know You icebreaker more fun? Let us know in the comments below.

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Balloon Name Game Icebreaker – Youth Group Games

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Balloon Name Game Icebreaker
Ice balloon photo courtesy of u-murrayhusted, Flickr

This week’s addition to our youth group games is a name game icebreaker using balloons.

It’s a great activity to use in a variety of scenarios:

  • For youth groups in the forming stage
  • When you have a new batch of young people join an existing group
  • You start leading an existing group and need to learn their names

It’s easy to play and plan – here’s how to do it:

Resources

  • Up to 3 balloons of different colors
  • Sticky labels / name tags (optional)
  • Pens (optional)

Preparation

Blow up the balloons – that’s it!

Teams

This isn’t a team game – it’ll be done as one large group.

Balloon Name Game Rules

For this icebreaker, have the group stand or sit in a large circle. To start off, go round the circle and have each person say their name.

Next, introduce a balloon into the center of the circle. Hit it in the air and call out the name of a young person. You go back to your original place in the circle while the student whose name you said has to run into the center of the circle. They need to hit the balloon up in the air before it hits the ground, calling out the name of another of the teenagers and standing back in the circle themself.

The student who’s just had their name called does the same thing – runs into the circle before the balloon hits the floor, knocks it into the air and calls out another name.

Length of Game

The amount of time that you play this for will depend on how large your group is and how quickly your teenagers get bored of it.

For a small group, you may only need to play for up to 5 minutes, while larger groups might keep this going for 15 minutes or so to make sure everyone gets a turn and to provide more of a chance to learn each other’s names.

Levels of Difficulty

If you want to make this icebreaker a bit harder, here are a couple of suggestions:

1. Don’t let them use their hands to hit the balloon in the air.

2. As they start to learn names more, introduce up to three balloons of different colors. They then have to call out a name and the color of the balloon they’re hitting at the same time. Having different color balloons will help ensure you don’t have three young people going for the same balloon at the same time.

Safety

This game’s similar to the ball name game. With that one though, you can introduce as many balls as you like, whereas for this icebreaker we recommend using a maximum of three balloons.

The reason for this is that if you use more than three, there’s an increased likelihood that the teenagers will run into each other or accidentally kick another player when trying to keep a balloon off the ground using their feet.

Tip

If you have a really large youth group, consider having them all wear a name tag at the start of the game to make it a little easier to remember each other’s names initially.

If you found this idea helpful, we also have a few more name game icebreakers and loads more youth work games.

Question: What would you change to make this balloon name game even more fun? Let us know in the comments below.

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