Getting To Know You - Youth Workin' It

Getting To Know You Game – Youth Group Games

July 8, 2013 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

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.

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Image courtesy of rickpilot_2000, Flickr

Getting To Know You Worksheet – Youth Group Activities

May 9, 2013 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

On Monday, we published an icebreaker that can be used to help your youth get to know each other better. That’s a fairly quick game, so here’s a Getting To Know You worksheet that can take the whole session if you’d prefer to spend longer on youth group activities like this.

There’s also a link to download a free printable copy of the worksheet below.

Resources

Worksheet (see below)
Pens

Preparation

None – there’s nothing quite like a youth work session that requires no planning!

Aim

To help the teenagers get to know each other better by highlighting areas in which they have common ground.

Instructions

Give each of the students a copy of the worksheet and a pen, then explain that they’re going to be doing a “getting to know you” activity.

There are 20 questions on the sheet – in the middle column, they have to write down answers for each of them. Once everyone’s completed that part, they should go around the room and find out if anyone has similar interests, noting down their name if they have the same or a similar answer. (n.b. make sure they write their own name on the sheet in the space at the top as well)

So long as you have time (and your youth group isn’t too big), try to get the students to talk to every other person in the group.

Tips

1. Preventing Bullying / Teasing

As this activity involves young people stating what some of their favorite things are, there’s the potential for some of them to be made fun of.

Therefore, before they start discussing their likes with each other, state that making fun of each other isn’t acceptable. If they don’t like something or disagree with someone’s answer, they can say something like “I prefer…” or “I don’t really care for that”, rather than “You seriously like that band?” or “But that TV show’s crap!”, etc.

2. Finding Common Ground

As the aim of this activity is to get to know each other better and highlight similarities between students, they should note down fellow students’ names if they have similar interests, even if their favorites aren’t the same.

For example, Student #1’s favorite sport is baseball, while Student #2’s is football but he likes baseball as well. Student #1 should write down #2’s name seeing as they still have common ground.

3. Keeping The Sheets

After the discussion, have a volunteer take photocopies of the sheets, making sure that they’re kept in order as the teenagers’ names are only noted on the first page.

Keep these copies so that you can learn more about your youth. Give the originals back to your young people so that they have a lasting memory of things that they have in common with their fellow students. This can also help with team building and youth group bonding in the future, as it’ll give them something to talk about by knowing that they have similarities.

Discussion

Once they’ve had a chance to discuss their interests with each other, sit down for a discussion about what they learned. Here are some suggestions of questions you could ask:

Were they surprised by how many things they had in common with each other?
Who did they have most in common with?
What question did they have least in common with when it came to other people?
What was the most interesting answer someone else had (reminding them that this isn’t so they can make fun of them!)

Getting To Know You Questions

Here are 20 questions that you can use for this session. Beneath this list is a copy of the free printable worksheet that you can download and use for your group.

Favorite band/artist
One thing I want to experience in life
Favorite color
Place I’d most like to go on vacation
Favorite TV show
Earliest memory
Favorite celebrity
The pets I have
Favorite animal
Job I want in the future
Favorite sport
How many brothers and sisters I have
Favorite store
If I could meet one person, it would be…
Favorite song
Most fun thing I’ve ever done
Favorite movie
Favorite type of food
Something I’m scared of
Favorite website or app

Download the Getting To Know You Worksheet

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

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Getting To Know You Icebreaker – Youth Group Games

May 6, 2013 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

This 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:

Youth find that they have things in common with other members of the group
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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M&M Icebreaker – Youth Group Games

January 7, 2013 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

This M&M icebreaker is a great youth group game for team building, as it helps your young people get to know each other better.

It’s an activity that can be enhanced by you and the other leaders participating too, as it gives the youth a chance to get to know you better as well.

Here’s how to play this icebreaker:

Resources

Large bowl of M&Ms
Pen & paper (for the list)

Preparation

Prepare a list of six questions (see the questions section below for more details)

Rules

Have the young people sit in a circle. Give one of the young people the bowl of M&Ms and tell them to take a handful, but instruct them not to eat any yet. Once they’ve taken some, they should pass the bowl to the person on their left, who should then take a handful. Continue this until everyone has some M&Ms.

Once everyone has some candy, explain the next stage. For each M&M that they have in their hand, they have to share something about themselves. Each color M&M will have a different subject that they have to share about.

Each time they share something, they get to eat the M&M it related to – continue this until every person has shared enough for all their candy to be eaten.

Questions

There are usually six colors in a pack of M&Ms – red, green, blue, yellow, orange and brown – so you need to come up with a list of six questions that the young people should share about.

These can be about anything you like, but here is a list of some different ideas to get you started:

Earliest childhood memories
Favorite restaurants
Favorite songs
Hobbies
Favorite Bible story
Dream jobs
Favorite games
Something nice about another person in the circle
Favorite movies
Favorite candy
Dream vacation
Something they love about their parents

When you’ve decided on the six subjects, write them down so that the youth can refer to the list during the icebreaker and allocate a color to each one. Flipchart paper is ideal for this, but it could just as easily be written on a regular sheet of paper if there’s no flipchart available.

Tips

If you have a large group, this youth group game could take quite a long time, so make sure that’s built into your session plan
Similarly, a large group = lots of M&Ms needed, so have a spare bag (or two) just in case
One or more of the topics could be based on what you’ll be discussing later in the session. For example, if you’re playing this at Thanksgiving, one of the topics could be “Something you’re thankful for”

Lasting Record

As we mentioned above, this M&M icebreaker is a great way for you and your young people to get to know each other better. After a few weeks though, it’ll be easy to forget everything that was shared.

Therefore, have one of your volunteers write down everything that’s shared as they go around, complete with who said what. This will give you a lasting record of what’s important to your young people.

This can then be used in a couple of different ways:

For their benefit – During the same session (or even future sessions), you could highlight similarities between young people based on the things they like. This is perfect for team building – particularly if your youth group is in the forming stage – as it emphasizes common ground, rather than differences between them. It also gives them something to talk about in the future.
For your benefit – Keeping this record will give you something to refer back to when planning activities for your youth group or subjects to discuss in the future. It’ll also help give you things to chat to them about in the future, as you’ll have a better idea of their interests.

Question: What other tips can you give to maximize this M&M icebreaker? We’d love to hear your thoughts in the comments below.

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How To Use Toilet Paper As An Icebreaker

September 4, 2012 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

Toilet paper icebreaker — Use this toilet paper icebreaker to get your youth group on a roll

Q: Due to the start of the school year, a lot of new young people have moved up into the youth group I lead. Do you have any good icebreakers I can use to help them get to know each other better?

A: The start of a new school year can be tough for youth groups as it can often mean that they go from the adjourning stage of group development to the forming stage.

Effective icebreakers can therefore be a great way to help the group form. One fun option is to use the toilet paper icebreaker – here’s how it works:

Resources

1 roll of toilet paper. If you have a very large group of young people, it may be worth splitting into smaller groups and giving each small group a roll each.

How to play the Toilet Paper Icebreaker

Have the group sit in a circle. One-by-one, pass around the roll of toilet paper and have each person take as much paper as they would normally use when using the restroom – this includes leaders!

When everyone has taken their share of toilet paper, advise them that for every square of paper they took, they have to tell the group something about themselves. i.e. If they took 8 pieces of paper, they would have to tell the group 8 things about themselves.

They can share anything they like, such as:

Favorite sport
Favorite band
How many brothers & sisters they have
Where they live
Other interests
Favorite food
Funniest thing that’s happened to them
Anyone famous they’ve met
What they want for Christmas
What pets they have
A country they’d love to travel to

They don’t have to go super-deep where they’re revealing their deepest and dark secrets, like the most embarrassing thing that’s happened to them; just whatever they’re comfortable with. Remember – at the forming stage, they still need to build up trust with each other.

Finding common ground

The Toilet Paper Icebreaker is also a great way to help emphasize similarities and common interests between the young people. After each person has shared about themselves, pick out one or two facts about them and see if anyone else in the group has similar interests or experiences. For example:

Bobby’s favorite sport is football – is that anyone else’s favorite sport?
Jenny loves Chinese food – who else loves to eat Chinese?
Andy has a dog – does anyone else own a dog?

Try to pick out the things that it’s likely other people will have similar interests in, rather than some of the more vague facts you’re likely to hear. This will help show the young people that despite differences between them, there are still common areas that they can agree on, helping set the group off on the right foot.

Check out our previous post on team building activities for further ideas on helping your youth group to gel, along with our other toilet paper games.

Question: What other interests/topics would you suggest young people share about when playing the Toilet Paper Icebreaker? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

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