Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

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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10 Water Games For Youth – Youth Group Games

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Water Games For Youth
Image courtesy of Jackson Romie, Flickr

Last week, we gave you a list of 10 activities that you can do for free with your youth group this summer. The first suggestion on that list was to organize a giant water fight.

If you’d prefer to organize some wet games and activities that are a bit more structured than just a free-for-all, here are 10 fun youth group water games.

There are brief descriptions of each of the game ideas below, along with links to posts that give step-by-step instructions and rules for each one.

Enjoy!

10 Water Games For Youth

  1. Waterface – This relay game is a surefire way of making sure that all your young people get soaked – particularly their faces.
  2. Spongehead – The first game involves the students’ heads getting wet while laying down – Spongehead has their heads (and the rest of their body) getting wet while upright and running around.
  3. Water Balloon Relay – Water relay games are one of the best ways of ensuring all your young people have a chance to get wet – this balloon relay is no exception. Make sure you video this game being played as it’ll be hilarious, with youth waddling, shuffling and crawling their way through the relay.
  4. Water Balloon Toss – This idea is similar to The Egg Toss – the youth group game classic that involves young people tossing eggs to each other and trying to catch them without breaking. Same thing here, but using water balloons instead of eggs.
  5. Bowl Hole – This is a fast and frantic water relay, with an option to make it a little like Spongehead to ensure that the youth get really soaked.
  6. Water Balloon Dodgeball – This idea doesn’t have many rules – it’s basically dodgeball with water balloons.
  7. Human Battleship – This one doesn’t necessarily involve water, but it’s fun to throw water over the young people when the battleships (i.e. them!) get hit.
  8. Water Balloon Baseball – You might think it would be impossible to hit a home run when playing baseball with water balloons. You’d be wrong! Check out the post for how this works.
  9. Water Balloon Challenge – The challenge involves teams throwing the balloons and one of their teammates trying to catch them in a bowl on their head. The only question is how many ‘accidental’ wayward throws will there be?!
  10. Water Balloon Hot Potato – This one’s fairly self-explanatory as well – it’s like a wet version of hot potato. I’d encourage playing the Ultimate version of it where you use more than one balloon and allow random passing.

Question: So those are our 10 suggestions of water games for youth. Do you have any other ideas for similar youth group games? We’d love to hear them in the comments below.

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Balloon Hockey – Youth Group Games

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Balloon Hockey Youth Group Games
You don’t have to take balloon hockey quite this seriously

If you like planning fun and energetic youth group games, this week we have a great game idea for you – Balloon Hockey.

Here’s how to play it:

Resources

  • Regular balloons (only a few needed)
  • Long balloons (one for each youth with a few spare)
  • Cones

Preparation

  • Blow up all the balloons
  • Arrange the cones to make two goals at either end. If you don’t have any cones, you can use any other kind of markers to make the goals.

Location

As you’ll be playing with balloons, this is a game that’s best played indoors.

If the air’s still on the day you play this though, you could always play it outdoors. Even if it’s a bit windy, you could still play it outdoors and it’ll just be a little harder for the young people to play.

Teams

Split the youth into two teams. If you have a very large youth group and have enough playing space, set up two playing areas and split them into four teams.

Balloon Hockey Rules

Give each young person one of the long balloons and put one of the regular sized balloons in the middle. Get each team to allocate one of their players as a goalkeeper.

The rules for balloon hockey are then simple – each team has to try to score goals by hitting the regular sized balloon into the opposition’s goal, using only the long balloons to hit it. Players therefore aren’t allowed to deliberately touch the ‘puck’ balloon with any part of their body.

Tips

  • If this game ends up being a bit too frantic with everyone piling in to hit the balloon puck, create zones on the floor using masking tape. Allocate a player from each team to each zone – they’re not allowed to step outside that zone, although they are allowed to reach into a neighboring zone with their long balloon to try to help a teammate. If a player does step into someone else’s zone, have them sit out for x amount of seconds – the amount of time will depend on how long you’re playing for.
  • Have a few spare long balloons and split them evenly between each team. If a team uses all their spares, any further players that have a burst balloon have to sit out for the rest of the game. If this is due to another player deliberately bursting their balloon though, the player that burst it should have to hand over their balloon and sit out instead.
  • If you aren’t able to get hold of any long balloons locally, you can buy them here. Alternatively, consider using pool noodles from the dollar store cut in half.

Winners

The winning team will either be the team that scores a pre-specified number of goals first, or who scores the most goals by the end of the game time.

Question: What others ways can you think of to play balloon hockey? Let us know in the comments below.

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Image courtesy of Clydeorama, Flickr

 

Water Balloon Hot Potato – Youth Group Games

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Water Balloon Hot Potato
Image courtesy of Ansgar Wollnik, Flickr

For this week’s addition to our collection of youth group games, we have another water game for you – Water Balloon Hot Potato.

Here’s how to play it:

Resources

Preparation

Fill up the water balloons and store them in a bucket(s) of water to help ensure that they don’t burst early. You’ll need one balloon for each young person, plus a few extras in case any do end up bursting early.

Your youth may want to play this more than once (or you may want to play one of the alternate versions below), so if you do, you’ll need far more balloons.

Location

It’s best to play this game outdoors, as it’s going to get pretty wet.

Water Balloon Hot Potato Rules

Get your youth group to stand in a large circle with 2 feet between them, provided there’s enough space.

Explain that one of them will start with one of the balloons. They have to toss it to the person on their right, who tosses it to the person on their right, who tosses it to the person on their right, etc.

Let them know that they’re not supposed to catch it, pause and then throw it on – they have to imagine it’s a hot potato, so it has to be tossed on to the next person immediately.

Soon enough, the balloon will burst – the person who it bursts on is then out. Have the circle move in slightly and then carry on with another water balloon starting from the next person in the circle.

Continue playing hot potato until there’s only one person left.

Alternate Versions

Here are a few different ways you can play this youth group game:

  1. Random Passing – Instead of having the young people toss the water balloon to the person on their immediate right, allow them to pass it to anybody in the circle. This is a harder version, so might be worth trying after playing the original version first.
  2. Staying Still – Rather than having the circle get closer when a balloon bursts, have everyone stand in the same place. This means that as the game goes on, there will be some sections of the circle closer than others, making it a little more difficult.
  3. Ultimate – Make sure your youth are paying attention at all angles by using two or more balloons and combining this with the random passing option above.

If you liked this idea, you might like all of our other game ideas.

Question: What other ways of playing Water Balloon Hot Potato can you think of? Let us know in the comments below.

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Water Balloon Challenge – Youth Group Games

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Water Balloon Challenge
Image courtesy of Tom Clifton, Flickr

This week we have another water game for youth groups – one that’s designed to make a big splash! Here’s how to play this water balloon challenge:

Resources

  • Water balloons
  • Buckets – one per team
  • Colanders – one per team
  • Cones or ropes
  • Towels

Location

This is definitely one of those youth group games that you’ll want to play outside due to how wet it’s going to get.

Preparation

Fill up all of the water balloons and put them in buckets of water to prevent them from bursting early. Provide at least 20 balloons per team (more for larger teams).

Make a line using cones or a piece of rope and put the buckets of water balloons along the line, evenly spaced out. Make a parallel line about 20 feet away with some more cones or rope and put the colanders along the line. The colanders should be directly opposite the buckets of balloons at the other end of the playing area.

Teams

Split the teenagers into teams, ideally ones that are the same size.

Water Balloon Challenge Rules

Have each team designate one of their members as catcher – this is the person who’ll be getting soaked, so you might want to give them the heads up about that before they decide!

Each catcher should go and stand next to one of the colanders. Have the rest of the players stand behind the other line, with each team next to one of the water balloon buckets and facing the catchers.

The catchers should then hold the colander on top of their head, while their teammates take it in turns to throw the water balloons in the air towards them. Their challenge is to try to catch the balloon in the colander without stepping over their line.

It doesn’t matter that the balloons will burst in the colander, just so long as they landed in there.

Winners

The team that manages to catch the most balloons – it’s therefore worth allocating one volunteer per team to count how many get caught.

Alternative

If you want to make sure that everyone has an opportunity to get wet, play this as a water relay instead.

You can do this by having one person from each team start as catcher and getting one of their teammates to throw a balloon at them. The catcher then runs to the back of his team’s line, while the thrower becomes the catcher.

Keep rotating like this so that everyone has a few opportunities to be both the thrower and catcher.

Question: Have you ever played this Water Balloon Challenge or something like it? Do you have any ideas for how to make it even more fun? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

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