Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

5 Great Food Games For Youth Groups

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Food games for youth groups
Youth group tic-tac-toe fail

Food. Games. Two words that young people love to hear. This week’s Best Of Youth Workin’ It therefore has activities that combine these two favorites. Here are 5 great food games for youth groups:

1. M&Ms Race – This M&Ms relay is a fast and frantic youth group game that all of your young people can take part in. It’s easy to set up and doesn’t need many resources to play.

2. Banana Sprite Challenge – This is a great food game that can get really messy (and we don’t mean messy in the conventional way 😉 ). It’s therefore an activity that it’s worth having a trashcan standing by for, just in case!

3. Guess The Taste – This is one of the funniest youth group games I’ve ever used. Blindfold young people, get them to eat weird food combinations and see if their taste buds can discern the different flavors, all while the other youth laugh at how gross the food combinations are. What could be better?

4. Rock Star Rider – This is another food game involving M&Ms, with 3 different versions that you can play with your youth group.

5. Spaghetti And Marshmallow Tower – In addition to being a fun but challenging game, it’s also perfect to use for team building and working on communication skills.

Question: What other food games for youth groups do you know of? We’d love to hear about them in the comments below.

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10 Scavenger Hunt Ideas For Teenagers

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Scavenger hunt ideas for teenagersScavenger hunts are a great activity to do with young people as they’re perfect for team building, getting them to use their initiative and are also just incredibly fun.

This week’s Best of Youth Workin’ It therefore has a nice long list of scavenger hunt ideas for teenagers:

1. 52 Scavenger Hunt Ideas – This book has the most comprehensive collection of scavenger hunts you’ll ever need, including lists for each one that you can photocopy or print off over and over again. Pick up your copy from Amazon here.

2. Christmas Scavenger Hunt – At the time of writing this, it’s less than two months until Christmas. This could therefore be the perfect time to start planning this activity.

3. Christian Christmas Scavenger Hunt – The previous idea is perfect whether or not you’re a Christian youth group, whereas this idea is tailored more for church youth groups.

4. Holiday Scavenger Hunt – The last couple of scavenger hunt ideas for teenagers have related to Christmas, whereas this list has ideas that cover other holidays like Kwanzaa.

5. Mall Photo Scavenger Hunt – This idea has been our most popular scavenger hunt post so far, as it’s simple to plan and can result in some great photos and memories.

6. Hunt The Spy Scavenger Hunt – This was the first hunt I was ever part of and has some great memories for me. Teenagers love it as well as they get to see their leaders dressed up in all kinds of weird and wonderful outfits.

7. Travel Scavenger Hunt – If you’re running sessions about world awareness, this is an activity that fits perfectly alongside that. It can also result in some hilarious photos depending on how the youth decide to interpret each country’s name (you’ll see what I mean!)

8. Grocery Store Scavenger Hunt – This may not sound particularly exciting, but it can help you teach important life skills to teenagers in a fun way.

9. Flea Market Scavenger Hunt – This idea doesn’t have any particular purpose to it, other than to have them enjoy themselves!

10. Hunger Scavenger Hunt – Organize a quite literal scavenger hunt by making your young people hunt for their food while on a youth retreat.

So there are our 10 scavenger hunt ideas for teenagers. To get even more ideas as time goes on, check out our separate site for many new scavenger hunt ideas each week.

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How To Play Waterface – Youth Group Games

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Youth group game - WaterfaceWe may be heading into the winter here in the US, but it’s coming up to summer in places like Australia & New Zealand, so it’s the perfect time of year for water games!

Here’s a quick, easy and funny water relay game to play that needs very few resources:

Resources

  • Jugs of water
  • Large plastic cups / bowls
  • Chairs
  • Towels
  • Measuring jug or large bucket of water (depending on which version you play)

How To Play Waterface

Split the youth group into teams of 4 or 5. If you have a large group, select 20 or so young people to play.

Give each person a large plastic cup and each team a chair and a jug of water.

Taking it in turns, one young person stands on the chair with the jug of water and another young person lays on the floor with their head closest to the chair. They then hold the cup on their forehead and close their eyes.

The youth with the jug then has to pour the water so that it fills up the cup (while no doubt “accidentally” missing on occasion). Once their cup is full, that (wet) youth takes the place of standing on the chair, with the next person in their team laying down.

As it’s a relay game, continue until everyone’s had a chance to be the pourer and the pouree.

Winners

There are a couple of ways you can set up Waterface to decide which team wins:

  • Most Accurate – This is based on which team fills up all their cups and has the most water left over in their jug. You might therefore need a measuring jug to judge the winners)
  • Fastest – This is the team that fills all their cups first. This tends to be the wettest version of the game as teams won’t be as careful in filling up the cups, opting for speed rather than precision. You might therefore need a large bucket (or hosepipe) to refill the jugs as necessary

Prize

If you wanted to offer a prize to the winning team, you could give them a joke prize of a shower cap, telling them that they should use it the next time they play Waterface.

Otherwise, water balloons might also be a fun prize to give.

Talking Points

You can play this game just for fun, but it can also be used as a setup to what you’ll be talking about in your youth group. Here are a few ideas of how to use this youth group game to start off a discussion:

  • Trust – Did they trust their team mates to try to aim only for the cup, or were they worried they’d “accidentally” miss?
  • More haste, less speed – Was there a trade-off between trying to be quick vs trying to be accurate? Is their a crossover into their daily lives?
  • My cup runneth over – If you run a Christian youth group, Waterface could tee up a conversation about Psalm 23:5 about being content
  • Streams of living water – Alternatively, you could discuss John 7:37-39 where Jesus talks about streams of living water.

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

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Spaghetti And Marshmallow Tower – Youth Group Games

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Spaghetti and marshmallow tower
Image courtesy of bignoseduglyguy, Flickr

The Spaghetti And Marshmallow Tower is a classic youth group game that you may well have played as a young person yourself.

In case you’ve never played it (or forgotten how it’s done), here’s how to play it:

Resources

  • 1 pack of spaghetti per team
  • 1 pack of large marshmallows per team
  • Measuring tape

Preparation

One of the best things about this game is that there isn’t really any preparation that needs to be done! All you need to do is split the youth into teams and give each team a pack of spaghetti and a pack of marshmallows.

If you only have a small youth group, you could always have the young people do this activity individually. It’s a great team building activity though, so we’d suggest having them all work together rather than separately.

Rules

Teams have to build the tallest tower that they can using only the marshmallows and spaghetti. The tower has to be free-standing, so the young people aren’t allowed to support it once it’s completed.

Set a time limit that they have to finish their tower by. Warn them when they’re about 1 minute from the end so that they can ensure that their tower’s free-standing.

Winners

The winning team is the one that has the tallest spaghetti and marshmallow tower. If it’s not easily identifiable which is the tallest tower, use a measuring tape.

In the unlikely event that two teams have towers that are the exact same height, set up a tiebreaker. Teams have to pick up and move their construction to the other side of the room. The team with the tallest freestanding tower once it’s been moved is the winner. (n.b. players aren’t allowed to fix any breakages while it gets moved).

Talking Points

Not only is the spaghetti and marshmallow tower good as a team building activity, but it can also be used as a conversation starter for many different talking points. Here are some suggestions:

  • Having a firm foundation in life
  • Having balance in life
  • Working as a team
  • Setting goals
  • Supporting each other

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

Question: Do you play a different variation of the spaghetti and marshmallow tower? We’d love to hear any other ideas you have in the comments below.

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M&M Game – Rock Star Rider

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M&M GameThis M&M game is based on Van Halen’s legendary rider demands, which included a requirement that each venue provided a bowl of M&Ms, but with all the brown ones removed.

Here’s how to play the Rock Star Rider M&M game:

Resources

  • Large bags of M&Ms – 1 per team
  • Personalized M&Ms (if playing that variation – see below)
  • Bowls – 1 per team
  • Paper plates – 1-6 per team (depending on which variation you play – see below)
  • Prize (if applicable)

Preparation

Split your youth group into teams. If it’s a smaller group, this M&M game could be played individually. Otherwise, split the group into teams with the same number of players.

Rules / Variations

There are a few different ways to play Rock Star Rider:

1. Authentic Experience – The youth have to empty the bag of M&Ms into the bowl. In keeping with the Van Halen tradition, they have to remove only the brown M&Ms and place them on the paper plate (only one plate per team is needed in this version).

2. Super-Demanding Rock Star – The youth empty the bag of M&Ms into the bowl. In this version, they have to separate out all the different colored M&Ms on to separate paper plates (6 plates per team will be needed – one for each color). This version will therefore take a little longer than the first version.

3. Needle-In-A-Haystack – To play this version, you’ll need to order personalized M&Ms beforehand. You’ll also need to be the one to empty the bags of M&Ms into the bowls before you start playing.

Next, put one personalized M&M into each bowl. It’s best to put this at the bottom of the bowl and should be the same as one of the six regular colors, so that it’s camouflaged.

To play, teams have to find the personalized M&M. If one of the teams achieves that too quickly, consider continuing the game by playing one of the other two versions of the Rock Star Rider M&M game.

Winner

The team that completes their task first. Consider giving a pack of personalized M&Ms as a prize – this could have your youth group’s logo on it or something else distinct to your youth group. Use the banner below to get a discount on your order.

MMs game - rock star rider

 

 

Question: Can you think of any other variants of this M&M game? Let us know in the comments below.

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