Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

M&M Icebreaker – Youth Group Games

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M&M icebreaker
Image courtesy of Astrid Kopp, Flickr

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:

  1. 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.
  2. 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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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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M&Ms Race – Youth Group Game

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Image courtesy of Adam Selwood, Flickr

An M&Ms race is a fantastic youth work relay game as it’s one that can be used in many ways – with just two people, in two or more teams, adults vs youth or pretty much in any way you like.

Resources

  • M&Ms
  • Drinking straws (one per person playing game)
  • Plates (two per person/team)
  • Chairs or small tables (two per person/team)
  • Prize

Set Up

  • Place two chairs or tables about 10-12 feet apart, with a plate on each one
  • On one of the plates, empty a bag of M&Ms and leave one straw for each person taking part
  • Each set of two chairs is for a team, so if you’re going to play the game with four teams, you’ll need 8 chairs and 8 plates, etc.

To Play

To play the M&Ms race as a race between individuals, each person taking part stands next to a chair with M&Ms on it. The object of the game is to transfer the M&Ms from one plate to the other, using only the straw.

The participants have to put the end of the straw on an M&M and suck. Continuing to suck, they have to walk or run over to the other plate and drop the M&M on it. They then run back to the plate full of M&Ms and keep going.

To play the game as a relay between teams of two or more people the same rules apply, other than each youth on a team takes it in turns to transfer an M&M.

Further Rules

  • Youth aren’t allowed to touch the M&Ms at all
  • If they drop an M&M, they have to go back and start again
  • When they drop the M&M on the plate, if it bounces off and falls to the ground, that one doesn’t count – only M&Ms on a plate are counted

To Win

You can set it up for teams to win in one of two ways:

  1. The first team to transfer a set amount of M&Ms is the winner
  2. The team which transfers the most M&Ms in a set time limit is the winner

Prize

If you want to give a prize to the winners, personalized M&Ms are a perfect way of doing this. Use the banner below to get a discount:

M&Ms relay race

 

 

If you liked this idea, you may also like our other youth group games.

Question: Do you play the M&Ms race in a different way? Let us know in the comments below.

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