Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

Ping Pong Ball Relay – Youth Group Games

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Ping pong ball relay youth work gameThis week’s youth group game is the Ping Pong Ball Relay. It’s a fantastic game for your entire youth group to play and is extremely frenetic!

Here’s how to play it:

Resources

  • Ping pong balls
  • Drinking straws
  • Masking tape

Preparation

Set up a starting line on one end of the room and another line on the other end – masking tape works well for this, but you could just as easily use chairs, cones or something else.

Split the young people into equal teams and give each team a ping pong ball and each young person a drinking straw.

Have the teams line up behind the starting line.

Rules

The first person from each team puts their ping pong ball on the floor, then uses their straw to blow the ball to the line on the other side of the room. Once there, they have to turn around and blow the ball back.

Once they’ve returned to the start line, the next person on their team has to do the same thing. Keep going with the relay until every person on the team has had a turn.

Winner

Needless to say, it’s the team that has all their players complete the relay first.

Tips

  • Before organizing this game, take into account what type of flooring you’ll be playing this on. The ping pong ball relay works best on hardwood floors, although it can also work on tiling and some types of carpet. Even though non-hardwood floors make it harder, this can also make the game far more interesting and challenging
  • If teams are uneven, make sure that teams with less players have players continue until they match the number of players on other teams

Question: What extra elements would you add to the ping pong ball relay to make it even more fun? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

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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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Balloon Relay Race – Youth Work Game

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Balloon Relay RaceThe Balloon Relay Race is an excellent group game for all of your young people to take part in. It’s one of those great go-to games that you can use anytime, so long as you have balloons on hand.

Resources

  • Balloons
  • Chairs, cones or something else to use as a marker
  • String/rope/duct tape to use as a starting line (not essential)

Set Up

  • Blow up balloons
  • Set up a starting line using the string, rope, duct tape, etc. This isn’t essential, but can be useful to ensure the changeovers don’t take place too early
  • Set up a row of chairs or some other type of marker about 10-20 yards away from the start line. There should be one marker per team playing, plus there should be about 4-5 feet between the markers
  • Split your young people into teams – ideally with at least 4 youth per team
  • Have them line up in their teams behind the line and with their marker ahead of them
  • Give the first person in line on each team a blown up balloon

To Play

  • To play the Balloon Relay Race, the first person in line on each team has to put the balloon between their legs
  • They then have to hop down to the marker with the balloon remaining between their legs.
  • Once they reach the marker, they have to go around it and continue hopping back the other side
  • When they get back to the start line, they pass the balloon to the next person on their team (hence it being a Balloon Relay) and they do the same thing

Additional Rules

  • If the balloon slips out from between their legs, they have to return to where it slipped out and continue from there
  • Hands can’t be used to hold the balloon in place while they’re hopping
  • Youth must pass the start line before they can pass the balloon over

Winner

This is the team that has all the people on their team complete the Balloon Relay Race first

Tips

  • Have extra balloons blown up, in case any get burst during the relay
  • The Balloon Relay Race is a funny game to watch, so make sure you get some video footage or photos of the youth playing it. (Don’t forget to get photo release forms completed if you’re planning on using the photos for any promotional material, to put online, etc)

If you like this idea for the Balloon Relay Race, check out our other youth group games for even more great game ideas.

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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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