Team Building - 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.

You can also connect with us by:

Signing up to receive our posts via email
Following us on Twitter
Liking us on Facebook
Signing up to our RSS feed

Image courtesy of rickpilot_2000, Flickr

Back To Back Balloon Relay – Youth Group Games

July 1, 2013 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

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.

You can also connect with us by:

Signing up to receive our posts via email
Following us on Twitter
Liking us on Facebook
Signing up to our RSS feed

10 Free Summer Youth Group Activities

June 21, 2013 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

Today’s officially the first day of summer, so if you haven’t planned what you’ll be doing over the coming weeks yet, here are some ideas for you.

The best thing is that these summer youth group activities are all free, so perfect for your program’s budget! A few of them may have some miscellaneous costs depending on how they’re organized – for example, trips out may need to include the cost of gas or parking, although parents may be able to carpool and offer lifts.

These activity ideas are also a great way to encourage team building, especially if you can include new young people who are due to join your youth group at the start of the new school year.

10 Free Summer Youth Group Activities

Organize a giant water fight – You can keep it free by having the teenagers bring their own super soakers and water balloons. Take a look at these water games for youth for additional game ideas to get the youth wet.
Plan a scavenger hunt – There are many different types you can play, but here are a few ideas from our sister site Scavenger Hunt – at a mall, a 4th of July theme or funny items and tasks.
Go for a hike – This can be done on a nature trail, a state park or in the mountains if you have some nearby.
Go to the beach – I think this one’s self-explanatory enough.
Have a picnic – Go to a local park and have the youth bring their own lunches. Play a few games while you’re there.
Go litter-picking – Beautify your community by picking up trash. This can be a great thing to highlight to your local newspaper or TV stations, as they may want to come out and give your group some coverage. It can also be used as a youth group fundraiser.
Plan a movie night – If you have the equipment available, try to organize it for the evening and display it on a large screen outside. The evening could be just for youth or you could make it a family movie night. Bear in mind that you might need a license.
Organize a games day – There are many different games you can play, but here are a few suggestions of games that will be free if you already have the resources on hand:
Human Battleship
Bowl Hole
Spongehead
Ping Pong Ball Relay
Yes Or No Game
Newspaper War
Crab Soccer
The Welly Wang
Run life skills workshops – See if people in your church or local community can come in and help with applicable skills, resume writing, etc. You can find all kinds of life skill ideas here.
Plan a video project – Encourage your teenagers’ creativity by setting them a movie project. Get them to write a script, act and film it, edit the video, etc. You could then play it during a movie night (see point 7 above).

Question: So those are our ideas of some youth group activities you could organize this summer – what other free ideas can you suggest? Let us know in the comments below.

You can also connect with us by:

Signing up to receive our posts via email
Following us on Twitter
Liking us on Facebook
Signing up to our RSS feed

Baked Bean Land Mines – Youth Group Games

May 13, 2013 By Stephen Pepper Leave a Comment

If you’re interested in playing a somewhat messy outdoor game, this week’s addition to our list of youth group games should do the trick – Baked Bean Land Mines.

Here’s how to play it:

Resources

Cans of baked beans
Can opener
Masking tape
Blindfolds
Wet washcloths & towels (for after)

Location

Preferably somewhere outdoors with a reasonable amount of space, although it can be played inside with a tarp (or on hardwood floors).

Preparation

Mark out a pathway on the ground using the masking tape. Two lines of tape should be used to create a path for the players to walk through, rather than just one line being used to walk on.

See the image below for an example path. It can widen and narrow as they walk along, or the lines could be equidistant the whole way if you prefer.

Once the path’s marked out, add some piles of baked beans at various points along the path. These should be large enough to make it hard to avoid, but not so large that it’s impossible for them to step over. If you have enough beans, also run a trail of them all the way along the strips of masking tape.

Team Options

There are several ways you can play this game depending on how many young people you have in your youth group:

Up Front – Select 4-6 people to play, with everyone else watching
Small Group – If you don’t have more than 12 or so people, you might have time for everyone to take part
Large Group – Select 4-6 people to play, but have everyone else in the group give incorrect directions to those taking part

Instructions

Once you’ve selected who’s going to be playing, split them into pairs. One of them will be a guide, while the other will be the person following the guide’s directions.

The person being directed needs to take off their shoes and socks and put on a blindfold. If possible, do this before they get to see the pathway so that they don’t have any idea what kind of direction the path takes.

Move the person being directed to the start of the pathway. Their guide then has to direct them along the path to the end, avoiding the baked beans if possible and ensuring they stay within the lines on either side.

Do this for all the pairs taking part. The winner is the team that steps in the least amount of baked beans.

Timer

Make this youth group game even more frantic by adding a time constraint. This will make the blindfolded player hurry when following directions, increasing the likelihood of them stepping in some beans.

Alternative Options

If you don’t want to use baked beans, canned peaches can be nice and squelchy too.

For youth groups that don’t have any outdoor space and don’t have a tarp available for playing this indoors, use dry food instead – Pringles, oyster crackers or corn flakes will all work well for this.

Discussion Ideas

This game is a great introduction into a discussion about following directions or communication. It can also work well as a way to highlight the importance of working as a team and trusting each other.

For Christian youth groups, it might be worth playing the large group version listed above, where everyone is calling out incorrect directions and the blindfolded player has to listen carefully for their partner’s correct directions. This can then be tied in with John 10: 1-5, focusing on how it’s important to follow Jesus rather than the paths that other people may encourage us to take.

If you liked this game idea, check out all our other games for youth groups.

Question: What would you do to make Baked Bean Land Mines even more fun? Let us know in the comments below.

You can also connect with us by:

Signing up to receive our posts via email
Following us on Twitter
Liking us on Facebook
Signing up to our RSS feed

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.

You can also connect with us by:

Signing up to receive our posts via email
Following us on Twitter
Liking us on Facebook
Signing up to our RSS feed