Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

Toilet Paper Wrapper – Youth Group Games

By Leave a Comment

Toilet paper game
Money on the dunny (that one’s for our Aussie readers)

We’ve published a few toilet paper games in the past and today we have another one to use with your youth group – the Toilet Paper Wrapper.

Here’s how to play it:

Resources

2 rolls of toilet paper per team

Set Up

None – this game gets better all the time!

Team Sizes

4-10 young people per team. If you have a really large youth group, this may work better as an up-front game with just 4 or 5 teams taking part.

How To Play

Each team stands in a circle next to each other and facing outwards (i.e. their backs are to each other). Give one person from each team 2 rolls of toilet paper.

The person with the paper has to wrap the first roll around their waist a couple of times without it breaking. They then pass it to the person on their right in the circle, who does the same thing.

This continues until the roll has finished, at which point they have to continue with the second roll until that’s all gone as well. This will probably mean that each player gets wrapped at least twice.

Rules

If the toilet paper breaks, they have to continue from where it broke, ensuring that it’s not loose.

In the franticness of the game, there’s a good chance that at least one player will accidentally drop the roll of paper. It’s up to them how they decide to recover it, but they have to ensure that the wrapping of the whole team doesn’t break.

Winner

The team that uses both rolls of paper first

Evil Tip

To make the game even harder, use 1-ply toilet paper as this will break more easily

Question: Can you think of any additional rules or alternative ways of playing this toilet paper game? Let us know in the comments below.

You can also connect with us by:

  1. Signing up to receive our posts via email
  2. Following us on Twitter
  3. Liking us on Facebook
  4. Signing up to our RSS feed

 

How To Use Toilet Paper As An Icebreaker

By Leave a Comment

Toilet paper icebreaker
Use this toilet paper icebreaker to get your youth group on a roll

Q: Due to the start of the school year, a lot of new young people have moved up into the youth group I lead. Do you have any good icebreakers I can use to help them get to know each other better?

A: The start of a new school year can be tough for youth groups as it can often mean that they go from the adjourning stage of group development to the forming stage.

Effective icebreakers can therefore be a great way to help the group form. One fun option is to use the toilet paper icebreaker – here’s how it works:

Resources

1 roll of toilet paper. If you have a very large group of young people, it may be worth splitting into smaller groups and giving each small group a roll each.

How to play the Toilet Paper Icebreaker

Have the group sit in a circle. One-by-one, pass around the roll of toilet paper and have each person take as much paper as they would normally use when using the restroom – this includes leaders!

When everyone has taken their share of toilet paper, advise them that for every square of paper they took, they have to tell the group something about themselves. i.e. If they took 8 pieces of paper, they would have to tell the group 8 things about themselves.

They can share anything they like, such as:

  • Favorite sport
  • Favorite band
  • How many brothers & sisters they have
  • Where they live
  • Other interests
  • Favorite food
  • Funniest thing that’s happened to them
  • Anyone famous they’ve met
  • What they want for Christmas
  • What pets they have
  • A country they’d love to travel to

They don’t have to go super-deep where they’re revealing their deepest and dark secrets, like the most embarrassing thing that’s happened to them; just whatever they’re comfortable with. Remember – at the forming stage, they still need to build up trust with each other.

Finding common ground

The Toilet Paper Icebreaker is also a great way to help emphasize similarities and common interests between the young people. After each person has shared about themselves, pick out one or two facts about them and see if anyone else in the group has similar interests or experiences. For example:

  • Bobby’s favorite sport is football – is that anyone else’s favorite sport?
  • Jenny loves Chinese food – who else loves to eat Chinese?
  • Andy has a dog – does anyone else own a dog?

Try to pick out the things that it’s likely other people will have similar interests in, rather than some of the more vague facts you’re likely to hear. This will help show the young people that despite differences between them, there are still common areas that they can agree on, helping set the group off on the right foot.

Check out our previous post on team building activities for further ideas on helping your youth group to gel, along with our other toilet paper games.

Question: What other interests/topics would you suggest young people share about when playing the Toilet Paper Icebreaker? We’d love to hear your ideas in the comments below.

You can also connect with us by:

  1. Signing up to receive our posts via email
  2. Following us on Twitter
  3. Liking us on Facebook
  4. Signing up to our RSS feed

 

How To Play The Toilet Paper Bride Game

By Leave a Comment

Toilet Paper Bride
Here comes the bride…….

Last week we showed you how to play the Toilet Paper Mummy; this week, it’s the Toilet Paper Bride. The two games are quite similar, but this version has more of a design element to it.

Resources

  • Loads of toilet paper.

Set Up

  • Split the young people into teams, with an equal number on each side (if possible). It’s also best to separate the teams by gender, as this should help reduce the risk of inappropriate touching due to the nature of the game.
  • Give each team about 3-4 rolls of toilet paper, although this will depend on the length of the rolls.

To Play / Rules

  • Each team should select one person to become the Toilet Paper Bride. If you’ve separated teams based on gender as suggested above then yes, this means boys will have to be brides!
  • The other members of the team should then dress up this person as a bride using the toilet paper. This should include a veil, train – the whole works
  • If the roll breaks, they should tuck the end in so that it doesn’t unravel, then carry on
  • Set a time limit (between 5 – 10 minutes is best) for them to “clothe” their Toilet Paper Bride

Winning Team

The winners are the team whose bride has the best design, as judged by you or a panel of your volunteers. To make it even more funny, you could have them parade their dresses up and down a catwalk.

Tips

  • The Toilet Paper Bride game uses a lot of paper so to reduce wastage, collect the toilet paper at the end and recycle it
  • This game can be really funny, so get some photos or video footage
  • If you lead a Christian youth group, this game could be used when teaching about the church being the bride of Christ or when Jesus turned water into wine (as that was done at a wedding celebration)

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

Question: Would you include any additional rules when playing the Toilet Paper Bride game? Let us know in the comments below.

You can also connect with us by:

  1. Signing up to receive our posts via email
  2. Following us on Twitter
  3. Liking us on Facebook
  4. Signing up to our RSS feed

 

Toilet Paper Mummy – Youth Work Game

By Leave a Comment

Toilet paper mummy
He’s aliiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiive

The Toilet Paper Mummy game is a fast and furious activity that you can use as an icebreaker with your young people. Here’s how to play it:

Resources

  • Toilet paper. Lots and lots of toilet paper.

Set Up

  • Split your youth group into teams with an equal number of young people on each team.
  • Provide each team with multiple rolls of toilet paper – at least 3 or 4 rolls per team, although this may vary depending on the overall length of the toilet paper roll.

To Play / Rules

  • One person should be selected from each team to become a toilet paper mummy. Although you can have teams choose who this would be, it might be better for you to choose. That way, people of equal height/size can be chosen from each team so that the game is fair.
  • When you tell them to start, the other team members have to mummify their chosen team member by wrapping toilet paper around them.
  • All parts of the body should be covered from head to toe to create the mummy.
  • If the roll breaks, teams should tuck the end in and continue the mummification process.

Winner

There are two ways that you can determine the winner:

  1. First to finish – One option is to have the winner be the team that creates a completely covered toilet paper mummy first.
  2. Best design – The second option is to set a time limit for all the teams. Once the time’s up, the team with the best mummy wins.

Tips

  • Due to the nature of the game, it’s best to have the teams be split into groups of the same gender to reduce the risk of inappropriate touching.
  • To help encourage your youth to use resources more responsibly, recycle the toilet paper after the game if that facility is available.
  • If you lead a Christian youth group, this could be a fun game to play when covering Jesus’ resurrection or Lazarus being raised from the dead.

If you liked this game idea, you might like all our other youth group games.

Question: Do you play the Toilet Paper Mummy game differently? We’d love to hear of alternative options in the comments below.

You can also connect with us by:

  1. Signing up to receive our posts via email
  2. Following us on Twitter
  3. Liking us on Facebook
  4. Signing up to our RSS feed