Youth Workin' It

Consultancy and Resources for Youth Workers and Organizations Worldwide

Baked Bean Land Mines – Youth Group Games

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Youth group games
I’m a Brit, so this had to be the image used!

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:

  1. Up Front – Select 4-6 people to play, with everyone else watching
  2. Small Group – If you don’t have more than 12 or so people, you might have time for everyone to take part
  3. 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.

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Getting To Know You Worksheet – Youth Group Activities

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Getting To Know You Worksheet
Help your youth get to know each other better with this activity

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.

  1. Favorite band/artist
  2. One thing I want to experience in life
  3. Favorite color
  4. Place I’d most like to go on vacation
  5. Favorite TV show
  6. Earliest memory
  7. Favorite celebrity
  8. The pets I have
  9. Favorite animal
  10. Job I want in the future
  11. Favorite sport
  12. How many brothers and sisters I have
  13. Favorite store
  14. If I could meet one person, it would be…
  15. Favorite song
  16. Most fun thing I’ve ever done
  17. Favorite movie
  18. Favorite type of food
  19. Something I’m scared of
  20. Favorite website or app

Download the Getting To Know You Worksheet

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

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Getting To Know You Icebreaker – Youth Group Games

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Getting To Know You IcebreakerThis Getting To Know You icebreaker provides a good opportunity for your students to learn more about each other, so it’s perfect for using when you need some team building activities.

It also helps you and your volunteers get to know your young people better, something that’s particularly helpful if you’re with a new youth group or if it’s in the forming stage of group development.

Here’s how to play the icebreaker:

Resources

  • Pens
  • Paper
  • Scissors
  • Balloons – one per person, plus some spares in case any get torn

Preparation

Cut the sheets of paper into strips – enough for one per person – and number each of them from 1 to however many students you have.

On a separate sheet of paper, write down the names of all the youth and allocate each of them a number (don’t let them see this list though!)

Icebreaker Instructions

Give each of the teenagers a piece of paper and a pen and ask them to write down three facts about themselves. Explain that as the objective of the game is to help them get to know each other better, they should try to write facts that other people wouldn’t already know about them.

Once they’ve done that, roll each of the slips so that they’re a thin cylindrical shape. Carefully slide each slip of paper into a balloon so that it doesn’t rip, then blow up each balloon and tie the end.

When putting the slips in the balloons, check the number against the list of names to make sure the blown up balloons aren’t handed to the same person.

Give each young person a balloon, taking it in turns to burst it. They then have to read out all three facts from the slip of paper and guess which member of the youth group wrote it.

Tip

Once you’ve finished playing this icebreaker, collect up all the slips of paper and write the corresponding teenager’s name on it (this could be a good job for one of your volunteers).

Keep hold of these slips and try to memorize the facts about each of them over time. This will help when having conversations with them in the future about their interests and might also help you plan youth group activities that interest them.

Discussion

Once the game’s over, you could take some time to have a discussion about some of the different facts they learned about each other. Did anyone hear a fact about someone else that was also true for them?

This discussion has the potential to go in a couple of different directions:

  1. Youth find that they have things in common with other members of the group
  2. Youth find that they have nothing in common (or nothing mentioned during the icebreaker anyway)

If the first option happens, highlight this as a way in which they have common ground with each other, thereby helping them to bond.

If the latter happens, use this as an opportunity to celebrate the diversity and uniqueness of your group. If you’re a church youth group, you could also use this as a way to talk about the church being one body made up of different parts.

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

Question: What would you do to make this Getting To Know You icebreaker more fun? Let us know in the comments below.

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3 Reasons To Take Part In Youth Retreat Activities

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Youth retreat activities
Dave realized he wasn’t dressed properly for paintball

Q: I’m planning some youth retreat activities for later this year and have organized several activities for the young people that I don’t want to take part in myself. Do you think this matters?

A: I’m afraid it does matter! There are many reasons why it’s good to take part in youth retreat activities, so here are three of them:

1. It Builds Trust And Relationships

Youth retreats are a great opportunity for team building and bonding – not just for youth to bond with other youth, but also for them to bond with you and other volunteers.

If you don’t participate in activities, you’re therefore missing out on a chance to form stronger relationships that will last beyond just the weekend that you’re at the retreat center.

Your youth will also respect you more for getting involved with the activities and not making them do stuff that you’re not willing to do yourself.

2. It Develops You

Many youth retreat activities involve encouraging young people to push the boundaries of what they’re comfortable doing, perhaps by having them face their fears or getting them to try something new.

The reason you plan these activities for them is to help them grow as a person. If it’s beneficial for their development, it’ll be equally as beneficial for you.

In one of her previous roles, Shae used to plan retreat activities that involved heights to push the boundaries of what the youth would normally do. This would involve high ropes courses, rock climbing, etc and she’d take part too.

The thing is, Shae hates heights. She struggled to do all of these activities but always pushed through it as she knew that if she expected young people to do something, she needed to do it too.

3. It’s Fun

The other reason why you’ve probably planned these activities at the retreat is because they’re fun, so why not have some fun yourself!

Even if it’s likely to be more terrifying than fun, simply having you take part will increase the fun for your youth. At the very least, it’ll give them a good laugh at your expense!

So whatever the reason is that you don’t want to take part, I’d highly recommend rethinking it and booking yourself in for each of the activities.

Question: Have you ever been in a situation like this? What did you do? Let us know in the comments below.

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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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