This week has been youth retreat week, so today we have a great youth work game – The Egg Toss. It’s especially good as a youth retreat game, as on a retreat you’ll usually have more than enough space to play, as well as having plenty of time to play it more than once if you like.
The Egg Toss is a fantastic way of getting all youth and helpers involved in a game. All you need is a large space and one egg for every two people taking part.
To play The Egg Toss, everyone pairs up with somebody else. One person from each pair lines up in a row, with the other person in each pair lining up opposite them so that they’re facing each other. Each pair should should stand about two yards across from each other, while also being about two yards from the other pairs to their left and right. It should therefore look something like this, with 1s throwing to each other, 2s throwing to each other, etc:
One person from each pair is then given an egg. The people with the egg have to toss the egg to their partner, with their partner trying to catch the egg without it breaking.
If the egg breaks, that pair is out. Each person who successfully catches the egg has to take a step backwards and then toss it back to their partner. If they catch it without breaking, they take a step back and so on. The winners are the last pair with an unbroken egg.
**Prankster tip: If you want to mess with the youth during The Egg Toss, give a pair of volunteers a hard-boiled egg. This will mean they’ll manage to get a huge distance away without breaking the egg. See how long it takes the youth to work out it’s not a raw egg!**
A few other tips:
- Have a volunteer count to three before the eggs are tossed, so they all throw at the same time. Also have someone make sure that everyone playing steps back an equal distance each time, so you don’t have some pairs throwing further than others
- Encourage youth to change their clothes if they don’t want to get messy
- This is the kind of game where you always feel you’d do better if you could have just one more chance, so bring plenty of eggs to the youth retreat so you can play the game multiple times
- When you’re left with one pair, let them keep going to see how far they can get without the egg breaking
- Take plenty of photos and video footage of The Egg Toss, as the outcome can be hilarious. Action shots with the eggs flying through the air work well, as do youth covered in yolks!
If you’ve found the youth retreat posts helpful this week, we’re sure you’ll love our book – How To Plan A Youth Retreat.
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