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Divide into groups of 5-6. Give each group a tape recorder and
a list of sound effects. The object of the game is for the teams to
record the most realistic sounding effects they can produce. They
can use their voices or anything they can get their hands on. Let
them find their own places to work. After all the teams are finished,
gather the group together and play each sound at a time, letting the
group vote for the best one. The sound-bites should be no longer than
10-15 seconds long. And be sure to instruct the groups to announce
on the recording which sound they are doing (to avoid confusion) and
to leave a space between recordings. Some suggestions: a busy street,
a girl lost in a thunderstorm, a forest with a babbling brook, a hospital,
a marketplace, a construction site, etc |
This one even goes with a lesson in Revelation about how God will
spew the lukewarm out of His mouth.
Get some ALKA-SELTZER and some carbonated clear drink... such as Sprite,
7UP, maybe Ginger Ale, or Squirt. Tell each of your participants to
place a single ALKA-SELTZER underneath their tongue. Don't worry..
they won't be able to taste or swallow it with it under the tongue.Now...
give them each a cup of the clear carbonated drink. Fill
it with about 3 or 4 ounces. The OBJECT is to see who can hold it
in their mouth the longest, but trust me, it will EXPLODE and SPEW
out of their mouths! I wouldn't advise swallowing
it. It won't hurt them but yuck. They must have at least a couple
ounces in order for it to work... though it is not about how much
they can "drink." It's about how long they
can hold it. HAVE FUN! |
Bring a box of ginger snaps or graham crackers.
Have one or two kids volunteer to be stackers. The rest of the kids
take turns lying on a couch on their backs. The stackers see how
many crackers can be stacked in a pile on each forehead. The person
with the highest stack wins. Usually laughing knocks the stack over
early. |
Sit many people in a circle. Ask questions like if you are wearing
blue move 2 chairs to the right. Whoever is wearing blue moves but
if there is someone in that chair they have to sit in that persons
lap. Continue to ask questions until you run out of time. |
Start by having all of the kids remove one shoe and placing it
in a pile in another room. Then place two chairs facing each other
in the middle of the meeting room. Start by having an assitant randomly
draw two shoes from the pile. The owners of these two shoes then sit
facing each other in the chairs. On "go" they stare into
each others eyes until one of them blinks. The object is to "out-stare"
your opponent. The winner stays in the chair and another shoe is randomly
selected from the pile to face the champion. Whoever is in the chair
after all of the "shoes" have gone is the winner and should
be rewarded somehow. It is a fun game...however, I had one student
who wouldn't play until he doused his shoe and sock with Lysol from
the bathroom! |
Players sit in a circle. One blindfolded
person sits in the middle, with their treasure (keys, rattle) in
front of them and their stick (rolled up newspaper) in hand. A thief
is chosen from the circle to attempt to snatch the treasure, without
making any noise to alert the guard in the middle. If the thief is
swatted by the newspaper stick, he must return to the circle. If
the thief succeeds in stealing the treasure, they become the new
guard. |
Stick the licked lifesavers on someone's face game. (Christmas
version) This is an old take-off of the 'stick the licked lifesavers
on someone's face game' but with a holiday flair. Get three or four
or five guys (the less hairy the better) and have each guy assemble
a team of five or six others to build a Christmas wreath on the guy's
stomach using licked red and green Christmas mints, lifesavers, and
red gum (for the bow). You'll find that once you put one of those
Christmas mints in your mouth it gets real sticky and sticks to a
bare tummy pretty well.
Give all of the teams about five minutes to 'build' their circular
wreath and let 'em go at it. After five minutes, have all of the teams
sit down and then vote on the best one. Feel free to use other candy,
too. Gummy Worms, Jolly Ranchers, and other mints work well and add
color. Just make sure that you run a test beforehand to make sure
that it sticks well. As a rule, the more slobber... the better. You'll
want to get guys that don't mind revealing their belly and getting
a little sticky. As a side note... don't use Big Red or cinnamon gum
for the bow. It burns a little when it gets wet and is put on someone's
tender tummy and sits for a while. Doubt me? Try it yourself.... I
did - ouch.
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Ask for two volunteers or pick a boy or girl. (this game works
pretty good if a boy likes a girl and she does not know it or vis
versa). You get the piece of plexy glass (needs to be sturdy, and
needs to be clear). You place a glob of peanut butter on both sides
of the glass. Put as much as you like, but make sure it doesn't drip.
Then give them 1 minute to lick as fast as they can and the side that
is the cleanest wins. (They have to keep their eyes opened at all
times. |
Divide your people into groups of about six-ish. Any number of
groups (that can fit in the room) can play.
Materials: Tons of drinking straws (about the diameter of McDonald's
(burger) straws, BUT the soft kind AND simple and straight) about
50-100 straws to each group. 2 small rolls of tape per group. One
small 'corner' of the room per group. Give about 10 minutes to see
which group can make the tallest self supporting structure. Say that
they then have to bring their masterpieces to the front, and see whose
structure remains standing the longest.When the construction time
is up, have each group move their structure to the front of the room.
Then you proceed to give a short (not too short) talk about what your
life is based on.*Note - I don't have the slightest idea of what the
speaker was saying at this point (when I was participating in this
game) so don't put too much important points in your talk here. (everyone
will be watching the structures, not the speaker). As time progresses,
these straw structures will topple over/collapse/get blown down by
the fan/etc one by one. Acknowledge each one as it drops, and at the
end you can discuss with the group what makes the good ones stay up,
and why those on the ground have fallen. Pay particular attention
to the base/foundations of these structures. Conclude that one needs
a strong (good/solid/big/firm/etc) foundation (=Jesus/Christian values)
for ones life, or something to that effect. (The best structures seem
to be those constructed like the Eiffel Tower or oil rigs.**During
the 10-15 minutes allotted to build the straw towers, you can move
around and watch to see who are the leaders and who are the followers
(if you wish).
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Last year one of our college age youth members gave a talk on stress
in which she used a hand pump and a balloon to illustrate stress.
Every time she listed a stressful event in the life of a typical teen,
she pumped more air into the balloon. Every time something came along
to relieve the stress (i.e. lunch breaks after a class in which you've
forgotten your homework at home) she let a little air out. Then she
kept pumping with more stressful items until it popped. The looks
on everybody's faces as the balloon was about to explode was hysterical!
Jesus is the safety valve of the second balloon which never
lets it get to the breaking point.
If I remember them correctly, her suggestions for resolving
stress were:
1) Prayer - Spending time with God can help put things in perspective.
2) Fellowship - being with other Christians in the same boat
helps avoid the feeling that you are all alone.
3) Determination - Put up a sign that says "Never Give Up!"
somewhere in your room where you will see it every morning.
4) Try to plan your week so you can include "fun time."
The best part of the whole talk was how she presented it. She
has a real gift for speaking and she did an excellent job during
the whole presentation.
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Pass around a ball of string and some scissors and ask everyone
to cut off a piece. Some will take tiny pieces, some very long ones.
After everyone has a piece, go around they circle and have everyone
say one thing about themselves for each finger width of string. This
usually gets a few laughs for the person who cut off several feet!
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getting to know you activity
We did something on our Jr. High (7th and 8th grade) retreat
along these lines. Everyone wrote (on a 3x5) 5 little known things
about themselves with their name at the top of the card. The cards
were then turned over to the moderator (in this case the YM). Jack
would say: "I am ___________" and the group had to guess who was
associated with this fact. The group had 3 chances. A correct answer
was rewarded with a small snack. If after 3 attempts no one was
right, the person who wrote the fact got the snack.
We got to learn a lot about the various members of the group,
and it was fun! (I had thought that I wrote something about myself
that no one would guess, my being an Eagle Scout. Two answered wrong,
and then Josh suddenly got this look on his face and looked at me,
and I thought "He's made me!" But that was the point of the whole
exercise, to get to know each other better.
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Divide group into two teams. Give each team 3 "rocks" (construction
paper cutouts about 1 1/2' x 1 1/2'). Make a start and finish line
(maybe 30 feet apart) and tell them that they must get their whole
team across without touching the water, using only these rocks to
get across. They may move the rocks as they go, however, only one
foot can be on a rock at a time. A cool puzzle to try and figure out!
Great for building cooperation skills! |
Take
Off What You Don't Need
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This is a game our youth group uses to initiate new campers. A
new camper is asked to sit in the middle of a circle and someone will
put a blanket over them.
You tell the camper the object of the game is to see who can get the
most points by taking off everything they don't need (1 pt for each
object). The group urges them on "What do you not need?"
The person usually starts off throwing out their shoes, socks, watches,
shirts, etc. BUT the real object is for them to realize they don't
need the blanket and the real winner is the one with the least points
before they realize it's the blanket. Youth Leaders beware - some
youth you just have to tell before they strip!! |
Have the youth line up on the floor in lines of about 8. Hand all
of them paper and pencils, and start at one end. Whisper to the person
on the end what you want them to draw. Have the person sitting next
to that person what they see, and the next person the same and so
on.
Compare the end products at the other end of the lines and what was
to be drawn in the beginning.Great lesson when talking about being
a model to others and being a good example of Christ. |
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