Games: Reconnecting games

To download as a PDF, click here.

PARACHUTE GAME

5 minutes

You will need: parachute; upbeat music and the means to play it

Lay the parachute out and stand the children around it, holding the edge. Practise lifting the chute up and down, while playing the music.

Together, shout: “One, two, three!’’ and lift the parachute high in the air. A leader then shouts out one fact, such as “Those who love ice cream”, “Those who have ever baked a cake” or “Those who like football”. Each child to whom that statement applies should run under the parachute, swapping places with another person. Make sure everyone has had a go at running under the chute before you stop the game.

BALL OF WOOL

10 minutes

You will need: a ball of wool

Sit the children in a circle and give the ball of wool to one child. The child with the ball of wool should shout their name and their favourite food, favourite colour or simi­lar. They hold one end of the wool and roll the ball to someone else in the circle. These two children are now connected by the wool.

This keeps on going until there’s a web of wool and everyone has shouted their name and their favourite thing! This game can also be done standing up and throwing the wool if the children are more confident.

SWEET INTRODUCTION

5 minutes

You will need: bowls; small sweets such as Skittles or Smarties; marker pen; large sheet of paper

Before the session, write these catego­ries on your large sheet of paper:

• Red: favourite hobbies
• Green: favourite place on earth
• Blue or purple: favourite memory
• Yellow: dream job
• Orange: wildcard (tell us anything about yourself!)

Be sure to match the colours on the paper with the colours of sweets you’re providing!

Put the sweets in the bowl and pass it around the children. Ask each participant to choose anywhere from one to three pieces of different colours. Instruct them not to eat it yet, though. After they have chosen their sweets, you will tell them what each colour repre­sents.

Show the children your category chart. Each person takes a turn to intro­duce himself or herself, beginning with their name and then saying one fact for each sweet colour they have. This easy introduction game should be relatively quick.

CONNECTING STORIES

10 minutes

Sit the children in small groups of six to eight people (stay together if you have a smaller group).

The first child begins by sharing an interesting memory or experience. For example, one child might say: “One time, I fell off my bike and scratched my knee badly. I cried a lot.’’

Another child in that group can then tell a related story that has similar themes or elements to the previous story. For example, the next child can say: “I like my bike, but I love my skate­board more and it’s coloured blue and green.”

Any child can then add to the story, by saying something like: “I also love computer games.” It might be good to set a timer for this. At the end of the game, the group with the longest connected chain of stories is the winner. You may ask the group to share the entire story with the whole group. This activity is a fun way to get children to share stories, while helping them learn similarities or common interests.

PAPER PLANE

10 minutes

You will need: paper; pens; stopwatch

Give out pens and sheets of A4 paper. Ask each child to fold their paper into a paper aeroplane.

Ask them to write their names and two questions down on the aeroplane, for example, what’s your favourite colour? What’s your dream holiday?

Start your stopwatch and tell every­one to throw their aeroplanes around at the same time. While the timer is going, everyone should be picking up the aero­planes and throwing them again to move the planes around the room and mix all the papers together.

Stop the timer and ask everyone to pick up one paper aeroplane that is not their own. Each group member should end up with a paper plane in their hands. They must then find the original owner and ask them the two questions on their plane.

Now that everyone has found the owner of their paper aeroplane and asked them the questions, have each child introduce the person to the group by reading the name on the plane and telling the group the questions and answers given by that person.

By the youth and children’s teams at Holy Trinity Brompton.