Hungry hippos
10 minutes
You will need: four skateboards; bungee cords; ball-pit balls and four buckets; cycling / skating helmets; arm protectors
The aim of the game is to collect as many balls for your team. First, split the group up into four teams and allocate them a corner of the room. Each corner should have a skate board with a bungee cord attached to the back. The balls should be placed in the centre of the room and the young people should then take it in turns to lie on their front on the skate board, holding a bucket, and be pushed into the centre of the room. Using the bucket, they should try to trap the balls, before the bungee cord drags them back to the corner. Repeat this until no balls are left. The balls in each corner are then counted and one team is declared the winner. If this is too easy, you could task them with only collecting a certain colour ball and deduct points for collecting other teams’ colours.
Cluedo
You will need: paper; pens; three buckets
This normally works best at the beginning of a session or when on a residential. Give each person a piece of paper to rip into three. On the first piece of paper they should write their own name, on the second a random object that can be found easily and on the final piece a specific location within the building or area the game is taking place, for example: Dan; pen; kitchen. Label each bucket ‘name’, ‘object’, ‘location’ and tell the young people to put their pieces of paper into the respective buckets.
Once everyone has done this, everyone must take a piece of paper from each bucket, making sure not to get their own name. The challenge for the session or weekend is to target the person whose name they have picked out and to give them the random object in the location they have been given. That person is then ‘dead’ and hands over their three pieces of paper to the person who ‘killed’ them, who then has a new target. The winner is the last person standing!
Tray bash
15 minutes
You will need: four trays; four old newspapers or magazines, made into batons
Split the group into four equal teams and number them from one to however many are in each group. Create a square arena with a group on each side. When their number is called a member from each group must come into the middle. They must bow to one another and take a baton and a tray, balancing the tray on one hand. The aim of the game is to hit the trays off other people’s hands with the baton, while defending yourself. The tray must lie flat on the hand - no holding on! The last person with the tray still balanced wins that round. The game continues until everyone has had a go and the team with the most tray bash victors wins.
Human bingo
5 minutes
You will need: bespoke bingo cards; pens
The aim of the game is to be the first person to complete their bingo card and to shout, “bingo!” by walking around and gaining information from other young people. Before the session, make up your bingo card with random facts that you may know about the young people, for example, ‘has been to America in the past week’, but also some general, less specific facts, such as ‘has blue eyes’. Everyone gets a card and should complete it by filling in the name of the person that matches the fact. This is a great chance for the group to mingle.
Just a minute
5 minutes
You will need: a stop watch
Invite a member of the group to the front to speak on a topic of your choice for one minute. There must be no hesitation or repetition within that minute. If there is, other people can challenge them and the clock stops. If the person has correctly challenged they can take over at the front and the clock starts again. If they are still speaking when the minute alarm goes they win!
Optional rule – no deviation from the topic. This raises the stakes but is more difficult to referee. However, it is often amusing to challenge the group to bring up the same things in various topics: figure skating, Hungary, another leader’s bald patch etc.
Sock attack
10 minutes
You will need: socks
Ask all the group to take one sock off and to pull the other one halfway off their foot so their heel is exposed. They must all get into a crab position on the floor and hurry around the room using their feet, to remove other people’s socks while protecting their own. The aim of the game is to be the last person with their sock on.
