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GOOGLE MAPS
A game very similar to the classic Channel 4 show, ‘Where on Earth is Carmen Sandiego?’
10 mins
Divide your group into teams of between two and five and give each team a map (the maps need to be the same for each team). There are two ways you could play this game. For the first method the map needs to be a generic one of a particular part of the world (or country). In this version you give the teams a list of 15 particular places which they need to try and mark onto the map, and you award points based on how accurate you judge them to be: ten points for spot on, and then decreasing amounts depending on how far away they are or how generous you’re feeling. The team with the highest score at the end of your list is the winning team.
In the second method, the map you give them is a more detailed map, with place names etc. already marked on it (at whatever scale you want - it works on world, national or local levels). Pick about ten places on the map for them to find, and then give the places to the teams one at a time, revealing the next place only once they’ve found the previous location on the map. The winning team is the first one to find all the locations that you require.
To make this game more funny / juvenile / better you could deliberately ensure that all the place names they need to find sound vaguely rude. (Someone’s already done the work for you at maps.geotastic.org/rude/ index.php.)
App store equivalent: Google Maps (obviously).
HUMAN SHAZAM
Not just a game, but a new ‘magic word’: HUMAN SHAZAM!
15 mins
Ok, so this one is basically ‘name that tune’, but there is nothing new under the sun (Ecclesiastes 1:9). Divide your group into teams and get them to sit in those teams. Then, taking a prepared playlist, play to them some of your favourite music (or theirs if you’re willing to endure Bieber / 1D / Frozen soundtrack). If possible start the tracks in an obscure section of the song, but let the track keep playing until one of the teams can correctly identify the track’s title and the artist.
Get the groups to stand up as soon as they think they have an answer, at which point pause the music, and ask them for their answer. If they are incorrect they have to sit down and cannot offer another answer for that track until another team has suggested a wrong answer. If they are correct then award them some points depending on how long you’ve played the track for (25 points if they answer within five seconds, 20 points if within ten seconds, 15 points if within 15 seconds, ten points if within 25 seconds, and five if they get it after that). Keep track of the scores, and announce the winning team at the end.
App store equivalent: Shazam (see what we’re doing here?).
MEME ME
The name of this game works better if you don’t know how to pronounce ‘meme’
15 mins
Ok, so there is a tiny bit of technology involved in this one, but as it is possible for you as leader to provide it, it’s justified. Makes sure each of your groups has access to a camera. Set them the task of replicating a famous internet meme by being as creative as possible. Give them a set of suggestions and pictures of cats / double rainbows / cute animals / planking / ice bucket challenges etc and see how creative they can be at replicating them. Make sure that their ideas are safe (!) and then get the groups to share with each other which meme they were aiming to replicate, and the picture they took of themselves. You could ask the groups to vote for which is the best replication, or simply agree that they are all winners just for doing something so pointless and silly.
App store equivalent: Ok, this one doesn’t work, and this contrived gag falls flat here.
I MESSAGE (YOU)
I message, you message, he messages, she messages, we message, you (plural) message, they message
10 mins
A basic team-work game, but dressed up by requiring your teams to utilise a variety of methods of communication. Get your groups into teams of five and give each team a pile of equipment which includes: a long stretch of string, two cups (or tins), two flags, and a bright torch, plus two print-outs of each of the semaphore alphabet, the Morse code alphabet and the British Sign Language alphabet.
Explain that they need to use four different means of quiet or silent communication to pass a message from one end of the team to another. Allow them to work out how they will do it, and what set-up they want to employ (provide a bit of help with the strings / cup telephone idea if they aren’t getting it). Explain that once they’ve got the whole team stretched out with the various means of communication you will give a short message (such as, ‘Arsenal are the greatest’) to the first team member, who then needs to communicate it to the next, and so on, until it reaches the final team member, who then needs to confirm to you what message they’ve received.
If the message isn’t right get them to try again, until you have a correct answer. This will work best if you have a large space or long corridors to play it in, and it can also work outside if conditions are right. You will also need to give each team paper and pens so they can note down the letters as they are spelled, but ensure they don’t cheat by using the paper to communicate with each other!
App store equivalent: iMessage (I’m really not trying particularly hard with these anymore).
