WATER BOWLING
It seems we have the Ancient Egyptians to thank for the age-old game of bowling. Let’s give it a summer twist.
20 minutes
You will need plenty of dog bowls (or similar) and a gym ball. For this game, think ten-pin bowling, but these pins are now youth leaders or young people. The aim of the game is to knock as many ‘pins’ down by throwing gym balls at them. Except this would merely be the autumn way to play. Now to incorporate water: fill the dog bowls with water. The players who are the pins have the dog bowls taped to their hands and balanced on their head. If it is just leaders playing the pins (or you don’t want to bother too much with a risk assessment) then feel free to also tape their ankles together (you could surround the pins with bean bags?). The pins should then be in the skittles formation to begin the game and those throwing the balls should be a good distance away.
Top tip: have a water container nearby to top up the dog bowls.
FROZEN T-SHIRTS
WARNING: You must be organised and get this game ready two days before.
10 minutes
This is the sort of game that should be saved for a heat wave. Grab one of your old YFC, Spring Harvest, Groundbreakers or any other classic youth related t-shirts and give it a new lease of life. Don’t worry, it will be replaced soon enough! (Other forms of t-shirts are also allowed.) Depending on the size of your youth group, soak an appropriate number of t-shirts in water, wring them out, fold them and put them in the freezer. Split the group into teams and give a time limit to defrost the t-shirt. The first team to get someone wearing the t-shirt wins.
Top tip: frost bite is less likely in warmer weather!
WATER VOLLEYBALL
Time to dust off that GCSE volleyball training.
10 minutes
You will need a volleyball net, two bed sheets, water balloons and two teams. Fill up plenty of water balloons, split them in two equal piles and give them to each team (possibly wasting a couple by throwing them at passing clergy?). There should be at least four balloons per team and each team should grab their bed sheet and pull it so that it is tight. Take it in turns to try and volley the water balloons over the net and attempt a rally. The winners are the ones who are driest at the end.
Top tip: playing this with a pillow case does not work.
UNSAFE BUT HILARIOUS
Don’t let the name put you off!
10 minutes
Cover a tarpaulin with water and washing up liquid to create a makeshift slip and slide. Nominate a young person or leader to step on the tarpaulin. They will need a bin, basket or large net. Blast a great tune out of the ghetto blaster and have a thirty second dance break. It is up to everyone else to start throwing water balloons into the bin, basket or large net that the person on the tarpaulin is holding. Easy right? Level two is to colour code the balloons, for example if you catch red balloons you lose points but if you catch green ones you get more points. Or, even just award points for still having whole water balloons in the bin.
Top tip: if someone is soaking the person on the tarpaulin with water constantly that’s perfectly acceptable.
Top tip two: you may want to supply the tarpaulin volunteer with goggles.
WATER CUP GAME
A personal favourite for youth or leader hang outs.
5 minutes
Water, a cup and useless general knowledge is brilliant for this game. One person stands in the middle of a circle and is given a theme, for example, Justin Bieber songs. They think of one in particular (obviously ‘Love yourself’) and that is their trump. They will be given a cup containing an inch of water. Everyone else is given the topic and has one aim, to not name the trump choice. Those in the circle have to name their Bieber anthems but if they hesitate, repeat one that has already been said or name the trump, they get the water in their face. The splashed victim goes in the middle of the circle for the next round.
Top tip: you can increase the intensity by adding more water every time.
SPLISH, SPLASH, SPLOSH
Continue changing the vowel and you can have completely new versions of the same game!
10 minutes
This is a variation on ‘duck, duck, goose’. Let’s run through the rules. Everyone sits in a circle and one person walks round tapping everyone on the head saying ‘duck’. At one point they say ‘goose’ and then it is a race against them and the ‘goose’ to run around the circle and get back to the seat. Age old game but now with a summer twist: replace with the words with ‘splish, splash, splosh’. Alternate the tapping on the head with ‘splish’ and ‘splash’, dropping small amounts of water on their heads. ‘Splosh’ comes with a larger amount of water!
Overall top tip: if you play ‘referee’ on any of the above games you stay dry!
Lucy Rae is a youth worker at Holy Trinity Brompton.
