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As a new cycle of the academic year gets into full swing, and groups are up and running, now may well be the best time to fall back on a youth-group staple to get your group off to a good start.Yes, we are talking about food. Embrace it all - the messiness, the smells, the flavours - and try some of these games.
APPLE BOBBING
Features apples, but not necessarily any bobs
10 mins
In an age when the diets of young people are routinely castigated in the media for being too unhealthy, help your group to buck the trend by introducing them to this real golden (delicious) oldie. It’s such a classic that my Granny (smith) probably played this when she was young, perhaps even at some (royal) gala event.
All you need is a large bucket, some water, and some apples. Fill the bucket with water, and float some apples in it, which your players then have to remove using only their mouths.
To introduce an element of competition to it, divide your group into as many teams as you have buckets, and race them against each other to be the first team to remove all the apples from their bucket. The bigger the bucket, the trickier the challenge, but make sure that it’s not too big for your young people to be able to reach apples bobbing in the middle.
This is a wet game, so best played outside, or on an easily-moppable surface, and have some towels available for the young people to dry their heads once they’ve bobbed. Encourage them to eat their apples as a reward - but warn them that the apples will have some pippins (pips in).
Bribery value: 6/10. Apples are good for you, and apparently keep doctors away.
FLOUR CUTTING
Not a technique to make illicit drugs go further – but an actual game!
5 mins
A simple idea - a mound of flour with a sweet on top, and your young people take it in turns to cut away sections of the mound without dislodging the sweet - a sort of old school Buckaroo (but with fewer wild-west themed accessories and donkeys).
To prepare this game you will need a big bag of flour, as well as a bowl into which you carefully compress as much flour as needed. It is important that you get it tightly packed into the bowl, because the next step is to (carefully!) turn it out onto a plate. (The technique of placing the plate over the bowl and then turning it over will be your best approach here.) Carefully place a small sweet, such as a Smartie, onto the top of the mound, and using a table knife get the young people to take turns to carefully slice and remove a section of the flour mound, continuing until the sweet is eventually dislodged. When this happens, the individual who has caused this to happen has to remove the sweet from the flour, using only their mouth.
This work best with smaller groups, so if you have more than about eight players around a plate consider playing off as teams against each other with multiple flour mountains, counting up the highest number of ‘cuts’ made without causing a flour avalanche. Due to the risk of flour mountains collapsing when the bowl is removed, you might want to prepare a spare for back-up. If you are feeling particularly mean you can play this game immediately following the apple-bobbing for maximum flour and water mess.
Bribery value: 5/10. Sweets are good, flour on its own is less attractive.
MALTESER MUSH
Possibly the most disgusting game in Premier Youthwork history
10 mins
For this game you will need to create a gungey but edible mush in a large bowl. A mixture of baked beans, mushy peas, and any other sauce-based food stuff will do, but make sure you’re aware of any potential allergy issues.
Get your group into equal teams, providing each team with a bowl of gloop, and a straw for each player. Explain that you are going to stir a packet of Maltesers into the gloop, and that their task is to remove these using only the straws, their mouths, and the power of suction. Carefully stir into each bowl a packet of Maltesers pushing them under the surface of the liquid as much as possible and making sure that there are plenty more Maltesers in each bowl than team members. Provide each team with somewhere to put the rescued Maltesers and once this is done, on your count allow the teams to begin retrieving the sweets.
This game works best as a relay with only one team member at a time trying to remove a sweet, but if your groups are small they could all try and remove the sweets at the same time for added chaotic fun. If you have counted how many Maltesers went into the gloop you could simply set a target of number of sweets to be removed. Alternatively set a time limit and declare the winners to be the team who have managed to remove the most Maltesers in that time.
Bribery value: 2/10. Maltesers are great, but covering them in mushy peas removes some of the attraction.
MUSICAL FORFEIT FOOD CHAIRS
Coming next month: musical animal statues and musical bumps on whoopee cushions
15 mins
This is a massively simple game, based on the old party favourite – musical chairs. (In case you’ve been living in a cave – get a line of chairs placed out back to back, numbering exactly one fewer than number of players. When the music is played the players move around the chairs, but when the music stops they have to sit down on an empty seat, leaving one player chair-less.) The difference is that this game doesn’t eliminate the chair-less player, but they have to do a food-based forfeit.
Gather a load of food stuffs together (unpleasant looking baby food, gherkins, raw onions, pickled eggs, chilies, mayonnaise, slices of lemon, any other unusual / slimey / unpleasant food items) in front of the group and explain that you’re going to play musical chairs. Highlight however that anyone left without a chair when the music stops will have to pick a number at random, which will correspond to one of the horrible food challenges in front of them. (You could genuinely link the items to a number, or you could simply allocate the foods to the people based on your knowledge of them.) Secretly include one non-nasty food treat (e.g. a chocolate bar) so that if someone is repeatedly losing they can be spared too much unpleasantness. Continue until the food is gone, or the retching is too much to bear. As with all food games be aware of any allergies, or any food issues that any of your group may have.
Bribery value: 7/10. You may be surprised how many of your group have been hankering after an opportunity to eat a whole raw onion.
