Tag: Easy Setup

They say that your attention span is like a muscle – the more you exercise it, the better it gets. Here’s a game that will help your youth group get in shape…or just have a lot of fun.

For this game have everyone sit in a circle close enough to reach your neighbor. Choose one person to be “it,” standing at the center of the circle.

The game starts when “It” closes his eyes and counts to ten. The group begins to pass a small object such as a marble around the circle from hand to hand. “It” tries to catch people in the act of passing the object…but there’s a twist. Other people in the group are pretending to pass the object as well.

If “It” catches someone red-handed with the object then that person becomes “It.” However, if “It” guesses wrong he can delegate his “Itness” to his hapless victim by saying “you go find it.” Here’s where it pays to pay attention. If the person chosen to “go find it” has been alert it should be no problem for her to find the marble. If she finds it, then she doesn’t have to be “It.” If not, she takes her place at the center of the circle.

Signs is a great game to play with your youth group whenever you have a few people sitting around without much to do. It’s a basic circle game with one person who gets to be “it.” The object is for the people in the circle to pass a hand signal from person to person without getting caught in the act by the person who is “it.” This may seem like a simple challenge, but it’s a lot trickier, and funnier than you might imagine.

To start off, everyone needs his or her own “sign.” This sign could be a tug of the earlobe, a scratch of the chin or a flash of a peace sign. The simpler the gesture the better – a lot of arm flapping will make you easier to catch.

The play starts with “it” in the center, eyes closed and counting aloud to ten. The last person who was “it” starts the game by catching a neighbor’s eye and flashing that person’s sign. The neighbor accepts the sign by flashing her sign in return. She is now vulnerable to be caught by “it” until she can pass the sign to someone else in the circle, which she does by making that person’s particular gesture. It’s pretty simple and the sneakier you can be, the better.

Once the person who is “it” has counted to ten he can open his eyes and start guessing who has the sign in her possession. There is no penalty for making a wrong guess but it’s not good form to fire off names machine-gun style. The game is more fun when “it” uses deduction, observation and quick ninja-like spins to see what’s going on behind his back.

Say, for example, that Chad is “it.”

As he counts to ten Trudy tugs her ear to pass the sign to Luke. Luke tugs his ear to receive the sign.

Chad opens his eyes facing Luke but doesn’t guess Luke’s name. Luke waits until Chad is looking away and then flashes Susan’s sign – making crossed eyes.

Now Chad is looking straight at Susan. “Do you have the sign?” he says.

“No,” she answers honestly. Susan hadn’t yet “received” the sign from Luke. So Chad, figuring that the sign is behind him, spins and looks straight at Luke.

“Luke, you’ve got the sign!” Chad says. But while his back was turned Susan crosses her eyes, receiving the sign and then points her finger like a gun to pass the sign to Dana.

This game is easier to play than it is to write up. And it’s a lot of fun.

This is a fun indoor game for group play with a dozen or more. It can be played as a warm-up activity or stretched out over a longer period, such as weekend work project.

One person gets to be the detective. They leave the room and go to an isolated “sound-proof booth.”

The rest of the group selects one person to be the criminal. Make sure the group doesn’t use their selection to stigmatize or single out someone who is a little bit on the fringe. Everyone in the room needs to think of an alibi, something simple (and easy for each person to remember) that explains where they were at the time the crime occurred. For example “I was putting my hair in pin curlers on the train” or “I was oiling my baseball glove in my third floor apartment.”

Once you have a criminal, the detective returns to the room and asks each person, one by one, to state their alibi. When each person states his case the detective interviews everyone a second time. Everyone needs to state their alibis in exactly the same way as before – except the criminal. The criminal gets to make one tiny change to her story.

The game continues until the detective catches the criminal in the act of lying.

Because there’s no real setup or preparation – though you could make this part of a fun mystery night using props and costumes, Detective is a great game for group participation that you can pull off in a pinch.

[Photo by Penarc]