Tag: Games for a Bunch

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.

Odd or Even? | Image Sarah Tanti via Slideshare

This is a quick little mixer for those times when you have a lot of people who don’t know each other.

Form a circle and have the players count off “Odd” or “Even.” Players should learn the names of the people to their right and to their left.

Pass a ball around the circle while playing music. When the music stops the person holding the ball must introduce the people to her right and left. After the introductions are made, have the Odds move clockwise one person and the Evens move counterclockwise one person (practice this a couple times before starting the game.)

Keep the game going a few rounds until you think a sufficient number of people have been introduced.

To make things more lively you can have the players bat a beach ball back and forth. In this case the last person to touch the ball when the music stops is the person to make the introductions.

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]