Fun Ice Breaker Game for Your Family Reunion

Posted on March 16, 2017 by Aunt Mo

This is a fun idea for an ice breaker game for your next family reunion or family party. It is even a fun idea for a work, school or church function.

Divide into groups of about 10. The groups work together to determine the total amount of points they have earned. Each team will need a team captain and recorder.

You can make up your own list of points but here are a few ideas to get you started.

1. Counting January as one point, February as two points and so on, add up the total points of your group.

2. Score one point for each college attended.

3. Score one point for every button on each shirt.

4. Total number of pennies teammates have in their pockets.

5. Total of all sizes added together- one shoe only per person.

6. Hair color score- Black hair- 2 points, Brown hair- 1 point, Red hair- 3 points, Grey hair- 5 points, Blonde- 1 point

7. Five points for everyone that is wearing glasses, 2 points for contacts.

8. One point for every child each person has, twins- 5 points, triplets- 10 points.

9. Minus 1 point for every soda or pop consumed. Plus 1 point for every glass or bottle of water.

10. 1 point for everyone that is wearing a watch.

Add up the total of points each team has and award prizes to the team that has the “most” points, “least” points, “most unorganized” etc.

Bead Geckos- A Family Reunion Ice Breaker

Posted on March 15, 2017 by Aunt Mo

An effective way to jumpstart your family reunion is with an activity that family members can participate in independently when they arrive at the reunion and are settling in. There is that awkward time when family arrives at the reunion and everyone is getting reacquainted. Experience has proven that if there is a low key activity planned it will encourage family members to mingle and get comfortable with each other again. A pre reunion activity also keeps younger family members busy and engaged while their parents are visiting and settled in.

Bead lizards or Geckos are the perfect solution. Collect a supply of different colored pony beads and some satin cording and let your family create their own Geckos.

What you’ll need for each lizard-

2 yards satin cording of your choice
1 metal keychain or lanyard hook
27 colored (shown as green in the above diagram) pony beads
21 colored (shown as orange in the above diagram) pony beads
2 black pony beads for eyes

They say a picture is worth a thousand words so I really recommend watching the following video to get some great instructions for making your bead Gecko. The great thing is, if you download the video to your tablet, the video will be available to your guests and you won’t spend so much time trying to give instructions as you’re registering your family members and getting them situated- they’ll be able to watch the video! The video lasts less than 2 minutes and it’s actually quite entertaining.

https://youtu.be/PI5Gxihkyes

You can find more ice breaker ideas by following the link below

http://familyreunionhelper.com/blog/2010/03/really-cool-ice-breaker-games/

Genealogy Icebreaker Activities for Your Family Reunion

Posted on January 18, 2015 by Aunt Mo

Family Tree Photo

Make a live family tree and take a photo. Arrange family members as they would be on a genealogical chart of the family. Begin with Grandma and Grandpa. Add a branch consisting of their children and spouses. Add additional branches for each of their children and so on. Be sure and take a picture- preferably from an elevated position.

Birthday Game

Mix family members up and divide into groups or ten or so. Challenge family members to put themselves in order of their birth date (day, month and year). If you have mostly young children the challenge should be to get in a line, oldest to youngest. To make the challenge more difficult try doing it blindfolded and tell them “No Talking!” It’s amazing how resourceful they will be communicating in other ways.

To involve your entire family ask those that were born in January to get together in one group; do the same for each of the other months. Then have the members of the January group give their birthdates, such as January 21, January 9, etc. and line up accordingly. This is fun activity that forges an immediate bond between those that share the same birthday or even birthday month. This activity is especially effective with reunions of 100 or more participants.

Family Reunion Concentration Game

This activity takes some advance planning. Create a "memory" or "concentration" game. You will need 54 cards with 26 pairs of pictures on them. With so many digital options this is a fairly easy but still a time consuming idea. Make two copies of each photo- be sure and include name, birthdate and birthplace of each person. You can make a game using ancestors or using photos of family members that are attending the current reunion. With this game you will reconnect with the past or make connections with the present.

Family Tree Chart

Make a huge family tree on and display it during the reunion. You can have large 36” x 48” “engineering prints” made at Staples for under $10.00 that work perfectly for this kind of presentation. Be sure and make 8 1/2 x 11 copies of the tree for each family to take home. The chart pictured above is another option. It is available from My History and is a fill in the blank type chart.

Name Tags for Your Family Reunion

Be creative with your reunion name tags. When family members check in at your reunion site give them each a name tag. But instead of the same old “my name is” name tags be a little creative. Put different design on name tags so that everyone with design sits at the same table for meals and are on the same team when dividing for activities. This helps family members get acquainted or Reacquainted with family members they don’t see often. The tags above are from the family reunion helper Heritage Reunion.

Family Reunion Helper

Your number one source for family reunion organization

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