Whether you are in charge of planning a party for family, friends, co-workers or you church, here’s a fun printable with a twist. Instead of identifying candy bars by their name or wrapper you try and recognize your favorite bars by how they look on the inside. You can download a printable copy of the game below.
Answer Key
Take a bag of M&M’s or Skittles candy and tell everyone to grab a handful…or specify a number (I prefer this if you have a large group so it doesn’t take so long- I suggest each family member take 4 or 5 candies) You might also choose to split up in smaller groups such as children under 12, 12 and over, young adults etc. if you have a larger group such as a family reunion.
Assign a different meaning to each color, blue= family, green=hobbies, yellow=animals, brown= work or school etc. Participants must tell one thing about themselves for how many candies they have in their hands using the colors as their guide. They may also eat them as they share their information. (“Blue…I have two sisters.”, then eats the candy. “Yellow…I have a dog named Kodi.”, and eats the candy etc.) If you have two or more of the same color you have to tell one thing per candy regardless the color.
This is a good ice breaker because you can play it as soon as your party is supposed to start and those that come a little late can participate when they arrive.
A slight variation to the game is have participates tell things that make them, happy, sad, angry, excited or afraid.
I’m not writing this blog for you, I’m writing it for me. Every time I need to create an obstacle course I have to rethink every type of course we’ve done in the past. Next time I have to make an obstacle course I’m just going to search for this blog,hopefully you’ll get some good ideas too.
Kids love obstacle courses and they’re pretty easy to create just using the things you have around your house or party area.
The easiest way to create a course is to assign each person one obstacle or if it is for a family reunion, assign several families to each bring an obstacle. You can do this with little or no advance notice using just the things you have in the course area.
If you have a committee that is putting the course together spend some time brainstorming ideas for your course layout. If you will be at a campground you may be able to take advantage of a water hazard, large rocks and logs.
Eight to ten challenges is a good number for most people. Here’s some tried and true obstacles that have proved to be fun over the years.
Bales of straw or hay make a fun obstacle. Other jumping obstacles can be logs, laundry baskets or rolled up sleeping bags. Instead of jumping you can crawl under or over a row of chairs.
Lay a ladder on the ground and children run through the ladder making sure they step in the hole between each rung on the ladder.
Every obstacle course needs a tire challenge of some sort. When runners reach the tires, they have to run through them, placing one foot in each of the tires. The more tires you have the harder it becomes.
Everybody likes a good old rope swing and it’s a fun addition to any obstacle course. If you aren’t near a natural water hazard fill up a kiddy wading pool to provide an extra challenge. Several big knots tied in the rope’s end makes it easier to grab.
Using logs, 2x4s or wooden planks makes for a fun balancing portion of your course.
Throw beanbags into a bucket or basket. If you have access to a basketball hoop, require participants to make a basket before moving to the next challenge. If football is your sport of choice throw a ball through a goal post made of PVC pipe.
Purchase some old couch cushions from the thrift store, mattress or foam pad and set out for participants to run through. This challenge will really slow runners down- just be sure to tell them there is no jumping allowed.
And don’t forget cones (good for zig zagging) and hula hoops (good substitute for tires).
A stopwatch (or the stopwatch on your cellphone) is essential for keeping track of their course times. You can keep times individually or run your obstacle course as a team relay event.
Setting up an obstacle course is a wonderful way for adults and children to get some fun physical activity. Kids will do it as part of an organized activity but when the “official” activity is over they’ll continue to play and be entertained making their own kind of fun.
Helium Stick is a team building game that will get your whole group laughing.
You play Helium Stick by lining up in two rows which face each other. Give them the Helium Stick- a long, thin, lightweight rod such as PVC pipe.
Ask the players to point their index fingers and hold their arms out. Lay the Helium Stick down on their fingers. Get the group to adjust their finger heights until the Helium Stick is horizontal and everyone’s index fingers are touching the stick. The challenge is to lower the Helium Stick to the ground.
NOTE: Each person’s fingers must be in touching the Helium Stick at all times. Pinching or grabbing the pole in not allowed – it must rest on top of fingers. Everyone’s fingers MUST be touching the Helium Stick!
It sounds easy but the stick seems to float to the top until the group works diligently to lower it to the ground. The trick is that the collective upwards pressure created by everyone’s fingers tends to be greater than the weight of the stick. As a result, the more a group tries, the more the stick tends to ‘float’ upwards.
I like this team building activity because it doesn’t require a lot of equipment or advance preparation. Hope it’s fun for your family.
Object: The entire group of 12- 20 people must board a 2-foot-square
Platform without anyone touching the ground around it.
Rules:
Everyone must remain on the platform for at least 10 seconds.
Everyone must have both feet off the ground.
Don’t put people more than two high.
Outcome:
Talk with the participants about teamwork, leadership and problem
solving skills. Emphasize that when someone feels that they have a
problem that is impossible to solve, that we can work together as a
family to help them find a solution. The most difficult part of this team building activity is getting the platform. If you are not able to get a platform you can tape your square on the floor and use a piece of carpet. It’s not quite as "thrilling" as a raised platform but can still be learning experience for your group.
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To play this game you need equal numbers of guys and girls, and form a team of each. You can ask girls to join the guys team if required and vice versa. You will also need a couch, which can be a real couch (which would replace four seats) or four adjacent seats or lawn chairs.
Write all of the players’ names onto pieces of paper and give one slip to each players. You become whoever your piece of paper says you are – don’t tell anyone whose name you have.
Everyone sits in a circle, alternate guy, girl, with four people on the couch and the rest on chairs. Have one extra, empty chair.
The object of the game is to get all your gender onto the couch. The person who is sitting with the empty chair to their left calls out a name, trying to get the opposite gender off the couch. The person with that piece of paper must stand up and move to the empty chair. They then swap their piece of paper with the caller. The next person to call is the one with now empty space to their left.
For example, say that Megan calls out "Jack". Grandpa has the name "Jack" on his paper so he moves to the empty chair and exchanges papers with Megan. So Megan now becomes "Jack". The person who was next to Grandpa now has an empty space on the left and is the next caller.
This goes on until one team has 4 of their own players on the couch.
This game starts off slowly and the games don’t last long but as the players catch on they will really start paying attention and memorizing the names people are exchanging.
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Object: The group lines up in two rows with each row facing the other. Each pair of persons (one from each row) facing each other will hold a dowel. (One 3′ x 1½’ dowel per person or a 3’ x 2×2 stick.) The object is to have one person standing at the end who will crawl across the horizontal ladder formed by the dowels. Caution: Make sure the dowels you have will support your group member’s weight! A volunteer starts at one end of the human ladder and climbs (horizontally) along the rungs of the ladder. After the climber passes over a rung of the ladder, team members "leap frog" to the front of the ladder, allowing the climber to continue climbing indefinitely.
Rules:
The climber must touch every rung of the ladder.
The group can hold the dowels in any manner desired— high, low, or forming a turn.
Do not hold the rungs above shoulder height.
