16 Light Party activities
Games
Select some of these game ideas to use in your party or event!
Blindfold games
There are a number of games that include blindfolds, which
you can play and then think about what it’s like to live with,
or without, light. (Some don’t like to be blindfolded, so ask
beforehand.)
Food tasting
10 minutes
You will need: blindfolds, different foods in covered
bowls, lots of spoons, bin
Before the session, gather some different kinds of food for
children/young people to taste. You could include things such
as raw tomato, gravy, a milk dessert such as blancmange or
soft cheese. Avoid food which contains any common allergens,
such as nuts, and ensure you have checked registration forms
so you know who has allergies. For young people, you might
want to choose stronger tastes or more unusual foods, such as
marmite or octopus tentacles!
Ask for some volunteers to do a blindfolded food tasting.
Blindfold the volunteers and in turn feed them the different
foods, asking each one to guess what they’re eating. (Make
sure you use a different spoon per food per person.) The
winner is the one who guesses the most foods correctly (or
spits the fewest foods into the bin!).
Obstacle course
10 minutes
You will need: blindfolds, items to create an obstacle
course, stopwatch
Before the session, set up a simple obstacle course or mark a
simple maze on the floor. Risk assess the activity, making sure
that children/young people can complete the course safely.
Put the group into pairs – one to be a guide and one to be
blindfolded. In turn, the guide should help their blindfolded
partner navigate the course/maze, by giving instructions (but
not physically guiding them). Time each partnership – the
winner is the one who completes the course the quickest,
and safest!
Key thief!
5 minutes
You will need: blindfold, large bunch of keys
Arrange everyone in a circle and ask for a volunteer who
doesn’t mind being blindfolded. Sit that volunteer in the
centre of the circle, wearing a blindfold. Place a large bunch
of keys behind the blindfolded person (you could use a bag
containing coins or a tambourine – something that might
make a noise when moved). Quietly point at someone in
the circle. They have to steal the keys from the middle,
without the blindfolded child hearing. If they think they
hear anything, the blindfolded person should point at where
they think the thief is. If they are correct, the thief sits
down. Choose another child to be the thief. The child who
manages to steal the keys without being heard becomes the
blindfolded person.
Morse-code puzzles
10 minutes
You will need: Morse-code alphabet (available online as a
download), torches, pens and paper
Put the group into teams of four. Yyou could do this in pairs,
but it would take a lot longer! Then send two from each
team to one end of the room, and two to the other. Each pair
should have a copy of the Morse-code alphabet, and one pair
should have a torch.
Give the pair with the torch these words and challenge them
to communicate each word using short and long flashes of
the torch to create Morse-code letters. The team at the other
end of the room should write down the letters as they are
signalled.
MATCH TORCH LIGHT LAMP FIRE
The winners are the ones who get the most words, or who
complete the task first. For young people, make the words
more complicated or try to communicate whole phrases!
Spotlight danger
5–10 minutes
You will need: four or five spotlights, music and the means
to play it
Before the session, position the spotlights so that they
throw distinct circles of light on the floor of your meeting
space. To start the game, play some music and turn all the
spotlights on. Encourage the children to dance around.
When the music stops, the children should run to stand
in one of the circles of light. When the music starts again,
switch one of the lights off so that the next time the
music stops there is less space for children to run to. Any
children standing in the dark when the music stops are out.
Continue the game until you have a winner. If you can’t
focus your lights very tightly, mark circles on the floor that
are within the light thrown by the spotlights, so the children
know where to stand.
www.lightparty.org.uk 17
Matching relay
5 minutes
You will need: sets of cards – enough for one per team
(see below, or download from the website)
Continue like this until all your objects have been used or
your story reaches a natural end.
Chat about the story you created – was it fun? Would they
change anything about it? For light parties, chat about how
light and darkness played a part in the story.
Before the session, write out the words for your chosen theme
on small pieces of card. Try to use a different colour of card or
pen for each group:
Light
Write the words of John 8:12, broken up like this:
I am the / light for / the world! / Follow me / and you / won’t
be / walking in / the dark. / You will / have the / light that /
gives life.
Storytelling
Use these pairs, or choose ones that your children know
and like!
Charlie and the Chocolate Factory / Roald Dahl
The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe / CS Lewis
The Cat in the Hat / Dr Seuss
The Gruffalo / Julia Donaldson
War Horse / Michael Morpurgo
Place the cards for each team at one end of the room and line
the children up at the other. At the signal to start, the first
member of each team runs to one end of the room picks up
a card and runs back to their team mates. The next person
then runs to collect a card, and so on. While this running
and collecting is going on, those team members not currently
running should try and arrange the cards they have into order
(for Light) or into pairs (for Storytelling). The first team to
finish wins!
Make sure that you risk assess this activity and warn children
that only one member from each team should be running at a
time. Advice for risk assessments is available on page 8.
A bag of props
5–10 minutes
You will need: a number of random objects or light-related
objects, large bag
Before the session, gather together a collection of random
objects that might spark some storytelling ideas. You could
choose a stuffed animal, a guidebook to a far-off land, a toy
car or a can of baked beans – use your imagination in order
to fuel the imagination of the children! If you’re doing a lightthemed party, collect a number of light-related objects such
as a torch, sunglasses, a picture of the Milky Way or a candle.
Place all your objects in the bag.
Sit everyone in a circle and invite someone to pull an object
out of the bag. Start a story off using this object as inspiration.
Once the children/young people have taken the first object
as far as they can, ask someone to take out another object.
Skittles
10 minutes
You will need: four large foam balls and four large bottles
decorated to look like storybook villains. You could put
water in the bottles to weight them, and even include a
glow stick to light them up!
Before the session, choose a book or film that is popular with
your children. The example here is from The Jungle Book, but
you could use lots of different ones such as the Chronicles of
Narnia or Roald Dahl’s Matilda. For young people, use a classic
such as Lord of the Rings or a series like The Hunger Games or
The Maze Runner. Or try a TV show such as Doctor Who.
Decorate the four bottles as some of the undesirable characters
from The Jungle Book: Shere Khan, the tiger; Kaa, the snake;
Tabaqui, the jackal; King Louie, the leader of the monkeys.
Stand these in the centre of the room. Put a foam ball next to
each one.
Split the children into four teams and give each child in each
team one of these names: Mowgli, Bagheera, Baloo, Raksha,
Akela, Grey Brother and Colonel Hathi. (There should be
one of each in each team.) Then send each team to a different
corner of your space.
To play, call out one of the names. The children with that
name should run to the middle, collect a ball and return to
their team. They should then try to knock over one of the
villains by rolling or throwing their ball at it. The first one to
do so wins a point for their team. Keep going until everyone
in the team has had a chance to play. The team with the most
points is the winner.
(You could similarly adapt other games to fit your storytelling
theme, such as Captain’s Coming – replace all the nautical
instructions with ones themed around Star Wars or Kung Fu
Panda, for example.)