find that letter
Have participants form four groups. Have
each group go to a different corner of the
room, and tell participants that they’re in
a race against the other groups. When
you call out a letter, everyone is to find
something that starts with the letter you
called out, and bring it to you. Even if
another team finds it first, the winner is
the first team to bring an item to you. You
can decide how lenient to be with creative
answers. For example, if you call “D” and
a group brings you money, saying it’s
“dough,” you can decide whether or not to
accept the slang term.
faith fall
Ask everyone to find a partner of approximately the same height and weight. One
person in each set of partners will be the
Faller and one will be the Catcher. The
Fallers need to stay as straight as possible
(without bending at the waist), keep their
arms across their chests, stand with their
backs to the Catchers, and communicate
with the Catchers. The Catchers need to
get in a sturdy stance (usually one leg
in front of the other in a lunge position),
keep their hands right below the Faller’s
shoulder blades, and constantly communicate with and reassure the Fallers. Remind
kids that this exercise is a great chance to
trust others and that it’s not okay to drop
anyone on purpose. Before any fall occurs,
the communication between the Fallers
and the Catchers should be as follows:
Grapple Games
crepe-paper people
Have kids form teams of six or fewer. Give
each team a few rolls of crepe paper. Tell
kids that when you say “go,” one member
of each team is to wrap the other team
members’ torsos in crepe paper. Explain
that the first group to have all its team
members wrapped in crepe paper wins.
(The object is for all the team members to
be wrapped together and not individually.)
Faller: “Ready to fall!”
Catcher: “Fall away!”
Faller: “Falling!”
The commands are performed, and the
Faller falls straight back. Then have partners
switch roles.
103
Grapple Games
104
four on a couch
human tic-tac-toe
Have everyone sit in a circle with no one on
the couch. (Use four chairs or four taped
X’s on the floor if you don’t have a couch).
The object of the game is for the boys to
get four boys on the couch and the girls to
get four girls on the couch. Have kids each
write their name on a slip of paper and put
it in a hat. Mix up the names, and have
each person draw a name out of the hat.
(If kids pull their own name out, have them
draw another.) Make sure no one says
whose name they have!
Make a life-size Tic-Tac-Toe board by
using masking tape to make a grid pattern
on the floor. Divide your group into two
teams. Designate one team as X and the
other team as O. Teams should decide
together where to put their marks. After
the decision is made, have a member of
the team lie in the grid forming either an X
or an O with his or her body. (This is a noskirts game.) The first team to make three
in a row wins. Play several games.
Randomly choose a person to call out any
name within the group; whoever drew that
name will get up and take a spot on the
couch. The person to the left of the person
who just got up to sit on the couch is the
next person to call out a name, and so on
until all four spots on the couch are taken.
If the four on the couch are not all boys
or all girls, then the next person calls out
another name and the person who has that
name takes the very first person’s place on
the couch. The game continues until there
are four boys or four girls sitting together
on the couch. Kids will have to remember
who has whose name in order to get four
boys or four girls on the couch at the same
time. One rule: The same name can’t be
called twice in a row.
lockup!
Divide the group into at least four teams
with at least four members each. You can
use an uneven number of teams; however,
there should be the same number of kids
on each team. Split each team in half, and
have team halves go to opposite sides of
the room. Both halves of each team should
stand in single-file lines facing the other
half of the team on the oth­er side of the
room. Designate a starter from each half
of the team. Explain that starters should
run and lock arms with the first teammate
in line across the room. Both kids are to
return together and lock arms with the next
team member across from them. Have kids
continue this back and forth action until the
whole team is connected. When members
of an entire team are “locked” together,
they should make one more trip across the
room and quickly sit on the floor.
sing it!
Form teams of 10 people. Have kids work
together in teams to get as many of their
teammates as possible off the ground at the
same time. Allow teams about five minutes
to experiment with various formations and
to practice getting people off the ground.
(Kids should be able to hold their formation
for at least 30 seconds.) Then announce
the final competition to see which team has
created a pyramid with the fewest people
touching the ground.
Have kids form two teams. Ask the first
team to come up with a silly interview
question to ask someone on the second
team—the sillier the question, the better!
The second team will have one minute
to come up with an answer based on
lyrics from a familiar song or commercial
jingle. Once the second team decides on
its answer, members must choose one person to sing the lyrics to the first team. For
example, the first team might ask, “What’s
your favorite thing to eat for breakfast?”
A member of the second team might
respond, “Great green gobs of greasy
grimy gopher guts!” or “Break me off a
piece of that Kit Kat bar!”
paper sculptures
Challenge kids to fold sheets of paper
into shapes that symbolize something
they like about the group. Suggest that as
kids tell about the shape they folded, they
complete this sentence: “Our group looks
like this sculpture because____, but it’s different from this sculpture because____.”
share and snap
Form equal-sized teams of
no more than six people.
(see page 5)
Have members of each
team stand in a circle. Give one person on
each team a pack of bubble gum. On your
cue, the team member will unwrap the
gum, pull off a piece, and pass the pack
on. The first person must chew the piece of
gum and snap it loudly enough that the
next person can hear it. The second
person may not unwrap a piece of gum
and chew it or pass the pack on until he or
she hears the first person’s snap. Continue
around the circle until the first person hears
the last person snap. The first person must
then yell “Snap!” and quickly sit down,
followed by each of the other team
members in order. The first team to be
seated wins.
ALLERGY
ALERT
After the first round, have teams switch
roles so the second team must come up
with a question for the first team. Have the
teams continue taking turns until everyone
on each team has had a chance to sing.
Here are some other silly interview questions teams might try:
Grapple Games
the off-the-floor challenge
• If you could choose anything in the world
to do and get paid for it, what would it
be?
• If [a famous person] asked you out on a
date, what would you say?
•H
ow would you describe your worst
enemy?
•W
hat will you wear on your wedding
day?
105
telephone charades
Grapple Games
Form two teams, Team 1 and Team 2.
Begin by instructing Team 1 to go to
another room out of earshot. Have Team
2 think of an action for kids on Team 1 to
act out. Ideas could include a fish dying,
a goose flying, or someone riding a bull.
(The best action ideas make use of the
whole body and can be easily summed up
in about three words.)
106
Next, bring one person from Team 1 into
the room. Tell the Team 1 person the
action he or she is to act out. Sum­mon
another person from Team 1, and have the
first person, without saying anything, act
out the action. When the action is complete, have the first team member sit and
summon a third person from Team 1. Have
the second Team 1 person act out the
action in front of the third person. Continue
this sequence without using any verbal
communi­cation. When the last person from
Team 1 enters the room, have him or her
watch the action and then guess what it’s
supposed to be. Have the teams reverse
roles and continue playing.
truth matchup
Choose seven kids, and give each one a
piece of paper and a marker. Have each
of the seven secretly write an interesting
personal fact. An example might be “I ate
cat food when I was little.” Encourage kids
to make their truths interesting and unique
to them. You should have seven papers
with one truth on each paper when kids
have completed this part. Mix the papers
up, and redistribute the papers to the
seven kids.
Then have the seven kids stand in front
of the group and, one at a time, read the
truths on their sheets. Tell kids who are
listening that after all seven kids have
read the truths, listeners will guess which
truth belongs with which person. It might
be helpful to reread the truths before the
groups vote.
Choose seven different kids to play another
round. Play until everyone has had a turn.