COLLABORATION

To my long time readers and leaders in youth ministry I wanted to let you know that I have not forgotten about this blog. It is true that I have indeed been spending a lot of my blogging time on youthleaderstash.com. I get pretty amped up about that site. I like to help out the community. 

My friend Billy Suess, is the NW Area Director for Younglife Austin and submitted a post. He wrote the game above while I provided the graphic. I'm gonna try to get Billy to write about how he leads his Younglife team. Recruiting is something Billy is really good at.... well maybe the mission of Younglife draws in the best and Billy is good at helping people see it's awesomeness. Either way it's good to know people who know how to do things.

I'm looking for people who want to add to the stash. Maybe you've backed yourself into one corner of proficiency. God's gifted you with something you add to the body. I would love to know what you bring to the table. I have a submission form for games but if there is something beside that just fill it out and follow the instructions. Check it out here.

I'm also recruiting advertisers who want to get in first on being in the spotlight of our growing readership. Maybe you want to buy 30 days of visibility to our readers of your blog, resource, or ideas on the web. My readers are leaders in their field and represent everything from librarians to youth workers who advocate caring for students.

BUY THE FIRST 30 DAYS OF YOUTH LEADER STASH (29 GAME GRAPHICS AND PDF INSTRUCTIONS.)

YOUTH LEADER STASH VOLUME 1

You can buy all of the graphics and seperate pdf instructions for all of the games during our first 30 days. One downloadable zip file containing 16 volunteer games, 10 group games, and 3 mixers all in a nicely organized file with seperate files for each category. Here is what is included.

Group Games
Bring it On
Bug Off
Chicken or Egg
Ninja Feet
Penny Chinny
Playing Card Ninja
Poop Deck
Posse Up
Reach the Beach
Safety Dance
Step on It

Volunteer Games
Bite Me
Bucket Head
Clear for Landing
Egg Drop
Egg Roll
Egg Roulette
Face the Cookie
Follow the Light
Foot Bee
Tissue Issues / Hanky Panky
Hawk A Sausage
Human Turbine
Keep It Up
Moving Up
Ninja Headspin
Work it Out

Mixer
Pass the Buck
Sit Down If
Street Mixer

Follow the link for more info or click here.

PLAYING CARD NINJA

We played a game last night from the TV show Minute to Win It. The game is called "Playing Card Ninja." I created a graphic for it and wrote instructions for the game in a way that you can play it as a group game or volunteer up front game. Check it out here.

BAG BRAWL (Group Game 62 of 70)

Supplies: Two regular sleeping bags.

How to Play: Recruit volunteers in pairs. Each student jumps into a regular sleeping bag with the bag over their face first and not their feet. Help students kneel to their knees and place them in front of each other. On "go" both students will wiggle toward each other and attempt to pin the other student down. Inside the bag they are unable to use their hands and cannot see. Yes, they can breathe. Matches usually last less than a minute. 

DOUBLE OLYMPIC FREEBIES (Group Games 60 and 61 of 70)

So it's the winter olympics and if you have some hoola hoops around then you need to exploit the games. I told our students that the five hoola hoops we had in the room were the original Greek rings of competition. Anyway, grap your hoops and enjoys these quick easy games.

Supplies: Songs you can dance to and severa hoops.

How to Play: Split the group in two by gender. Line them up in separate lines, one line per gender. Have them join hands in one line, not a circle. It will look like a game of red rover. They must pass the hoop through their line without letting go of hands. If there is one gender that is significantly less than the other they may have to go down and back several times to make it fair.

Supplies: Music you can dance to and hoops.

How to Play: Hoops are laid on the floor and music is played. When the music stops a number is called and students must jump into the hoops in an amount of students equal to the number called. Last students to a hoop beyond that number are out.

VALENTINES BINGO (Group Games 59 of 70)

Valentines Bingo is pretty straight forward. Download and print the cards. Sometimes scribd (my document server) acts squirely. If you have trouble printing or accessing these. Please leave a comment or direct message me on twitter and I will get these emailed to you. There are 10 different cards per set. The spaces have phrases from Valentine candy hearts. So there are 60 different cards here. For us we had students get in groups of two per card. Have fun, keep it moving fast, and gave a prize.

CARDS SET 1

CARDS SET 2

CARDS SET 3

CARDS SET 4

CARDS SET 5

CARDS SET 6

CALL SHEET

BAD ROMANCE (Games 58 of 70)

Supplies: Adult Diapers, Toilet Paper, Paper Hearts, Tape, Valentine Decorations

How to Play: Bring up 2 or 3 volunteers to be decorated. Ask for volunteers to decorate. Group teams evenly and give them their supplies. Each team has to decorate one of their team members as cupid. The best cupid wins. Yes, diaper goes over the clothes, toilet paper can be made into sash, tape is position hearts on cupid.

PTERODACTYL SMILE (Group games 57 of 70)

Group your students in circles of 8-10. Everyone must keep their teeth covered with their lips while playing this game. If the whites of the fron of their teeth show they are out. One person in the group starts. While they have their lips covered they must say pterodactyl to either the person to the left or the right of them. They can say it as loud as they want or in whater way they want so long as their lips do not reveal their teeth. The person for whom the word pterodactyl is being passed to must also not crack a smile revealing their teeth. Now they can pass it back or turn to the other person. It's actually hard to do this as people will do anything to knock someone out by being funny.

BRAIN FREEZE (Group games 56 of 70)

We played this game last night and it was pretty awesome. We had this student win because the entire time he was playing he danced to the music. This was exceedingly epic. He also probably raised his body tempertaure giving him the advantage.

Supplies: Box of traditional popsicles.

To Play: Showcase the popsicles. Students get excited... it's popsicles. "Who likes popsicles?" Grab three volunteers and bring them to the stage. Volunteers will race against each other to see who can consume the fastest three popsicles. This is seriously hard. The faces the kids make as the brain becomes frozen is hilarious. Now, before you get too touchy feely I looked up the physical and medical aspects of it. There is no actual harm done to the body but the students are in charge of their consumption so we're not forcing them to consume. It's three popsicles not a plunge in the depths of the arctic. Have fun cause this is a great game. You should be throwing remaining posicles (in wrappers) to the rest of the crowd.

KAYNE YODA TAYLOR (Group games 55 of 70)

We made this game up last night. My boy Andy Baxter came up with the motions. It's basically paper, rock, scissors. Here is how you play.

Get the students in pairs. Have them stand back to back. Count to three and on three they whip around choosing one of these three motions.

For Kayne - Of course one hand is holdig a pretend microphone the other is doing the heisman pose.
For Yoda - Arms up like a dog begging but hands up in the air instead of limp (like a dog begging) as if summoning the force.
For Taylor - You're making a roaring sound and your hands up like bear paws claws out like a tiger kitten.

The reality is that you can come up with whatever you want for hand signs. Of course you have to have the winning combos and here they are.

Kayne defeats Taylor. Taylor defeats Yoda. Yoda defeats Kayne.

XTREME MATH (group games 54 of 70)

xtreme math, originally uploaded by chad.swanzy.

We played this game last night.

SUPPLIES: Pre-printed pages of numbers. One large number per page. Nine pages of numbers 1-9. You need as many sets of nine pages, one number per page, as you will have teams that you want to compete with.

INSTRUCTIONS: Divide into groups of nine. Give each group a set of numbers, one per page of numbers 1-9, with each person holding only one sheet of paper with one number. Assign a leader to each group. To compete the leader will call out a number for all of the groups to listen to. As soon as the number is called the groups must quickly line up in the order of that number in a line for the leader to read from their perspective. The group that lines up correctly is the winner.

Possible combos (there are more.) 987,654,321 - 876,543,219 - 765,432,198 - 135,792,468 take some time to write this out before hand and come up with at least 12 combinations. The leader may need to call out the number several times.

GROSS GAMES CLUB or EVENT

I have another sweet file from the relic Wyldlife folder I harvested from one of our old computers. This is a rundown for a Gross Games club we did. Keep in mind this is 2005. Use to your liking. Also, I always plan two more games then what I think we need in case we are running ahead of schedule. Seven games is good but not necessary. Enjoy and keep loving students.

Clubbers Hang Out Around Fire Pit while New Clubbers Register

Bring Clubbers in & Welcome

-LEADER stalls saying, “Hey everyone welcome to Wyldlife… Glad you’re here…we have a couple of things to talk about before club begins…We need everyone to turn off your cell phones (cue for music and walk on character)

-CHAD & DAVE – Jersey Boys Cleaning Crew walk in.

Game 1 Baby Food Roulette – Works like hot potato. Clubbers make a circle and start passing a paper bag with baby food in. When the music stops the clubber with the bag has to open the bag and eat the food. We will do several rounds of this for fun.

Game 2 Plexi-Glass Relay (2 Volunteers needed) A couple of strips of easy-cheese and several Oreos will placed onto a clear sheet of plexi-glass. Both clubbers must be the first to successfully consume their allotment of cheese and Oreos off the glass in front of club.

Game 3 Eat That Food – Clubbers sit scattered throughout the room. When the music starts a beach ball will be thrown into the room. Clubbers will tap it around keeping it up in the air. When the music stops the last person to hit it must come to the front of club and pick out a sealed paper bag from a group of sealed paper bag. They open the bag and whatever is in it they must eat. Game keeps going till all bags are gone.

Game 4 Hose Head (2 guys and 2 girls needed) Guys put a panty hose over their head down to their neck. The girls will be handed a banana and must feed the banana to their teammate through the hose. The first crew to eat their banana wins.

Game 5 Banana Foot Feed (2 Guys & 2 Girls) – Guys lay on their back with head placed at the feet of their girl partner. Girls sit in chairs. A Banana is placed at their feet and when the game begins the girls must peel the banana open and feed it to their male partner using only their feet.

Game 6 Ice Cream Feed (4 guys 4 girls) Guys and girls partner up and lay with backs on the ground so that they make a straight line with the tops of their heads touching. The guy is given a scoop of ice cream in a cup and a spoon. When the game begins they must scoop their ice cream and reach over their heads to their partners head and feed them the ice cream.

Game 7 Hawk A Sausage (6 clubbers needed) Clubbers are given a Vienna sausage and they must spit it as far as they can across club to see who can hawk the sausage the furthest

Big Louie and Jimmy exit and return to Jersey to pursue their professional lives.

Bryan & Justin sell the Christmas Party & the Rampage Hockey Game.

Club Songs

1. Complicated, Avril

Camp Sell

2. You & Me, Life House
3. Unwell, Matchbox 20

Club Talk

Dismiss, Hang with Kids

HOSED (Group Games 52 of 70)

Supplies: 2 Pair of "Q Plus or Q2" sized pantyhose

Directions: Select 16 to 20 volunteers from your youth group or club. Divide them evenly in gender and number into two teams. Give each team a pair of hose. When the game begins they must cram whatever they can into the hose that is on their person ie; shoes, socks, jacket, hat, shirt, etc. The team with the most articles in the hose within 1 minute is the winner.

IMPORTANT: Lay these rules down. 1. We don't want to see your unmentionables so don't go overboard.

BINGO (Group Games 51 of 70)

No, we did not invent bingo. We played it last night and so I thought I would share this slide I made.

Tips on playing bingo with student ministry.
1. Cards and pens for everyone.
2. Move fast and call fast (a sequence every three seconds.) It's funnier to go fast.
3. Have a great prize because it will be lame without one.

Printable Bingo Cards. PDF download.
Printable Call Sheet. PDF download.

Christmas Game "Trucker or Santa"

Follow the link for a sweet Christmas Game you can play with your students that I put together for our middle school service this Sunday. It's pretty simple. You can tape a line down the center of the room and show the first image (zoomed in on a trucker or santa). Once they've seen the image tell them to pick a side to stand on; one side trucker the other side santa. Then show the zoomed out picture. Have non-winners take a seat and keep playing until the end of the game or until you have a winner.

Trucker or Santa (.ppt)

Should you have any difficulty downloading the file let me know and I will gladly email it to you.

Pop & Fresh (Group Games 50 of 70)

If you have a couple bucks you can play this game and it's pretty easy.

Supplies: A can of biscuits.

Instructions: Spilt your group up in teams. How you split them up is up to you. Larger groups make the game last longer. Have the groups form lines. First person in line places a raw biscuit on their forehead. To win the game the teams must pass the biscuit from forehead to forehead without using their hands. The team that passes it all the way down the line first, wins.

In Defense of Games

Every now and then I'm asked about why we choose to do games and mixers. Usually I'm asked the question from a co-leader or vocational peer that doesn't do games and wants to find validation for it in a perceived fault with my response. I can't help them with that but I can tell you why I do games and mixers.

1. We love to create energy and excitement around being together.

2. We trust our small group leaders to shepherd kids both in and outside of the service.

3. We want to create an opportunity for students to be engaged who are new.

4. We do not make anyone play the game. They are free to stand and watch.

5. We normally have one group game and one volunteer game in our rundown of songs, the lesson, announcements, and small groups.

6. We don't play games or do mixers that are demeaning.

7. The Bible says, "A cheerful heart works like medicine to our soul." The world needs merry medicine.

8. We use games and mixers to break up routine and wear students out a bit so they are ready to listen and engage in small groups.

For a list of some of the games we play, instructions, and slides that you can use with them click the group games label on the sidebar or at the top of this post.

Fun with Spit Wads (Group Games 49 of 70)

Materials: Straws (one for each volunteer) Paper (one for each volunteer) Chairs (One per team) Sunglasses (One per team)

How to Play: Invite volunteers to play. You need 1 guy and 3 girls per team. Two teams is enough or a team per class if you like. Place guys in chairs and give each guy a pair of sunglasses to wear. Place a set of 3 girls across from each guy. The 3 girls and their 1 guy in the chair constitutes a team. Each girl gets a straw and paper. Girls should be standing equal distance from their guy to make each team have a fair chance. To win this game the girls must shoot spit wads and get as many as possible on their guys sunglasses before the game ends. The game is best when played for 60 seconds.

SIT SOWN IF... (GROUP GAMES 48 OF 70)

YL Playbook is a great place to grab some games. I don't know if we will ever become a superpower like the wonder twins but on my end of the "shape of a bucket of water" end of the deal I formed a slide above for this mixer game. I'm typing the directions here but giving you a link to YL Playbook so you can grab the mixer questions.

Materials:
list

Directions:
Ask the entire group to stand. Instruct them to sit down when the statement characterizes them and remain seated. Encourage them to be as honest as possible. If you have trouble because most are not sitting down, give them general characteristics (sit down if you are under 15, if you have on white socks, if you are in love).

THE QUESTIONS...HERE!

FREE GAME 2 Liter Challenge (47 of 70)

We played this game last night. The game came from YLPLAYBOOK. I made the slide (click slide to make larger then save to desktop). Enjoy. Video for how we did it below directions.

Materials:
3 2-liters of pop

Directions:
Have three teams of two up front. Give each team a 2-liter of pop. The rules are that they can pass the 2-liter back and forth as they drink it. The first team done wins.