Ice 'melter'

Ice 'melter'

What you will need: A bowl of ice cubes and some tea towels.

Cost: Nothing!

If you caught on that Ice 'melter' is a play on words with Ice breaker, then well done! You get a complimentary imaginary cookie! You can thank me later.

Leave the ice cube out in room temperature for a little while before you start the game, as they need to be a little less cold.

Each person must take turns holding an ice cube firmly in their hand, and then proceed to start talking about themselves.The catch is, the person has to keep on talking right up to the point where the ice cube is no more!

The person's hand gets fairly cold which makes the task of talking lots of nonsense a lot harder than it sounds. Evil yet ingenious, I know!

When this person is done, it's then on to the next person (if you have a big group of people, maybe limit the time to 2 or 3 minutes, as this can end up taking a lot of time). This game is a great way for new groups to get to know things about each other that they wouldn't have otherwise have found out! 

Peace & Love,

Nigel x

Human Bop-It

What you will need: a stopwatch and props such as a phone, glasses, a tissue, some paracetamol, keys and a hat 
Cost: nothing (just ask people to bring these objects from home, they'll get them back unharmed at the end!)

Bop-It is everyone's favourite so we've taken it to a new extreme and invented HUMAN Bop-It!

Everyone stands around in a circle, with one person in the middle surrounded by different objects on the floor.
We used a phone, a pair of glasses, a tissue, some paracetamol, some keys and a hat but you could potentially use anything!
Everyone in the circle then takes turns to shout out commands and the person in the middle must follow these.
For example "Lock It!" would mean the person must pick up the keys and do a locking action with them.
We made all of our commands rhyme just so it would be trickier for the person in the middle so here they are:
"Top It" - Person must pick up the hat and put it on their head
"Cop It" - Person must pick up the phone and pretend to dial 999 and call the cops (well, we call them police in England but that didn't rhyme)
"Pop It" - Person must pick up the paracetamol packet and PRETEND to "pop" the pills
"Snot It" - Person must pick up the tissue and pretend to blow their nose
"Spot It" - Person must pick up the glasses and put them on

When the person has done the action, they put the prop back down and immediately do the next action that has been commanded.They must try to keep up with everyone's commands as they speed up and if they hesitate for too long or pick up the wrong object then they're out!
Everyone takes turns one by one to have a go in the middle and the person who lasts the longest wins!

If you are playing with a younger group of people, you could make the commands more literal for example "Phone it" and "Wear it".

Peace & Love,
Nigel x

Signs

What you will need: concentration from your young people!
Cost: nothing!

This game is a bit trickier than others but once you get the hang of it, it's a lot of fun!

Everyone sits around in a circle and one by one comes up with an action or sign that is theirs and shows this to the group. For instance, it could be doing a wave action with your arm, but the more subtle the sign is the better, so signs like scratching your head are really good! Also, they need to be silent for the game to work so no clapping or funny noises unfortunately.

Then one person is nominated to stand in the middle of the circle. As they close their eyes, someone sitting in the circle is chosen (by silently pointing, not saying their name, so the person in the middle doesn't know who has been chosen!) to be the first player and have the control of the game. The person in the middle is then allowed to open their eyes.

The game begins when the first player "receives" the control of the game by doing their own sign. Then they have to pass the control on to another player by doing their sign (this is the tricky bit as you need to try to remember everyone/most people's signs so you can pass it on to them!)
But they must do all of this without the person in the middle noticing them doing it!

When someone's sign has been done, they automatically have control of the game and have to "receive" it by doing their action, then pass it on by doing someone else's and this process repeats again and again. 

The aim for the person in the middle is to try and work out who has control of the game by catching them doing either their own or someone else's sign.

But when a player has done another person's sign, they cannot be caught anymore as they have already passed on the control and it is in the hands of the new person.

There is no limit to how many times a person can have the control, and the game can potentially go on forever if no-one is ever caught! But when they are found out by the person in the middle, it is then their turn to be in the centre of the circle.

Peace & Love,
Nigel x

Food In A Bottle

What you will need: lots of different food items and some empty drink bottles (preferably 1 litre ones)
Cost: About £5
You will need lots of different food items, and before the game begins they need to all be allocated a certain amount of points depending on their size, for example a grape would be 2 points, however an apple would be 10 points and a loaf of bread would be 50 points. The youth group are unaware of how many points each food is worth.
The youth are split into two teams and given thirty seconds to collect as much food as possible from the middle of the room where all the food is laid out. They are also allowed to "steal" the other teams' food items.
After this thirty seconds is up, the teams then have 5/10 minutes (depending how much food you have) to stuff as much food as possible into their empty water bottle.
At the end of this time, someone counts up all the points that both teams collected with their food (the WHOLE food item must be inside the bottle for the points to counts, for example a half loaf of bread will score NO points!)
The team with the most points WINS!

Make sure you either play on a hard surface that can later be cleaned, or you put down bin bags as this game can get messy!

Peace & Love,
Nigel x

Human Knot

What you will need: an enthusiastic youth group!
Cost: nothing!

This is a really fun, easy and most importantly free game!
Everyone stands in a circle, crosses their arms over and holds hands with someone not next to them.
The aim is then for the group to untangle themselves without letting go of each others hands!
It may take awhile for them to work it out, and sometimes it is impossible but it's definitely a good laugh and will keep your youth group entertained for a good few minutes!

Peace & Love,
Nigel x

Spegtacular

What you will need: Pegs - lots of them! And a stopwatch of some sort 
Cost: Under £5 for pegs

This is a game our youth group did every Friday for months just because it's so hilarious both to play and watch!
Two brave volunteers sit at a table, which is covered in pegs, at the front of the room  The contestants then have 1 minute to clip as many pegs to their body as possible.
Pegs clipped to the face are worth 3 points, pegs clipped to any other (appropriate) flesh on the body are worth 2 points, and pegs clipped to clothes/hair are worth 1 point.
Pegs must remain clipped on and not fall off until the assistant takes them off as they are counting the points.
The person with the most points WINS!
You could also make this a leader board game, with different people competing each week and an overall leader board that records everyone's scores and gets added to each week. This adds healthy competition and at the end of the term you'll have an overall spegtacular winner!

(Be careful to warn your young people as pegs clipped to sensitive parts of the face tend to sting quite a lot by the time the minute is over!)

Peace & Love,
Nigel x

Forehead Orange Pass

What you will need:
2x orange

Cost:
Under £1

Divide your youth group into two teams.
Within these teams, players must pair up with someone of similar height.
Half of the pairs in the team stand at one end of the hall, and the other half of the pairs at the other end.
The first pair in each team have to race to the other side of the hall, whilst balancing an orange between their foreheads.
If the orange drops, they must start their run again!
When they get to the other side, they hand the orange to the next pair waiting and they must do the same.
So it is a relay race with a twist!
The first team to have all their pairs complete the race WINS!

Peace & Love,
Nigel x