Thursday, August 21, 2008

Back to School - Games Style #2

I finally added a paypal link to the blog, so you can buy our Great Group Games book directly from here! Thanks to Joanne Heim for coaching me through the process.

Here's another warm-up for a new group during this back-to-school season:

It’s Your Birthday
Time: 10-15 minutes
Supplies: music

Description:
“Today is your birthday and this is your party! As hostess/host of this party you have to introduce as many of these people to each other as you possibly can.” After people have had a chance to mingle, do a quick hand count of who introduced the most people. To make it more like a party, play some music as the people mingle.

Assets: support, social competencies, safety

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

Back to School - Games Style

Back to School time equals start-up time for clubs, classes, sports teams and youth organizations. Playing GAMES with PURPOSE is a great way to kick off your year to a great start. You can find 175 ideas in our GREAT GROUP GAMES BOOK, but here is one name game to help your participant's (and you!) learn everyone's names:


Names in Action
· Time: 10 – 30 minutes
· Supplies: none
· One by one, each participant introduces herself to the rest of the group by putting a motion to each syllable of her name as she says it out loud. (For example: Crystal has 2 syllables in her name, so she puts her hands on her hips with “Crys” . . . and bobs her head with “tal.”)
· The group, in turn, repeats back the name with the action motion (affirming the person and solidifying the name in their heads).
· The next person goes. The group repeats their name/action and then repeats the name of the first person again.
· And so it goes until all action names have been done.

Variation: For the Brave and the Bold and Those Who Want to Have FUN
· After everyone has gone around and all names have been done, put on a compilation of music. Randomly yell out “do the Crystal!” or “do the George!” or whoever is in the group and everyone can dance around doing the motions of that particular person to the beat until you yell out the next person, then they change to that person’s motion action.
“You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.” Plato