Monday, May 4, 2009

Graduation Party Idea: Interactive Photo Album

Place a large photo album or two on a decorated table. Add double-sided tape and plenty of pens near the book. Allow your guests to tape in their instant photos and write in a wish for the honorees. It's like creating a yearbook for this one special moment.
Guests will be thrilled to share their favorite stories from their years in school together and the grads will have a keepsake to last a lifetime.

Saturday, May 2, 2009

Red Devil

This game works best when played around a house or building. Determine a starting line or a home base that you can touch. Players all begin in front of the house. Red Devil is the player who is "it." The Red Devil faces the other players and declares, "I'm thinking of a type of (shoe, car, candy bar, etc.)." The other players then try to guess (in no particular order) what the Red Devil is thinking of (for example if the category is candy bars, they would say things like Butterfinger, Mars, Milky Way etc.). The Red Devil calls out the name of the player who eventually guesses the correct item. Then, the Red Devil and the player who guessed correctly take off running around the house in opposite directions. The first person to make it back to the starting line becomes the Red Devil. (After players get tired, the rules can change to: the first person to get back to the starting line is NOT the Red Devil.)

Flour Tag

This is a fun outdoor kid game where you get tagged with flour-filled nylon sacks. Things you'll need are dark shirts and flour nylon stockings (also choose a person to be the referee and determine a jail area). Each player must have a dark T-shirt on (black or navy blue works as well). Give each player a nylon that is filled with flour. Tie the nylon at the end to make it into a ball shape. The group plays tag as normal but players are knocked out by throwing the flour torpedoes at each other. You'll be able to know exactly who has been hit by the flour mark on their shirts. The referee must keep their eye on the players and call out those who are hit to the jail area. Keep a damp rag handy to clean up the shirts between rounds. A variation of this game is "capture the flag" with the two teams posessing a flag at each end of the playing field. Have the teams try to get their opponents flag without being tagged.

Blob Tag

The kids avoid being tagged by the ever-growing and dividing "blob". First, define boundaries. A player is chosen to be 'it' or 'the blob' and the others run. When tagged by 'the blob', the player joins hands with 'the blob' forming a larger blob, and together they continue chasing the others. Once 'the blob' is made of four people, it splits into two blobs (two pairs) and each blob continues chasing the others. The last person caught will then become 'the blob' and the game starts all over again.

Minefield

This is a communication game (that can be quite educational) where you try to talk your blindfolded teammate through a series of obstacles.

What you'll need are blindfolds and a number of moveable obstacles such as balls, chairs, jackets, shoes etc.

Define boundaries. Have the team create a list of things that are detrimental to functioning as a group such as poor communication, anger, jealousy, wrong tools, not listening etc.

For each characteristic/action, throw an object into the playing space, the "minefield."

Have the kids within a group choose partners. One partner is blindfolded at one end of the field. The non-blindfolded partners stand at the opposite end of the field and try to talk their partners through the minefield without them running into any of the obstacles. If the blindfolded partner touches an object they're out and another partner must try. However, once they are blindfolded the other team can move the objects around if they choose. The team with the highest number of successful crossings wins. After the game is over (if you want it to be more educational) ask the players what they learned from the activity? Did the blindfolded people trust their team? Why or why not? Why is good communication important? etc.

War Balloons Game

You will need two different color balloons (i.e. green and red). Blow up the balloons and tie a string to each of them.

Divide into two teams. Then tie the string around the ankles of the players. (For example, Team 1 gets green balloons tied around their ankles while Team 2 gets red).

The object of the game is for each team to try to burst every balloon on the other team first. The first team whose balloons are all popped loses.

Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Scavenger Hunt List #2

straw
package of Raman noodles
clothespin
staple
paper cup
paper towel roll
nail
sock
froot loop (cereal)
napkin
ball
pencil
piece of candy
picture of a dog
paper sack
gift wrap bag
gumball
piece of jewelry
Suduku puzzle
business card
empty water bottle
marble
yarn
sticker
birthday present - best present gets a special prize!