Chapter One
Indoor Games
for Large Groups These games are geared toward groups of thirty or more and are
designed to be played in a gymnasium, fellowship hall, or similar
room. But no matter how large your group is or what the confines of
your meeting area are, you'll find crowd breakers, mixers, and
contests that will work for you.
Amputee Balloon Swat
You remember the rainy-day game that boredom
drove you to-Keep the Balloon from Hitting the
Ground or Else It Blows Up. For this version, each
person has an inflated balloon to protect-and at
the same time, they must try to bat others' balloons
to the ground. The catch is, they can use only one
hand to play this game. They have to keep the other
hand in a pocket or behind their back or otherwise
out of play. You get the idea-one hand to share
both defensive and offensive tasks.
You'll need boundaries of some sort-such as
walls or tape strips on the floor-to keep all players
in the thick of the action so they don't wander off to
protect their balloons. Players are out when their
balloons hit the floor or are swatted out of bounds.
Or you can add the rule that players are out only
when their balloons hit the floor and are stepped on
and popped-and they can only step on a balloon
that's already on the ground. Paul J. Cronenwett
Balloon Soccer
While your next youth event is winding down, use
up those leftover balloons with a quick game of
Balloon Soccer. Any size, color, or number of inflated
balloons will work. Designate a goal area at each
end of the room, which no one may enter during the
game. Place all the balloons in the center of the
room, and split the group into two teams. One group
stands on each side of the balloons.
Each team tries to move the balloons into the
other team's goal area using only their feet. Once a
balloon has been corralled inside an end zone, it
can't be put back into play. Players who step into the
end zone must take one minute out of play. The
game ends when all the balloons are behind the goal
lines. The winner is the team with the fewest balloons
inside their own goal. If you wish, the winning
team may be allowed to celebrate their victory by
popping all the balloons any way they want to. Len
Cuthbert
Chair Balloon Ball
A smooth, non-carpeted floor works best for this
fast-moving game-it helps eliminate the shocking
element of static electricity! Create two even teams
of students and have each group choose a goalie.
Give each person a balloon to inflate and leave in a
big box along the sidelines. Then ask each player to
grab a chair before the game begins. Players should
arrange their chairs in the playing area like positions
on a real soccer field, with the two goalies sitting at
opposite ends.
Two opposing players face off with one balloon
to begin the game. The teams play regular offense
and defense, but there are a couple of twists to the
rules. Team members can move anywhere on the
playing field, but their chairs must remain underneath
them at all times. So they use one hand to hit
the balloon and the other to hold onto their chair.
The second twist involves the goalies. When a
balloon is passed to a goalie, that person's job is to
sit on it and try to pop it before the other team loudly
counts to three. If the goalie fails to pop the balloon,
the balloon should be returned to the center of
the field and put back into play.
A point is scored whenever a goalie pops a balloon,
and then a new balloon is tossed onto the center
of the field for the next round of the game. Once
all the balloons are mere fragments of their former
selves, the team with the most balloon bits under
the goalie's chair is declared to be the winning team!Troy Smith
Candy-Coated Teams
Tired of having your students number off for every
team competition-"One, two, three, one, two,
three ."? Place a piece of Skittles candy in a dark-colored
balloon and inflate it-one balloon per student.
As your students arrive, give each person a balloon.
Instruct kids to pop the balloons however they
like, as long as they save the surprise inside. In other
words, no eating the surprise until you say it's okay!
After they've retrieved their pieces of candy,
players should mingle and find their teammates (students
with the same color candy). There are five
original flavors of Skittles, so if you need more than
five teams for a game, you could also use M&Ms,
Reese's Pieces, or another kind of hard-shell candy.Larry Marshall
Marshmallow Midget Ball
Locked out of the sports equipment closet again?
Don't even have a sports equipment closet? Then try
raiding the church kitchen and playing a few
innings of this short-but not necessarily quick-game.
Two teams play a good old-fashioned game of
baseball, using jumbo-size marshmallows for the ball
(you'll want to have a large bag of these on hand)
and a spatula for the bat. Use whatever stationary
objects you have handy for the bases-wastepaper
baskets, chairs, orange safety cones, or adult leaders.
Just before the first pitch is thrown, casually
mention that players must play the game on their
knees. At this point you may want to move the
bases a little closer together or provide kneepads for
the batting team. Points are scored whenever a runner-crawler-safely
reaches home base.
A final twist to the all-American game-if a
fielder catches a fly marshmallow in her mouth and
eats it (with no help from hands), then it counts astwo outs. Yvette Lansdowne
Marshmallow Toss Across
Before playing this quirky game of catch, players
number off and arrange themselves as shown in the
diagram below, each person standing on a chair.
Once the students are in position, they should pair
off with the people standing directly across the circle
from them. Every twosome will compete against the
other twosomes to win.
Even-numbered players each get a Styrofoam
cup full of mini marshmallows (each cup should
contain the same amount). The odd-numbered players
each get an empty cup to use to try to catch the
marshmallows.
When you give the signal, the marshmallow
tossers hurl marshmallows-one at a time-to their
partners. No matter how wild the toss, players aren't
allowed to step off their chairs during the game or
points will be deducted from their final score. When
a team runs out of marshmallows, both players
should sit down. The first team to sit gets five bonus
points, the last team loses five points.
After everyone is seated, the catchers count the
marshmallows in their cups and give their teams one
point per marshmallow. The pair with the fewest
marshmallows at the end of a round earns the dreaded
pick-up penalty-they must pick up all the
mashed marshmallows off the floor. Play again with
tossers and catchers trading places. Len Cuthbert
Mystery Clue Hunt
With this game, you can simultaneously add a little
mystery to your youth meeting and foster a sense of
teamwork among your students. Players work together
in smaller groups, searching for clues and trying to
solve a five-part mystery.
Copy down the following 25 sample clues-or
come up with your own-and write each one on a
slip of colored paper. Clues from the same category
should be written on the same color of paper.
Category: The Criminal (pink paper)
The first
Chop chop: no lies
The Delaware
Not Bill Clinton
He could have used Polident
Category: The Crime (purple paper)
The 10 Commandments
First to second is easiest, rarely at home
A furry scarf
Number 8
Rabbits and foxes and minks-oh my!
Category: The Item (tan paper)
Another name for a sports stadium
It can be an island thing, with chili
Fevered canine
Mustard, no relish
Who knows what's in it?
Category: The Victim (blue paper)
It's not easy being this way
His creator is dead
His girlfriend is a real porker
It's time to get things started
You might find his legs in a fancy restaurant
Category: The Location (yellow paper)
Fairy tales
A castle and a mouse
Lots of cameras
When you wish upon a star
Wait forever, then go very fast
The answer is George Washington stole a hot dog (or
Coney) from Kermit the Frog at Disney World (or
Disneyland).
Hide the clues throughout the building-or in
areas that have yet to be declared off limits by your
church elders-and be creative. Tape them to the
backs of pews, onto the blades of ceiling fans, under
the toilet tank in the restroom, inside the silverware
drawer in the kitchen-no place is too weird!
Read the first paragraph of The Crime Scene
(page 16) aloud to the group and then give each
team of six to eight students a copy of the sheet and
a pen or pencil to use during their search. Instruct
the groups to look around the building for clues and
to leave clues where they find them.
If a group gets stuck during the game, give them
a little hint. Tell them that clues found on the same
color paper belong in one of the five clue categories
and should be used together to solve one of the parts
of the mystery. So, using our example, you could tell
them that clues about the criminal's identity are all
written on pink paper.
When a team thinks they've solved the mystery,
they should report back to you or another staff member.
If their answer is wrong, they must wait at least
three minutes before guessing again. Teams are
allowed only three guesses each. Even after a team
finally gives the correct answer, let the others continue
to work until they've run out of guesses or
solved the crime.
Award a mysterious edible prize to the first team
that solves the mystery, like Whatchamacallit candy
bars or a box of chocolate-covered candies without
the list that identifies the contents of each piece.Brian Morgan
Sardines for Cash
Spice up that old hide-and-seek game of Sardines for
your group-all it takes is a wad of play money. Give
one player, the banker, a pack of fake cash and one
minute to hide. Everyone else waits at the bank
(designated location where they can't see the
banker's efforts to hide) until you give the signal for
the hunt to begin.
Every player who finds the banker gets one dollar
and hides with the banker. When you signal that
time is up, all players-whether or not they've found
the banker-should race back to the bank. The last
person to get there loses a dollar. If no one finds the
banker during a round, then he gets to keep a dollar
for himself.
Play a few rounds. The player with the most
play money at the end of the game can cash it in for
an edible prize. Or for a twist, let everyone with
money cash it in for an edible prize-letting players
choose their prize in order of how much money they
have. Len Cuthbert
Dungeon Keeper
There's nothing like a good game of hide-and-seek
to help kids let off a little steam. And there's probably
nothing your students would enjoy more than a
chance to tear around the church in the dark. So
give them a chance to do so-in a controlled way, of
course.
Begin by telling the players which rooms are
strictly off limits during the game, then select someone
to be the dungeon keeper. Shut her in a room
by herself and have her count to 30 while the other
players run and hide, turning off the lights as they
go.
After the dungeon keeper is finished counting,
she should search room by room-leaving the lights
off as she does so. When she finds someone, that
person must remain in the room until she has finished
searching it for other players. Once the dungeon
keeper is convinced she has found everyone in
a particular room, she may turn on the light. If she
happened to miss someone who was hiding there,
that person should come out when the lights come
on. Then all the people who were hiding in that
room-whether or not they were caught-are free
to run and hide again, turning off the lights as they
go. The dungeon keeper should once again count to
30 before resuming her search.
However, if the dungeon keeper successfully
catches every player hiding in a room, when the
light is turned on they're all out of the game and
she's free to move on to search the next dark location.
As she progresses through the building, she can
mark her progress by leaving doors open and lights
on as she exits each room. The last person caught
becomes the new dungeon keeper for the next
round. Deborah King
Gotcha!
Pit guys against girls for this game in the dark. On
each side of the room place a chair with an item
underneath it. The same thing should be under both
chairs-a hymnbook, a pencil, a candy bar, a CD
jewel case, a freshman girl, whatever.
Form a girls' team and a guys' team, one on each
side of the room, then turn off the lights. Playing
guys versus girls makes for easier team identification
and refereeing in the dark. On your signal, players
try to retrieve the object from under the opposing
team's chair and place it on the seat of their team's
chair back on the other side of the room. The catch
is, teams must play on their hands and knees. (This
helps prevent serious injuries in the dark.)
Another twist is that players aren't allowed to
touch their opponents. So when the unavoidable
happens and opposing team members happen to
touch, both players try to be the first to yell,
"Gotcha!" to eliminate the opponent from the
game. Undoubtedly, there will be frequent disputes
over who said "Gotcha!" first, so have staff members
on hand to make a judgment call when needed.
Whenever players hear, "Gotcha!" all the players
must return to their own sides of the room and
start groping in the dark all over again. Even if a
player is holding the object and is almost back to his
side of the room, he's still required to put the item
back under the other team's chair and return to his
side of the room.
The first team to nab the other team's object
and return to their chair without hearing "Gotcha!"
wins. Troy Smith
Montana Hoops
When your youth group budget for new equipment
has run out, here's a game you can play with just a
couple of trashcans and some slightly flat playground
balls. The object of the game is to make more goals
than your opponents do, and goals are made by
throwing the balls into your team's trashcan.
Divide your group into either two or four even
teams. Have the members of each team stand in a
line across one side of the playing field. Teams
should stand directly across the playing field from
one another, facing outward so they're facing their
own goals (see diagram).
Continues.
