just 4 fun games

Monkey
Choose one player to be the guesser; they must now leave the room, so that they can not hear.
Everyone left decides who will be the monkey, the others are followers.
The guesser comes back into the room.
The monkey does an appropriate action eg scratching his head, sticking out his tongue, peeling a banana.
The followers must all copy the monkey
The guesser must guess who the monkey is.
The monkey must change actions carefully, not letting the guesser see.
When the guesser catches the monkey the game ends and someone else has a turn

Cream Cracker Game
You will need: One packet of cream crackers and a bucket!
A well known game, but perhaps you have not played it for a while.
Choose three people and give them 3 Jacobs cream crackers each.
Ask them to eat all 3 in a minute or who can eat them the quickest
You could get everyone in the group to join in.

The bucket is for …. Well you can guess!

Crackers and Balloon
You will need: One packet of cream crackers, a packet of balloons and a bucket!
This time the chosen people eat a cream cracker and then try to blow up a balloon. Not very easy!

Guess the Pantomime Character
You will need: A list of pantomime characters (See below) and a prize – Easy
How it works:
Imagine you are a pantomime character, everyone has to ask you questions to help them guess who you are, but you can only answer ‘Yes’ or ‘No’ .
Questions could be; Are you a man? Do you have a pet? Are you in Cinderella? Are you rich? etc etc.
You could play this in teams and take turns with the questions, each team takes a guess after their question.
The one who guesses correctly first is the winner

[Characters could include Cinderella, Buttons, Aladdin, Ugly Sister, Genie, Dick Whittington, Jack, Snow White, Dwarf (any of the 7) Peter Pan, Captain Hook, Tinkerbell, Sleeping Beauty, Robin Hood, and Pinocchio]

Prize - Chocolate tree decorations

Pass the Balloon
You will need: A few balloons blown up and tied ready, music playing and a prize
How it works:
With everyone in a circle, pass the balloon around
When the music stops the person holding the balloon is out.
Winner is the last one in

Prize – A packet of balloons

Straight Face
You will need: A list of suggested silly phrases and a prize
How it works:
How long can you keep a straight face for , when you can only answer everyone’s questions with a silly phrase like ‘Santa’s big, red pyjamas’
Make a list of silly phrases and cut into slips of paper, place in a Santa’s hat.
When it is your turn, pick out a silly phrase from Santa’s hat
The rest of the group in turn ask you a question like,

• What’s your favourite thing to eat?
• What do you wash your face with?
• What would you like for Christmas?

You must answer the question using the silly phrase you picked out – you must not laugh or smile
Count how many questions it takes before you laugh.
Winner is the one who lasts longest

[Phrases could include, a smelly Christmas stocking, a hairy reindeer, a Christmas pudding, a gobbling turkey, a silver sixpence, 10 green Brussels sprouts]

Prize – A Christmas cracker complete with funny joke

Musical Hand Shake
Ask the children & young people to move around the room shaking each others hands while the music is playing.
Have an adult leader stop the music.
When the music stops all the children should be paired up.
The leader will shout out a question and each pair of children will introduce themselves to each other and answer the question.
Eg “Hello my name is _________ and my favorite__________ is _________.” The question could be: What is your favorite color?
What is your favorite subject in school?
What is your favorite TV show? Food? etc.
Ask a different question each time the music stops. Encourage the children to find someone new each time the music stops. At the end of the game ask what they found out about each other; who did they have the same answer as, etc.

Guess Who?
At the beginning of GB, tape the name of a Bible character to the back of each person. They cannot see the name--only the other participants will know which character they represent. Each person can ask questions about who they are e.g., male or female, Old or New Testament, The first person to guess who they are wins, and so on

Games for Camp
ORANGE GAME
You will need:
4 medium to large oranges, 2 ladies stockings
How to play:
Place one orange into the end of a ladies stocking (an empty one – of course!) and tie it around the waist. The orange should hang down in front of the person, just touch the ground.
Place a second orange on the ground and try to knock it along the ground with the first orange.
This can be done as a team game, first one to cross the line wins.

Prize:
An orange!
Emma Unsworth – 10^th Leeds.

BALLOON GAME
You will need:
One balloon per person and 1m string per person.
How to play:
Blow up a balloon,
Tie a piece of string about 1 metre long to the balloon and then tie the other end to the right ankle of a competitor.
In pairs try to burst the balloon of your opponent, whilst trying to protect your own.
First to burst wins.
Make sure all pieces are collected and disposed of carefully

Prize:
A tub of blowing bubbles!

SKITTLES GAME
You will need:
Each team needs 1 family sized bags of Skittles or other small round sweets. 2 desert bowls. One drinking straw per person
How to play:
Pour a quantity of ‘Skittles’ into a bowl.
Place an empty bowl at the side of it. (These can be on the floor or on a
table)
On the word go, competitors have to move sweets from one bowl to the other using suction and the drinking straws.
At the end of the time limit, the team with the most sweets in the second bowl are the winners.

Prize:
You guessed it, a bag of said sweets.

For Fun
What do I need?
Nothing.
What do we do?
This game tests co-operation, balance and agility and is a lot of fun.
The girls get into pairs.
The leader calls out the number of body items that each pair can have on the ground (for example, four would be easy — four feet). The pair have to remain in bodily contact and work to have that number on the ground. Often the larger the number, the more difficult it is.
Once the girls understand the game, increase the group size.
Could be 3 elbows, 2 feet, 1 nose and a knee

Musical Hula Hoop
Good game to play in pairs.
Get a big hula hoop.

Everyone stand opposite their partner in a large circle (Think country dancing)

Put on the music and the hoop must be passed around the large circle. Before a pair passes the hoop on they have to go through the hoop together (as a pair) from head to toe.

If the music stops the pair inside the hoop is out.
The last couple standing wins.

Musical Hula Hoop V2
This game is for all ages.

Everyone stands in a circle holding hands. As the music plays they have to fit their body through a hula hoop, without letting go. If the music stops while the hoop is on you, you are out.

You can also try this with more than one hula hoop

Hunt For Pairs
In advance choose a "pair" of items for each player. Good examples of pairs are
- socks
- gloves
- knife and fork
- ear-rings
- shoes/slippers etc.

Now wrap up one of each pair and hide the other in the room (difficulty depending on the age).

To start, hand out a wrapped up item to each person. They must unwrap the item, and go to search for its pair in the room. Prizes could be for the first to find or everyone that matches their pair.

Icebreaker Jokes
Write out some cards or piece of paper with half a joke on each. So if you pair up the correct two pieces of paper, you form a complete joke.

For example you might have on one piece of paper "What's the difference between a Bison and a Buffalo?" and on another piece of paper the answer "You can't wash you hands in a Buffalo!".

Use your favourite jokes and prepare enough pieces of paper for everyone.

When your everyone has arrived, give them a piece of paper each and ask them to find the correct partner with the other half of their joke. When everyone has found their partner, go around the room asking the pairs to read out their joke.

A good icebreaker. Save your jokes from the Christmas Crackers.

Jousting Bananas 
Great outdoor game.
Get several bunches of bananas (enough for each participant to play a couple rounds). Have a pair face off, a good distance apart, each person being armed with a banana (in the peel).

Upon the starting signal, they gallop toward each other, "sword fighting" with their bananas.

Rule: You may hit the bananas together, but may not hit the people with the bananas! The last one with a reasonably intact banana in his hand wins.

The winner plays the next challenger. Give new bananas for each round and play until you run out of bananas.

The losers clean up the mess!

Kiss The Poster
A variation on pin the tail on the donkey!

Get a nice poster of the current favourite pop star or celebrity.

Then all the girls put different on lipsticks and take it in turns to be blindfolded

They must then kiss the poster.

The person who kisses closest to the celebrity's lips gets to take the poster home and maybe a small prize!

Spaghetti Game
Needed:
Can opener
Tin of alphabeti spaghetti per team – poured into a bowl
Dinner plate per team
Apron (If you want to be responsible)
Towel or wet wipes
List of topical words (Make this fit the season / event etc)

Ask first member of each team to spell out on the plate the word given from your list using spaghetti.
First team finished wins.
Have one word per team member so that all get a go.

Ducks and Chicks
Hide the very small chocolate eggs around your premises, not too difficult or too near the heater! Divide the children into two teams (you could add another if it is easier) Assign a leader to each team, the teams should search for the eggs and when one is found, the Ducks – ‘Quack’ to their leader or the Chicks – ‘Cheep’ the theirs, as only the leader can collect the eggs, the team with the most at the end wins. We usually just share out the eggs between the team.

This can get quite noisy because as soon as one team spot an egg, the others tend to start quacking/cheeping frantically to hurry their leader up! Could change the theme for other times of year.

Flour Game
Take a pudding basin and fill it to the top with flour, pack it down tightly. Place a tray upside down on the top of the basin and turn it out so that you have a ‘moulded’ shape. Carefully place a chocolate egg on the top. Set the tray on the floor with children sitting around it in a circle.

Take it in turns, each player slices a piece of flour off the mould with a suitable knife, making sure it does not collapse. This carries on until the flour mound collapses and the egg falls into the flour. The player who does this has to pick out the egg with their teeth. Have a towel on hand as the face will be covered in flour. If this is retrieved successfully, the winner keeps the egg!

Giggly Balloons
Allow one more balloon than the number playing. Place a marble inside each balloon, then blow them up and tie them. The object is for all players to keep the balloons up in the air. Could be played in two teams- which ever team allows the balloon to hit the floor looses. The balloons become very unpredictable, and therefore quite hilarious!

Break in
Before the game, create the treasure (We just use a piece of paper with an X on it).. Choose a jailer (possibly a leader) and 2 "security guards." The guards each get a flashlight. Send the rest of the players outside. Turn off all the lights, except in the room assigned as the jail.

The object is for the players to "break-in" to the church (we just leave all the outside doors cracked for them to come through) and find the treasure. If a security guard shines his light on a player, they are sent to jail. The jailer must keep them in there for 5 minutes, then they may start from outside again. Another player can also cause a jailbreak by sneaking into the room from the inside of the church and freeing everybody. The jail mates must start from outside again.

A player wins when he finds the treasure.

Pegs in a Jar
This one can also be used as a competition at fetes etc. You will require a large jar with a narrow top (no bigger than 10cm in diameter) and a collection of either old wooden clothes pegs or the type with wire springs work just as well.
Girls should sit in a circle with the jar on the floor in the middle. In turn each girl should see how many pegs they can drop into the jar while they are standing over it. If it is too easy get them to stand on a chair. Person who gets the most pegs into the jar wins.

I Have Never
Everyone sits on chairs in a circle, with one person standing in the middle.
That person says something that they have never done (i.e. I have never broken a bone or I have never drunk coffee).
All the people who have never done that have to get up and find an empty seat (from someone else who just got up).
The person stuck without a seat is now in the middle and makes the next statement. Set your own time limit.

Person Scavenger Hunt Bingo
Instead of creating a Bingo sheet with numbers, create a Bingo sheet of things anybody could have done or might have in their possession. (Normally 4 x 3 squares, but adjust to the size of your group, A5 landscape works well.)

Give each player a copy and get them to go around asking the other players if they match any of the details on the squares. If a player does they have to sign their name in that square/s (For example, one square can be, "Find a person with 3 brothers & sisters," another can be, "find someone who forgot to brush their teeth morning"). Give players a time limit. The winner is the first person who gets a row or at the end has most names.

Shoe Pile
Everyone takes off one of their shoes and throw it into a big pile. Then each person picks up a different shoe from the pile and finds the person it belongs to. Works really well for large groups.

M&M Game
Pass around a bag of M&M's and have each person take as many as they want. For each colour of the M&M's have a question that they have to answer. For instance, red can be, "Describe your first crush."
You can play this with Skittles or other coloured sweets.

 

Animal Games

Miaow, oink
Everyone sits in a circle and each player chooses an animal noise, like Miaow, oink…and then tells everyone.
The first person makes their animal noise and then the noise of another person in the circle.
That person has to make their own noise and then choose another persons noise to make. Choose anyone. (It can be the person who has just chosen them)
Continue the game, if anyone gets the noises wrong (wrong order etc) then they are out.
The winner is the last one in.