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| Title | Instructions | Resources | Notes | Covid Notes | Type | Participants | Min Participants | Max Participants | Leaders | Min Leaders | Max Leaders | Ages | Min Age | Max Age | Time | Min Time | Max Time | Covid Risk |
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| "I am sitting on a chair and calling number ...." | 1. All participants sit on chairs in a circle. There is one chair extra (ie, no one is sitting on it). 2. Give everyone a number, (1 to however many people there are...) 3. Now, the person to the right (or left, if you want), of the empty chair, say Victor, must stand up and then sit down on that empty chair. As Victor does this he says "I". This then leaves the chair on Victor's right empty. The next person (to the right of the new empty chair), say, Hugo, stands up and then sits down on the empty chair, saying "am". The next person after Hugo says "sitting" as they do the same. This continues until the phrase "I am sitting on a chair and calling number ...." is said. Now, after the last person (Bartholemew) says "number", the next person must call out an actual number as they move chairs. This number corresponds to someone sitting in the circle. That person then has to run across the circle and sit on the empty chair, and the game starts over again, because there is an empty seat on the other side of the circle. 4. There are 5 ways to get out: a) If you muck up when saying part of the phrase "i am sitting on a chair calling number ..." (like you say knitting instead of sitting). Or if you muck up by not saying a word when supposed to, or if you get the order wrong, or if you dont move seats...etc etc. b) If you call out a number that doesnt refer to anyone in the circle (like 2900, if you only have 15 people playing). c) If you call out a number that refers to someone who is already out. d) If you call a number that refers to the person who is next to you (not counting those people who are out who are between you and that person). e) If you call a number the second time in a row. 5. Now, here is where the crux of the game lies! When you get out, YOU DO NOT GO OUT OF THE CIRCLE - thats right, you stay sitting in your seat, and are forbbiden to move, let alone speak! This means that the people who are in must remember who is out and who is in, and must skip over those people who are out when they get up to move seats. The game then runs along merrily until there is a winner. He or she is designated the title "grand poobah". | Free Time, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| "Im in the business" | A person will call out "I'm in the business" to which everyone replies "What business." That person then makes up a business name e.g "the grabage disposal business" and then everyone has to respond with "How's business?" at which point the person must make a play on words with their business name, eg "rubbish" Resulting in everyone laughing hysterically! | Free Time, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Relaxing | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| "______?! "Hooray!!!" | Essentially, whenever someone is speaking (for a long-ish time), as soon as they have made a certain point, exclaim the main point of the sentence (imagine adding "?!" to the end of the word), and then shout "hooray!!!" eg: "...in conclusion, libya is a land of diversity" "diversity?!...hooray!!!" This is especially fun when someone is trying to give a serious speech. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| 20 questions without the questions | Note: also known simply as 'Got One' Rather similar to '20 questions', but with more of a psychic twist to it. At any moment, someone may call out 'got one' when they have thought of a person or character. At this point, all those present are invited to have 1 guess as to who the person is thinking of. In the original 20 questions you are permitted to ask up to 20 questions yielding yes/no answers, which through shrewd detective work can guide you towards finding your target. In this new version there is none of this - merely a single guess at who the person is thinking of. example:- "got one!" "Boris Yeltsin?" "no. Paul McCartney" "oooh oh - got one!" "er...wait...Michael Jackson?" "no, but close - Wilma Flintstone" "aaah" | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| 3 step tag | 1. Define the play area. Don't make it too big or the game takes too long. You'll need to spread the players about 2-3 metres apart at the most. 2. Choose someone to do the catching. With a small group use only one, but it works better with more in bigger groups. Blindfold the catcher(s). 3. Everyone finds a spot in the playing area and stands still. 4. The catchers are released into the playing area and have to find the players to catch them. Remind the players that silence makes them hard to find. 5. To avoid being caught, the players are allowed to take three steps only in the whole game. They may bend or crouch or lie down. One roll on the floor counts as one step. One push back while shuffling on your backside counts as one step. Be as mean or as lenient as you want! The game finishes when all (or nearly all) have been caught. | Free Time, Just for Fun, Sport | Any | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | High | |||||||||
| 7-3-1 | This is a little thing to give someone or something respect/Kudos. simply call out what you want to laud followed by 7-3-1 (eg "KEFKEFKEF 7-3-1"), then slap on your thighs 7 times, clap 7 times, slap on your thighs 3 times, clap 3 times, slap on your thighs once clap once, and shout it again "KEFKEFKEF" | Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Medium | |||||||||
| A Strong Wind Blows | Everyone sits in a very tight circle (or on chairs in a circle) and one person stands in the middle. The person in the middle says "A strong wind blows on anyone who ____" and then fills in the blank with something true about them. Can be appearance (i.e: anyone wearing pink socks) or personality-based. (i.e: anyone who likes math; anyone who has a sister) Upon finishing the sentance, everyone to whom the statement applies is "blown" out of their seat and all including the person in the middle must find new seats. The one left standing in the end must come up with a new statement. | Get to Know You | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| A race to break the ice | The kids are split into teams and each team receives a block of ice. The first team to literally break the ice (with whatever utensils you give them) wins. | Ice Breaker | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Act it! | Split your group in to smaller groups depending on how big your group is. Then give each group a piece of paper with either 10 or 15 words on. They must then come up with a drama, normally about 2 or 3 minutes, can be longer, that contains every single word on the list! | Drama | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Action Detective | Chanichim are sitting in a circle and one person is chosen to leave the room as the 'detective' (The same opening as murder winks). One person is chosen as the 'leader' and must start and action that everyone is to follow (eg. Banging their hands on their knees). The Detective is called back and has three guesses about who the leader is. The leader must change the action and everyone follows. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | Any | 5 or older | 5 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||
| Action game | This is a great warm up activity. The madrich/a should: Stand the group in the circle. Then begin an "action" (clapping, stretching, laughing) Members should repeat the action until it returns to the madrich. VARIATIONS: This activity can be used also as a guessing game with one person sent out the room while a leader is chosen; when they return and movement has started, they have three chances to guess the leader. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | 2 or more | 2 | Any age | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Adjective/noun | Everyone sits in a circle with a pen and piece of A4 paper. They then have one adjective and one noun and the top of the page, eg. "Adventurous teapot". They then pass the paper to the left. The person then draws what they have been given, and folds over the words at the top. They then pass left again and then must write what they think the picture represents. Keep going til they get their original one back, then unfold to see how warped their vision has become. | Just for Fun, Tzevet Kef | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | ||||||
| Adman | Everyone sits on chairs in a circle. Someone is picked as 'Adman'. The person to their right is 'Superman', then 'Spiderman', then 'Batman'. After that, each person is a number until the person to the left of Adman, who is the 'Shmeryl'. Adman begins by standing up and saying "Adman calling..." Adman can call anyone except the person on either side of him. Whoever is called then has to stand up and say, eg, "Number one calling Spiderman", "Spiderman calling number seven", etc. Noone can call the person who just called them. If someone makes a mistake (either by saying the wrong thing, calling a person they shouldn't have or hesitating) they become the shmeryl (stand up and take the place of the shmeryl whilst everyone after them moves up one place). The idea of the game is to become Adman. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | |||||||
| Adverb Game | One volunteer leaves the room, others choose an adverb, e.g., "slowly." When s/he returns he must find out what the adverb is by asking people to do things that way, e.g., Shake hands that way (so they would shake hands very slowly). If a member doesn't want to, or can't do what s/he says, he or she should therefore say, "I don't want to," very slowly. After each command the volunteer makes a guess at the word; s/he can continue until s/he guesses - or gives up. | Drama, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||||||
| Advert Game | Everyone has to think of a slogan or a part of a song from an advert then go around the group saying the part of the slogan or song but not the company or product. Everyone then has to fill in the company or product. eg eat football, sleep football drink, Then everyones guesses coca cola. Then for jokes you go round the circle again and everyone says thier slogan with in my pants at the end and it usually gets very funny. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Advertise Urself | Everyone designs an advert, advertising themselves, All adverts are placed in a bag or hat, An advert is picked out at random and everyone has to guess whom the advert belongs to. | Get to Know You, Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | 5 or older | 5 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Advertisements | Pencils and paper are distributed. Ask each participant to write an advertisement describing and "selling" himself/herself as a friend (25 words or less), bearing in mind why would someone want to "buy" (choose) you rather than another friend? Fold and place the advertisements in a hat, pass around, so that members each pull out one in turn and read it aloud; have the reader guess who wrote that advertisement (giving a reason for the guess). Do a round of �I noticed that�� | Get to Know You | Any | Any | 5 or older | 5 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Advocates | Everyone sits in a circle, and a madrich wanders around asking people interrogation questions like "hey! what's going on here?" But the chanich may not answer. The chanich to their left must answer for them, be their advocate, if you will. the advocate must exclaim that they don't know and suggest someone else that you should ask. So for example. The mad goes up to shimon and says "is that lipstick on your collar?" and shimon remains silent, the chanich to his left, shlomo, answers for him, "I'm not entirely sure, perhaps you should ask Fredericka" and points to Fredericka, and so on. If the person who is asked says anything, then they are out. If the advocate fails to answer, then they are out. If the advocate points you on to someone who is out, then they are out. People who are out must stay in their seat as obstacles. So if the person on Shmulik's left is out, then the next person along is his advocate. and so on. | Get to Know You, Just for Fun, Trigger | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Ah Soh Coh Noh | Everyone is in a circle 1st person shouts 'AH' and throws his 'AH' right or left hand down towards the person next to him/her. That person then shouts Soh and puts his right hand on top of his left hand or vice-versa If his/her left hand is on top the person on the left shout COH and points to a person opposite He either says NOH and pushes back to the person who sent it or carries on from the begging and shouts AH | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Akiva Hopscotch | Take a normal hopscotch playing thingy: 1 23 4 56 7 89 10 Using a stone throw first onto one. Hopping onto one without putting the other foot down and going up to 10. When the player reaches 10 it must throw the stone and call a number. E.g. 5,10,19 etc. They must then hop to the stone in exactly that many hops from square 1. If this is done correctly then they may proceed up the hopscotch thingy. The player may use one foot to edge forward so long as the other is firmly planted behind the line. The player may not step on the lines and the stone may not land on the lines. The game is won when with a player reaching the number 10. It needs two leaders, one to check no one's cheating and the other to mark where the stone lands. | Free Time | Up to 5 | 5 | 2 or more | 2 | 5 or older | 5 | Any | Low | ||||||||
| American History X | Watch American History X. It is a Movie about Neo Nazis and racisim in America. It is starring Edward Norton and Edward Furlong, and captain Sisko from Deep Space Nine (Star Trek, I can't remember his real name). Ask the participants how they feel. what reactions do they have. What part of the movie hit them the hardest. | Educational | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | 2 hours to 4 hours | 120 | 240 | Low | ||||||||
| Amoeba game | Everyone begins as an amoeba (ie quatting on the floor and waddling about). Each amoeba must find another amoeba and play 'paper, scissors, stone' with them. The winner then becomes a chicken (quatting slightly higher up and using arms as wings) and the loser stays an amoeba. Chcikens must only play 'paper, scissors, stone' with other chickens. Winners become dinosaurs (standing up with one arm in front of their head like a long neck) and losers return to being amoeba. Dinosaurs must find dinosaurs to play 'paper, scissors, stone' with and winners become Diana Ross (stand on chairs and sing the following - actions in brackets): "Stop! In the name of love (right hand out in front, bring it round to the side and then both hands on heart), before you break my heart (point, breaking action, point towards yourself, both hands on heart again)" Eventually everyone will be standing on their chairs singing their hearts out! | Ice Breaker, Team Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | |||||||
| Animal Adman | Each person comes up with an animal action. Then, sitting in a circle, someone begins by doing their action and then someone else's. That person then has to do their action and someone else's, being careful not to do the action of the person who called them, or the person on either side of them. Anyone who makes a mistake is out. Animal actions may also include noises! | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Team Building | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||
| Animal Noise Game | You stand in pairs and count to 3. On three you both make an animal noise if the noise is the same you win if it is not you carry on unitl you win. When you win it is essential to celebrate in an over elaborate manner. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Animal Snap | A pack of cards is dealt between however many people are playing. Each player choses an animal sound (the funnier the better) e.g. baa, moo, quack, woof, miaw etc. You take it in turns going round the circle turning over a card onto your own little pile in front of you. If two people have the same card they must shout out the other person's animal noise-NOT their own. They person who doesn't get it first must pick up the two piles of cards involved in the snap. The first person to finish all their cards wins. | Just for Fun | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | 5 or older | 5 | Any | Low | ||||||||
| Animal bang | play like bang but instead of shouting bang, use animal noises. you can use more than one noise in each round and try not to repeat noises. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Apple Game | All the group stand huddled close together in a circle, with one person chosen as the 'guesser' in the middle. Everyone in the circle has to stand with their hands behind their backs and pass an apple round without the 'guesser' guessing who is holding the apple. Meanwhile the people in the circle, as well as passing the apple round the circle behind their backs, have to try to eat it whenever they are able to without the guesser seeing. The guesser wins by guessing who has the apple, or loses if all the apple gets eaten first. | Team Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | High | ||||||
| Appointment | Every participant is given a circle divided into twelve segments, each segment represents an hour on a clock (1, 2, 3 o'clock etc). Participants go round group making appointments with each other, (give 2-3 mins for this), then leader calls out times (can either go round clock, or call out random times), and people meet with allotted others. Leader prescribes topic of conversation, either random and funny, or more serious, and can be a good way of getting focused on a task, and thinking about the role other people can play in it. | Ice Breaker, Team Building, Tzevet Kef | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | 1 or more | 1 | 15 to 17 years old | 15 | 17 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||
| Are you shomer negiah? | People number their limbs 1-4, then go up to each other and ask 'are you shomer negiah?'. If they have at least one free limb they say yes. the first person says what limbs he has free (only numbers so as not to give away which limbs are which) and the second person makes an offer e.g my 1 to your 3. Those limbs are then used. If a person has used all four limbs when someone asks are you shomer negiah? they say no and wave their hands 1 inch away from the 1st peron saying 'I'm not touching you' in a high pitched voice. When everyone has become shomer negiah you have to try to link up to the corresponding limbs of the four people who you previously talked to forming 1 big tzevet knot | Tzevet Kef | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||
| Assasins | First you put all the people on camp on a list, then you join all the names to another name e.g jamie-sam sam-kate. once everyone is joined you explain the rules: you get a person (you must keep it a secret) and you have to "kill" them. the way to "kill" them is to say bang bang your dead. you must say this while no-one else is around because if someone else hears you the person you are trying to "kill" does no die and they know it is you, so they will stay far away from you. The game ends when there are two people left in the game both trying to kill each other they must try...the person who lives wins. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| BALAGAN | One person (let's call him Brian) is chosen from the group to leave the room. Once they have left, the group decide on a rule for the group to respond to questions with. For example, if Brian comes back in and asks Gertie "What is your favourite colour?" and the group have decided that the rule is to answer for the person to your left, Gertie will have to answer for the person to her left. If the group know her answer to be incorrect or if she breaks the chosen rule, the group shout BALAGAN and everyone switches seats. The aim of the game is for 'Brian' to guess the rule. Some rules could be: *Answer as if you are 'Brian' *Answer for the person to your right *Answer for the person sitting in a specific seat *Answer for the person asked one previously before you The type of questions being asked should be like "what are you wearing?" "What's your favourite film?" "When is your birthday?" etc | Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 15 or older | 15 | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | ||||||
| Badgers | Tell the chanachim to position themselves randomly about the room, but all facing forwards. They should stand with their feet shoulder width apart and their arms out like wings, their knees slightly bent. They should then straighten their elgs and bend them again, while lifting the arms up and down while chanting "Badger, badger, badger, badger". Tell them to, on the command "mushroom" put their hands on their heads and say "mushroom" for two beats. On the command "snake" they should gyrate and chant"Snake, snake! Argh, it's a snake", then resume badgering. The winner of the game is the madrich who can get the longest video of a group of chanchim doing this before they begin to question the point. | Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Ball Madness Name Game | Once people vaguely know each others' names, sit them in a circle. Give one person a soft ball or hacky sack. Have them say the name of someone else (who hasn't yet had the ball) and pass the ball to them. Once the ball's gone to everyone in the circle, pass it back to the first person and send the ball around in the same order as the first time. A few throws into the second round, give the first person a second ball, and they have to pass it around in the same order, so there are multiple balls being thrown and multiple names being called at once. If the group is up to it, have them pass one backwards around the circle. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Ball between Legs | The chanachim form a circle standing up with legs apart and with their feet touching their neighbours feet. A ball (a light, soft sponge ball is ideal) is thrown into the circle and the chanichim use their hands to try and knock the ball between the legs of the other players. Each time the ball passes through someones legs, the person gets a handicap. First, the person loses a hand, then has the use of 2 hands but has to stand backwards, then has one hand backwards and is then out. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Sport | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | |||||||||
| Ball on Pole | The chanichim all gather around the pole in question. preferably a flag pole. A standard sized ball is introduce into the equation. All involved then proceed to attempt to throw the ball on top of the pole. It may sound simple, but the simplicity is the beauty of the game. There have been some disputes as to what constitutes a winning throw. those disputes shall end now. For the ball to have legitimately hit the top of the pole, the ball must be on its way down and bounce back up as a result of its colliding with the top of the pole. stay tuned for hoop on pole, keys on pole, and a recent favourite: orange on pole. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Balloons in Bag | very simpla, have loads of balloons blown up and split chanichim into teams. each team has to get as many balloons as they can into their bag/base/box/home etc and which ever team gets the most is the winner. | Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Up to 5 years old | 5 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||
| Bang | Have everyone stand in a circle. Each person must know the name of the two people on either side of them. When the game starts, everyone must have their "guns" (which is a their hand in the form of a gun) at their sides, and a person, usually the madich, calls out someone's name. That person must duck quickly, and the two people on either side of that person have to point their guns at eachother and yell BANG! before the other does. First person to do so kills the other, and they go on. If the person who's name was called does not duck in time before another person bangs! shoots them, then they die. Fun fun fun. When there are two people left, they stand back to back, pace for 10 steps, and shoot eachother. | Ice Breaker | Any | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Bang (2 Variations) | Below are Variations of the game Bang 1. Use the name of the person, who is 2 places to your right. 2. Instead of using guns, play moo. Use your hands as horns and shout "MOO". If 2 people say Moo at the same time, you have a moo off. The people take a deep breath and say one continues moo until they run out of breath or they are to quiet to hear. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Bang (even more types of bang!) | 3 new things are added to the game of bang. 1) Insult bang. Instead of saying bang, the two people have to insult eachother, whoever says it first wins, but if they're at the same time, the best insult wins. 2) compliment bang. This should be obvious. 3) Lowest verticality. Everybody has to drop to the floor, lying down. The last person down is the person who's out. So with these added rules, if you just call the name (e.g shimon) then they say bang, if you say "insult shimon" then its insult, "compliment shimon" is compliment and for lowest verticality you don't call a name. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Bang (other versions) | 1. Gnab This is Bang with all names and Bang reversed. People now shout Gnab instead of bang, and their name backwards is used instead of their name forwards. 2. Mossad Bang Mossad is of course the secret service of Israel. For this version (worth building up the story here) the chanichim/madrichim dependant on who is playing become agents. Like secret agents, they must take on new identities and they do this by assuming the name of the person to their right. But of course, we still know who each person is, so they need to go deep undercover! They do this by installing themselves at a new position where the people dont know them so well (namely a different part of the circle - important that channies/maddies are completely mixed up) A name is called out by the leader of the game, and the person who has taken on that name is the target for the agents on either side to assasinate. The other agents have to have their wits about them, as they just do not know who is going to be the target. The person who has taken on the name that is called, ducks to avoid being shot, and it is that agent on either side who is shot first in the crossfire that dies and is out of the game. The person who is now dead, calls the next name, and so the game continues. If a name is called and no one answers to it who is alive, then a new name is called. At NO POINT must the channies/maddies reveal their identity to ANYONE! - The credit for the creation of this version goes to Colin Bulka a Hadracha (and Netzer) legend and guru! 3. Mossad Gnab Use both rules together to create an ultimate hybrid! 4. Shmang Normal rules of bang apply, but using Smang instead of bang, putting "shm" in front of everyones name, and firing in a matrix stylee, inclusive of Neo-like back bending. REMEMBER: For all games of bang: Different people play different rules. Some will allow use of differing weapons other than just guns (e.g bazooka launchers) Some will allow use of two guns (where each hand is a gun) Some say that if no one is shot first then people must continue banging (on the same breath) until someone has no breath left. Boys and girls - However you choose to play - play safe! | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Trigger | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Bang! bang! You're dead! / Assasins | How the game works is that each person gets a name out of the hat on a small peice of paper and doesn't tell anyone. When they see that particular person on their own and ONLY on their own ,they need to go up to that person without anyonw haering or knowing it's them adn assasinate them by saying "bang!bang! you dead!". The person that has just been "killed " he\she needs to give the name of the person that they have to kill to the person that has just killed them and the game goes on until there is one person left who has killed everybody they are the winner of the game | Wide Game | 50 or more | 50 | Any | 5 or older | 5 | Any | Medium | |||||||||
| Bangers and Mash | Take a book, open it to any page and begin reading out loud, replacing every word beginning with a 'b' with 'bangers' and every word beginning with an 'm' with 'mash'. Everyone else must listen carefully and when the reader makes a mistake (ie reads any other word beginning with 'b' or 'm') the book gets passed along. If the game gets to easy, try adding in other words, such as 'ketchup' or 'peas'. The winner is the first to get to say "bangers and mash". | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Trigger | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Bare | Two people are picked, these 2 people have to be really good friends (they have to know each other well). The people picked cannot have played the game before. Basically one of the people picked goes out of the room. then the madrihim explain the rules to th rest of the chanichim left. the rules are when the person comes back in everybody has to pretend that the friend (the other person picked) has told everyone a really big embarrasing secret about them (everybody must point and laugh etc..) Then you tell the person they have to try and guess what secret the friend told. They have to ask yes/no questions to anyone in the circle. if the question they ask ends with the letter B A R or E the person asked must answer yes but if it ends with any other letter they must answer no. This game can go on for as long as you have time for and at the end you tell the guessing person that there really is no secret. | Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||
| Bats and Moths | Played in a defined area, the group is divided into bats and moths,typically 1 bat for each 5 or 6 moths The bats have blindfolds and the moths have their feet tied together.The moths then try and hop about trying to avoid being captured (sitting out the rest of the game) and the bats obviously have to catch the moths by listening for the hopping moths. | Just for Fun, Sport | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | |||||||||
| Battle | First you split the kids into groups, then you call each group something relevant to eachother like mars, jupiter, saturn you then tell each team to think of 5 silly questions for the other teams the teams get 2 points for each answere correct. If an answere is semi correct you get 1 point. the team with the most pionts win, and the team with the least pionts must do a forefit which the other teams come up with | Other | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | Any | 8 to 10 years old | 8 | 10 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||
| Battle Dome | Ahh... My baby! Everyone comes into a big area standing in their own space. Together you all spin around on the spot as fast as possible for a minute or two until the facillitator yells out battle. Then you all attempt to push eachother over and the last man standing wins. | Wide Game | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | High | |||||||||
| Be my Reflection | The madrich should split the group into pairs Pairs should face eath other. Once person should be the leader in the pair. After a short while they should switch roles. In this activity participants should mirror each other's actions slowly and as exact as possible. After three or so minutes partners should turn back to back and make three subtle changes to their physical appearance (jewellery switch, sleeve roll up, hair etc) After all changes are completed, partners should turn around and guess each other's changes. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Beat | Everyone stands in a circle. One person is designated as the leader. The leader claps once. The person to his/her left must clap, then the person to his/her left, etc. All the claps must be done on beat (to be determined by a countdown before the first clap). If someone misses their turn to clap, or claps off-beat, they are out of the circle. Once the single-clap gets around the circle once, the Leader claps twice (so now they are eighth-notes instead of quarter-notes) and this pattern goes around the circle. The game continues until there are only two people left. These two people face each other and clap out complicated beats, that the other person must copy. Whoever cannot copy the other's beat loses. The really really fun part of this game is that even when you are out, you are still participating. The people that are out walk/skip/run around the outside of the circle of people still playing adding noises to the beat, such as beatboxing, chicken noises, doodoodoos, etc. This is a TON of fun. It really annoys the locals on the 4th of July. | Other | Any | 1 or more | 1 | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | |||||||||
| Beat It | This is a game best kept for tzevet kef, but can be attempted with the hanachim. Everyone sits in a circle, and has to name something that will beat the previous suggestion. For example, and this is an unusually clean example, pirates will beat ninjas, but fire will beat the pirates by burning their ships, but water beats fire and Ribena beats water. The game continues until people get bored, which if done in a proper obscene manner, will be about an hour later. | Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Beat Machines | Everyone sits in a circle. The first person initiates a beat. He continues this beat until a rhythmic pattern is formed. The next person then adds something to the beat that is appropriate to the rhythm. THis continues with everyone, contibuting to the beat. At the end, the person who initiates the beat, stops doing his part. Slowly every next person also stops until the beat is ended | Just for Fun, Relaxing | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Beep | The group picks a word which must be beeped out in their sentace, so for example, "and" so if the sentance was "i went to the park with john and hilary" it would be changed to "i went to the park with john beep hilary" if you forget to say a beep, you have to say beep beep. and so on. the game starts (i lost muahahaah) when someone says "start" they can only say it in a normal sentance, for example "when are we going to start the drawing" it cannot be in a sentance which has any relevance to the beep game. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Bench | set up 4 chairs in a line (like a bench). the chunichim make a circle around the chairs and four of them sit on the chairs. each one of the chunichim on the chairs has to choose a character and maintain that character until they are pushed off (characters as in skit characters). when one of the chunichim in the circle wish to butt in they just stand up and go towards the left end of the bench. every one else on the bench moves one place to the right to make room for the next person. this pushes the person on the far right off the bench. this person goes and sits back in the circle. | Drama | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||||||
| Blanket Name Game | Two madrichim hold up a blanket in the middle of the room. The chanichim are split into 2 groups, one on either side of the blanket. Each group puts one person in front of the blanket. The madrichim them drop the blanket and the two chanichim have to shout out eachother's names. The first one to shout out the other person's name takes that person to join their group. This continues either until everyone is in the same group, or until you've had enough! | Get to Know You | Any | 2 or more | 2 | Any age | Any | Medium | ||||||||||
| Blarney Stone | A small stone or other object is passed around as each chaver recieves it he must wish aloud something for his neighbour to do. At unexpected intervals the madrich blows a whistle. The unlucky player caught with it (the Blarney Stone) must execute the wish expressed by his neighbour who passed the stone to him. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Blind Run | Blindfold all the chanichim. Line them up front to back. Walk 20 feet away and face them. Tell them to run towards you blindfolded, one at a time, as you call their name. Tell them that you will be there to catch them at the end. Be there to catch them at the end! | Trust Building | Any | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | Any | Medium | ||||||||||
| Bling! | Essentially a variation of "Bang", but pimped up to the max. When someone's name is called, they have to duck, and the two people on either side of them have to bust some hip-hop moves while shouting "Bling!" as quickly as possible. The first person to shout "Bling" beats either the person whose name was called (if they didn't duck quickly enough) or the other Blinger. When there are two people left, they have to pretend they are driving away from each other in funked-up cars while the person organising the game beatboxes. When they stop beatboxing the two contestants have to "Bling!" each other; the quickest wins. The winner gets some proper bling, i.e. something shiny or a sweet necklace etc. (If you like, you can make "bling" beforehand out of paper and gold/silver foil, so everyone can be wearing it for the game!) | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Blob | The Blob begins as a sole individual, playing a game of tag. As soon as s/he catches someone, s/he joins hands with him or her. Now the new person part of the Blob, too, and they both set out, hand in hand, in search of victims. Everyone the Blob catches (only the outside hand on either end of the Blob can snatch at players) joins hands with it and becomes part of the lengthening protoplasmic chain. And the Blob keeps growing. The thrilling climax occurs when there's only one player left to put up a heroic last-ditch stand. | Just for Fun, Sport | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | |||||||||
| Bobbing for Apples | Put a load of apples in a large bowl full with water. Get 2 or 3 chanichim to try and eat one of the apples without using their hands. | Just for Fun | Up to 5 | 5 | 1 or more | 1 | 5 to 7 years old | 5 | 7 | Any | High | |||||||
| Body to Body | A part of the body in the top half is named, e.g. elbow. Everyone sings the song "this game is very easy, so everyone keep time... all you have to do, is count up in rhyme:" Then the first person says number one _________. The next person has to say "number two" and then add a rhyming word e.g. number one fun, number two sun etc! When someone messes up, they go to the middle of the circle and put their elbow on the floor. They then choose another body part e.g. nose, and the game continues. The next person to go out then connects their nose to the second elbow etc etc! Eventually, all the participants except the winner (who gets to watch and laugh) should be connected in a weird way. A nice and slightly different ice-breaker to break down some barriers! | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | |||||||||
| Bonk | Everyone sits in a circle and one person is elected to be the doctor. He is given a stocking which has a jumper stuffed inside it, which is known as the 'bonker'. The madrich then shouts out the name of a chanich who has a certain disease which is cured by the doctor 'bonking' them by hitting them on the head with the boker. To prevent yourself from being bonked you must shout out "Dont bonk me, bonk *other chanich's name*" The new chanich now has the disease and the doctor must try and bonk them. If the doctor successfully bonks someone, then they swap with the bonked chainch. | Get to Know You | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Medium | |||||||
| Borris Bang | Everyone writes their name on a piece of paper, and scrunches it up, then everyone is thrown into a hat (or cupped hands if no hats available) Then go round and everyone takes a piece of paper - and you adopt that name. Tell nobody your adopted name! When a name is called, ther person with the adopted name ducks. This becomes a game of awareness, and being quick at spotting who has ducked! if you choose your own name then keep it - it jsut adds to the confusion! Is a good game - and good after a game of normal bang. | Get to Know You, Just for Fun, Trigger | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Box Game | This game is designed as a trigger (a small activity which introduces a topic for a programme). In this write up I am using Jewish Identity as the topic, but the game could be made appropriate for any subject. Basically you spread out a sheet on the floor and you place upon it a number of objects both connected to Jewish Identity and seemingly un-conected. A Humash, a Tanakh, a chapter of the Talmud, a Kippa, a tallit, a siddur (orthodox and Progressive), a picture of the Kotel, a picture of Jerusalem,a magen David, a hamsah and then some things from a wider range of Jewish identity - a map of Israel, the israeli flag, the hatikvah, a picture of a soldier, a beret from the army, dog tags of an Israeli soldier, a teudat zehut (Israeli ID card), print out of a hebrew letter, a bagel (or picture), a picture of a synagogue, something from your youth movement, a picture of gefilte fish, of immigrants arriving on a boat, etc. And finally the more random stuff - it is important that this stuff really can be linked without being completely tenuous and yet it should be stuff that allows people to think about their Jewish identity: picture of a flower, a small Jewelry box, keys, pictures of Nature, food and drink, a miniature table, a diet Coke can, a small rubber duck, etc. All these things are laid out, and the question can be put in a number of ways. Choose the item which best expresses your Jewish identity. Choose the item which you can use to explain your Judaism. Choose the item which you feel sums up Judaism most adequately for you. However the question is phrased, the game is designed to make people look at what Jewishness is for them, and within the context of a group show that being Jewish can mean a number of different things for different people or you can use it to move a group on to thinking about how their Jewishness has changed over a process they have gone through. | Educational, Trigger | Any | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||||||
| Braunold Braunold's Video Tape Game | Everyone sits in a circle and says their name and puts an action to it. The person in the middle (the video tape controler called braunold braunold) holds out a stick and points it to somone in the circle, they must say their name and perform their action. Braunold Braunold then rotates round the circle and when the stickk is pointing at a member of the circle they must say their name and do their action. If the controller says rewind he rotates the other way and is the stick points at you that person must sa their name backward and perfrom action backard. Other video controlls can be added to players discression to make more fun ie pause, fast forward, slow motion (foward and backward), record. If someone mucks up a long the way they become static in the video tape making a "sshhhhhh" noise. The game stops at the peak. | Ice Breaker | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 1 or more | 1 | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||
| Breaking The Ice | Get the chanichim to stand in a circle. The Madrich/a holds up a block of ice (make it by freezing water in an ice-cream container or similar.) and says three facts about her/him and then passes it to the next person. When the block of ice has been passed the whole way round and back to the Madrich/a, he or she will then throw the ice into the middle of the circle and a laminated note will be revealed reading "You have now broken the ice" Literally, an ice breaker. | Ice Breaker | Any | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | ||||||||||
| British Bull Dogs | the whole group lines up on one side of a field or room and all they have to do is get to the other side with out being caught by a bull dog. the game starts by the one bull dog choosing a person to try and get to the other side. if that person makes it to the other side then everyone has to try and get to the other side without being caught. anyone caught becomes a bull dog. if the person does get caught then that person also becomes a bull dog and the next person is selected. always if someone is caught they become a bull dog and the game is played till there is only bull dogs or one person remaining. | Sport | Any | Any | 11 to 14 years old | 11 | 14 | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Medium | |||||||
| Bucket race | Two or more teams are needed! For each team set out two buckets-one filled with water and one empty. Set them a fair distance apart and make sure all teams hacve thir two buckets the same distance. Give the chanichim straws and tell them by using the straws to fill their other bucket! May the best team win! | Splitting Participants into Groups, Sport, Team Building, Water | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Buggery Towers | Quite simple this one. It is for madrichim use only. It usually takes place during tzevet meetings. If there is a madrich, not a madricha, lying on the floor face downwards, then someone randomly shouts "Buggery Towers!!!" and jumps on them face down, and as many people as possible jump on the tower of people. This is a game of surprise!!! | Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 18 or older | 18 | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | High | |||||||||
| Bumble beee tuna | While singing the following song: I love bumble bee, bumble bee tuna. Yum yum bumble bee, bumble bee tuna. I love bumble bee, bumble bee tuna. Tuna that they call bumble bee. You do the following correlating actions. I = pointing to your eye Love = making a love heart with your fingers Bumble bee = putting your arms under your armpits and flapping like wings. Tuna = making a wave with your hand like the ocean Yum yum = rub your stomach Call = putting hands on with side of your mouth like a mega phone You continue to sing this song whilst doing the actions with each time singing it fast, starting from very slow. If someone messes up the actions they get out. The person who is left standing the longest without messing up the actions wins. | Free Time, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Simulation | 3 or more | 3 | 1 to 3 | 1 | 3 | 4 or older | 4 | 5 minutes to 15 minutes | 5 | 15 | Low | |||||
| Burgo's Catch phrase | Using drawn pictures and letters, draw out your name. For example, if your name was Jarrod, you would draw a picture of a jar, then a plus sign (+), then a picture of a rod. You can also use minus signs (-). For example if your name was Ben, you could draw a bend in the road, then subtract the d (bend - d = ben). Give each chanich a piece of paper, let them do their drawing, mix them around and try to guess whos picture you have. Is really fun when people get creative. | Get to Know You | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Butt Head | Two teams each team has a representitive with a bucket on his/her head. The teams have to try to fill the buckets with balls/scrunched paper, and the first team to fill the bucket wins. The representitive's are not allowed to move thier feet and both teams have 2 throw from the same distance. | Team Building | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | 11 to 14 years old | 11 | 14 | Any | Low | |||||||
| Captives | Two teams stand in a line facing each other with a large distance inbetween. One representitive from one team approaches the other team who all are holding thier fists out infront of them. The representitive taps fists as he chooses one at a time. When he taps a fist it is put away. The third fist that is tapped is the person who has to chase the representitive back to his team. If the rep makes it back to his team without being caught then the person he chose becomes his captive if he gets caught on the way back he becomes that persons captive. A captive stands behind his captor until he is freed this is only done when his captor is caught by someone and how ever many captives he has all go free. The game can be played until one team has the entire other team as their captives. Also when playing you use your third tap tactically eg. if you are a fast runner then you can try and free your team mates who are captives by tapping the captor of your team mates. if you are a slow runner you will only tap someone who is also a slow runner. | Sport | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 2 or more | 2 | 15 or older | 15 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | |||||
| Casino | The group is told to dress up smartly and then arrives at a room which is made up to look like a casino. At the door, each person gets a small bunch of sweets. The sweets need to be of different veriety as each different sweet is worth more or less than the other. Each person starts off with a small veriety and has to and play games at the the different game/ gambling places around the room. To play these games each person has a cirtain amount of sweets to bid forward and if they win they get more and if they loose, they get nothing back. These games can be card games and dice games as well as other games which you don't usually find in a casino. E.g: Bowling,backgamen. You can also add intertainment and serve refreshments such as juice and buscuits just to set the scene. The aim is not to loose all your sweets. If you loose all your sweets. You've lost your money and therefore you have to do a forfit to get more. If this is not done. You cannot continue to gamble. | Just for Fun | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | 6 or more | 6 | 15 to 17 years old | 15 | 17 | 45 minutes to 1 hour | 45 | 60 | Low | ||||
| Cat and Mouse | Each of the participants pair up and sit on the floor spread out. A pair is chosen and between the pair they decide who is the cat and who is the mouse. The cat chases the mouse around the room until the mouse decides to sit down next to a pair. When that happens the person on the other side of the person the mouse sits next to gets up and is now the mouse. If the cat catches any of the mice, the roles are reversed and the cat becomes the mouse and vice versa. The game contiues indefinitely until the chanichim are tired. | Just for Fun | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | 1 or more | 1 | 5 or older | 5 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Medium | |||||
| Celebrity Nerds | This game is kinda similar to celebrity heads, but instead of celebrities it's (famous) nerds. One person goes away and a nerd is chosen for them. This is repeated until everybody has a Nerd. Each person gets to ask Yes/no questions so as to discern the identity of their given nerd. If they get a yes, then they may ask another question. If they get a no, then it goes on to the next person. Good lines of questioning would include trying to work out if you are a nerd by association (e.g. Gene rodenberry) or a nerd in your own right (eg bill gates); or maybe whether you are just known to the nerd community (eg Gauss) or known to the general community (eg einstein) | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Cereal Box | You take any old cereal box. You place it on the floor. You then go round each person of the room and they have to pick it in their mouth with only their feet on the floor. They cannot kneel. Once everyone has done it some of the cereal box is ripped off so it is not so tall and you go round again. If people are unable to do it they are out. The winner is the person who can go the lowest (preferably to just the base). | Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | High | |||||||||||
| Chain Statues | Participants are seated in a circle. One person is asked to take a statue position in the center of the circle. The leader indicates that another person should go up to the statue and move an arm or leg or hand, and then join on where they touched the statue. Continue adding people to the chain this way. The leader may say "Freeze" at any point, and everyone stays exactly where they are. Continue playing until everyone is up | Drama, Get to Know You, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | |||||||||
| Chain tag | Chanichim are told to get into pairs and stand in a circle such that they are linked to each other and pairs are spread out at a certain distance. Two people start in the middle and one is chosen to be "it." The one being chased must latch on to someone in the circle causing the person who was latched on to that person to become the one being chased. Should the one who is "it" tag the other person, they switch and the other person becomes "it" | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Chair Battle | It's a bit like fruit Salad in that you devide your group into 2 teams. Each participant gets a chair and they line up with a participant from each team facing someone in the other team. There should be about a 10metre gap between each team and a chair placed right in the middle of that gap. Pairs are made with the person opposite you from the opposing team and when your number or word is called the first person to stack their chair on the middle one, and stand on it wins. If you are able to stack your chair on the other persons on the middle chair and then stand on it before they do, you win. At the end you simply yell fruit salad or whatever. and the first team with all the chairs stacked up win so theres no cleaning up afterwards. | Team Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 15 or older | 15 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | ||||||
| Chair Game | Arrange chairs in circle. Chanichim stand behind chairs (1chair:1chanich). Adjust the chair so that only the 2 front legs are on the ground. One madrich should be the game-master. When s/he calls "one", every one lets go of their chair and moves one space to their left. They must catch the new chair before all 4 legs are grounded. "two" means move to the right. "three" means let go of the chair, spin around in a circle and catch the chair again. if anyone drops a chair, they are out. they remove their chair but the gap that they leave should remain. this makes it significantly harder for those remaining. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Chair piles | There need to be enough people to make a reasonable sized circle but there is no number restiction. All chanichim should sit in a circle on chairs with 1 playing card in their hand. The madrich/a calls out a suit e.g. clubs and all people holding a card of that suit move one chair to the right. If the person next to them have not moved they have to sit on top of them. If there is someone on your lap, you cannot move, even if your suit is called. The game can continue for any amount of time. | This is also a really good way to mix up a group in a circle if you need - instead of people sitting on each other, they just move to the next available seat. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Tzevet Kef | Any | 1 or more | 1 | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | ||||||
| Chair-Passball | Essential human netball/basketball. Both teams have 5-10 players, on a court of any suitable length, indoor or out. At either end of the court on a chair stands a member of each team, the game begins with a basketball style tip-off and then the aim is to scoreby throwing the ball so the person on the chair can catch it. When a goal is scored the catcher and the goal thrower swap places and the game begins again from the tip off. Players may only hold the ball for 5 seconds, but it cannot be ripped from their hands, during that time. Players can only pivot with the ball and not run or dribble. Players can go anywhere within the pitch, except a 2 metre radius of the chair. To create greater equality between sexes or heights, rules can be added. For instance, to block a shot you need not physically block it only stand within 2 metres of the attacker with your hand over there shoulder, if they shot, when being defended like that, the goal does not count, and it is a turnover, also you can only allow people to mark those of the same sex. | Free Time, Just for Fun, Sport, Team Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | Any | Medium | ||||||||
| Chairs and Food | The Game: Materials - 10 chairs Introducing the Activity - Explain to the group that the line of chairs represents the perfect Canada: 10 people, 10 chairs- an equal distribution of resources and that each person represents 10% of the population. Facilitating the Activity 1. Line up the 10 chairs in the front of the group. 2. Ask for 10 volunteers and have them sit in the chairs. 3. Ask the class is this the reality; an equal distribution of chairs? 4. After everyone has responded, demonstrate the reality: - One person, the poorest person, gets no chair; they are asked to sit on the floor. - One person, the richest person, gets 5.5 chairs. (Get 4 people up to vacate their chairs, one left sitting gets to spread over 5 and put their feet up on 1/2 of the 6 th chair, pushing someone onto half a chair). - Next comes the top 20 and 30% of people, just below the richest guy. They remove someone else from their chair and together share three chairs. - Now we have 1 1/2 chairs and 6 people to share them; these are the middle class that are 60% of the population. Depending on the group and issues of safety you can try to get them to share the chairs or at least touch it, so people get a sense of the numbers. 5. Ask your volunteers to sit down and thank them for their participation. 6. Open a discussion of the fairness of this distribution by asking what the group thinks a chair represents in Canada. Write a list of responses. The list should include things like: health, home, food, water, education, transportation, and clothing.* | Educational | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | Any age | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | |||||||
| Change the world in 80 ways | 1. Brainstorming the problems with North American Society (Big paper and marker). 2. Leaders lead vote for Picking top 5 problems. 3. Split into 4 groups to create perfect society, only addressing those 5 issues(10-15 minutes). They should discuss how they would fix those 5 problems in their new society. Each group makes short presentation 4. Discussion ensues... -Are there any other important problems that you can think of, other than what was picked? -What are some solutions to those other problems? -Do you think there are any societies that are moving towards bettering themselves? -What can the individual do to change society? 5. 4 Corners -What will you do to change society? - Tape the choices of how to change the world to different sections of the wall. Tell them to go to the corner that they agree with. let them discuss in the groups and then in a larger circle. The question is which way is the best for change the world to make it better. Choices for four corners -Education (Teachers of the world) -Mass Murder (Twelve Monkeys) -Violent Revolution (Castro/Washington) -Peaceful Revolution (Ghandi/Martin Luther King Jr.) -Media (Dead Prez/Bob Dylan/ Paulo Coelho) -Inside the System or Politics (Robert Kennedy) -Money (Bill Gates) | Educational | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 1 hour to 2 hours | 60 | 120 | Low | ||||||||
| Chase The Tail | The group is split into two and both stand at opposite sides of the room in 'conga' style lines, holding onto the person in front. The idea of the game is that the person at the front of the line has to tag the last person of the other line.. i.e. the tail. The line must stick together and not fall apart and help make sure their tail isn't tagged. The winning team is the one that tags the tail first. | Tzevet Kef | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | Any | 15 or older | 15 | Any | Medium | ||||||||
| Check-in | Easy and simple yet can be quite enjoyable and unifying. The idea is to go around and give each person a chance to talk without interuption about their day, their feelings, anything really by saying check-in before beginning and check-out at the end. Between check-in and check-out, no one but that one person can talk. When done regularly, for instance a check-in every night before bed, can be a most powerful positive influence that can help sort out group issues and lead to becoming a cohesive group. | Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Chocolate Game | Have items of clothes such as hat, scarf and gloves in the centre of a circle together with a knife and fork and a bar of chocolate. then you go round the circle giving everyone a chance to role the dice. If someone gets a 6 they run to the middle of the circle and put on all the clothing and then proceed to try and eat the chocolate with the knife and fork. Meanwhile if someone else gets a 6 they have to stop immeadiatly and the next person tries to eat the chocolate by the same process. Usually you will find that none of the chocolate is eaten during the game because it is very difficult to eat chocolate with a knife and fork and the short time they have till someone else gets a 6. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Circle Tag | The whole group is split into groups of four. Three of the people in the group hold hands in a circle with one person stood on the outside. One person of the three is chosen to be the person being chased. The person on the outside has to tag this person. It is up to the other two people to make sure this person isn't tagged, without breaking the circle. If the group as a whole is smaller or larger, the number of people in the circle can be adapted, it doesn't really matter. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Click Catch | This game works well when the Madrichim start playing it first without telling the kids - usually the Chanichim will join in naturally. Very simple - one Madrich will start clicking and will throw their 'click' into the air (like an imaginery ball) The Madrich should do 'tricks' with their click (throw your click up, spin around and catch it?!). Pass your click on by throwing it accross the circle - that person should catch your click and try some tricks out of their own.. A LOT of imagination needed for this game, but fantastic for grabbing the attention of your chanichim!! - You will be amazed how much they concentrate 'watching' the invisible tricks!! Personally, I could play this game for hours....! | Drama, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Clothes Tig | This game is a simple variation of the classic tig game. There is one 'catcher' who chases after all the others in the group trying to 'tig' them. When the catcher has landed a successful tig, he must swap a piece of clothing with the person who has just been caught. That person then becomes the new catcher and the game is re-started. Cothes tig finishes at the leader's discretion. | Other | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | |||||||
| Clothes game | All chanichim take off any one item of clothing except for shoes. They then throw this into the middle. Then they all go in and take a random piece of clothing (not theirs) and go back to their circle. Then they have to pretend that the item of clothing belongs to the person to their left (whether it does or does not) and each takes turns explaining why that item of clothing belongs to them. | Get to Know You, Just for Fun | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | ||||||||
| Cocoons | Not so much a game as a peula... It is important that the room is set up before the participants come in. You need many many many a cardboard box to create walls out of to make cocoon structures - enough for every participant. In each 'den' a wad of paper and a selection of pens are placed. A piece of paper is also put inside welcoming the person to their cocoon and instructing them not to do anything until told. The participants' time-telling devices (mobiles and watches!) are taken away and one at a time are led into the room, in complete silence and with their eyes closed. They are put in their cocoon and sat down - their eyes remain closed. When all of the participants are in their cocoons, they can open their eyes. The idea is so they can't see over their walls and are totally (apart from the roof!) enclosed. The Madrichim don't talk and don't make eye contact with any of the Chanichim. The first slip of paper is dropped into every Cocoon. It is up to the Madrichim what is written, but usually it is direction as to what to think about - maybe with a quotation attached. Something wise...! You may ask them to write about their feelings if they want to... or just to think about a certain thing or subject... really it's up to you what you want to do. After about five minutes, the Madrichim go round and drop the 2nd slip of paper in - this tells the participants to decorate and personalise their cocoons with the materials they have been given. They are left to do this for as long as you like...time doesn't matter remember!! You can ask the participants to think and do what you like really, just keep it relaxed. As time goes on you can tell the cocooniks that they can send messages between themselves and if they want to do this all they have to do is fold over their message, write the recipients name on the front, hold it up so the Madrichim can see, and the message will be delivered. After about an hour and half - more if you like, go round and whisper to each person to close their eyes again. This time, open one side of each box and attach to another person's box (so two in a cocoon) Ask one participant to shuffle to move into a new space if you have to (still with eyes closed) When everyone is in pairs, go round again and whisper to open their eyes. This time give no instructions and leave the pairs to talk/discuss/chill. Give this only about 10 minutes and then tell everyone to leave their cocoons as soon as they are ready and come and join the circle - for a sikkum session on the programme. Sikkum the programme and maybe discuss such things as, how much time they thought they were in their for, what they were thinking about, how they felt.... etc etc. This is how my Cocoon session was run, but it can easily be adapted and changed to suit the individual madrichim - for example, we were given play-do to play with and ended up sending presents to friends in other cocoons. | Relaxing | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | 3 or more | 3 | 15 to 17 years old | 15 | 17 | 1 hour to 2 hours | 60 | 120 | Low | ||||
| Coffeehouse | There are many variations on this one but it's all the same concept. This one is my favorite: Set up a bunch of tables with candles on them each of which has a different set of discussion topics on them relating to anything from fears and dreams to hobbies and family life. have kids sit down in groups (i've found that 2-4 works best) around the tables and bring them tea and cookies while they talk to each other. Have them switch tables often, encouraging them to try not to sit with anyone they've already spoken with. Tends to be more effective the older the chanichim are, though all ages enjoy it. | Educational, Get to Know You, Relaxing | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Communal Trust | All the chanichim sit in a circle on the floor with their legs out infront of them. Someone stands in the very centre of the circle and all the chanichim that are seated move in so that their feet are pressing on the legs of the person standing in the centre. The person in the centre leans forwards and backwards etc and is supported by all the others' feet. The person standing must stand very straight and must rely on all the others to support him/her. | Team Building | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Medium | ||||||||||
| Compliment Bang | This very similar to the well known "bang" but a more friendly version. Insted of having guns and shooting, the opponents race to compliment each other with things like "that's a lovely t-shirt" or "your hair's looking great today". The first person to compliment wins and the other person is out of the game. If two people compliemnt a tthe same time, the biggest compliment wins | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Splitting Participants into Groups | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||
| Concentration | All the participants sit in a circle people must clap their hands on their lap, then clap their hands together once, then click their fingers twice (one at a time). On each click a name is said. It begins with "own name, own name" then "own name, mext name" (e.g... "bob, bob" "bob, bill") | Get to Know You, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Condom Wars | Stand up and put sleeping bags over you, ei so that your head is at the foot end, and hop around the Tsevet moadon. Clear chairs away and put padding around anything with hard dangerous corners. Its also good to put mattresses/bean bags on the floor | Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 18 or older | 18 | Any | Medium | ||||||||||
| Conscience | Four people are chosen. Two sit in chairs facing each other, and the other to each stand behind one of the chairs. You then give them a scenario e.g. you are long lost friends who have just met in a park randomly. The two sitting down then have a conversation BUT the first person will speak then their conscience standing behind them speaks, then the other person then their conscience, and this repeats. | Drama, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | ||||||||
| Consequences | Each participant gets a pen and piece of paper. Everyone writes down the name of a male (someone they know or someone famous) and then folds over the piece of paper (so the next person cannot see what they wrote) and passes it on to the next person. On the new piece of paper, underneath the fold, everyone writes the 'met...' and name of a female and then repeats the same thing. The next categories are: where they met, what he was wearing, what she was wearing, what he said, what she said, what happened next ('the consequence'). Pass the piece of paper on to the next person and then everyone reads out their funny stories! | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Conveyor belt | The group should form two lines, either kneeling down or standing up - with arms outstretched and interlinked with the line opposite - thus creating a conveyer belt. One volunteer lays along the arms, and is gently carried along the conveyer belt by everyone moving the arms to and fro. When the person reaches the end of the conveyor belt they should swap with someone else, and then let them have a turn. This works best with a very long conveyor belt! | Trust Building | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Medium | |||||||
| Corpulance | All stand in a circle with their hands behind their back. They begin the tribal ceremony before the game starts. Bob up and down twice, two skips to the right and shout "Game on!". Chanichim then have to run around and try to (softly) bite the other chanichim's corpulance (the flabby bit underneith the upper arm). This lasts about two minutes until the madrich shouts "Game off!" and everyone must stop and say how many corpulances they managed to bite. The winner has the most bites. This is then repeated a few times until people get bored | Sport, Tzevet Kef | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | 15 or older | 15 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | High | ||||||
| Countdown conundrum | The chanichim are given 7 numbers spelt out in different languages, i.e. hebrew, japanese, arabic, hieroglyphic, norwegian etc and they have to try and guess the order. Confusing, and fairly pointless but quite amusing to watch and listen to their reasoning | Educational, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Counting game | Everyone stands in a circle looking at their feet. The aim is for the group to count to 10 by having someone shout out the next number in sequence. However, if two people shout out a number at the same time, the group has to start from 1 again. This is an extremely hard task and takes alot longer than one would think - leave plenty of time for it | Team Building | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | ||||||
| Crab Soccer | Basically a game of soccer with everyone in the 'crab' position. The crab position is crawling around on your hands and legs but with your chest facing up. This game is lots of fun | Other | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||||
| Cup of Good Leadership | This is a brilliant (if I may say so) sikkum to a hadracha peula. We have this planned for a few weeks time and it makes me excited just thinking about it... Around the room, place paper with qualities of a good leader written on them (eg confident, creative, spontaneous...). Also include some contentious ones like tall, or musical, for discussion. On each page, cut strips on the bottom that they can rip off, like on an ad for a housemate, and tell them that they need to pull off all the qualities that they think they lack or could improve on. In a circle, have a few explain what they chose, and then get them all to put their qualities into a blender. Add milk, icecream, syrup and create a 'hadracha milkshake' and pour it into a big cup. If you have a trophy-style cup to drink from, that would be ideal! Voila! now the chanichim can 'drink from the cup of good leadership' and all the qualities will be inside them. Now your chanichim will be fantastic leaders :) | Other | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Damn, it's HOT! | A game for getting chanichim to drink water when it's really hot. Everyone has a cup of water, and you can be playing almost any other game at the same time (except really active games, as the water will spill). Carry on with the other game. At a random point, when the nominated leader shouts "Damn, it's HOT!" everyone has to drink their water as quickly as possible and put the empty cup on their head, and shout "I'm COOL!" - the first person to do this is the winner. Everyone gets a refill and continues playing the other game. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Dance Party | Never underestimate the power of a good dance party. All you need is a stereo and some dance music and you'll keep em amused for a long time | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Dangerous Liasons | Get the chanchim to sit in a circle. Number all the chanchim Get one of the chanchim to sit in the centre of the circle on the ground. Call out a number. The chanich with that number is the defender. Call out a second number. This chanich is the attacker. The aim of the defender is to kiss the attacker on the cheek. The aim of the attacker is to kiss the kid in the middle on the cheek. The way it works is the chanichim can only move on there knees (it gets dangerous when they stand). If the attacker kisses the kid the middle, the defender becomes the kid in the middle for the next round and if the attacker gets kissed by the defender, then the attacker is in the middle for the next round. The next round works in the same way; first number is defender (and can get into position) and the second number is the attacker and the round starts when the 2nd number is called. | Just for Fun, Team Building, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | High | ||||||||
| Death by Eye Contact | Chanichim stand (or sit) in a circle with their heads down looking at the ground. When a mad calls out a predetermined word eveyone simultaneously looks up and immediately looks into someone else's eyes. The idea is because everyone is randomly choosing people on the spot, everyone will be looking into the eyes of a different person. IF two people, by chance, are looking into each others eyes and making eye contact then they are both out! They can perform a dramatic death if they wish. The trick is that when everyone looks up and into someones eyes they need stay focussed on that person (even if they're not looking back at you) and not divert their eyes around the circle because that just ruins the game. Everyone needs to look at a person and stay staring like that until the mad calls out another word which signals everyone to look down again. This game can also be played to split chanichim into pairs, that is when two ppl look at each other and go out then they are a pair.... Simple but fun! | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Relaxing, Splitting Participants into Groups | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 1 or more | 1 | 10 or older | 10 | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | ||||||
| Disappearing under the blanket | You run around in a darkened room and the leader puts the blanket over the head of first person that he/she bumps into. The lights go on and then the kids quickly look to see who is missing and the first person to guess who is 'under the blanket' gets one point. Then you carry on. | Get to Know You, Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Medium | |||||||
| Do you love your neighbour? | Everyone sits in a circle (on chairs) with one person in the middle. The person in the middle must ask anyone in the circle "Do you love your neighbours?" That person then has a choice of two answers: 1) Yes - in which case the two people on either side of them have to swap seats, whilst the person in the middle tries to sit down. 2) No - in which case the person in the middle asks "Well who do you love?" and they must answer with a characteristic shared by a few people in the group (eg people who wear glasses) and all those people must swap seats whilst the person in the middle tries to sit down. The last person left standind then asks someone else. | Team Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||
| Doctor, doctor! | All but one stand in a circle and hold hands. By going under and over arms and legs and twisting round, etc, but never letting go of hands, the circle must muddle itself up until it can muddle no more, at which point they shout: "Doctor, doctor!" and the one person left returns and has to untangle the circle by telling them what to do and without touching. In order for the original circle to be restored, the participants must not let go of hands - this is a good example of working as a team! | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | High | |||||||||||
| Dodgeball | Draw a large circle on the floor. One team goes into the circle. The other teams stand around the outside of the circle and throw the footballs at those inside. A hit below the knee is out. Put the winner from each team in at the end to get an overall winner. | Free Time, Just for Fun, Sport | Any | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||||||
| Donkey | Each person, going round the circle, must say one letter. After the first letter, you must add a letter which could go after that letter to form a word, but never complete the word. Eventually one person will be forced to complete the word or make one up. If you suspect that no potential word is possible after one person's letter, you may challenge them. Anyone who finishes a word first gets a 'D', then an 'O', etc. until it spells out Donkey. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Drama games | Drama games provide popular warm ups: For exampe: Who am I? Straight forward guessing game where student pantomime Biblical characters, famous Jewish or Israeli personality, or has a Jewish occupation. Students guess the character. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Dream Game | One person who has never played the game before goes out of the room. The Madrich/a tells the group that he/she is going to tell the person who went out, that they had a dream which the people in the room have "made up" However, what the person outside doesn't know is that there is not a dream. If they ask questions ending in vowels everyone answers yes, if they ask questions ending in consanents everyone says no. If they ask questions ending in Y everyone says maybe. This can go on for ages, either until the person realises whats going on, or until everyone is getting bored or has laughed at them enough. | Free Time, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | 5 or older | 5 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Dreamcatcher | Everyone site in a tight circle. One person is chosen as the "dream catcher" and is sent out. one person is chosen as the "dream" (similair to wink murder). everyone else are nightmares The dreamcather then comes in and has to guess who the dream is. She/he does this by looking round at people, and everyone who is not being looked out has to continually scream at the top of their voices. | Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||
| Duck Duck Goose | Chanichim are sitting in a circle on the floor. One person is walks around the circle slowly tapping each person on the head saying "Duck" every time they tap someone. When the person wants to, they tap someone and shout "GOOSE!" The goose has to stand up and chase the person around the circle. The tapper has to try and get all around the entire circle and sit in the goose's spot while the goose tries to tag him. If the tapper gets there first, he keeps the spot and the goose is the new tapper, if the goose tags the tapper before s/he can sit down, the tapper has to start again. | Just for Fun | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | 5 or older | 5 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | ||||||
| Duck, Duck splat | The games is exactly the same as duck, duck goose except when you are walking round you have a cup of water in your hand, you go around saying duck, duck, duck.....etc. but when you want to say goose instead of saying goose you say splat and pour the cup of water over the person you've chosen. and then the same duck, duck goose rules apply, u run around the circle until you've got back to the persons space and the new person gets a ful cup of water. | Free Time, Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||
| Ear we go | The chanichim have to create with their bodies and as a team the shape of an insect, ie earwig, snail, spider, millipede, fly etc. They then have to race in that shape around a circuit. | Get to Know You, Just for Fun, Sport, Team Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Medium | |||||||
| Edmund's Lorries | One lucky person is selected to become edmund. They must stand out the front and wear a hat (preferably one that is funny because it is bigger than a regular hat). The other candidates must stand in two straight lines facing the front with hands on the shoulders of the person in front of them, like a conga line. One of them becomes the red lorry, the other is the yellow lorry. The game begins when edmund begins to repeat: "red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry, red lorry, yellow lorry, red..." and so on until they stuff up. There is a judge, whose job it is to adjudicate which colour edmund screwed up on. They will raise a flag of that colout in the air and that lorry is allowed to advance. The Lorry is allowed to go forward one "dada-dada-da-HEY!" (imagine a conga line) they must kick their legs out to the side on the "HEY". The first team to reach edmund and steal his hat is the winner. pretty simple hey? | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Electric Shoe | All players sit around in a circle (preferably on chairs). One person is nominated. They watch while everyone else takes their shoes off, and dumps them in the middle of the circle. The nominee leaves the room. Whilt the nominee is absent, the group decide on one shoe to be the "electric shoe". The nominee returns to the room, and is given the task of returning all the shoes to their rightful owners. Little does he or she know, when they touch the electric shoe, everyone else either screams as loudly as they can, or they all get up and jump on the nominee. Your choice! | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Team Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||||
| Electricity | Everyone stands in a cicle and every fifth person is told that they are a sub-station. The madrich is the power station, and they can start the current by passing the squeeze to their left or right and must make a noise like a power station would, which is hard to write... but kinda like *pppveurr* with an upper inflection. but i guess you can make whatever sound you want... although trying to interpret that could be fun. Anways, back to the game. Everybody must pass the squeeze in the direction it is going. Sub-stations may continue the direction or send it back the other way, but they must also make a noise when they send off the squeeze, this one's more of a *ta ta ta* The person in the middle must catch the squeezer as they are squeezing. and if they succeed the caugth sqeezer becomes the sqeeze catcher. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Relaxing, Team Building, Trigger | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Elimination | Someone throws a ball in to the air and shouts elimination. Then anyone can take the ball and try to throw it at someone and hit them below the knee. The person holding the ball cannot move with it. If someone catches the ball without it bouncing the person who threw the ball is out. The aim of the game is to stay in by not getting hit below the knee or caught out. If he person who got you out gets out then you go back in (so do the other people that person got out). | Free Time, Just for Fun, Sport | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Emotions | Stick a piece of tape on each persons forehead. on the tape should be written an emotion, like angry or sad or happy or excited. let them walk around and as they do they should stop and act like the emotion on the forehead of theperson in front of them. eventually all the chanichim will guess what emotion they have. | Ice Breaker | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Empty Chair | Seat participants in a circle on chairs. Select a person to be in, say Victor. Victor stands up in the middle of the circle, and has to try to sit on the empty seat, while everyone sitting tries to block him from sitting. They do so by the person to the left or right of the empty seat moving to fill it when Victor gets close (they should not have to use their arms). This usually means everyone in the circle is busy filling the seat to their left/right while Victor chases the hole. Someone might then choose to change direction or pause briefly, but this is a risk... whoever is responsible for letting Victor sit, then has to take his place. | Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Medium | ||||||||
| Enchanted Room | One person leaves room. Rest of the group decides on 3 particular actions or movements that the group will respnd to. Eg: When Mike looks at his feet, someone will cluk like a chicken. The person then has to guess what the group is responding to. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Evolution | All chanichim begin as 'eggs' and waddle around the room, crouching and chanting "egg, egg, egg..." looking for another egg. When a partner has been found, the two play "Scissors paper rock" and the winner of the game evolves to the next stage of the game. The next stage is a toddler where you go around on your hands and knees chanting "toddler, toddler, toddler..." searching for another toddler. The next stage is dinosaur where you plod around with a hunched back and wiggling your fingers above the crest of your head chanting "dinosaur..." Once you have won a game of scissors paper rock as a dinosaur you evolve to a "spice girl" and stand on the stage with all the other spice girls singing "Stop right now". If you want to use up more time then you can make that if you lose a game of scissors paper rock then you devolve back to the previous level. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Team Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||
| FREEZE! | Have two people sit in two chairs in front of the group. They will start acting out any clean, unoffensive scenario, like maybe driving a car or eating popcorn and watching a movie. Since this is not charades, they can talk. The conversations can be pretty hilarious. Then someone, anyone from the group yells "Freeze!" and both people freeze right where they are. The person who yelled "Freeze!" goes up and tags one of the two people on the shoulder. That person has to sit down and the new person takes their place, and starts acting out some other scenario without telling the other person what it is. They have to try and go along with it! Be careful though because this can quickly evolve into a WWF Smackdown! The game continues pretty much until you get tired of it. New people keep yelling "Freeze!" and tagging one of the two people and taking their place. It's really fun to see the creativity that kids come up with... | Drama | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Family Feud | This game is based on the game show family feud. Whoever is running the game comes up with some questions, which they secretly go around asking everyone who will play before the game. They can be either chinuch-y questions that it'll be fun to know how many people answer what, or they can be ridiculous, such as "who is the tzevet member you most want to sleep with?" In any case, once you have the results of the questions, you make boards with how many people answered what. Then you actually play the game: split your group into two, and ask the questions. One person from each group can answer at a time, trying to guess the answer with the most people who answered it. I don't know how you would keep score, but I don't really care because in habonim dror we don't stress competition. | Educational, Get to Know You, Just for Fun, Team Building, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Famous Couples | Everyone has a sticker put on their forehead with the name of a famous person on it. The aim of the game is to find your partner (i.e. Tom and Jerry) by asking people questions about your character. All the questions can only be answered with yes or no. When you find your pair, sit down with them. This can be a good way of splitting people into teams or couples...or just for fun. | Get to Know You, Just for Fun, Splitting Participants into Groups | 30 to 40 | 30 | 40 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | ||||||
| Fan Club | In this game, chanichim walk around playing "Scissors, papper rock" with other chanichim. The loser of the match joins the winner's 'fan club' and has to walk around chanting the winner's name. If the loser already has a fan club then the entire fan club moves over to become the winner's fan club. Eveuntually there will be left with two chanichim each with their own huge fan club. This is a great game and breeds enthusiasm | Get to Know You, Just for Fun | 50 or more | 50 | Any | 5 or older | 5 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||||
| Fast Lemon | This game is for players or more. First divide the group into two or more equal lines. then give the leader of each line a full length pencil and a full-grown lemon. as the teams line up single file mark a starting line and finish line on the floor (about 20 feet away at most) the object is to push the lemon with hte pencil along the floor in a straight line-if you can. Each player must push it to the finish line and bck to the next teammate in line. the team to finish first wins. What you discover is that the lemon always keeps rolling, despite a slight wobble. You'll have trouble keeping it in your lane so be sure the furniture is pushed back. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Features | Pretty simple. Person stands in the middle Everyones on chairs in a circle Middle person says: anyone who.... And anyone who is/has/wears/eats/plays... that particular thing has to get up and change seats. Last one standing has to start the next round eg. Anyone wearing jeans. The game can be changed obviously depending on the age of the kids eg. for older kids: anyone who gives head | Get to Know You | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Film Game | one person goes out the room. the other people in the room decide on a film foe example Save The Last Dance, everyone in the room gets a word from the title. the person the comes into the room and asks the other people questions, but they have to answer with their word in a sentence. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| First Impressions | The game works by the one person whispering a question (so no-one else can hear) to someone else in the group e.g. "Who is the mostly to be rich and famous?" and then that person goes to the person they think will be rich and famous and asks another question "Who will live to over 100?" and then they go over to the person who they think will live to over 100 and so on. People stop asking questions when everyone has had a go. Then you follow the trail of questions round and people find out what they were choosen for. | Tzevet Kef | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||||
| Five Items name game | Chanichim sit in a circle. An object is passed around to all players. A chanich sits in the middle of the circle with their eyes closed. When this individual claps their hands, whoever has the object is "it". The "it" person must name 5 (or whatever number works) items on a given theme to avoid being the person in the middle. Suggestive themes in which to name 5: Jewish holidays, biblical characters, things on a Passover table, animals on Noah's ark, Kosher animals, Jewish or Israeli foods, famous Jewish or Israeli personalities, cities in Israel. | Educational, Ice Breaker, Trigger | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Fizz | stand in a circle count upwards when you come to a multiple of 7 or a number with 7 in it say fizz your out if u hesitate or if u say fizz in the rong plce or if u dont say fizz | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Fizzy fireworks | The kids sit in a circle. The "fireworks" are passed around the circle.When the leader claps his/her hands and shouts "BANG" very loudly the children holding the candles lose a turn by having to go to hospital for medical attention. A strip of crepe paper (a bandage)is applied to their person.If they should get caught three times they are out as it is explained to them that they are too badly injured to continue. | Educational | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 5 to 7 years old | 5 | 7 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||
| Fluffy Bunny | Get a bag of marshmallows. Each player has to stuff as many marshmallows as they can into their mouth. They then have to say "fluffy bunny." There is no real winner, it's just fun to see people trying to say "fluffy bunny" with ten marshmallows in their mouths, and it's an excuse to eat lots of marshmallows! | Other | Up to 5 | 5 | Any | Any age | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Fly | This is the jumping sticks game. You lay markers (usually sticks out on the ground) in a line horizontally like this | | | | | They are placed relatively close together and you want to have about 15 sticks. Chanichim are expected to make it all the way across with single strides in each section (sections are the gaps between the sticks). Gradually you remove sticks and make the sections bigger so that leaping from section to section becomes increasingly difficult. People are eliminated when they fail to make it through the course. | Sport | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||||||
| Flying Shoes | Standing in a circle, get everyone to throw one of their shoes into the centre of the circle. The madrich then stands in the middle, picks up a shoe and calls out the name of a chanich in the circle and throws the shoe to them. This chanich then shouts out the name of a different chanich and throws the shoe then onto them. This continues until the shoe has gone to every chanich in the circle. The madrich then throws the next shoe to the same chanich and the entire order is repeated (each chanich throws it to the same person as they did previously). Eventually, the madrich throws the next shoe every time the first chanich has just thrown the shoe until shoes are flying everywhere! The game ends when there is a big pile of shoes at the feet of the final chanich | Get to Know You, Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | 5 or older | 5 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Food Chain | This works best with as many people as possible even up to 300. Split everyone up into a few groups. if the group is 100 people it would be split up as follows Herbivores=40 people and should wear all Green. Omnivores=30 people and should wear all Blue. Carnivores=25 people and should wear all Red. Diseases/Famine/Hunters=5 people and should wear all black. Madrichim should be involved, though there should be two waterholes far apart from each other where the omnivores and herbivores can feed (You give them a blue piece of paper as a water credit and green for food). Herbivores have to hide and try to get to the waterholes. to feed, Omnivores can also use the waterholes, but can also eat the herbivores. Carnivores cannot use the waterholes, but can eat anyone except for famine, Hunters and diseases. Famine, hunters and diseases can 'eat' anyone. The goal of the game is to survive. Herbivores and omnivores die if they run out of pieces of coloured paper. each time they are eaten they must give their paper to the person that ate them. If they run out they are out (They start with one of each and can get one of each(Water and food) each time they make it to a station, though they can not go to the same station twice). Omnivores are in a better position because they can eat the herbivores, but the herbivores can only get to stations to survive. Carnivores eat anyone and so survive by catching the omnivores and herbivores. Disease and famine should be Madrichim ideally (Or older kids). They eat anyone and return the pieces of paper to the stations. And so the circle of life continues... After people are tired, or mostly out blow a whistle or something and end the game. those with the most water and food win! Disease and hunters and famine are evil and never win, they are just eeeeeevvvvviiiiiiiillllllll. | Sport | Any | Any | Any age | 1 hour to 2 hours | 60 | 120 | Low | |||||||||
| Force | All the males are given letters (A-Z) and the females given numbers. All the chanichim sit in a circle and one person starts the game off in the middle. A madraich calls out a number and a letter. If the middle person is male, then the Female player called has to kiss (anywhere on the face) the middle person. If the middle person is male, then Vice Versa. Theres more..... the person kissing the middle person must kiss them before they are kissed by the other person called. Who ever loses is in the middle. I hope you get this game, it really is a lot of fun. | Just for Fun, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | Any | High | ||||||||||
| Free write | 1.Give every participant a paper and a pen 2. Give them a sentence or a subject. Examples are Who is a good Jew? Who are you? What do you want in a girlfriend/boyfriend? What makes you human? Let them spread out and get comgfortable. Play music that may have soemthing to do with the subject, or not. Let them write for at least 10 to 15 minutes, if not for 30 minutes or more. Example: If the subject is about love then you may want to play some Bon jovi, or some Beatles. After they are all done bring them back to the circle and state the question again. Go around and let them read out pieces or all (or none) of their writing. | Get to Know You | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 1 hour to 2 hours | 60 | 120 | Low | ||||||||
| French Toast | Somebody comes up with an object, and the aim of everyone else in the group is to work out what that object they are thinking of is. You do this by constantly comparing the object to other objects - the default being French Toast. In the first round, somebody in the group will give an object, e.g. "a book". If the object being thought of is more similar to a book than it is to french toast, the person thinking of the object responds "a book", otherwise they respond "french toast". Then, somebody else gives another object, e.g. a car. If the mystery obect is more similar to that object than the previous more similar object (e.g. if the book was more similar in the previous round, then we compare the object to see if it's more similar to a book or a car.), then the person thinking of the object says e.g. "a car", otherwise they say the previous more similar object e.g. "a book". This repeats until the group narrows down on the object. *An Example* (The object being thought of is a pillow) Guess 1: "A chair" Response 1: "French Toast" (a pillow is more similar to frech toast than a chair) Guess 2: "A blanket" Response 2: "A blanket" (a pillow is more similar to a blanket than to french toast) Guess 3: "A bookshelf" Response 3: "A blanket" (a pillow is more similar to a blanket than to a bookshelf) Guess 4: "A cushion" Response 4: "A cushion" (a pillow is more similar to a cushion than a blanket) Guess 5: "A pillow" *And now they've won the game, woo!* | Free Time, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Relaxing | Any | Any | Any age | At least 5 minutes | 5 | Low | ||||||||||
| Frog Game | Sit in a circle at maintain a steady beat (bang on your knees, clap your hands, click with your left hand, click with your right hand, repeat). The first person says on the beat "One frog" the next says "Two eyes" then "Four legs" then "Into the puddle" then "ker-PLUNK!". The number of frogs increment each time the frogs jump into the puddle, so the next sequence goes: "Two frogs", "Four eyes", "Eight legs", "Into the puddle", "Into the puddle", "ker-PLUNK", "ker-PLUNK". I hope you get the drift. If someone says the wrong phrase/number or is too slow or misses the beat then they are out. The game ends when there is a single winner. | Just for Fun | Any | 3 or more | 3 | 11 to 14 years old | 11 | 14 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||
| Frozen t-shirt Game | before the event: soak 3-4(depending on how many groups you wish to split the chunichim into) t-shirts in water, roll them up and freeze them during the event: chunichim must get into 3-4 groups, each group is given a t-shirt(frozen) and is instructed to open it up and wear it, the first group to do so wins! | Other | Any | 2 or more | 2 | 5 or older | 5 | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | |||||||
| Fruit baton | All participants sit in a circle. The leader goes around the group asking each participant to choose a fruit that will reperesnt them. One participant is elected to be the "Fruit baton", they are given a peice of paper rolled up in the form of a baton. A participant who is sitting jumps up and calls the name of a participating fruit. The fruit baton must run around the circle trying to bop the fruit on their head before they get the chance to call out another fruit. When your fruit is called you must jump up and call another fruit. This game is random and fun and can be played with any number of participant, although it is most fun with more players. | Free Time, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Fruitbowl | Everyone playing sits on chairs in a big circle. One person goes around and tells the participants their fruit - e.g. apple, banana, pear. Then someone calls a fruit (e.g. apple) and everyone who is that fruit will run and swap places. They cannot sit on the seat either side of their original chair. The person who doesn't get a seat then stands in the middle and calls another fruit. If someone shouts "fruitbowl" everyone has to get up, run around and sit in a new seat. | Ice Breaker | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Funky Chicken | This is a great warm up game! Get everyone to stand in a circle... Counting down from eight out loud, shake your right hand eight times (let your wrist relax completely so your hand is all floppy!!) then your left hand eight times, then your right leg and then your left...and then straight back to shaking your right hand 7 times, left hand 7 times and so on, speeding up as you count down, so in by the time you get to shaking your hands and legs just once you look like a bit of a chicken!! Hence the name ;) A great peula to run first thing in the morning to wake everyone up!! | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | ||||||||||
| Fuzzy Duck | everyone is sitting in a circle. some1 starts off by saying 'fuzzy duck'(putting hands together and pointing to the person on the left) then the next person says 'fuzzy duck' ... it goes around the circle until some one wants to chage direction by saying 'ducky fuzz' (putting hands together and pointing to the person on the right). if there is a conflict between which way to go... the 2 people who are causing the conflict must have a 'Pluck Off' . a pluck off is when the two people have to say 'pluck off' each time louder than the last, the one who gets to the loudest wins and the game carries on the winners way. | Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 1 or more | 1 | 15 to 17 years old | 15 | 17 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||
| Gamuds (friends) | every body has someone to be nice to for shabbat, they must give them presents i.e sweets, cards, serving drinks to them. But they must keep it a secret, the best way to do this is to do nice thing through other people e.g kim is natasha's gamud(friend) but she asks Dan to give her some sweets. then the person gets confused of who it is, at havdulah you must tell your gamud who you are it is funny when they had no clue. | Get to Know You | Any | Any | 5 or older | 5 | At least 4 hours | 240 | Low | |||||||||
| Gap | Two tables are placed together at an angle, leaving a widening gap detween them. Along this gap balanced at more and more precarious positions are cups with sweets in. the chanichim have to work to take the sweets without knocking the cups. | Trust Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Gargarlim | This game is a classic. One person stands in the middle of the circle and approaches someone in the circle and says gargarlim. The person then has to respond with a sound and an action. The person in the middle can then choose to say gargarlim again to which the person has to repeat the same action and sound or copy the action and sound to which the person has to reply gargarlim. Only the person in the middle can decide whether to copy the action or say gargarlim but the person in the circle always has to respond correctly or takes the place of the person in the middle. The person in the middle gets to choose anyone in the circle at any time till someone messes up. | Ice Breaker | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Gargeling Game | one person has to try and gargle a tune whilst everyone else has to guess the tune. the person who guesses the tune then has a chance to gargle a tune which everyone has to guess | Other | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Gday Bruce | All participants sit in a circle. The person who is starting turns to the person on their right and says "gday bruce" (with an australian accent) the person they have said it to says "gday bruce" back to them. The person who started then says "say gday to bruce bruce." The second person then turns to the person to their right and it starts again. If someone makes a mistake, they then become Madge, another mistake and they become Harold, then Sheila, then Lou, then Summer, then they are out. It ends up sounding something like "Gday Bruce" "Gday Madge" "Say Gday to Lou Madge" | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Get Off My Land!!! | Before the game set out chairs spread out randomly in a wide an area as possible, can be inside but is nicer outside if its sunny. Set out as many chairs as their are participants minus two. Everyone but two people sit down (these can be madrichim or not). Then one is selected as it, the other runs. It has to tig the other person, and if he/she does the roles reverse. But the person running can run to a chair and tig the person on the chair and say "GET OFF MY LAND!!!" The person who was standing up sits down and the person that was on the chair is then being chased. | Just for Fun, Sport, Wide Game | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Get Out Of My House | Move into an open space. Ask the Chanichim to find themselves a space to themselves and sit down. Pick two people to be the Cat and Mouse. The Cat chases the mouse. If the Cat tags the mouse, the roles are reversed i.e. the Cat is now the Mouse and the Mouse is now the Cat. If the Mouse gets tired or wants an easy escape, he tags someone on the floor by shouting 'Get out of my house' The person on the floor is now the Cat and starts chasing the original 'Cat'..who..is now the Mouse. This is generally how it goes on until the Chanichim get tired and the Madrich/a can end the game whenever they want. | Just for Fun | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | 2 or more | 2 | Any age | Any | Medium | ||||||||
| Get into Order | This is a game about communitcation. You have a group of up to abour 10 chanachim. Their task is to get into a order (eg birthday, house number, age) withoug talking or mouthing, they must find other ways 2 communicate such as using their hands etc. | Team Building | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | |||||||
| Ghost | In pairs, the first person says the first letter of a word which is in their head. The pair then needs to say a second letter of a word in their head. They continue but they need to avoid making an actual word (4 letters or more) to win. e.g. P-O-R-C- now even though the person may be thinking porch, it is the responsibility of the next person to use the word e.g. porCELIN to avoid losing. There is also the option to challenge the other person if you think they chose a letter but did not have an actual word in mind. If they did, you lose. If not, they lose. Kapish? Its a fun game to play quietly with a mate either on the bus or on an aeroplane or in a boring lecture! | Other | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Gnab | this is an ingenious variation to 'bang' basically, everything is done backwards, why?.... well, why not. so you all start sitting down and someone yells out a name, they stand up, and the 2 people either side of them yell out 'gnab' (bang backwards) thats all folks | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | ||||||||
| Go Teams Go! (Fun game for all ages!) | The participants will be split up into 2 teams. Kids vs Adults. Each team will have a head quarters (Preferably a room) where they will keep their valuable item (Such as a plate, stuffed animal, etc.). First the kids will go, they have to make up a plan to get the Adults valuable item. Each kid will have a job, like the spies, the watcher, and the boss. If they fail to retrieve the flag they have to do something silly in front of the other team, like hop on one foot while making a funny face. But if they retrieve the flag they get 10 points. Same thing for the adults. At the end (You decide how many rounds as you want), the team with most points win. There should be 1 leader/boss for each team. And what is a game without a prize? The team who wins can get the following prizes... For the KIDS - 1 scoop of ice cream - 1 candy piece - 1 movie night - 20 minutes delayed bedtime - Magic Xylophone (Watch Bluey to find out what it is) - Horsey Wedding! (Watch Bluey to find out what it is) For the ADULTS - 20 minutes early bedtime (For the kids) - 1 night, no chef (Adults don't make dinner for 1 night) - Spa - Boss (Kids must do whatever adults tell them to) - 30 minutes free (30 minutes without someone bothering them) - Dessert of their choice - Date night - Middle Day Nap - Massage (Kids give massage) - Free choice (Make up whatever prize you want, that is fair) And don't forget the BEES Be fair! Every job counts! Everyone, have fun! See everything good! | To the adults: Please be aware that you are playing against kids, DO NOT play too rough with any child, but especially with kids under 8 years of age. And please, do not cheat for whatever reason. This is a game, not a soccer match (Even in a soccer match you shouldn't cheat so...). Have fun!! To the kids: I hope this is a fun game! For kids who are older of 8 years of age, please be fair and kind with the younger kids. And make sure not to cheat, cheaters are never winners. Have fun! Not to everyone: If possible, try to find an equal amount of participants on each team. If that is not possible that's fine, but if the kids are short of one member and there is a 15 year old the 15 year old must go to the kids side. Same for the adults. | WARNING: If this game is being played between a family then there is a very, very, small chance of someone getting infected by Covid-19 in this game. If this game is being played with family AND relatives then there is a small-moderate chance of someone getting infected by Covid-19 if someone has not been taking appropriate measures. If this game is being played with complete strangers and/or friends that are not in any way related to you then there is a moderate-high chance of someone getting infected by Covid-19. As always, take the proper precautions and stay safe. | Just for Fun, Splitting Participants into Groups, Team Building | Any | 1 | 1 | 1 | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||
| Goo Clap | This game is quite challenging for chanichim of a younger age, but hell! Play it with them anyway! Everyone is in a circle, and in turn, each person says a word out of the phrase "goo <clap> goo <clap> goo <clap> <clap> <clap>" (<clap> = a real clap, not saying the word "clap"). So everyone says one word out of the phrase, and once it has been recited, it starts again but with an extra <clap> added on the end. Everytime the phrase is repeated, another <clap> is added. When someone makes a mistake, they are out and the game is started again! | Other | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||
| Grab the Shmatta | A "shmatta" is placed in between two lines on people (it can be a jumper, scarf, cloth, etc). Both lines should hav the same amount of people Each person is given a number so that they hav a corresponing number in the other line A number is called so that one person runs from each line to the "shmatta" The 1st person to grab it has to run back to his/her line The other person has to tag him/her Points are scored if you tag the person with the "shmatta" or if one gets to his/her line with the "shmatta". | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Grandmothers Footsteps | One volunteer is selected to be grandmother and is at one end of the room and everyone else is at the other. The aim is to get to the other end of the room without being seen by grandmother. Grandmother faces the wall briefly and everyone slowly makes their way towards the other side when grandmother turns back anyone who is seen moving is sent back to the start then graandmother faces the wall again. The process is repeated untill someone reaches the other side without being seen. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 5 to 7 years old | 5 | 7 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||
| Greased Watermelon | You play football with a greased watermelon, in the water. It has whatever rules you would like to apply to make the game suitable for whatever age. (No/Yes Tackleing and so on) | Water | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Guess Who | Divide the chanichim into two groups, and select a representative from each. these two chanichim should stand at the front, and think of a girl from their group in their mind. they should then take turns asking the other questions about whom they have chosen. for example 'does he/she have brown hair?' if the answer is yes, everyone from that group without brown hair sits down, and vice versa. whomever of the two guesses whom the one has chosen first, wins. the game is then repeated... the winner is the group who have won the most rounds. | Get to Know You, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Guess the Machine | The group is split into groups of two or three. Each group takes it in turn to act out a machine... for example, the Madrich/a will say to the group "do an impression of a photocopier" and the group has to do an impression of a photocopier, whilst the rest of the group...looking on in amazement... will have to guess what type of machine is being acted out! When a group gets a machine right, each team (the ones doing the impression and the team which has correctly guessed) will both get a point. If no one guesses what type of machine it is, no one is awarded a point. The team with the most points at the end wins. Suggestions for machines: Photocopier Fax Machine Washing Machine Vacuum cleaner Car Train Sprinkler And any other ones you can think of! Think outside the box.. :) | Drama, Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 15 or older | 15 | Any | Low | ||||||||
| Guillotine | Divide the group into pairs. Partners decide on and write down a few lines of conversation. Use this as script. Now repeat the same lines, but in these situations: a. As if crossing the Judean Desert. b. As if taking a person to the border crossing (do this both ways). c. As if you were two newlyweds at breakfast. d. As if taking someone to the guillotine (both ways). e. Any situation of your own choosing. | Drama, Get to Know You, Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 5 or older | 5 | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | ||||||
| Gungerschloff | Kids are either told to bring sleeping bags/blankets with them or else provided with them. Split into any number of teams (should be several people to a team) and have them some up with a team name. Game itself is pretty basic, volunteers are sent to the front from each team to compete in various physical and mental challenges. Use your imagination, some fun ones include: -two volunteers from each team must eat an apple. The catch? Neither may use their hands -peanut butter sandwich eating contest -drama games (whose line is it anyway style) -trivia -water chugging (be careful that kids dont make themselves sick, it happens all too often) At various random times during the course of the game, the moderators will yell "GUNGERSCHLOFF!" at which point the kids must hide themselves under their sleeping bags as quickly as possible. The first team to be completely covered (no body parts showing whatsoever) gets bonus points | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Hand Rhythm | All chanichim are lying on their tummies in a circle (facing towards the center). Place your hands palm down in the circle and get all Chanichim to place their left hands over the person to the left of them's right hand. One person starts the 'pulse' by slapping their hand on the ground. The aim is to get the pulse all the way around the circle. If someone stuffs up or is too slow, the game starts again from the begining. For an interesting twist - if you bang your hand twice on the ground, the direction changes. | Just for Fun, Team Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | ||||||
| Happy Jewish Families | Chanichim sit in a circle, and one person starts by saying "my (relation)'s name is (name", eg. "My mum's name's Sally". If someone else in the circle has a relation called Sally then they would say "My (relation)'s name is Sally", eg. "My auntie's name is Sally". Then everyone shouts "Happy Jewish Families" and the person who's auntie's name is Sally would continue the game until another match takes place. Other variations include that once someone has a match they must not say anything else for the rest of the game, or one I played where you had to join a line and not say anything else.. | Get to Know You, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Hawk | Stand in a circle and get into pairs facing eachother. one at a time within those pairs, take turns at saying the word "hawk" in a funny way to try and make the other person in my pair laugh. The word "hawk" is repeated by me then my partner then me then my partner over and over until one of us laugh. The way you say hawk can be made with noise or movement of actions or anything in order to make my partner laugh however i can not touch him/her. once there is a winner in each pair the winners take a step towards the centre of the circle and play the second round of all the winners and so on until there is only one pair in the middle and its a bit like a "hawk off" until one of the 2 laughs. great game! really entertaining. | Ice Breaker | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Head and Catch | All the participants stand in a circle. The leader stands in the center of the circle and throws the ball to one of the participants. If the leader shouts 'catch' then the participant must head the ball and if the leader shouts 'head' the participant must catch the ball. If the game is just to fill time then if the participant gets it wrong they have to stand in the middle and be the leader. If the game is used to divide people up into groups then if the participant gets it wrong they will go out of the circle and into a group. | Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||||
| Hidden Agendas | A good thing to do in k'vutsa time, or another occasion when small group are the order of the day. Give everyone in your group a "hidden agenda", a small quirk that they have to adhire to for a set period, eg. over dinner, all day or for the whole camp. These can take many forms, fun examples in my experience have been: 1. The person has a phobia of gravity 2. The person cannot speak unless they are touching the person they wish to speak to. 3. The person must remove one item of clothing whenever they hear the word "Wittgenstein" and cannot replace it for one hour. Think of anything you like, as long as it won't offend people in context. They then go back to the main group with their hidden agendas and wreak (controlled, measured, safe) havoc. If you're feeling adventurous one chanich can be appointed to work out what the HAs are, or you could get them to choose their own HAs and the madrichim have to guess. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Ho, Co, NO! | Stand in a circle. One person is holding huge ball of energy that they can only constrain for 2 seconds. They must pass it on either by passing it to the person next to them (Shout "Ho!" and push towards right or left)) or throwing it across the circle to someone (Shout "Co!" and throw). The person across the circle can either accept and continue passing, or reject and shout "NO!", barring it with their arms crossed like an 'X'. | Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||
| Hodgy Podgy | This game is a game of storytelling. Each participant adds a word to the story, creating sentances and stories. The participants sit in a circle. They start out by chanting and clapping out the beat: "hodgy podgy hodgy podgy wishy washy woo, WOO. hodgy podgy hodgy podgy wishy washy woo, WOO." The participants continue to clap the beat as the story goes. Following this the participant designated to start gives the first word in the sentance followed by the person to their left who says the next word, etc. If a person's word doesn't make sense or they are off beat or stumped they're out of the game and the game restarts. | Drama, Free Time, Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Relaxing, Trigger | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Honey Bear | Everyone sits in a cirlce, one person sits in the middle and closes their eyes or puts their head in their lap. Keys are placed in front of the person. Someone in the cirlce is chosen to walk round the cirlce to try and get the keys. Whilst the person walks round the circle, the person in the middle can point if they hear the person walking and try and find out where they are. The person enters the circle and tries to get the keys without the 'bear' waking up. The Bear can grab the keys when they think they are about to be stolen. | Just for Fun, Relaxing | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | 1 or more | 1 | 5 to 7 years old | 5 | 7 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||
| Hoop off pole | A crowd gathers around a flag pole with a hoola hoop around it. If there is not one in your area, you can prepare one by playing hoop on pole (see: hoop on pole) The aim of the game is to remove the hoop from the pole. The most proficient method has proven to be by throwing the hoop upwards and off the pole. Once the hoop is off the pole, you may proceed to play hoop on pole (see: hoop on pole) | Just for Fun, Sport, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Huggy Bears | Madrich shouts "Huggy Bear 2" and everyone finds a partner....then "huggy bear 4" and everyone gets into a group of four. The Madrich can choose what Huggy Bear they want to shout e.g. "Huggy Bear 25" This is a good way of splitting a group into smaller groups/teams | Splitting Participants into Groups | 50 or more | 50 | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | High | |||||||||
| Huggy Jellyfish | Basically the same game as Huggy bears, however, instead of getting lots of chanichim to hug each other, which is now heavily frowned upon by the Child Protection Act, you get them to run around saying "blub blub glug blob" and other jellyfish-esque sounds and wobbling a great deal. They then just group together to make one big 'n'-sized group blobbling and wobbling. | Splitting Participants into Groups | Any | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | High | ||||||||||
| Human Bingo | you make a human bingo card which comprises of different special talent like touching your nose with your tongue, kartwheel, say the alphabet backwards. everyone has to go around the room trying to get as many of there boxes signed as possible only using each person once. when the alloted time is up the talents are called out randomely one at a time and when someone has a line of boxes with signatures they shout bingo. then to prove that they have bingo all the people who appear in the line which makes the bingo are called up one at a time infront of everybody to prove that they can do the talent they signed for. if they can't all do it the game continues if they can then that player is the winner. | Get to Know You | 40 to 50 | 40 | 50 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 30 minutes to 45 minutes | 30 | 45 | Low | ||||||
| Human Bop-it | 5 enegetic actions need to be decided to represent the 5 bop it calls e.g twist it - hold hands to head and twist torso 90 degrees to left while keeping feet in the same place spin it - jump and spin 360 to the right pull it - lift arms above head and pull down as if doin a chin-up flick it - hold arms forward and do flicking action bop it - squat, touch floor and jump up again 1 madrich does bop-it style beat box and another calls out the actions ... starting slow and getting progressively faster. Until people are moving really energetically | Other | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Human Chairs | Everyone sits in a circle with their chairs to the side. Everyone lies back on the person behind them. The madrich will then go round and take out a chair one at a time, so the person is left supporting themselves and also the person lying on them. The game ends when all the chairs are taken away and everyone is supported. | Team Building, Trust Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 1 or more | 1 | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | High | |||||
| Human Croquet | This is based on the scene from Alice in Wonderland, but takes ther form of a relay race. Teams are of 5 to 10, with anything from 2 teams up. The players in each team must bend over to from arches in a line, then the remaining person must kick a ball through the the first persona's hoop. He then runs to the end and forms his own hoop. The first hoop then stands up and becomes the kicker, and so on until the finish line is reached. The first team to get to the finish line wins. | Sport | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||
| Human Machine | Chanichim stand in a circle. each person chooses a repetitive sound to make. one chanich/a starts with his/her sound and then every 2-4 beats the person on the right of him/her starts to repeat their personal sound until everyone in the circle is contributing to a human machine melody. great to do at night, in the dark. | Team Building | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Human guess who | The madrichim choose person but dont tell any one who it is. then the chanichim stand up and ask the madrichim yes and no questions like, do they have blond hair? If the chosen person does, then chanichim without blond hair sit down and with stay standing up. Keep asking questions till few people left and then they guess!! is it...??? | Get to Know You | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||
| Human knot | Have a group of 10-15 stand very close together. Tell them to reach out their arms so all hand are jumbled and inter-twined. Tell them to grab one hand for each of their hands , but not the one of the person's next to them. Now they are a human knot and must use teamwork to untangle themselves into one circle without letting go of their hands. | Team Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | Any | High | |||||||||
| Human naughts and crosses | 9 people have to lie on the floor making a 3 by 3 square. Two people are then chosen to play naughts and crosses against each other. for a naught, the person must curl up into a ball. For a cross, the person must spread their arms and legs into a cross shape. Normal naughts and crosses rules apply | Just for Fun, Relaxing, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Humming Game | Two equal teams have a competition who can hum the longest. Basically its a humming relay the first person in each team starts and as soon as they finish the next person then starts humming for as long as they can. the winning team is the one who is still humming when the other team is finished. | Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | ||||||||||
| Hungry Chickens | Everybody is given a number, either 1 or 2. Ensure there are more 2s than 1s. The 1s are told they are chickens. The 2s are chickens in disguise. The announcer announces "chickens" At such a juncture everybody walks around bobbing their head, flapping their wings and making chicken noises. The announcer then proceeds to announce "Hungry chickens". At this point all of the chickens in disguise reveal their true identity and hold out their hands flat as plates. Every real chicken must find a plate and start pecking at it with their hand in the shape of a chicken's beak. There may only be one chicken per plate, and every chicken who fails to find a plate dies of hunger. Tell a few of the plates that they are now real chickens and then the game continues by the announcer announcing "chickens". The game continues until all the chickens have died of hunger bar 1, ie the winner. | Educational, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Medium | ||||||||||
| I Spy | Somebody thinks of something they can see and then says "I spy with my little eye something begining with..." (eg c) and puts in the letter of the thing they are thinking of. Then people keep guessing till they guess correctly. Whoever guesses the thing then gets to choose something and say "i spy with my little eye...." | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| I am a [blank] looking for a [blank]... | Every chanich/a is given a peice of paper stating for eg. "i am an egg looking for a chicken". another person is given "i am a chicken looking for a hen," another has "i am a hen looking for a hen house" and so on. the chanichim must walk around repeating their sentence and get in an order according to their sentence. its a bit of fun and it can be used as a trigger for any subject matter. | Just for Fun | Any | 1 or more | 1 | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||
| I don't know much, but I do know... | This is a quickfire game played in a circle. It goes around the circle, as in most games. Each player says, "I don't know much but i do know...." This is followed by a stupendously amazing fact that few people know. Each player has three lives. It goes round and a player loses a life if they don't have something to say when it is their turn. Examples: I don't know much, but I do know that a jumbo jet uses 18,200 litres of fuel while taking off!! I don't know much, but I do know that frankfurters were invented in China!! I don't know much, but I do know that there are approximately 1000 words for 'camel' in arabic!!! | Get to Know You, Just for Fun | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||
| I have never | Sit in a circle with, depending on how long you want the game to go on for, 5 fingers up. one person starts by saying "i have never e.g. been skydiving". anyone who has e.g. been skydiving puts a finger down. when you have no fingers left, you are out. you learn information about the other people in the group. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||
| I saw your teeth | All participants stand in a circle, each with their arms bent either side of their head with their elbows facing the centre of the circle. Each palyer must curl their lips around their teeth so that no-one can see their teeth a topic is decided, eg animals, and each person in turn must say the name of an animal - difficult with their lips around their teeth! If somebody laughs and reveals their teeth, or reveals them when saying something everybody else must flap their arms around whilst shouting "I saw your teeth!" without showing their own teeth! | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| I'm Building a Shed | Stand in a circle. One person starts off. they go up to someone and says "I am building a shed would you like to join in" in a funny voice. The person replies "of course but only if they can join in" pointing to someone else in the same silly voice they were asked in. They then approach that person and starts again with a new silly voice. very amusing. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| I'm the Best | Well this game is great when your chanichim are playing up. each chanich has 15 seconds to tell you why they are the best. The winner is however you decide, its great becuase eventually they will say stuff like "im the best beacuse my leaders are amazing" its great!! Funny! | Other | Any | 1 or more | 1 | 11 to 14 years old | 11 | 14 | Any | Low | ||||||||
| I'm thinking of? | One person starts by saying information about a person they choose in the group. Starting with subtle, less obvious things then becoming more obvious. The rest of the group can guess when they know and the person who guesses the right person then does the same. For egsample i'm thinking of a boy, who is here for the first time, who has a sister, who went to x primary school, who plays football on sunday...... | Get to Know You | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 5 or older | 5 | Any | Low | ||||||||
| I've Never | Get the group to sit in a circle on chairs except for one person who is in the middle. The person in the middle says "I've never..." and gives an event. Everyone who has done it, has to try and swap seats with others who are out of their seats. The person in middle takes a seat and the aim is not to be in the middle. The next person says "I've never.." and an event and people swap seats. | Get to Know You, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Medium | |||||||||
| Ibble Dibble | Everyone sits in a circle, facing inwards so they can see each other - this is very important. One person starts the game off saying: 'My name is ibble dibble (say your name) with no ibble dibbles, calling ibble dibble (say someone elses name) with no ibble dibbles.' This is then repeated by the person whos name you called. If you get the statement wrong, hesitate, or just cant get the words out you are given a sticker, known as an ibble dibble, which is stuck on your forehead. You then say: 'My name is ibble dibble (say your name) with one ibble dibble, calling ibble dibble (say someone elses name) with no ibble dibbles.' The number of ibble dibbles a person has depends on how many ibble dibbles they have on their forehead. The game ends when everyone is bored or you run out of ibble dibbles. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 1 or more | 1 | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | |||||||
| Identity Crisis | Everyone sits in a big circle, post-its and writing utensils are handed out to all. Each person is told to write the name of a famous person (pretty much anyone that everyone in the circle knows) on the post-it and then put it in a hat. The post-its are then redistributed at random. Each kid must then take turns asking yes or no questions about their new identity. They may ask as many as they need to until they figure it out. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| If you love me baby smile | Everyone sits in a circle, and one person goes up to somebody in the group and tries to make them smile by saying, "if you love me baby, smile" and they are not allowed touching the person at all. They may make funny faces or whatnot. If the person does not smile or laugh, they will reply, "I love you baby, but I just can't smile". And if the person succeeds, the person they made smile moves on, and if they lose, they have to go to another person. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Jews and I | Without telling the players the point (or name) of the game, have everyone think of a song in English containing the word 'you'. The word doesn't have to be in the song's title, just in the lyrics. For example, someone could think of 'I just called to say I love you'. Then, once everyone has thought of (or maybe written down) a song, everyone gets to sing theirs, replacing all the instances of 'you' with 'Jews' (as in "I just called to say I love Jews"). Hilarity ensues. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Music | Any | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Medium | |||||||||
| Jungle Game | Everyone stands in a circle and is put into pairs. Each pair is given an animal with a sound and an action. The animals are given out the in order that they're in the food chain (eg amoeba at the bottom and lion at the top). The lions make their noise and action and then make the noise and action of another animal. That pair then makes their noise and action and one of another animal etc. You can't make the noise of one of the animals next to you in the circle or of the one that passed it to you. If you do, your pair moves down to become an amoeba and everyone else moves up. The aim is to be a lion at the end of the game. Also, as the game progresses, you can become harsher and say that the pairs aren't allowed to hesitate or confer before making their noises. | Get to Know You, Team Building | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||||||
| Just a minute | Someone is given a topic and has to talk for 1 minute about that topis with repeating or hesitating. | Just for Fun, Trigger | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Kbish Kboo | The chanichim are split into two groups. They have to decide in their groups weather they are going to be goblins (wiggle fingers infront of mouth and make blblblblbl noise), giants (raise arms above head and say raaaaah) or wizards (both hands facing righe and make a sweeping motion to the left whilst saying shzam!) After deciding, the two teams line up length ways (NOT BEHIND EACHOTHER!) and are opposite eachother across a wide space they then take seven steps towards eachother, then they make night fever motions whilst saying kbish kboo kbish kboo kbish kboo, then they do their chosen action. Goblins, scare away wizards, wizards magic away giants, giants step on goblins. For example if one team chose wizards and the other chose giants, the team who chose wizards have to chase the team who chose giants back to their start line. If they get caught, they join the wizards team, if not then they continue on the same team. It can go on for as much or little time as the madrichim decide, however the game officially ends when everyone from one team is on the other team. Or when there is one person left. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Key Game | place a bunch of keys under a chair and get the chunichim to sit around them in a circle. get one chunich to sit on the chair and be blind-folded. you then choose one chunich in the circle and there job is to steal the bunch of keys without the person on the chair catching them by pointing at them. ithey get caught they have to sit i the middle. if they dont then they go back in the circle and someone else is chosen to get the keys. the person blind-folded stays the same untill they catch someone. | Other | Any | Any | 5 or older | 5 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| King/Bench Ball | ur in two teams and there's more than one ball football sized but it has to be a soft ball (sponge) otherwise it hurts if u get hit to hard. Then u split the "court" in half and place a bench at the end of each court. each team chooses a half. one person from each team goes and stands on the bench at the opposite end of the court. then u give the teams equal numbers of balls. to get someone out u have to throw the ball at them and hit them below the knee. if people are hit from behind by the "king" they are out. when someone is out they also stand on the bench. the teams can try to throw the balls over the other team to their king(s) so as to be attacking the opposing team from 2 sides. | Free Time, Just for Fun, Sport | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||||
| Kiss Kiss | WARNING: TZEVETS AND OVER 17s ONLY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Sit in 2 concentric circles, facing inwards, so that everyone has a corresponding partner (of similar size is best) in the other circle. Each pair is then numbered, and must remember their number. The gap between then two circles should be roughly 3 or 4 feet (a metre for the metrically minded). One person sits in the middle, and is "in charge". The person in the middle says a number. The person in the inner circle (a) with that number stands up and makes a dash for him/her. The person in the outer circle (b) stands up and ust intercept him. If a makes it to the person in the middle then they take over that position. If b prevents him from getting there then he takes the middle. The person there originally takes over the space of the person who "loses", thus if b catches a, b goes in the middle, a goes to b's original position and the person in the middle goes to a's. | Tzevet Kef | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | Any | 18 or older | 18 | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | High | ||||||
| Kiss the Pig (Little Miss Piggy) | a stuffed animal is passed around the circle and every chanich/a takes a turn at stating where they are going to kiss the stuffed toy (for example a pig) and then kisses it so if i could say " i am going to kiss the pig on the ear" and the person next to me could kiss the pig on the armpit or whatever. then once the pig has been kissed by everyone in the cricle. the pig is removed and one at a time each chanich/a takes a turn at kissing the person on their left where they kissed the pig. so if i kissed the pig's ear i must kiss the person on my left's ear and he/she must kiss the next person's belly button. | Just for Fun, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 15 to 17 years old | 15 | 17 | Any | High | |||||||||
| Kissing Game | Sit the kids in a circle, and give each girl a number and each boy a letter (or vice versa). Choose one kid to sit in the middle, a madrich(a) then calls out a letter and a number (that corresponds with a boy and a girl there). The game differs depending on the gender of the child in the circle. If the kid is a boy then the girl whose number was called has to kiss the boy in the centre, while the boy whose letter was called had to kiss the girl before she kisses the boy in the centre. If the kid in the centre is a girl, the boy whose letter was called has to kiss the girl in the centre before the girl whose number was called kisses him. The boy/girl who doesn't kiss the respective person replaces the boy/girl who was in the middle, and the madrich(a) calls the next number and letter | Get to Know You, Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | Any | High | ||||||||||
| Kung Fu | The players all start with their hands in the middle. The person who will go first (winner from the last round) says kuuuuung fu! On "fu!" everyone jumps out of the middle and assumes kung fu fighting positions. On each person's turn they make a single move, in one fluid motion, attempting to hit the hand of another player with their hand. This move may include jumping and broad strokes, but they cannot rebound (e.i. I chop and then withdraw my hand back to its original position). The turns go clockwise from the first person, following the same order as the game progresses (minus the people who have been knocked out). When it is not your turn, if someone makes a move towards you, you may make a defensive move away from them. If you do so, it does not count as your move, even if you were next. | Just for Fun | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Medium | ||||||||
| Kya | Arrange everyone around in a circle and the aim is to pass the 'energy' around the circle. Only one person can have the 'energy' and he must pass it on to someone else using a different action. Actions: Kya! - Point to a person next to you and shout "Kya!!" the person you pointed to now has the energy. Shwartz - (ever seen spaceballs?) Clench your fist and point to a person next to you and say "Shwartz" in a deep voice. The person on the opposite side of the way you poin gets the energy. Melfieliano - You say this word and point to someone who isnt next to you and they recieve the energy Paletra - Wave your arms up and down at a person next to you and the energy skips a person and goes to the person sitting two spaces away from you. There are other moves which are harder to explain by typing but you can be creative and make up your own! | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 3 or more | 3 | 10 or older | 10 | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | |||||
| Label game | Each channich(a) is given a sticker which is stuck on their foreheads. They cannot see what it says on the sticker which is a cirtain charactor or celebrity that they would know. They have to try and figure out who they are by going up to other people in the group and asking them only straight forward yes or no questions. The person who they ask can see what the sticker says and will answer them. the first one to guess which character they are is the winner. | Other | Any | Any | 5 or older | 5 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Lap Tag | To play, you need an odd number of people. Sit in a circle, where each person has another person on their lap; meaning that one person won't have anybody on their lap. The person with nobody on their lap must then shout two names of people who are seated on two others' laps. Those two people must then race to tap the foot of the person who just shouted the two names, as follows: As soon as the two names are shouted, the people who have the two people on their laps must grab them to stop them escaping. At the same time, the people whose names have been called need fo try and escape the grip and to crawl over to the person who shouted the names. At no point can anybody stand up - crawling at all times. If it looks like a stalemate is ensuing (i.e. they both seem unable to escape the grip of their captor), the person who shouted the first two names can shout a third. Once the person's foot is tapped, the person who tapped their foot goes behind the person who's foot was tapped (so the person who shouted the two names is now on the lap of one of the people they shouted). The other people who were wrestling then switch places with each other - i.e. if they were on the lap, they then become behind & have the other person on their lap, and vice versa. This'll leave one person again in the circle with nobody on their lap - and the game repeats. | Make sure to choose a set of rules that works for your group first. E.g. you could say "no biting/punching/pinching & no attacks above the shoulders". Best played with shoes off, and make sure to empty your pockets! | Just for Fun, Tzevet Kef | 7 or more | 7 | Any | 15 or older | 15 | At least 15 minutes | 15 | High | |||||||
| Last Word game | When someone is speaking or trying to make an announcement, repeat the last word of each sentence, spell it out and say the word again. for example- speaker: "Please be quiet" everyone: "Quiet, Q-U-I-E-T, quiet" it is very funny and really winds up the speaker! try it at e.g. meal times. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Laugh out loud LOL | You must try to make the other team laugh using any non-contact methods! | Free Time, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Relaxing, Simulation, Splitting Participants into Groups | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Lawyer | Everyone is sitting in a circle and one person is chosen to be the 'prosecutor'. The proseuctor needs to go to different people asking them short and fast questions. However, the person is not allowed to asnwer, his lawyer must do that for him. The lawyer is the person sitting to the left of the defendant. This involves concentration as you must know when to let your lawyer answer for you or if you must answer for your own client. If either the defendant or the lawyer stuffs up the answering then they swap with the prosecutor. | Get to Know You, Trigger | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||
| Link | This game is basically a version of 'It'. Everyone should pair up and link arms, except for two. One of the two must try catch the arm of anyone in a pair, at which point the other half of that pair is now single, and must try catch someone else. The other single girl is 'it' and must try catch the other single person. Is best fun when played that everyone must run about on their knees, and is great at tiring everyone out. Could go well with an achdus theme. | Educational, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Logo Game | You have to describe a logo to the chanichim and the 1st the guess it wins The chanichim can also describe logos Football emblems or car logos can be used. | Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||
| Look Down, Look Up | Get the group to stand in a circle. The Madrich says, "Look Down". Everyone looks down. The Madrich then says, Look Up" and everyone has to look up and look at someone's face in the circle. If two people look at each other, then they give a dramatic death and die and leave the game. The rest continue with the Madrich saying look down and look up. It continues until either 1 or 2 people are left (depending if there are an even or odd number of people playing). | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Machanyim | ur in two teams and there's one ball football sized but it has to be a soft ball (sponge) otherwise it hurts if u get hit to hard. Then u split the "court" in half and each team chooses a half. Each team has a goalie at the oposite side of the pitch to them behind their opponents, this is so their opponents can be attacked from behind. then u toss up the ball (like in netball)and whichever team gets the ball imediately starts. to get someone out u have to throw the ball at them and hit them between the foot and knee b4 the ball bounces. If somebody throws the ball at u and u catch it the person that threw it to u is out. when ur out u go to the sidelines on the opposite teams side. When a team is down to one player left the goalie can come into the game. | Free Time, Just for Fun, Sport | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||||
| Mafia | All the chanachim sit in a circle - the lights are turned off nd they r told to shut ther eyes. The madrich/a taps 3 chanachim on the head - they r the mafia. they in turn chose a victim that they hav killed. They all sit down nd the lights r turned back on. The madrich/a tells a really creepy story that involves three dead bodies. The bodies are then revealed. the chanichim then get to vote on who they think are the mafia (usually giggling or guilty looks give them away). the three chanachim that get the most votes are put in prison. before they go they r asked to reveal if they were the mafia. the game goes on untill all the mafia are discovered. | Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 3 or more | 3 | 8 to 10 years old | 8 | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||
| Mafia Bang | Its like bang, a name is called, that person ducks, and the two people either side must shoot each other. There is however a twist. The person that kills, must take the name of the person that gets killed. It gets very complicated but is good for a laugh. | Get to Know You, Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Mafia Game | One person is the narrator. He tells everyone to shut their eyes. He then goes around the circle and picks two people to be mafia by tapping them on the head and one person to be detective by tapping them on their shoulder. This has to be done discretely otherwise the game will be ruined. The mafia are then asked to wake up. the two people wake up and between the two of them silently agree on who to kill by pointing. The mafia are then told to go back to sleep and the detective is then asked to wake up. The detective then guesses who is the mafia. The narrator then moves his/her head to indicate whether they are correct or not. The detective then goes back to sleep and the narrator then tells everyone to wake up. The narrator then informs the group of who has died. Once dead the player can not speak and does not have to close their eyes again. Once everyone is awake peopel can start to accuse people of being in the mafia. After a couple of minutes the narrator should decide on the 2 names that are being suggested the most. Both these people are then put on trial. they have 30 seconds to put a case forward as to why they are not in the mafia. After both of them have spoken the narrator calls a vote. The player with the most votes is then dead and they must say if they are the Mafia or not. This is then repeated until either: 1) Both mafia members are dead 2) Only mafia members are alive. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Relaxing, Team Building, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Mafia as a trigger | You cheat at a game of Mafia (or Werewolves, if you know it). For a description, see https://www.kefkefkef.com/games/61dcbe4a9623669489619fab/ The narrator decides, by tapping, who the characters are. You can cheat very easily - make all the madrichim the characters you want them to be. You can decide what characters you want - whether you want a 'Who killed <Joseph>' scenario, or just who stole x, or who learnt y. You could give the game a themed title so that everyone knows it's leading up to a peulah, like 'Mafia Rabbis'. It's very flexible, but the essentials are the hanachim think they're playing a game of Mafia, and to their surprise all the characters are who you want them to be, and they can stand up and talk their pieces. Try for some variation, but only if you've played Mafia or Werewolves with the children before. | Trigger | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Mallet's Mallet | This is a simple word association game which can either be played between 2 individuals or a whole group. The idea is to start with a simple word and each person in turn has to say a word associated with the last word said. For example, if the first word is "green", the next person answering could say "colour" and the person after that could say "rainbow" and the person after that "sky" and so on. A person loses (and gets hit over the head with a soft mallet - optional!) if he/she hesitates for too long, repeats a word or if he/she is the 3rd person to give a similar word such as green, blue, yellow or little, small, tiny. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Marshall Mathers | This game is based on part of the chorus on Eminems' hi my name is. For this game everyone has to know the name of the person sitting to the left of them (or right depending which was you go round) you start off by making a beat twice on the legs twice on the hands, once the beat is established the first person says to the beat 'hi my name (insert name) their name is (person on left) my name is ticha ticha ticha ticha (making mixing reecord movement with their hands), it is then passed on to the person on the left and goes round, etc, etc. after each person you can choose to repeat before moving on the next person. | Get to Know You | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||
| Me too, me too!! | One person starts introducing him/herself (eg. my name is Joe, I come from London, I am 12, etc) and when anyone else in the circle hears something they have in common they shout "Me too, me too!" and everyone else shouts "A link, a link!", at which point that person goes and sits next to the first person. Now it is his/her turn to introduce themselves until thew next person finds and link. Eventually, everyone will be sitting next to someone they have something in common with. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Media | One person is sent out of the room and while they're gone, a story is made up about them. (ie, they got hit by a car while busking in the middle of the road) When they return, the room is set up like a press conference, and all the remaining chanichim are reporters. Their job is to ask the person questions about the story without giving the story away, for example "How were you expecting to make money in that location?". The person has to answer the questions but also accumulate enough knowledge about their actions to guess what they did. | Other | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||||||
| Melodrama | Objects are placed in the center of the room. Enough objects for each chanich. Objects should be varied (e.g. a tour har, a menu, suntan lotion). Each chanich should choose an object. The madrich should begin a story e.g. "It was a hot night when the tour from Britain first landed in Israel. Ben Gurion airport was packed with tourists. This was not to be a normal British programme in Israel. The mystery began when a body was found in the suitcase of a participant..." Chanichim should continue the story, one by one, and include within their story the object they chose. | Drama, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Mini olympics | All the channichim are devided into eg:8 groups equally. The groups are then all given a colour eg:Blue,black,Red,Orange,Yellow, Green, Pink,White,Purple. The groups then have 5 mins to get changed into the colour ,come up with war cries,make posters and start getting points which stick onto the posters which each group makes. The madrich leading the game then blows a whistle and all the groups go off to different stations which are run by the other madrichim Eg: human pyramid,smarties in flour, bobbing for apples, obsticle course,limbo, Water balloons,3 sticks,water bowl. The Madrichim running tha stalls are encharge of explaining what they have to do at the stations and encourage the group to scream war cries and decide how many points the group gets for both-Either 10,15,20 or 30 which are stuck on to the posters that they bring with them. The Madrich running the entire wide game is encharge of timing each station(5-10 minutes at each) once the time is up they blow a whistle which makes each group move on to the next station. Once the groups finish all the stations they meet back where they first met and the points are counted and the group with the most points is the winner and gets a box with sweets or prizes. | Wide Game | 50 or more | 50 | 6 or more | 6 | Any age | 2 hours to 4 hours | 120 | 240 | Low | |||||||
| Miniature tanks | The players get on all fours in a large cirlce, all facing the middle. Leader - Asks the crowd if they know what tanks do. What? They always try to move forward. "When we start, you will be a miniature tank and you will keep trying to move forward. If you get knocked over, you just keep on chugging with your arms and legs" The leader should then demonstrate what a tank moving forward looks like, rocking back and forth on his/her right and then left side. While rocking back and forth and moving forward, the leader demonstrates that the tanks say "Miniature Tanks, Miniature Tanks" in beat with the rocking motion, so that rocking on the left corresponds to the word "miniature" and rocking on the right corresponds to "tanks". The leader should also demonstrate a tank on its side, or knocked upside down, trying to keep going by moving its arms and legs helplessly. When the leaders announces the start, each person starts slowly moving towards forwards. Chaos ensues. Have fun! | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Medium | ||||||||||
| Minute Game | Everyone stands on their chair and the Madrich has a watch and nobody else can have a watch. The madrich says go! This signals the start of a minute the person to sit down closest to one minute is the winner. Obviously the madrich has to be constantly checking the time without giving away clues. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 5 or older | 5 | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | |||||||||
| Monster Quest | This works best in a site that has lots of indoor spaces and corridors, but could be played outdoors as well. Ideally it will be played at night with as little lighting as possible (for reasons below) - although enough light so that it's safe! All the participants are Monster Hunters, identified in some way (perhaps all wearing hats) and at the start, one madrich is the "King (or Queen) Monster". The Monster can only stagger about and nobody is allowed to run. If the Monster catches you, you become a Monster. Monsters are identified in another way (e.g. not wearing a hat). All Monsters have to keep moving at all times, and are not allowed to pick anything up. Also Monsters are not allowed to speak, only growl and roar. If a Monster sees a Monster Hunter, they have to give chase regardless of what they were doing before. The rest of the madrichim can either be participants or just be around to keep the game going and make sure the rules are followed. All the Monster Hunters are searching for the pieces of the Monster Destroyer, a powerful weapon that will destroy the King/Queen Monster forever. These pieces can be parts of a big torch (e.g. batteries, bulb, plastic shell etc.) - which is why the low lighting is important (as well as building atmosphere!) or simply parts of a puzzle that have to be collected. The pieces are hidden around the site in advance by the person(s) running the game. The aim is for the Monster Hunters to collect all the pieces of the Monster Destroyer before they are all turned into Monsters. If a Monster catches a Hunter who has a piece of the Monster Destroyer, they have to drop it where they stand and move away. The Monster is not allowed to pick it up or hide it. Once more than half of the participants are Monsters, the King/Queen Monster must go to the Monster Hive (defined at the start of the game) and wait there. This will build a climax to the game where the Monster Hunters have to try and get into the Hive. Once the Monster Destroyer has been assembled, the Monster Hunters must seek out the King/Queen Monster and destroy it (either by shining the torch on it or displaying the complete puzzle), whilst shouting "Begone foul Monster!" Any Monster that comes into contact with the Monster Hunters after the Destroyer has been assembled can be eliminated by the Hunter carrying the Destroyer, but only one at a time, and the Hunters have to tag each monster (with a piece of paper, sticker or badge etc.) - therefore could still be attacked while they are defeating the Monsters. Once a Monster is tagged, they are out of the game and must not communicate with other players. When the King/Queen Monster is eliminated as above, the game is over and the remaining Monster Hunters have won. If all the Hunters are caught, the game is over and the Monsters have won. Tactics are important in this game! If the Monsters know the Hunters have assembled the Monster Destroyer, they will rush to protect the King/Queen Monster, making it very difficult for the Hunters to attack the Hive. Once there are lots of Monsters, the Hunters will have to be much more stealthy in order to survive. Going around in groups helps, as if a Monster turns up the group can split up, making it more likely that one of them will survive. Also once some pieces of the Monster Destroyer are found, they could be deposited in a safe place rather than being carried around - as that would increase the risk of being caught and having to drop the pieces. Once the Monster Destroyer is assembled, the Hunters actually become hunters rather than prey. | Just for Fun, Simulation, Wide Game | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Mornington Crescent | Introduction Thank you for taking an interest in the beautiful game- I hope that this guide will help those new to the game to develop the subtle skills required to become a proof Brooke-Taylor standards. As they say, MC is an impossible game to learn but, with the right instincts, it is possible to master. Setting Up First check to see if anyone wants to play with you. If so, then you do not need to play MC and can go and do something more fun with them instead. If not, then arrange yourselves into order. It is usually accepted that the oldest player goes first, and this will always end up being you because anyone willing to play MC will also be unwilling to reveal how old they really are. It is usually considered impolite to actually have a Tube map to hand during a game, but for beginners it is permissible and a 6x4, wipe-clean plastic version is available at all good retailers. Starting a Game You will want to deliberate for some time before your first move, especially if your opponents are waiting for you. Here are some points you might like to consider before making choosing your first station: 1. What rules are being played? A number of MC variations exist and it is important to know what subtleties may be present in your version. Be afraid to ask- it is a sign of weakness and other players will pounce on you. 2. Are you using the right dice? Remember, you use the 3 red dice when attacking and the 2 blue ones when defending. 3. Which stations are wild? It would be foolish to attack a wild station on your first move- you may need it later when you are in thrip. 4. Does the station you have played actually exist? Though this is not a problem with more experienced players, it is usual to remain in just one network during the basic game- the London Tube network. Extensions are available at later stages. Remember- there is no such station as "Tower of London". If an opponent starts first you may have no time to think, especially if The Ancient Ceramic League Ruling is in place. If in doubt, say "Shoreditch" and the next man will pass you by without comment. Use the break to plan your next move. Do not try and be clever and Dollis Hill someone at this early stage. I once saw a man get confused and say MC straight away out of desperation- he was either very stupid or a genius with a ridiculously clever disguise- he went on to win by 16 laterals to 6 after a restart, but do not try such exploitative measures yet, try and learn more about the opposition first. Playing the Game This is only a beginners guide, and to explain the full rules would take a long time and ultimately be a fruitless exercise- the best MC players always pick up the game themselves from watching others. Also, bear in mind that there are so many MC variations that to describe one of them without the others would only lead to confusion. A partial list of common variations follows. Ending the Game The game ends when a player reaches MC (duh...). Although MC has been known to be successfully reached in only 17 moves, it should be remembered that the average is closer to 30, and games have been known to enter the hundreds and even thousands when particularly skilled MCers are playing! Try and secure as many laterals as possible, especially in competitions as they will be useful in a tiebreak situation. NEVER try to prise open your opponents laterals without first making sure that yours are properly defended- I usually consider laterals to be sufficiently defended if you can keep a whole zone for two moves. As with playing, finishing does depend on the variation in play, in reverse MC you actually start at the Crescent and have to find your way back to the start, actually breaking down your own laterals! Troubleshooting 1. The game will not start- see above. 2. The game will not stop- just say MC and run, most players will be too relieved to double-check your laterals. 3. No one wants to play- yeah, right, like that is ever going to happen. 4. You suspect that a player may be a woman- this is obviously very irregular, take their name, age and vital statistics and send them immediately to the Chair of the KCS MC society. Due to shortness of cash the chair has had to be doubled with the Bed. 5. A player is not wearing a bow tie, even though it is Wednesday- Declare yourself the victor and expel them from the KCS MCS. Afterword You should now be able to hold your own in an MC match- now all you need is experience- get out there and get MCing! | Trust Building | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | Any age | At least 4 hours | 240 | Low | ||||||||
| Mossad Bang | Similar to the other versions of the classic already on this site, but everyone swaps names (no secret agent should ever reveal his true identity!). A further thing to do to make it even more confusing is to say your name backwards - make sure your name isn't something rude backwards first though! :-) And if you're feeling really crazy you could mix and match - swap names and backwards! the mind boggles! | Get to Know You, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Most Likely | A chanich starts the game, after being given a most likely hypothetical; eg. The person most likely to serve time in jail... The chanich is then meant to go up to the person they think is the most likely to spend time in jail and give him another hypothetical; eg. The person most likely to marry for money... Then that chanich goes to the person they think is the most likely to marry for money, and gives them another hypothetical. The game keeps going like that till all the kids have been chosen once. Noone knows what the chanich before them thought they would be the most likely to become. Once the game has gone through everyone you stand in a circle and go through the different expectations. | Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Motorbike Game | Everyone stands in a circle and holds their hands out as if on a motorbike. All make the noise of an engine being revved. At any point, the leader lets go of the "brakes" and turns either to the right or left. This is followed by a "wave" of motorbike movement round the circle! | Ice Breaker | Any | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Medium | ||||||||||
| Movie Game | One person is selected to try to guess a movie that the group agrees on when he/she is out of the room. In order to guess which movie has been selected, when the guesser returns to the group he/she can ask ONE question about any subject to anyone in the group, for EVERY word that appears in the film's title. The person asked then has to answer with a response that includes that word. The aim for the responder is to conceal the word in the answer to make it hard for the guesser to work out which word appears in the title of the film. For example, if the film is "Die Hard", the guesser can ask 2 questions to any 2 people of his choice. For the first question, the first responder chosen needs to include the word "die" in his/her answer and for the second question, the second responder needs to include the word "hard". After all the answers the guesser can try to work out which movie was chosen. Answers should not be repeated. Ideally movies with titles of more than 5 words should be chosen. | Just for Fun | Any | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||||||
| Mr. Hit | Someone begins by saying "I'm Mr. Hit," and slapping the person next to him/her on the back. That person has to say the name of someone in the circle, who slaps one of the people next to him/her on the back. That person has to say the name of someone in the circle, who slaps on of the people next to him/her... and so on. If someone makes a mistake, have a laugh, and start over. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | Any | Medium | ||||||||||
| Munch munch | Each individual is to take a bag of crisps and is to take a chip from the bag. Whoever can make the loudest crunch wins | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Murder Winks | One person is deemed the 'detective' and is sent out of the room. Everyone stands in a circle and one person in the circle is selected as the 'murderer'. The detective is called back and stands in the center of the cirlce. The murderer has to 'kill' as many people as they can by winking at them. A 'dead' chanich has to dramatically fall down screaming and shouting. The detective has three guesses of who the murderer is. The game ends if the detective does 3 bad guesses, guesses the correct murderer or the murderer kills everyone in the circle. This game can be played many times in a row | Drama, Just for Fun | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | 2 or more | 2 | 5 or older | 5 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||
| Murder mystery game | This is almost like a live cluedo game. One of the madrichim have been murdered(..not really . It's just part of the game. This is usually rosh machaneh/head of camp. This is announced to the whole camp at an unexpected time. Eg: during dinner(this should be done at night). The kids then are divided up into groups of about 12-15..depends on the amount and they are given a riddle on a small piece of paper which needs to be solved to get to a certain place to the first suspect. If there are 8 groups...you have more than 8 suspects. The suspects are the madrichim who all are whaiting at each station for each group to arrive. The group gets a group of questions to ask each of the suspects which has a particular object which could be the weapon, which have set answers according to the plot which gives each group clues.They also give each group the next clue to get to the next station, getting them closer to the killer. When the groups have all been to each station, They have to try and figure out who the murderer was, where it was done and the waepon that was used. The group to get it correct first wins and after the game, The victim comes out and shows that they are still alive once the game is over. | Wide Game | 50 or more | 50 | 6 or more | 6 | 10 or older | 10 | 1 hour to 2 hours | 60 | 120 | Low | ||||||
| Musical Chairs | Arrange chairs in a circle with chairs facing outwards (you need one chair less than the amount of chanichim). Play music as chanichim dance around the circle. When the madrich stops the music, they have to sit down on the nearest chair. The chanich that doesnt get on a chair in time is 'out' and one chair is taken away. | Just for Fun, Sport | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||||
| Musical Statues | This game is similar to musical chairs. Get kids to dance to music and when the music stops they have to freeze in that postion. The chanich that is moving/wobbling the most is 'out' for that round. The kids who are out can help the madrich decide which kid is wobbling the most | Drama, Just for Fun, Sport | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | |||||||
| Musical chairs for big kids | This game is played exactly the same as the other musical chairs except the first time the boys sit around the cirlce crossed legged and the girls sit on the boys' laps and visa versa for the second round. | Get to Know You, Just for Fun, Sport, Trust Building, Tzevet Kef | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | Any | 18 or older | 18 | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Medium | ||||||
| Name Game with a ball | A new group sits in a circle of not more than sixteen members. One person is given a ball. The ball is passed around the circle and each person who receives it says his name very clearly (usually just the first name). When everyone has been named and the ball returns to the first person, he or she throws it to any person. The receiver must say the thrower's name. The ball is then thrown to someone else who must say the next thrower's name. If a person cannot remember the name of the person who has thrown the ball to him/her, s/he must ask and repeat the name before proceeding with the activity. The game continues until everyone can remember the names in their group. | Sport | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Name and action | Leader asks each member of the group to say their name and action to go with it (e.g. a wave, pat on the head or anything). after each group does their name and action, the whole group copies. then the leader starts the game by saying his/her name and action and passing it on to someone else by saying their name and action. the name continues in this way. (at some stage the leader should check that evertone is being included). | Get to Know You | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Naughts and Crosses Quiz | The chanichim are split into two teams and nine chairs set out in the form of a naughts and crosses board. Questions are asked in turn to each of the teams. If they get the question right, then they can place a player of their team on one of the chairs. This player can no longer answer any quetions. If they get the question wrong, then they cannot place a player on a chair. The game is won when one team has three of their players in a row on the naughts and croses board. | Educational, Just for Fun, Splitting Participants into Groups, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||||||
| Negotiations | The group must be split into 4 teams and each team is given two pieces of paper - one with an X on and one with a Y. What the teams have to do is for each round they must submit either their X or their Y and points are scored as follows: XXXX (ie if each team gives their X) each score 10 points XXXY - X scores 20, Y scores -10 XXYY - X scores 0, Y scores 0 XYYY - X scores 50, Y scores -20 YYYY - all score 100 Set a score target at the beginning. For the first few rounds each team will inevitably submit their X, which is when you introduce the idea of negotiations. Each team can send one 'ambassador' around to the other teams to negotiate what letter to play next and try and get some significant points. See how the tables turn after that. | Other | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||
| Never Have I Ever | Everyone sits in a circle and puts both their hands in front of them, fingers/thumbs up. One person goes first and says "Never have I ever..." and then something they've never done. Everyone who has done that puts one of their fingers down. A hubbub should ensue and hopefully people will start chanting "story! story! story!" or something. Whoever puts all 10 fingers/thumbs down first wins, and has also probably done some pretty crazy stuff. | Free Time, Get to Know You, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Ninjas, kneenjas, ninjust-sitting | Just an adaptation of the basic ninjas game, but intended to help calm down the chanichim before a meal/peulah/bed. Begin with a simple game of ninjas. After this, play a game of ninjas with everyone in the circle kneeling. No-one is allowed to stand up. This is kneenjas. After this, everyone must sit down in the circle (decide whether legs must be crossed or not). This obviously requires a lot more skill because you can't move to escape very easily. This is called ninjust-sitting. After this, everyone will be sat in a circle and relatively calm. This is an ideal time to play a simple word game or any game without movement, to calm them down even further, before kicking in with the next session. | Relaxing | Any | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Medium | |||||||||
| Novelty | Each chanich says something novel about himself or herself, (e.g. I am the only one in the group who a tounge/chin/nipple pierced) | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Observation | The madrich suddenly asks one chanich to leave the room and everybody has to desribe what they are wearing. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Trigger | Any | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | ||||||||||
| One Frog, Two Eyes... | Sit in a circle. A beat is tapped out by everyone with the rhythm Knees, Clap, LeftClick, RightClick i.e. 1,2,3,4. On each set of clicks the next person has to say the next part of the words. The parts are below (the rhythm is written above to explain when the parts are said): Knees,Clap,Click-click ....................One frog, Knees,Clap,Click-click ....................two eyes, Knees,Clap,Click-click ...................four legs, Knees,Clap,Click-click ...................in a puddle, Knees,Clap,Click-click ...................ker-plunk. Once all that is done the next person says "Two frogs" and the game continues, except now the numbers of eyes, legs and ker-plunks have to double, i.e. Two frogs, Four eyes, Eight legs, In a puddle, Ker-plunk, Ker-plunk. Next it becomes trebled: 3 frogs, six eyes, 12 legs, in a puddle, ker-plunk, ker-plunk, ker-plunk. And so on. (e.g. 6 Frogs, 12 Eyes, 24 Legs, in a puddle, Ker-plunk, Ker-plunk, Ker-plunk, Ker-plunk, Ker-plunk, Ker-plunk). If someone hesitates or makes a mistake, everyone sings the mistake song which goes "der der der, der der der, der der der der der der WOO!" in time with the rhythm, and then the next person starts again from "One frog". The idea is to see how many frogs the group can get to. | Free Time, Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Relaxing, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Oogah Oogah | This is a modified version of an Israeli children's game. Everyone stands in a circle and holds hands and sings, while moving around "Oogah, oogah, oogah, ba ma'agal nachuga, nistovevah/nistovevet kol ha yom ad asher nimtzah makom, lashevet, lakum, lashevet, lakum, lashevet lakum, lashevet ve lakum! When it says lasehvet everyone bobs down and when it says lakum they get back up. After the first one, get everyone to hold hands with the person next to the person next to them, and repeat, after each time getting everyone to hold the hand of the person next to the one who they were previously holidng hands with. It becomes quite difficult. | Hebrew, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Paper Bag Dramatics | give groups of about 5 a paper bag with a bunch of junk in it. scissors, pens, bottles, a hat etc. each group must think of and perform a skit with all of the group members and all of the props including the paper bag. | Drama | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Paper Chase | Everybody sits in a circle, except for one person who stands in the centre, with a piece of paper. The person in the middle than says someone's name and throws the paper into the air. The person who's name was shouted then has to run into the middle and catch the paper before it hits the floor. If they don't manage to catch the paper, then they rip a bit off the paper before continuing. (If you do catch the paper, continue without ripping anything off). | Piece of paper | Great for learning people's names, and as a simple ice breaker! | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Up to 10 minutes | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Parachute cat and mouse | Choose 5 mice and one cat. under the parachute mice have to try and escape whilst cat has to chase mice. when a mouse has been cought it cannot go out of the parachute. If the cat has cought all the mice then he/she can leave the parachute. people outside parachute wave the parachute whilst counting to say 30, and any mice who are couhgt and the cat if hasnt caught all the mice after 30 the parachute is dropped onto them. and they have to escape! | Parachute | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||
| Paranoia | Everyone sits in a circle and one person goes up to another and whispers a secret question that no one else knows, eg. who has the nicest shoes. the person then goes up to the person with the nicest shoes and asks them a different question, but you dont know wat the question was, ie. paranoia | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Parliament | There are two teams, ideally boys vs. girls to keep things simple but you can do it another way, but you've got to make sure everyone knows who's on their team. In the standard version of the game there are 4 special seats, this is the parliament, and the aim of the game is to get four members of your team into parliament, so boys want boys in there and vice versa. The leader writes down everyones name on separate pieces of cards and randomly hands them out to everyone. At the start of the game there are already four people in parliament, two boys and two girls, and there is one empty chair in the circle. The first person (the person to the left of the empty chair), calls out a name, the person who has that name must move to the empty chair and swap with the person to their left. Now the person to the left of where the guy used to be sitting now calls out a name and so forth. You should be able to work out who has which name after a while; it's just a matter of remembering them all. It doesn't matter what your name is on the card, if you have four physical members of the same sex in parliament, then the game has been won. | Get to Know You, Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 1 or more | 1 | 15 or older | 15 | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | |||||
| Pass The Personal Conversation | Only works with a group who are familiar with one another and have spent a moderate time together already. One person starts with, for example: "We had a conversation about socks" and the person who they had that conversation with would pick it up and pass their own conversation on.. e.g. "We had a conversation about pizza" - and whoever they had that conversation with would pick it up. There is no end to this game! | Just for Fun, Team Building, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Pass the Hoop | The channachim are in groups of 5/10. They must hold hand standing in a line. A hoop is given to the person at one end of the line and their task is to get it down to the other end without letting go of hands. | Other | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Medium | |||||||
| Pass the Parcel | Make a parcel out of many layers of newspaper and put a small prize eg, a starburst and a question eg what chocolate bar would you be and why? or whats your most embarassing story? inside each layer. Have everyone sit in circle and play music stop the music and allow for people to open a layer take their prise and answer the question. Try to stop the music so that everyone has at least one go. | Get to Know You | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Pass the Questions | Each person should write down three questions for people to answer. Examples could range from "how do you like your eggs in the morning?" to "what's your greatest fear that you've never told anyone about?". Each of these three questions then gets folded up and put into a hat/bag/whatever. A person is chosen to start, and they pick out a question from the bag. They read it out, answer it, and then choose someone in the group to answer it as well. The second person then also answers the question, before pulling a new question out of the bag and repeating the process. This continues until you're out of questions. | Pens Paper Something to hold folded paper | This is a really nice chilled way for people to get to know each other (: Make sure that everyone is chosen to answer and no-one is left out! | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker | 4 or more | 4 | Any | 9 or older | 9 | Any | Low | |||||||
| Past, Present, Future | 1. Past- Send the chanichim to spots on the island, or anywhere, where they are not able to see eachother or talk to eachother. Tell them that they should reflect. They may ask "On what?" Answer by repeating "Reflect", don't tell them anything else. 2. Future-bring them back to a circle. Ask them what is their biggest fear? Go around the circle. In most cases that I have run this peula the majority, if not allthe fears will be about the future. Professions, Hadracha, marriage, death etc. 3. Present-The Stick and Rock Game Every one gets a stick and a rock, they then give the stick to someone else in the group and give them a constructive criticism and then they give them the rock and say something positive about them. Then a stick and a rock are passed around the circle and each person says one negative and one positive about the kvutza as a whole. Afterwards everyone throws their stick in the fire, symbolically making a pact to change the bad things about themselves and about the group. The rocks should be kept as a symbolic gesture too. By the end everyone has heard something that they should change about themselves and something that is good about them, as well the group as a whole has been assessed. This brings groups together like superglue. Be careful that everyone is respectful throughout the entire peula. | Team Building | Any | 2 or more | 2 | 15 or older | 15 | 1 hour to 2 hours | 60 | 120 | Low | |||||||
| Pay it Forward | Watch the incredibly horrible movie Pay it Forward, not for it's cinematic crappiness, but for it's enlightening content, and encourage your kids to do the same and Pay favors and good deed forward and not back. After one week, get updates from your kids on how far it got paid forward. | Educational | Any | Any | Any age | 2 hours to 4 hours | 120 | 240 | Low | |||||||||
| Penguin Races | Everyone stands in a circle, and the madrich/lead penguin starts the following spiel to teach the game... Penguins race like this (pat thighs quickly to make noise like penguins' feet) Sometimes they take a left turn (lean left and shout "wheeee!") Sometimes they take a right turn (lean right and shout "wheee!") Often there's a chicane on the track (go left then right and go "whee-whee!") There are tunnels on the race track (duck down and shake you bum going "wibble-wibble-wibble-wibble!) And sometimes penguins like to jump (jump up and squeak "Hooray!") Then everyone pats their thighs quickly and the madrich starts the game with a REady Set Go! Then its up to the madrich to shout out the commands and everyone does them at the same time - left turn, right turn, chicane, tunnel, jump Speed up with more actions as you near the end of the course. Always finish with a jump and a big "Hooray!" | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Sport, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | ||||||||||
| Penny-bum relay race | Two or more teams compete in a relay race. The relay race works by each person holding a penny between their bum cheeks and waddling to the other side to drop it in a basket. The next person then goes. The winning team is the team to complete the race first | Just for Fun, Sport, Tzevet Kef | Any | 2 or more | 2 | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||
| People Bingo | A sheet of paper is given to each participant with a grid on. This is a bingo card but instead of having numbers you have things like 'find someone who has 2 brothers' or 'find someone who was not born in this country'. The participants are free to go round the group, talking to everyone and see if they, for example, have 2 brothers. When they find someone who matches one of the things on the card that person should sign that box of the grid. The person who wins the game is the person who manages to have all the boxes in the grid signed. | Get to Know You | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||||
| People Musical Chairs | Divide group into girls/boys, blue eyes/brown eyes etc etc- 2 groups. 1 sitting (legs crossed), 1 walking. The game is basically musical chairs ( x people walking around x-1 chairs and when background music stops, must sit on chairs, last person to do so is out) but instead of having to sit down on chairs those walking around must sit on the people's laps. this is both painful and fun. | Ice Breaker, Splitting Participants into Groups, Team Building, Trust Building, Tzevet Kef | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Medium | ||||||||
| Perrudo / Polifico / Pappa Duck/ Dice Game | Ok, this ones a little complicated Each player gets 5 dice All the dice are rolled at the same time Each player must hide their dice till the end of each round under their hands The game works in a circle starting from the loser of the previous round 1's are wild (that is they can be anything) In turn players place bets on how many of each number are face up in the circle from everyones dice. The bets must increase eg. Player 1: 4 X 3's Player 2 then must bet at least on 5 X 3's, or 4 X 4,5 or 6. Alternatively, at any point a player may half the bet and go to 1's eg, after 4 X 3's, the next player could call 2 X 1's ( if the previous bet was odd and the player wishes to go to 1's, he must round up) Players also have the option of "challenge"(ing) the previous bet. At that point all the dice are shown and if the call challenged is met, that is if there are infact the number of say 4's that the player challenged predicted, then the challenger gives one of his dice to the challenged. If the challenger wins however, and there are not the called number of 4's then the challenged player gives a dice to the challenger. The game continues untill one player has all the dice | Other | Up to 5 | 5 | Any | 15 or older | 15 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||||
| Personality Guess Who | Must have several Guess Who boards and/or have kiddies play in groups. The game is played like Guess Who, only instead of asking questions about the person's appearance, you may only ask questions about the person's personality or lifestyle (i.e. what was your person's childhood dream job? what political party does your person relate to? If your person was a vegetable, what vegetable would they be?) Doesn't always work out, but it's surprising how often it does! So far have only played this one at tzevet gatherings, however I'm dying to try it out as a trigger for a stereotype peulah. | Trigger, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Persuasion | Chocolate bars (about one for every five people), or any similar prizes, are needed. Three madrichim should be the judges, give them time to design a points system to award prizes. Points should be awarded for originality and persuasiveness. Each participant comes before the judges, one by one, and tries to convince them that s/he deserves a chocolate bar. | Other | Any | 3 or more | 3 | 5 or older | 5 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||||
| Pick and Remix | The leader picks a chant everyone knows. For example, 'Beep Beep' or 'I've got a hunk of tin', and everyone sings it. At some point, the leader shouts 'Re-mix!...x style', and the person x choses a new way of chanting. Examples would be pirate style, upper class, like a rap-artist, operatic, et cetera. It can be played especially well at meal times, or as a filler while waiting around. | Just for Fun, Music | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Pinocchio | Everyone removes their shoes and socks (I know it sounds smelly but it's better than slipping and hurting themselves) and stands in a circle. Going around the circle, each person in turn jumps nearer to the person next to them (or to the middle), the eventual idea being that when they get close enough they try to jump on each other's feet. If someone is trying to jump on your feet, you may jump out of the way, but if they jump towards someone else, or if they manage to jump on your feet, you are out. I'm not entirely sure why it's called Pinocchio - any ideas? | Just for Fun, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | Any age | Any | High | |||||||||||
| Poison Pea Soup | Line up a row of chairs. Get the Chanichim to stand on a chair. When Pea Soup is called, the Chanichim must stay where they are - if Poison is called, they must all jump down from the chairs. Whoever get's it wrong i.e. jumps down when Pea Soup is called, is out of the game. The winner is the last one left. | Other | Any | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Polo | One person is chosen to be queenie. They stand opposite everyone else. They then pick a subject for example cars. Everyone in the group picks a type of car, then one person shouts the options back to the queenie. Queenie then shouts one out, whoever was that option runs towards the queenies end and the queenie runs towards their end, they have to run up and down 4 times, saying p-o-l-o-polo! after each lap. Whoever gets back first gets to be queenie, and the game goes on. | Free Time, Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Poor Pussy | Chanichim sit in a circle on the floor. when volunteer must (on their hands and knees) approach another chanich/a in the circle and meow or make somehow attempt to make the chanch/a laugh. the volunteer can purr, meow, rub their head on the chanich/a... whatever will get a laugh out of them! the chanich/a must respond by patting the volunteer on the head and state "poor pussy, poor pussy, poor pussy" without laughing. if they laugh, they are the new volunteer, if their dont, the volunteer/pussy must approach another person. | Ice Breaker | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Pres, Vice, Sec | President, Vice President, Secretary. this is a lot like concentration...but harder! everyone sits in a circle and are numbered round the circle, in this way: pres, vice, sec, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5...etc, and the last person is "trash". The aim is to become President, and you do this by getting people above you out. When someone is out, they become trash and everyone moves up a notch. So if I was number 6, and I got number 4 out, no. 4 would become trash, and everyone below 4 would move up a number. How to play: everyone starts to a beat: clap hands on laps, clap hands together, and click fingers twice. Pres starts by saying "pres, pres" on each click. So the beat goes lap, clap, pres, pres. Then repeats: lap, clap, pres, but now on the second click says someone else. The person he says, now takes over. It may go something like this: Lap, clap, pres, pres Lap, clap, pres, 4 Lap, clap, 4, 4 Lap, clap, 4, 9 Lap, clap, 9, 9 Lap, clap, 9, vice, Lap, clap vice, vice Lap, clap vice, 3 Lap, clap 3, 3 Lap, clap 3, vice 3 is now out, because he passed back to the person that passed to him. 3 becomes trash, and now everyone below 3 moves up a place. NB: you cannot pass to anyone next to you, (e.g. pres cannot pass to vice or trash) You cannot pass back to whoever passed to you. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Pressure Cooker | Give each participant a personality. Examples include mean person, nice guy, helpful, kleptomaniac, lazy etc. Give them a task such as building a raft. do not let them tell eachother what personality you gave them. They must act it out as they are trying to build the raft, and try to work together with the extreme personalities around them. | Team Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | 2 hours to 4 hours | 120 | 240 | Low | ||||||
| Pruie | Everyone spreads around the room and closes their eyes, and a madrich chooses one chanich to be "Pruie" by tapping them on the shoulder. This person may then open their eyes, but must stand in the same spot and may not move around. Once a Pruie has been chosen the madrich tells the chanichim that Pruie has been chosen, and to please begin. The chanichim (who are not Pruie) must then wander around [keeping their eyes closed at all times] and must try to find another chanichs hand to hold. Once they find someone elses hand, the chanich must say "Pruie?" (asking them if they are Pruie). If they answer back with "Pruie?" they are not Pruie and they must let go and continue to find peoples hands until they find Pruie. Pruie is not allowed to speak during the game, so if a chanich finds a hand, asks Pruie? and get's not reply then they open their eyes and have become part of Pruie. Pruie gets longer and longer as more people join, and the last person not to have joined Pruie loses. | Just for Fun, Team Building, Trust Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Psychiatrist | Select four or five people from the group to be "psychiatrist" and them send them out of the room. the remaining members of the group chooses a 'problem' that needs to be solved. For example-each person assumes the characteristics of the person to his or her right. For example, if asked the color of the "patients" hair, the person questioned would say blonde if that is the hair color of the person on his right. Other 'problems' could be all are person on left, all are one person in the group, every other person, etc... | Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Psychoanalysis | Sit in a circle (not really neccesary, just traditional) and ask for a volunteer to be the psychoanalyist. Tell him/her that he should leave the room and while he's away another person will recount a dream they recently had to everyone else, who wil ltry to learn it as best as possible. When he returns he should ask yes or no questions about the dream and try to work out what happened in it, and then use psychoanalysis to work out who in the group had the dream. But, there's a twist. Once the person has left the room explain that no one should tell a dream. Instead they will answer the psychoanalyst's question's thus- if the last letter of the last word of the question is from p or before in the alpahbet- the answer will be "yes", and if q or later "no". No contradictions are allowed, so eg: 1. Are there and women in it? No 2. Is a man involved? Yes 3. Is a man in it? This should be answered "no" but that would contradict question 2, so say "yes". At the end explain that there was no dreamer- the whole thing was a construct of their screwed up mind as they asked the questions! | Educational, Just for Fun | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | 15 or older | 15 | Any | Low | ||||||||
| Psychologue | One person is chosen as the 'psychologue' (Hebrew for psychologist) and leaves the room. When they return they have to work out the 'problem' of the rest of the group. This problem (which they are told before the psychologue returns) is that each person thinks he is the person two seats to his left. When the psychologue returns he must work out what the problem is by asking individual questions to the rest of the group. If the one being questionned does not know the answer, they must make it up! If they get it wrong, the real person must shout out 'psychologue' and everyone changes seats, making sure they are now pretending to be someone new. | Get to Know You, Team Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 15 or older | 15 | At least 4 hours | 240 | Low | |||||||
| Question Link | This is a mix of trivial pursuit and connect four.... you can make up your own questions though, to adapt it to your theme. For each question correctly answered, that team gets a piece to put in the connect four grid, so not only do they have to play connect four tactically, but they need to have knowledge of whatever topic the questions are on! | Educational | Any | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||||||
| Random Game | First you split the kids into groups of about 10 people then you give them a piece of paper with about 5-8 words on then you give them a way to do it ie. song, dance, rap, play. They must construct a e.g song which has all the words in. | Other | Any | 3 or more | 3 | 5 or older | 5 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||||
| Reader Role Play | The leader chooses a piece of written material from a magazine, newspaper or book - any paragraph, ordinary or otherwise. He or she explains how each person in the group is to assume the role of a particular kind of reader. One person is given the paragraph to read (without preparation) in the manner or style chosen by the reader. You can also make the chanichim act out the story in a type of genre (soap opera, cooking show, musical, talk show etc) | Drama, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Red Letter | One person is chosen to go and stand at the opposite end of a room to everyone else. Everyone else lines up opposite them. They then choose a letter of the alphabet which only they know. "They then say the red letter is" (then they mouthe the letter, DONT SAY IT!) then they shout out other letters one at a time. If the people not shouting out letters have that letter in their name, then they take that many steps forward. For example if abraham was playing, and the letter called was a, he would take 3 steps forward. It can be played with 1st and surnames. If the red letter person calls out the letter they mouthed at the beginning and someone moves, that person has to go back to the beginning, and a new red letter is chosen. If someone reaches the red letter person, then it is their turn to be the red letter person. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | 5 or older | 5 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Reindeer Game | Everyone must sit in a circle. The idea is to keep the reindeer constantly moving. A reindeer is simulated by one person holding both his hands up to his ears like antlers and the person on either side of him holding up the hand closest to him (so the reindeer has 4 antlers). The centre person can pass the reindeer on either by waving his hands towards someone else in the circle (who must catch the reindeer and hold up both hands and their neighbours must hold up the appropriate hands) or by putting down one of his hands, so the reindeer moves to one side (and the person next to him must lift up their other hand, etc.) Everyone must always be watching and checking how many hands they should have up! | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Reverse Psychology | The participants are in pairs, and instead of telling each other facts about them selves they give the answer, to which the other person has to guess the question eg: "One of each", the other person then would guess things like, "Do you have brothers or sisters?" or "Do you have a cat or a dog?". It can get quite obscure eg. "17" 'The day of June that you were borne?' "nope" the number of sub saharan countries that you have visited? "Well done" Its a good fun game that can bring up some funny stuff. | Get to Know You | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Roar like a Lion | in a circle, players go round quickly saying to the person on their left, 'miaow'. At any time one player can say 'boo' instead of 'miaow'. Then the rest of the circle shout to the person who has been booed '1,2,3, Roar like a lion!'. That person must jump up and do their best impression of a lions roar. If the group is impressed then the person who initially said 'boo' must also stand up and roar like a lion. the group decides whos roar was best and the loser is out of the game. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Robots | Divide teams into groups (the number of groups depends on how many chanichim there are) and create a relay race. Of either transporting water from one end of the room to the other or kicking soccer goals etc. However, everyone has to move like a robot. If one chanich stops being like a robot then the team has to start the relay again while everyone else continues. | Drama, Just for Fun, Sport | Any | Any | Any age | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | |||||||||
| Rule game | Going round the circle, each person thinks of a rule they would like to be imposed on the group/machane/universe (eg no boys should be allowed to wear white socks, or, whenever anyone says the word banana, everyone has to get up and jump around like a monkey). The whole group votes on whether or not they agree on the rule and if they do, it must be carried out until the end of the meeting/day/machane. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| S and P Game | This is a variation on Word Association. Everyone is in a circle. One person says a word and the next one must say one that is associated with it. You can't say a word thats already been said, nor one that begins with the letters 'S' or 'P'. If you do, you're out. The game goes on until there's a winner. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| STEM/Dream game | You get any size group, sit them down and send one unfortunate person out of ear shot. You then tell the group that when the person comes back you, the madrich, will tell the person that everyone had the same dream last night and they should try to guess what it was using yes or no questions. Tell the group that is the last letter of the last word of the question ends in S T E or M the answer is always "yes", any other letter "No" and the letter Y "maybe" E.g "Was i in the dreaM?"- "yes" "Did i hurt yoU?"- "no" "Could i flY?"- "maybe" The person then comes back and after he decides he has asked enough questions you tell him what you were doing and that the dream he has 'pieced together' is all from his imagination! Enjoy! | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Samurai | Everyone gets a partner and sits in a circle with one person in front, one behind (in effect creating a circle within a circle). One person sits in the middle and says a characteristic or something of the sort that can apply to a person. It's best if the characteristics aren't obvious, such as "Anyone who has a cat," or "Anyone whose favorite food is pizza," as opposed to "Anyone who's wearing socks." That'll get people to know more things about each other. If it applies to the person sitting in the front, they have to try to kiss the middle person somewhere on their head. However, the partner sitting behind them has to not let them get away, by wrestling or tackling or whatever they need to do. Some versions let the front person get up on their feet if they can; however, it's harder if they're not allowed. First person to kiss the middle person on the head gets to be in the middle next, and the formerly middle person now sits behind the person who let their partner get away. If it applies to the front person and they don't get away, then the couple switches places - front person to back, back person to front - for the next round. | Free Time, Get to Know You, Just for Fun, Team Building, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | Any age | Any | High | |||||||||||
| Samurai Swordfight | Divide into pairs. Everyone puts one hand behind their back with their palm out. The other hand is their "sword". There is a strict Samurai code to the battles! Each pair must draw their swords, bow to each other and say their honourable Samurai greeting of choice. Then the duel can begin. The aim is to touch the other person's palm on their back with your "sword". If you manage it, you are the winner of the pair. The winners divide into pairs and fight again. Eventually there is just 1 pair left to fight for the Ultimate Samurai title! | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Sardines | One person hides anywhere in an area. All the rest of the group has to go and find him and hide with him. The last person to find him is on and has to hide. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Savage Love | Kiddies all sit around in a circle and are numbered off. It is highly important that they remember their number so make sure they hear you. One person stands in the middle and simultaneously calls out two numbers at random. The first number called then tries to kiss the person in the middle while the second number tries to kiss the first number. The person who successfully kisses first then becomes the person in the middle and calls out two new numbers. | Just for Fun, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | High | ||||||||||
| Say something clever | the leader says to a person chosen randomly "say something clever about e.g. cucumber". the person then has to talk about the topic trying to sound as clever and pretentious as possible. it is better if what is said is not true because it makes it more fun! | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Scar Game | Each person in the circle shows (or describes) their favourite scar and how they got it. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Scattegories | kids write down coloumn headings such as 'boys names' or 'zionist leaders' or 'israeli heads of state' etc. and a letter is chosen at random. The kids need to have an answer in each column starting with the letter chosen. The first one to fill in all the columns yells 'finished' and from there 10 seconds are allocated before end of the round. Scoring works as follows: 10 points for an original answer, 5 points for an answer shared with someone else and 0 points for blank column | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||||||
| Scream! | Everyone stands in a circle and looks down. On the count of three, everyone must look up and stare at somebody else in the circle. If two people are staring at eachother they must scream REALLY loudly and then they are out. The last person or last 2 people are the winners! | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | ||||||||||
| Selfish | Each person receives a yellow and pink card. (or any other two colours) the madrich gives the order and everyone has to raise one of their card's. If everyone raises a pink card everyone recieves a sweet. If one person raises their yellow card amongst everyone else's pink they recieve five sweets. If more than one yellow card is raised, no one merits a sweet. The person with the most sweets is the winner (and the most selfish and they should probably be evicted or at the very least reminded of this) | Other | Any | 1 or more | 1 | 10 or older | 10 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||||
| Shake or Shoot | Split group into 2 teams. Teams will decide amongst themselves whether they will shake or shoot. Then one representative of each team comes to the centre. They each hold a hand behind their back. On the count of 3 they either hold out a "hand shake" or "gun". 2 Hand shakes: everyone wins. 1 hand shake, one gun: the shooter wins, shaker sits out or joins other team. 2 guns: both sit down. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Team Building, Trigger | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 15 or older | 15 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||
| Shark Infested Custard | Put chairs in a circle (very close together) and one person stands on each chair. The centre is shark infested custard. The madrich takes away chairs one by one and the chanichim must try to stay on the remaining chairs. If they fall into the shark infested custard they are out. | Just for Fun | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | Any age | Any | High | |||||||||
| Shinui shinui | Everyone sits in a circle on chairs, with one person in the middle. The person in the middle can shout one of three things: 1) Shinui yamin - everyone has to move one chair to the right. 2) Shinui smol - everyone has to move one chair to the left. 3) Shinui shinui - everyone has to swap seats, not to the seat on either side of them, and the person in the middle has to sit down, The last person left without a seat become the caller. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Shiria | This is a fun and easy time waster, great for rainy days: Kids are broken up into several teams each of which is given a writing utensil and something to write on. The facilitator/s of the game then choose a word and set a timer at which point each team tries to find as many songs as they can possibly think of that include that word. (for instance, if the word was sun, they might use here comes the sun, black hole sun, sugar magnolia (SUNshine daydream), etc.) Songs with the word shemesh are also acceptable. At the end of a certain amount of time, the teams each get a turn to sing one of the songs on their list. No song may be repeated. The teams keep going in turn until they either run out of songs or repeat a song that was already sung. Once one team remains, you can start all over with a new word. Can go on for hours! | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Shlubadub | Go around the circle. If the leader says "Shlubadub" to a participant, they have to reply with a random word e.g. "Banana". If the leader says a participant's word anytime, they have to reply "Shlubadub". If the leader can say "Shlubadub" 3 times to a participant before they can say their word, they are out; Likewise, if the leader can say that participant's word 3 times (e.g. Banana, banana, banana) before the participant can say "Shlubadub", they are also out. The leader doesn't have to be looking at a participant to say their word! So they have to concentrate and listen out for their word. VARIATION: This can also be used as a name game - each participant uses their name instead of a random word. The rules are exactly the same. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Shmang | This game is the same as Bang, but insead of saying "bang" you say "shmang" and you put "shm" infront of everyones name. it makes bang that bit more interesting and adds some humour! | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Shoe game | Each person takes off their shoes and places them in the middle of the circle. Next everyone has to grab a pair of shoes which aren't their own. Once everyone has done that, go round the circle and each person has to say something about the type of person who wears those type of shoes and then guess whose shoes they are. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Shomria Ball / Mosh Ball / Lucille Ball | The game is played in a large field with many players and is based on havoc and insanity. There needs to be a minimum of 2 teams and one large ball (volleyball or soft ball is best), but more is better - 3 teams and 3 balls seems to work well. Each team has a goal with a goal tender from their own team. A goal consists of three benches set up to form a triangle. The goalie stands is the only one allowed in the triangle and is not allowed to leave it. No one may stand on the benches. Each goalie has a milk crate (or some other type of box) with which to catch the ball. A goal is scored by getting a ball into your own goal. The point of the game is to get as many goals as possible while keeping the other team(s) from scoring. The ball is called "dead" if it goes out of bounds or after each goal is scored. For a ball to come back into play a Madriach (in the interest of fairness) must kick the ball high in the air. The rules of the game with regards to checking are that you may not push or shove anyone who is physically smaller than you, but you can to someone larger. It is acceptable however for someone who is larger to pick up the smaller person and run with them. This game is a Hashomer favorite in North America. One popular way of splitting teams is by place of residence, for example the camp in NY splits the teams into 3: NYC, New Jersey, and Other. | Just for Fun, Sport | 50 or more | 50 | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | ||||||||||
| Shooting fingers | Every sits in a circle and puts a hand high in the air, with only one finger up. The game moves round the circle with the person whos go it is shooting (Person A) their finger at someone(Person B). Nothing happens to Person A but Person B however many fingers were shot at them. eg Person A had 2 fingers and Person B has two. A shot B, B now has 4. When you have 5 fingers you are out. BUT! If you have more than 5 then you are not eg you have two and someone shoots 4 at you you know have 5 and another 1, so you put up one finger! Carry on till there is one person left! | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Shopping List race | The chanichim should be given a word (ie, name of camp, Israel, madrich/a taking session) and have to create a shopping list making the word an acronym of the list. As the name implies its a race. | Drama, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Shoulda Said | There is a circle of people with two or three people in the middle. They are acting out a scene that the other members have chosen for them. And then at any point in their scene, the other members that are watching may call out "shoulda said" and the actor that it was called on has to say either the opposite of what he/she meant, or what they were really thinking. For example, I say "I love that dress you're wearing!" and somebody calls shoulda said on me, I could say "that dress would look much better on my pet rat". And of course the other actors in the scene will have not heard your extra comment. This is a really fun game! | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Shufflebum | Each of the chanichim (and madrichim) sit on a chair in a circle, with the chairs all touching. One person is chosen to stand in the circle leaving a chair empty. The rest of the circle must now move round in a circle in a clockwise direction moving from one chair to another, while the person in the circle must try and sit down. When the Madrichim shouts 'change' the people within the circle must change direction. Once the person in the middle has managed to sit down on a chair, another person goes and the game is repeated. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Medium | ||||||||||
| Signing Chinese Whispers | All chanichim stand in a line one behind the other facing the same direction. The person at the end of the line(person 1) taps the person in front of them (person 2) on the shoulder. Person 2 turns and faces person 1 and watches as person 1 does a short mime (perhaps mimes getting dressed or making a cup of tea). When person 1 has finished they turn round the other way and the person 2 taps the person in front of them (person 3) and shows them what they can remember of the mime. when the mime reaches the end of the line this person (eg person 10) goes to the front and shows what they saw, this is followed by the person 1 showing what it really was. | Drama, Get to Know You, Just for Fun, Team Building, Trigger | Any | 2 or more | 2 | 5 or older | 5 | Any | Low | |||||||||
| Silent Ball | This game gets all the chanichim quiet. Everyone spreads around the room and must not move their feet to walk in any direction. a ball is passed around by throwing it at people but they are not allowed to drop it, laugh or talk at all. if you do any of those 3 things you are out and if you give a bad throw you are also out. younger chanichim seem to be entertained and there is silence for a few minutes. also if you think someone is out because they drop the ball or whatever you are still not allowed to tell them they are out because there is no talking so only once 1 person is out can that person finally talk. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 8 to 10 years old | 8 | 10 | Any | Low | |||||||||
| Simon Says | A madrich calls out different actions if he/she says simon says before hand everyone should do it eg touch your knees. if the madrich doesn't say simon says before the action then the action shouldn't be done and anyone that does it is out. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 5 to 7 years old | 5 | 7 | Any | Low | |||||||||
| Sinking Ship | Divide Chanichim into two groups. Each group stands in a circle on chairs. Take away a chair from each group alternately until somone falls off. This team loses. Alternatively you can use a single group and see the minimum amount of chairs you can use to fit the whole group on. | Team Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 3 or more | 3 | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | High | ||||||
| Sitting Circle | The chanichim (and madrichim) form a circle and all turn 90 degrees left so they are looking at the back of the head of the person to their left. You must squeeze in for this activity. Then get all the chanichim to bend their knees and sit on the person who was to their right (behind them). If they are feeling dare-devily, they can all try and take a step forwards. | Team Building, Trigger, Trust Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Medium | |||||||
| Sleeping Lions | Get the Chanichim to lie down and get into a sleeping position. The kids may not move or make a loud sound. The Madrichim then walk around and watch the kids. If they see a kid move or make a noise, then the kid is out and joins the madrichim. Continue until someone is left. If the game goes on for too long, then get the chanichim who are out, to try and get the others to move. The Chanichim may not touch the "sleeping" ones in any way. | Just for Fun, Relaxing | Any | 1 or more | 1 | 8 to 10 years old | 8 | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||
| Smile if you love me! | Sit in a circle. One person starts by walking over to someone and saying: "smile if you love me baby!" the recipient of this remark replies: "I love you baby but I just can't smile!" The person that approached them has to try and make them laugh/smile with funny faces, funny voice etc. but no physical contact. If the other person does smile, then they have effectively lost that little bit and it's their turn to say the "smile if you love me" bit to someone else. I they manage not to smile, then the origional person must try it on someone else until they manage to make someone smile! | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Snowfight | Divide the group into 2 teams. Make two straight lines of chairs facing each other (about 1 metre between the 2 rows) and place a sticky tape line between the two rows. The group are not allowed to leave their chairs at all. The group pick up their 'snowballs' and throw them at each other. The group with the least 'snowballs' on their side of the line wins. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Team Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 1 or more | 1 | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||
| Song Game | A group is split into several smaller groups. All the groups are then given a word and each group in turn has to sing a known song which contains that word (The word DOESN'T have to appear in the title of the song). If a team repeats a song or can't think of one, they are out. The last team left in wins! For example, if the word is "white", such songs the groups might come up with are "Black and White" or "White Christmas". | Just for Fun | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | ||||||
| Song Pairs | Choose two people to leave the room - these two people won't need to do any singing (everyone else will), and will be competing against each other. Once they've left, each person needs to pair up with another person, and come up with a song between the two of them. Each person in the pair then chooses a subsequent line of that song. For example, if a pair chose the song "You Are My Sunshine", one person would have "you are my sunshine, my only sunshine", and the other would have "you make me happy when skies are gray". This would be the lines of the song that these two people would sing. You now repeat this process to find a second line of a different song with a different pair. At this point, each person should have two lines, from two different songs. Now each person chooses a hand for each line. For example, I might choose my left hand to be "You make me happy when skies are gray", and my right hand to be the other line that I chose with the other partner. When that's done, the two people who left come back in. They now have to match up each song with its other line, in the correct order. This is done as follows: The person in the middle will tap the hand of a person, and they will sing the line that that hand corresponds to. For example, if they tap my left hand, I would sing "You make me happy when skies are gray". Each person has a go, which consists of tapping two hands sequentially, and listening to the song sung in response. If you tap two hands of the same song in the correct order, you get a point and those two hands are put behind the people's back who sung them (removing them from the game). I.e. if you tap the hand of the person with "You are my sunshine, my only sunshine", and then you tap the hand of the person with "You make me happy when skies are gray", you get a point and then those hands are removed from the game. The two people in the middle are competing against each other, alternating their goes, and the person at the end with the most points once all the pairs have been found wins. | Make sure people feel confident enough to sing very short bits in their group first. I guess you could do this with humming, although it'd be very hard! | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Music | 8 or more | 8 | Any | 11 or older | 11 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||||
| Songs of friends | Have the group pair off. Give them 60 seconds each to tell each other about themselves. Then give them around 20 minutes-30 minutes to write a soin g about their partner. It should be to the tune of a pop song or something fun. The rules are: Nothing mean, only respectful, no making fun of eachother. | Get to Know You | Any | Any | 11 to 14 years old | 11 | 14 | Any | Low | |||||||||
| Sound Effects | Pretty simple- one person, either madrich or chanich, tells a story on a given subject, all the others work together to provide sound effects. Works as a game on its own and can also help madrichim keep chanichim attention while telling a story. The game works fantastically if the madrich/a is witty and works to make their sound effects incorrect, mainly by punning. | Drama, Just for Fun | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||
| Space Jump | One Chanich is standing on the stage and is doing a solo acting performance. When the madrich shouts "Space Jump!" The actor must pause in whatever pose they are currently in. The madrich then elects another chanich to enter the stage and start a totally different play using the position that the chanich is already in. This continues until all the chanichim are in the play. | Drama | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | |||||||
| Space Quest | You're about to play Space Quest: the ultimate game of stellar military strategy and diplomacy! As a respected maddie in charge of a vast army of chanichim, your mission is simple: Restore order to a war ravaged space system! Use this Command Manual to guide you through the newly revised Space Quest. Now. Let the Battle Commence! The Story Simon, has finally completed his life's work- a teleportation device capable of moving living beings across space and even time itself! His initial experiment is designed to transport himself back in time just half an hour so that the pe'ulah can be ready on time, but an accident flings him across the universe and into the far future, with no hope of return. Arriving on a dilapidated space station he learns from the station's last surviving crew member (Fidler) that a great war has ravaged the systems five planetary clusters, leaving just one survivor on each world (Helen, Natasha, Sarah, Josh and Claire). Fidler begs Simon to help him restore the system to its former glory, so Simon uses his device to teleport ~40 chanachim to the station and tells them to help the survivors restore the order on their worlds by restoring their economies. Trigger This will explain the above story using videos and live action pieces. Post Trigger The chanichim will be divided between the five survivors. The survivors will explain to their teams individually how they have no intention of making peace- they are going to finish the war their forefathers started and they are going to win! Madrichim Roles and Responsibilities 1 Overseer : announces invasions and events, and is the referee 5 Group leaders: Help their team strategise and build. Explain rules if required. 1 map coordinator: updates the CGI map to show whom owns which planets and any other events which may occur during the game. 1 (preferably 2) person at the Station: Buying and selling things the teams make. Overall: 7 maddies required, 8 preferred. The Rules The Object of the Game The aim of the game is to have as many Altarian Dollars (stickers) as possible at the end of the game. The team with the most will win the ultimate prize. The Map The map represents the system. It is divided into 5 clusters each of which has 5 planets. Each planet will have a label with its name- the colour of this label will signify who owns it at that time. As the game goes on you will find that who controls which planet changes so make sure you send scouts to check the map constantly or you may find yourself unexpectedly facing a different opponent. Each denizen of a cluster, i.e. the chanichim and madrichim, will be given a party hat to show which cluster they belong to. Colours are those shown above or as similar as can be found- blue, green, orange, white and purple. The Planet Cards Every cluster will be given 5 planet cards at the start of the game, each signifying a planet they own. At the top of each card there will also be a colour symbolising which cluster that card originally belonged to. This colour will be the same one as the one on the labels. Below shows an example of a planet card (again the real ones are more elaborate.) Planet: Monor Strength 1: Spaceships ***** 2: Weaponry *** 3: Robot Crew ** 4: Technology ** Each planet will have 12 *asterisks*, which will be ibble-dibble stickers. When they gain strength in one area more stickers will be added. At the start of the game they will be given 6 additional stickers to put wherever they like on their planet cards to give the chanachim some control of their starting strengths. The Turn Sequence Space Quest is divided into turns. During each turn each cluster will be called up one by one by the Game Master and asked whether they wish to invade another cluster. It is entirely optional as to whether they wish to invade or not, but it is advisable that they do (invasions will be explained later). While the invasions are going on the chanichim will either be busy building, strategising where to invade next, or even spying on other clusters. The end of a turn will be signified by the Game Master ringing a bell, which will also start the next turn. The Station In one corner of the room is the Space Station. During each turn (including the first) a representative from each group can go to the Station and swap strength points for building/painting materials. They can then use as much time as they need to make either a war machine, a space ship etc- anything futuristic, although it is recommended that speed is of the essence. They can then return these to the Station when they're done and sell them in exchange for more strength points(/stickers/ Altarian Dollars) for any one of their planets. Alternatively they can split the strength points across a few planets. Thus the chanichim have the ability to move and amplify strength points around by making things. The amount of strength points the chanichim can get for their construction (or painting/sketch) will be decided by the Station owner depending on how good they are. Be warned if they are too quick in their building and it is a useless item the chanichim will be rewarded nothing for their efforts. Invasions If they wish to, the chanichim can choose to invade a planet from a different cluster. They can do this by invading the neighbouring planets i.e. the planets that are directly either side of their cluster, or, by using the liner accelerator system. Each cluster will be assigned accelerator port that will be controlled by the central planet. The chanichim can therefore use this planet to invade any other planet with an accelerator port attached (ie. the gamma (3rd) planet) At the beginning of each turn the maddie in overall charge will call up a representative of each cluster to the map zone and ask them if they want to invade someone. The representative will then state which cluster and which planet they wish to invade and the Game Master will shout this out so the whole room knows what is going on. The invadee will bring up the chosen planet card to the map zone where all invasions take place. The attacker will then role a dice, that decides which attribute will be used. The attribute is decided as follows: 1 : spaceships strength 2 : weaponry strength 3 : robot crew strength 4 : technology strength 5 : the attacker decides 6 : the defender decides. If the attacker wins the invasion he will gain control of the planet that was invaded, thus the map will change. If the defender wins or there is a draw he has successfully defended the invasion and nothing changes. Below is an example of a typical invasion: Attacker: Defender: Planet: Monor Strength 1: Spaceships ***** 2: Weaponry *** 3: Robot Crew ** 4: Technology ** Let us say that the attacker roles a 1. His spaceships strength is higher than the defenders so he wins the planet and it becomes part of his or her cluster. The winning cluster's flag will now fly over it on the map. If he rolls a 6 the defender will get to choose, and he will probably choose technology and thus win by 5 points to 2, and so gain the attacker's planet. If he rolls a 2 they draw and nothing happens. TOP SECRET- PLOT TWISTS The above story and rules are by no means complete- at three points in the game something unusual will happen to move the plot and the war along. These must be kept secret from all maddies who will be heading teams, including Claire, as otherwise it will ruin the game. This is how it will proceed: Turn: 1. Normal 2. Normal 3. Asteroid diplomacy 4. Normal 5. Alien Invasion fleet spotted 6. Normal/counter force in flight 7. Alien arrives- Linear accelerator system destroyed 8. Normal- but no station or ports 9. Fidler takes over Normal turns use the rules described above. Unusual turns will be introduced as we go along, and so will be explained at the time. Here are the full explanations: 3: Asteroid Diplomacy The game master will announce that a resource heavy asteroid has entered the system (it will appear on the map) and that he needs the help of three of the clusters to mine it for its resources. The three that help will get a share in these resources (that share will be ~5 stickers, but the groups will not know this). The clusters must each send up one representative to a table in the middle of the room, which they will sit around. The representatives must then discuss which team they don't want to get any share in the asteroid. A "Weakest Link" style round will then proceed in which those representatives each secretly write down the colour of the team that they want to vote off the asteroid. Each person reveals their vote and if there is a majority of 3 or more against one team then that team leaves the debate and doesn't get any of the bounty. This is then repeated to knock out a second team- but this time they all know who voted for who first round, so there's room for back stabbing. This round is intended to destroy trust between the teams and increase backstabbing later. The three winners get their prizes. 5: Alien Invasion Fidler, at the station, announces that long range scanners have detected a massive alien spacecraft heading for the system- it will arrive in just two turns and who knows what it will destroy- a team? The Station (thus ceasing all trading)? The Accelerator Network? Clearly it must be destroyed. The teams each send a new representative to the table for diplomacy. This time they must decide how many of their stickers they will give to Fidler for his station to build a counter force to meet the aliens before they enter the system. The alien will have its own, secret, card which will be kept by the games master, and no one will know how strong it is. The teams decide how much to contribute to the counter force card, bearing in mind that giving a lot will leave them weaker while giving little increases the chance of the alien invasion arriving and destroying them, or maybe their enemies- they have no way of knowing. Another turn (6) is played as normal, then the counter force will fight the invader, in the same way as any normal invasion, except that it will be rigged so that the counter force loses (hence why the maddies MUST NOT know this). It will be announced that the aliens destroy the accelerator network ring, so teams may no longer visit the Station or invade other planets which they can only reach via the system (the gamma planets). The invader will then be destroyed. 9: Fidler takes over In a huge plot twist, analysis of the wreckage of the invasion force shows that it wasn't alien at all- it was a pre-emptive strike from Earth! Fidler's character engineered the whole thing- kidnapping Simon and the Chanachim to use them as slave labour to build him war machines, which he has been collecting at the Station. He knew that the survivors would begin the war again- in fact he was relying on it!- and he's going to use his now heavily fortified Station to invade the Earth. The team leaders have this explained to them and Simon will try and get them to unite to destroy Fidler. Each team must choose one planet to send against the Station. The Station has a card which is massively strong, and it will take many planets to destroy it. The strength of the five cards are added up onto a super card, which then fights the Station. The Station has just one attribute- Strength- which will have a high, secret, number of points- say 100. All the points from the five planets will be added up. If they are greater than the Stations then the Station will be destroyed, the game will end and the points of each team will be added up- the one with the most points will win and get a big prize, and all the others will get a small prize for saving Earth. However, if the Station wins then Fidler's evil plan will have worked, all the teams will be destroyed and no one will get any prizes at all. The point of this round is to see how much they are prepared to sacrifice to win- the team that pledges the most points is more likely to lose at the final count, but if no one pledges then no one will win at all. | Other | 30 to 40 | 30 | 40 | 6 or more | 6 | 10 or older | 10 | 2 hours to 4 hours | 120 | 240 | Low | |||||
| Spaghetti Game | All the channichim stand up and move closely into the circle with their eyes closed everyone puts their hands out and grabs a random hand. It must be from 2 different people. Everyone then opens their eyes and will find that they are in a big knot and by using their own goup dynamics, try to untangle the knot which eventually will happen. | Team Building | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 3 or more | 3 | 11 to 14 years old | 11 | 14 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | High | ||||
| Spell Your Name | Give each person in the room a letter (or multiple if need be), so that every letter is represented once. Then, give each person a blank sticky label on their hand, and a pen. The aim of the game is to be the first person to have your name written on your sticky note. To get a letter for your name, you must find the person who has that letter, and they can then write that letter on your sticky label with their pen. | Pens Sticky labels | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker | 10 to 26 | 10 | 26 | Any | Any age | Up to 10 minutes | 10 | Low | |||||||
| Spinning Game | This game is a race between two chanichim who are dizzy. Set up a maze of chairs (preferably not metal) and give each chanich a shoe. For fun, you can adopt the culture of the original version of this game and give each shoe a name - I recommend you use "Munds 1" and "Munds 2". Get the kids to spin around on the spot as fast as they can while holding the shoe above their heads, looking at it. When the madrich shouts "GO" the chanichim have to stop spinning and try running through the maze. The winner reaches the other end of the room before the other. | Just for Fun | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | 1 or more | 1 | 15 or older | 15 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||
| Spit Drop | all the chanichim stand in a circle looking at the floor. when the madrich says "go" all the chanichim must open their mouths and after a few seconds/few minutes a drop of saliva will fall from some people's mouths. the aim of the game is to not let a drop of spit leave your mouth but you must stand with your mouth open the entire time, not use your tongue or hands to stop a drop from falling. the last person without a drop of saliva having left their mouth wins. | Just for Fun | Any | 1 or more | 1 | 15 or older | 15 | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Medium | ||||||||
| Splat | This game is similar to bang but is not so violent! Instead of shouting 'bang' you shout 'splat'! | Get to Know You | Any | Any | 5 or older | 5 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Split into Family Groups | This is just a short game to divide your group into smaller ones. Make however many groups you want for your peula. Tell each group that they are a family and have to come up with a last name. You can also let them go wild and decide who are all of the characters in their family. Once they have new last names, everybody gets up and walks around the room shaking hands. When two people shake hands, they switch last names. At some arbitrary point, the game ends, and then all the people with the same last name are one group. | Splitting Participants into Groups | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Staring Game | everybody stands in a circle and looks at the floor. when the madrich says everyone has to look up at one person. if two people are looking at each other they have to sit down. you keep playing until you have one or two winners. (your supposed to decide who your going to look at whilst your looking at the floor between goes) | Ice Breaker | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Step In Step Out | Get everyone to stand in a circle. The chant goes: Step In Step Out, Come and indroduce yourself... x2 As the chant suggests, the whole group, steps in, steps out and one at a time each person jumps into the middle, indtroduces themselves e.g. "Hi I'm Brian..." and proceeds to display an action (some sort of hand flailing or bouncing action maybe..!) and the whole group responds with "Hi Brian..." and does the chosen action! This is the general pattern for the entire game, but everyone has to come up with a different action. A quick and simple introduction game!! | Get to Know You | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Sticky Fingers | This is really only for tzevets. Get plenty of chocolate and melt it down into a bowl. Feel free to add some other 'mystery' ingredients. As long as its edible, you can use it. Everyone in the room has to put their name into a hat. The names are mixed and one is picked out. The first person called out dips their fingers into the concoction, and the next person called out has to lick it off. The person who just ate the mixture then puts their fingers in, and someone elses name is called out, who then licks it off their fingers. This continues until everybody has been called out. One of the funniest games I have ever played. | Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | High | ||||||||
| Story Game | The whole group sits in a circle and each person puts their left hand open out flat and the right hand with their index finger pointing down into the plam of the person's left hand on your right. Someone tells a story and the group has to whatch out for a spacific word eg: "banana" in the story. When the word is mentioned everyone emediatly has to try and catch the persons finger on their left and remove their own finger form the persons hand on the right before they catch it. The people who get caught go into the middle and the the game continues till there's a winner. | Ice Breaker | Any | 2 or more | 2 | Any age | Any | Medium | ||||||||||
| Story Time | Read childrens books, the giving tree, where the wild things are, and others. Have the lights off and candles burning. It is a nice way to relax, and hearing those books when one is older is a great wa to get something new out of those classic stories. Let them get comfortable. | Relaxing | Any | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Streets and Alleys | This is a version of cat and mouse game but excellent for a large number of chanichim and time filling. All chanichim except for two (the selected 'cat' and 'mouse') are to arrange themselves into a grid so that they can reach the fingertips of the person on either side of them sideways and front and back. All Chanichim are to face one way and when the madrich shouts "Switch" they all swivel 90 degrees. This essentially changes the layout from 'streets' to 'alleys'. Now the cat and mouse game begins. The goal of the cat is to catch the mouse but the madrich shouts switch every so often so that the cats and mice have to change directions. | Free Time, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Team Building, Wide Game | 50 or more | 50 | Any | Any age | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | ||||||||
| String Game | Everyone sits in a circle, Madrich/a holds a ball of string The Madrich/a says their name and something about themselves then throws the ball string on to someone else in the circle whilst keeping hold of a bit of the unravelling string. This is repeated going from person to person to make a web in the middle. Once everyone is holding a part of the string and one person has the ball everyone has to unravel themselves The person who started has to say the name and fact that the person after them said and then the person has to stand next to/behind this person. This is repeated until everyone is standing in one straight line. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | ||||||
| Stuck in the mud | One or two chanichim are chosen to be the baddies and then have to run around and tip/tag everyone else. If someone gets tipped then they must stand still with their arms and legs apart. They can only start moving again if another chanich crawls underneith their legs. Alternatively, if a chanich is tipped then he must join the baddies and run around tipping others. | Sport | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | 2 or more | 2 | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Medium | ||||||
| Stuck in the quicksand | It is played the same way as stuck in the mud but when you get caught you have to start sinking down to the ground for 20 seconds. If nobody frees you in that time you become a chaser. obviously u can't be freed by going through the legs so you have to run round the person closely once. The game ends once everyone is chasing | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Subtext | A theme is chosen, e.g band names or song lyrics. During a tzevet meeting/kvutsah session/day people have to get as many of the chosen theme into conversation as possible without the rashim/madrichim noticing that people are playing | Just for Fun, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Suck or Blow | Chanichim stand in a line or in teams (more than one line). The person at the start of the line has to suck on the face of a credit card so that s/he is holding it to their face without their hands. They turn around to the next chanich/a and the next in line has to suck the other side of the card while the other blows to let go of it. The game ends when the card reaches the end of the line. This is done as a race if there is more than one line | Get to Know You, Just for Fun, Team Building, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | High | |||||||||
| Suckers | All members to sit cross - legged on floor. A sherbet lemon or similar sweet to be issued to each. The aim of the game is to suck the sweet for the longest possible time without speaking, crunching or swallowing! Very relaxing! | Just for Fun, Relaxing, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 5 or older | 5 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Sumo | Have the kids get with a partner of approximately their same size/strength. The pairs must then sit in a circle with one partner sitting directly in front of the other so that the two are very close but not touching. One person stands in the middle of the circle and calls out two or more names of people sitting on the inside circle. (Encourage the person in the middle to have the inside circle go around and say names if they don't know everyone) The people on the inside must then try to get to the center and touch/kiss/hug the person in the middle while the person behind them tries to restrain them. The first person to reach the middle and touch/kiss/hug the person in the middle then becomes the person in the middle and the person who was in the middle goes and sits behind the winner's former partner. All other involved pairs trade places with their partners such that outside people become inside people, and so on. Fun way to learn names and get to know each other. Good energy booster as well. | Get to Know You | Any | Any | Any age | Any | High | |||||||||||
| Supermarket game | This game is very basic but can become hilarious if people playing are in the right frame of mind. (i.e late at night when in a fun and giggly mood already. One by one the people playing take turns in naming items that could be purchased from a supermarket. The item selected can be as plain as "bread" or as specific as "Bird's eye potato waffles" The items may be repeated as many times as you wish! Thats it! Choose onomatopoeic words like crisps repeatedlyfor added amusement | Other | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||||
| Sweets and Straws | Split the Chanichim into two teams. Get them to stand one behind the other in a line. In front of the first person is a cup of skittles (or malteasers?) and a paper plate. Each of the Chanichim have a straw each. Team 1 start - the first person in the line throws a dice. If it lands on a 6, they can go forward and start sucking up the skittles with the straw and putting them onto the plate. If not, the person at the front goes to the back and the next person in the line rolls a dice. If a 6 is rolled, the dice is passed over to the other team. If team 2 rolls a 6, team 1 must stop sucking up sweets and resume to throwing the dice. The first team to transfer all skittles to the plate wins. | Just for Fun, Team Building, Trigger | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Medium | ||||||||
| Swing the rope | Take a long piece of thick rope and make knots in one end until there is a fairly large knot. one person stands in the middle of a circle of kids and swings the rope around themselves. start very close to the floor and get higher as the game progresses. the people in the circle have to jump over the rope and therefore not touch the rope. if someone does not jump intime, they are out. | Just for Fun, Sport | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||
| Swords & Shields | Each person has to choose someone to be their Sword and another person to be their Shield. No one tells anyone who their Sword or Shield is. The Madrich starts the game by shouting "BEGIN". When the game starts, the person has to run and try and get his shield between his shield. But at the same time, everyone else is doing this and so it becomes a running around each other as everyone is tring to get their shield between them and their sword. The game continues until it looks like the Chanichim have had enough. To give you an idea, if there are 3 people: 1, 2 and 3. Person 1 has chosen 2 as their Shield and 3 as their sword. Person 2 has chosen Person 3 as their Shield and 1 as their Sword. Person 3 has chosen 1 as their Shield and 2 as their Sword. You can see that they are going to run around in one circle. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Swords and Shields | Everyone has a sword (their index finger on their right hand) and everyone has a shield (their flat hand behind their back) The aim of the game is to 'stab' as many people as possible and 'kill them' in the group. Everyone runs around trying to stap their index finger into other people's shields. If you get stabbed, you die and are out. Remember to guard your shield! A great run around game. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Wide Game | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Medium | ||||||||
| Table football | Madrichim lay out tables in 4 corners of a large space. Shoes must be off for play. Participants are divided into 4 equal teams (ideally 2-3 members per team but more tables and hence teams can be added if the number of participants is greater). One person acts as the goalie, and one as a midfielder, and general football rules apply. Each of the tables acts as a goal, so the aim is to kick the ball against the table of another team in order to score. If this happens, the team that has been scored at loses a member, who is now out for the duration of the game. The last team with members remaining wins. Extra rules: double touch is not allowed - those who kick the football twice successively are out for 30 seconds as a penalty, further if the ball hits the ceiling the team member who kicked it is out for 30 seconds. Back ins can be added if time allows, if the team that scores wishes to bring back a member of their team who is out. | 4+ trestle tables, large space, soft ball (sponge ball is ideal) | This is a favourite at our Bnei Akiva sviva of 5-15 ish kids, and could entertain them for hours! | Should be less transmissible as the ball is passed by foot rather than hands, but ensure that hands are washed before playing and sanitize the ball if possible. Hands should be washed again after playing, and the space ventilated as it gets competitive so shouting can occur! | Sport | 8 to 16 | 8 | 16 | 2 to 6 | 2 | 6 | 5 to 18 years old | 5 | 18 | 10 minutes to 40 minutes | 10 | 40 | Medium |
| Tail bang | Yes... another version of bang! This one is my personal favourite, though. Give each chanich a tail (some sort of fabric out the back of their pants) and form a circle. Then a name is called out. That person ducks, and the two people on either side try to grab each others' tail. The one whose tail is grabbed is out, sits in the middle of the circle and calls the next name. Alternatively, the one who loses can get a 'point', so that no one is ever 'out'. I hate it when people just sit there and watch the game unfold. The aim then would be accumulate the fewest 'points'. | Free Time, Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | ||||||||
| Team Challenge | Give them a task. Examples include building something, cleaning something, getting across an obstacle course all together. The task must include them all getting through it together. At different stages in the task change the decision making process. For part one it can be democratic, for part two it can be authoritarian. Part three can be consensus. As they go through it write down, funny and interesting things they say. DOnt let them know that you are writing it down. After they complete the task read them the things that they said and try to assess how they worked as a team, and how they could improve. | Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| The "Get your kids to sit on the floor" Game! | This game's aim is to get all the chanichim to sit on the floor before a program starts. Usually madrichim have to ask repetitively for kids to sit on the floor instead of chairs, so this is an easy game to get them all on the floor 1) Firstly, tell them all to close their eyes. 2) Instruct them, that if they are tapped on the head in this "round" and they are sitting on the floor, they must sit on a chair, and if they are tapped and they are sitting on a chair, they must sit on the floor. They will not understand the aim of the game, but this is the trick. 3) Play a few "rounds" to keep the kids swapping between chair and floor 4) after a few "rounds", tap only the kids sitting on a chair, and while they still have their eyes closed, take away all their chairs after they have moved to the floor How easy was that!?! Now all your chanichim are sitting on the floor for the start of your peulah! | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Trigger | Any | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | ||||||||||
| The Backwards Name Game | Everyone sits in circle and says their name backwards. They then put it into a sentence about themsleves and it's a very funny way for a group to get to know one another. | Get to Know You | Any | 2 or more | 2 | 5 or older | 5 | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | ||||||||
| The Blanket Game | Group of players split into two. The two groups sit in their groups quietly, either side of a blanket/quilt/sleeping bag held up by two leaders. The groups must not be able to see each other. Quietly, each group nominate one player. The nominated player quietly moves so they are sitting infront of the blanket, facing the blanket. On the count of three, the blanket is dropped, and the task of the player is to say the name of the person from the other team. The person to say the other's name wins, and the losing player joins the winning player's team, until one team has all the players. | Get to Know You, Just for Fun | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | 2 or more | 2 | 5 or older | 5 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | |||||
| The Circle Running Game | This is the single best game ever if your kids have too much energy and you want them to be more tired. everybody sits in a cricle and gets a number from 1 to 4. Then a number is called (for example "2") all the 2s must then stand up and begin running clockwise around the circle. If you get overtaken by somebody, you must sit back down. The winner is the last person standing. Usually the 2 kids with the most energy end up on either side of the circle and run and run and run until they can't run no more, you've beaten them! | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| The Clock Game(oppointment game) | Everyone starts off in a circle and gets a piece of paper with a analogue clock taking up the full page(1-12). the group then gets about 5-10 minutes to make oppointments with everyone else in the group next to the hours on the clock. Once everyone's clock fills up with a name next to every hour. The Madrich/madricha calls out an our on the clock (eg: "it's 3 o'clock"- it doesn't have to go on numericle order) and the channichim must then meet with the person's name who is written down for 3 o'clock-this should be two people the most . Once everybody is with their pair , the madrich calls out a theme and the pairs have about 3-5 minutes to talk about that topic. Eg: My family. Once 5 mins has past the madrich calls out another hour on the clock and the goups swop to the next oppointment that they have written down and talk about another topic. | Get to Know You | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | 4 or more | 4 | 15 to 17 years old | 15 | 17 | 1 hour to 2 hours | 60 | 120 | Low | ||||
| The Dictionary Game | First, split the chanichim into either teams or individuals. The leader then chooses a word from the dictionary (e.g. apple). Each team/individual then writes down a definition for the chosen word on a piece of paper and gives it to the leader. For example, one person may write "A crunchy fruit that grows on trees, often red or green in colour". The leader also writes the actual dictionary definition of the word on a piece of paper. Once all definitions have been handed to the leader, the leader will read out all the definitions one at a time. Each person then guesses which of the definitions read out is the actual dictionary definition. If someone guesses that your definition is the actual one, you receive one point. If someone guesses the correct definition, then they receive one point. After as many rounds as you like, whoever had the most points wins. | Paper Pens | You can do this as a trigger activity by choosing only words related to your programme. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Trigger | 3 or more | 3 | 1 or more | 1 | 11 or older | 11 | Any | Low | ||||||
| The Donkey Game | Everyone stands in a circle. One person is in the middle, dancing and skipping within the cirlce... Everyone else is singing. The song goes as follows; "Here comes..... riding on a donkey, riding on a big fat donkey, here comes..... riding on a donkey and this is how he/she rides.." At this point, the person in the middle chooses someone in the circle to dance with... and this is what happens; The group: "front front front front baby" (the two people dance facing each other) "back back back back baby" (the two people dance back to back) "side side side side baby" (sideways) "and this is how they ride..." The two people dancing then swap places and the song starts over again. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| The Game | Everyone who knows The Game is always playing it. The Game is to forget you are playing The Game. You will explain this to those around you who will not understand and eventually the conversation will progress and everyone will forget about The Game. At some point later on, someone will remember about The Game. At this point they have lost The Game and must announce that to those around them (even if they are in different company), thus causing them all to lose The Game by reminding them of it. To anyone who knew this game before - you just lost The Game! | Just for Fun, Team Building, Trigger, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| The Humming Game | Two equal teams have a competition who can hum the longest. Basically its a humming relay the first person in each team starts and as soon as they finish the next person then starts humming for as long as they can. the winning team is the one who is still humming when the other team is finished. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| The Ice Game | The group is split into two teams and one volunteer from each team comes forward and places an ice cube in their mouth. Then with the ice in their mouth they have to try and say a tongue twister...(go to http://www.uebersetzung.at/twister/ for a varied collection of tongue twisters). The team to guess what their volunteer is saying first wins. Game can be repeated as many times as you like. note it can also be adapted to have a time limitations as well ie they have to guess 5 tongue twisters in 3 minutes. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| The Key Game | One chanich sits on a chair and is blindfolded. A bunch of keys is placed under their chair. A madrich points at one other chanich, who then has to silently walk/run round the circle once then, when s/he reaches his/her chair, s/he walks into the middle and must attempt to steal the keys. The person on the chair has three attempts, at any time to point anywhere and if s/he points at the person then they are out. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| The MOO Game | There is a group of people in a circle. One person goes out of the room and the game is explained to the others. What happens is when that person comes back they will be given three chances to figure out who the MOO leader is. The MOO leader is the person who is mooing the loudest of them all (in reality there is nobody the first time). On the third try, whoever the person says moos the loudest, he is automatically right. So then somebody else goes outside (person B), and the first person becomes the MOO leader, so he actually has to moo louder than everyone else. So person B comes back in and has three chances to guess who the MOO leader is. Person B is in on it the secret the whole time, so he does not choose the person the first two times. So the first two times, the MOO leader screams really loud. The third time (Everyone is told this while he was outside the first time, that on the third time, of the second round, nobody is supposed to scream EXCEPT for the MOO leader). Everyone pretends to scream, and then it is only the MOO leader who screams the loudest of everyone. In turn he becomes embarrassed, and everyone laughs! This is one of the funniest games possible. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 15 to 17 years old | 15 | 17 | Any | Low | |||||||||
| The Mirror in a Box | Turn the lights down low. Tell the participants that there is a picture in the box (Shoe Box is perfect). The picture is of someone that they all will recognize. They should look into the box one by one (Pass it around the circle). No one should be able to see the inside of the box before their turn (Sit them spread out). When they look into the box they will see themselves (Hence the mirror in the box). If they have to think about it for a while its okay, they are about to bear their souls. Let them describe the person(Themselves). If they only want to describe physical features its okay, but try to get them to describe the persons personality. | Other | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| The Most dangerous game on Machon | Water is sprayed on to the hallway tiles until they are extremely slippery. Candidates must take a run up and slide on their feet across the slippery area. The candidate who is able to slide the furthest on their feet (read: stay standing the longest) wins and is ellegible for champion of machon. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| The Music Game | The game is essentially pairs with people instead of cards. each person puts out their hands and decides with another person a song i.e: lean on me. lets say there are three people playing. sammy is guessing the songs. sarah and abbi are participating. if sarah decides that her left hand and abbi's right hand are going to be lean on me this is how it works: sammy says to sarah: "sarah left hand" and sarah sings"lean on me..." then sammy will attept to find the matching pair to this song, if he then says "abbi right hand" abbi will then sing " when your not strong..." sammy will then have found a match! the two hands that match (sarah's right & abbi's left) get taken out the game and put behind their backs! matches then have to be found with the remaining hands this game is genrally played with more than 4 people. | Other | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||||
| The Name Game | This is a great way to learn names quickly. Everyone stands in a circle. One person begins by saying her name. Then the person next to her (either on the left or right, whichever you prefer) says his name. Then the next person and so on. If its your turn to say your name, and you don't want to say your name, you can say reverse instead and the the name-saying will go in the opposite direction. The goal is go as quickly as possible without messing up. | Get to Know You | Any | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | ||||||||||
| The Newspaper hats game | Ok so everybody get a WHOLE lot of newspaper, and there's scissors and tape and all that jazz. Everybody must make a hat and a weapon. They will need some time to do this. Then when everyone is ready they must face off one-on-one. The aim is to get their opponent's hat off by only using their weapon. You can hold a knockout tournament or round robin or all in brawl or however you want to do it. It may not sound like much, but its amazing. The tension, the excitement, the grace and finess required to win, the look on the loosers eye when their hat goes tumbling. What a game. | Free Time, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| The Order of The Holy Dido | First, we choose an object to be the Holy Dido, and place it in the centre of the circle. Everyone else sits in a circle on chairs around the Holy Dido, and somebody is chosen to be the Master of the Holy Dido. Those sitting in the circle must follow a series of strict rules, as laid out by the Master. For example: - You must have a straight face at all times - You must sit with your back straight - You must maintain eye contact with the Master at all times when speaking to them - Your legs must not be crossed etc. The game begins when the Court is called into order, by the Master saying "I hereby call the Court of the Holy Dido into order". The aim of the game is for somebody to follow a series of steps to retrieve the Holy Dido. These steps are: - Request to speak - Request to accuse a member of the Order - Accuse a member of the Order of not following the rules - Request to stand - Request to approach the Holy Dido - Request to pick up the Holy Dido - Request to approach the member who was not following the rules - Request to punish the member who was not following the rule - Hit the member lightly on the head with the Holy Dido - Request to return the Holy Dido - Request to place the Holy Dido - Request to return to your seat After each request, you can only proceed if the Master says "you may". If the Master says anything else, you must not respond, or will be punished at the Mater's discretion. In the example, they may do as follows: Sister: "Master <name>, may I speak?" Master: "You may speak, Sister" Sister: "Master <name>, may I accuse a comrade?" Master: "You may" Sister: "Master <name>, may I accuse Comrade <name>?" Master: "You may" etc, etc, etc. If at any point the Brother/Sister attempting to retrieve the Dido gets the order of steps wrong or breaks any of the rules set out previously, the Master will command them to return to their seat, and they would have to try again. If the Brother/Sister successfully retrieves the Dido, they become the Master. The Master may at any point change the rules that the Brothers/Sisters must follow, by saying "Members of the Order, I hereby declare that you must... " If any Brother/Sister sees any other Brother/Sister break the rules, they can report the Brother/Sister in a similar way, and begin their process of attempting to retrieve the Holy Dido. | Drama, Free Time, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Simulation | 5 or more | 5 | 1 or more | 1 | 9 or older | 9 | At least 15 minutes | 15 | Low | |||||||
| The Piggy Game | Use a small animal figurine (preferably a pig) and ask your kids to get in a circle. Nominate one kid to throw the figurine into the middle of the circle so it rolls, flips, bounces on the floor. Then ask the thrower to nominate someone else to copy the movement that the figurine made when it was thrown The result is endless kids doing funny moves in the middle of the circle trying to copy an animal figurine! | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| The Racing Car Game | Group sits in a circle, everyone has to go around and say their name to the sound of a racing car. Keep going round the circle untill all the names sound the same and everyone knows eachothers names | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Trigger | Any | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | ||||||||||
| The Shmulik Ruebin Game | This game is like twenty questions, so first I will describe that. One person ("johnny think", say) must think of something. It can be anything. a person, and event, an object, an abstract concept, a place, a habbit, the way popcorn gets stuck between your teeth, anything. When they think of something they must exclaim "OK I've got one". People must ask yes no questions so as to discern what it is that is the thing that johnny think thought of. Now to make it the Shmulik Ruebin game the first question must be, "does it have anything to do with Shmulik Ruebin?" If the answer is yes, the person who asked the question must yell "COME ON!!!!" and point to their own head with all the fingers of one hand. If the answer is no then everyone must act disappointed and go "oh" and then you move on to another one without finding out what that one was. The person who asked if it was to do with Shmulik Ruebin gets to think of the next one | Free Time, Just for Fun, Relaxing | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| The alternative chair game | Everyone but one person is standing on a chair in a circle. The extra person points to a chair and and slowly takes it away so that the chanichim are forced to stand on each others chairs and support each other to prevent anyone falling down (eg into a crocodile pit). The person taking away the chair is working with the chanichim, not against them. This is repeated untill the chanichim clearly will not be able to support each other any longer if another chair is taken away. The idea is to see how few chairs everyone can stand on. | Team Building | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | ||||||||
| The easy way to win stuck in the mud! | First of all, you play stuck in the mud. You all know how it goes, the chanachim run around, and the madrachim tag them. You play this for about 10-20 mins. Then, the madrachim tell all the chanachim to sit in a big circle. All the chanachim should be really tired, so the madrachim tell them to stretch, wiggle thier toes, e.t.c. The madrachim tell the chanachim that they're going to tap them on the back once, twice or three times, and that everyone should close their eyes. (everyone assumes that they're playing mathia) When everyone has been tapped, the madrachim tell the chanachim to stand up, and stretch them arms out so that they are either side of them. And the madrachim say, "You're all STUCK!!!!" | Sport | Any | Any | Any age | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Medium | |||||||||
| The inapropriate game | This game is like twister, but without the mat. You label each limb (hand and feet) 1,2,3,4 and so on. so the first person would be 1,2,3,4 then the next person would be 5,6,7,8. Go round the circle and label everyone like this. Then call out two numbers, make sure you mark off which ones have been called out, the numbers called have to touch, so say number 1 was ahand and number 24 was a foot, number one would hold number 24. Go around the group until all the numbers are uysed up. The result should be a m,assive tangle of limbs. | Just for Fun, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | Any age | Any | High | |||||||||||
| The stick game | The players stand in a circle, facing inwards, about an arms length away from each other. Each player holds a garden cane or stick in front of him/her. The Leader stands outside the circle and proceeds to "tell a story". At each mention of the words "right" or "left", the player must let go of his/her stave, and step in the apropriate direction to catch the stave released by the next door player before it hits the ground. If the stave falls before the player can catch it, the player who missed is out. The game ends when there is only one player left. You can use numbers, or any word you like to mean left or right. The story can be left out and left or right called as appropiate. | Other | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Theres No Going Back | One person, on, stands on one side of the room facing the wall, and everyone else lines up on the opposite wall and tries to sneak up. When the person on hears someone they turn around and if they see someone moving they say "X, theres no going back. they have to then run and touch the wall. If the are caught everyone except those that have reached the end already return to start. The aim is for everyone to reach the end in as few tries as possible. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| This is a... | The chanichim sit in a circle. and are taught the formula for the song wich goes "this is a ........." "a what?" "a ........." "a what" " a ........" "oh a ........". now the origional game is played by passing objects around the circle. chanich 1 has a shoe and says "this is a shoe" to chanich 2 whilst chanich 16 (who is sitting next to chanich 1 and who has an orange) is telling chanich 1 "this is an orange" chanich 2 then asks chanich 1 "a what?" whilst chanich one asks chanich 16 "a what?" and then chanich 1 answers chanich two "a shoe" whilst chanich 16 answers chanich 1 "an orange. (at the same time chanich two is trying to pass something to chanich three and 15 to 16 etc.) at the end of the chant each chanich takes the object being passed to them and tries to pass the new object on. the same game can also be played using names. and instead of passing objects people pass their names around the circle eg "i am romi" " a who?" etc. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Tic Tac Toe | The chanichim are split into 2 teams, each at either side of a room in a line facing the line on the other side of the room. one of the chanichim from one of the sides runs up to the other team and slaps one persons hand saying 'tic' then another saying 'tac' and then on the third hand-hit he/she says 'toe' and must turn around and run back to his team's line. whoever's hand he/she slapped when saying 'toe' must chase the other chanich back to his side of the room. his aim is to tip him and if he does then both go back to the tipper's team. if he does not catch him they both go back to their respective sides. | Just for Fun | Any | 1 or more | 1 | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||
| Tif Su Ni | There are two teams lined up in opposing lines facing each other with at least 20 metres between them, hands out in front of them. One volunteer (person who is in) goes up and taps three different people on the hand saying a phrase for each person, tif-su-ni and on the last tap (ni) that person needs to chase them back to their original team. If they catch them - they are out. If not the other person is in. Continue till there only one team left standing | Other | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Medium | ||||||||||
| Toilet roll game | Tell the chanichim that there is only one roll of toilet paper left for the whole group for the rest of machane/whatever you are doing. So, they must each take however many pieces they think they will need. Once everyone has taken, you inform them how silly they were to believe you and get each person to share one piece of info about themselves with the group for each piece of toilet paper they took. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Tower game | In small groups of 5 or 6 they have to build a free standing tower. Their towers will be judged on the criteria of height, stability and beauty. At the beginning they are not allowed to speak to each other, then they are allowed to speak but only in gibberish, then normally. Then after judging the towers, get the group back into a circle and ask them how they felt and their modes of behavior during each stage of the game. | Team Building | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | Any | Any age | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | |||||||
| Towers | Two teams. The idea is to build the highest tower using common kitchen items. has to be relatively stable. | Just for Fun, Sport, Team Building | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||
| Town Hall | Let the chanichim get up in fornt of everyone and Voice complaints. Write them down and try to fix them. Maybe afterwards the discussion can be about what solutions are available. Complaints can range from borken toillets to not enough respect in the group, and everything in between. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Trees | All participants much choose an animal. They tell everyone what their animal is, then demonstrate "being" that animal (involves moving like one, and sounding like one) Once all is done, Madrich/a says "start", and everyone begins pretending to be their animal (each must have a different animal). At a random point, Madrich/a can shout "trees", upon which everyone must pretend to be a tree. Then, Madrich/a shouts "animals" and chanichim resume being animals. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Tzevet Kef | Any | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Trees - Challenging variation | All participants much choose an animal. They tell everyone what their animal is, then demonstrate "being" that animal (involves moving like one, and sounding like one) Once all is done, Madrich/a says "start", and everyone begins pretending to be their animal (everyone must have a different animal). At a random point, Madrich/a can shout "trees", upon which everyone must pretend to be a tree. Then, Madrich/a shouts "animals" and chanichim resume being animals. HOWEVER. When the chanichim switch from "trees" to "animals" they must choose an animal that is not their own, but rather someone elses. If two people choose the same animal, they are both out. So, basically, you have to (in a short space of time) remember the animals chosen by the others AND try to guess which one nobody else will choose. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Tzevet Kef | Any | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Trees - Variation (this time with a point!) | All participants much choose an animal. They tell everyone what their animal is, then demonstrate "being" that animal (involves moving like one, and sounding like one) Once all is done, Madrich/a says "start", and everyone begins pretending to be their animal (each must have a different animal). At a random point, Madrich/a can shout "trees", upon which everyone must pretend to be a tree. Then, Madrich/a shouts "animals" and chanichim resume being animals. At each change, the last person to change to tree or their animal is out. Last person in wins. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Tzevet Kef | Any | 1 or more | 1 | Any age | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| True Or False | The Chanichim are seperated into two teams and line up one behind the other, with each team standing by another. Two chairs are placed at the other side of the room with a red ball and a green ball on each. The madrich stands at the front of the groups (quite a way in front of them) and reads out true or false questions - the two people at the front of their team must quickly decide if it is true or false; run to their chair and pick up either the red ball (false) or green ball (true) and the first person to take the correct colour to the Madrich wins the point for their team. The two people who were at the front now go to the back of the line. Play for as many points as you like - but the first to 20 is usually quite good. | Educational, Team Building | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||
| Tuch Tuch Mi Ani? (knock knock who am I?) | One person kneels down on the floor with their head on a chair. Another person comes along and in a funny voice, taps the person on the back and says "tuch tuch mi ani?" (knock knock who am I?) and the person with their head down has to guess who it is. If they guess correctly, they swap places. Great game for little kids. | Get to Know You, Just for Fun | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | 1 or more | 1 | 5 to 7 years old | 5 | 7 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||
| Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee | The group is split into two equal teams (Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee) and each member of each team is given a number. The teams line up opposite each other and the leader calls out a number. The person from each team with that number walks into the middle and must make the other person laugh without saying anything except the name of their team. | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Twelve | Each round, the aim is to count to twelve, following the set rules. In the first round, the only rule in place is that the numbers 7 and 11 are swapped. So you would go around the circle, with each person counting up a number, and in this first round it would go "1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 11, 8, 9, 10, 7, 12". If this is done correctly, then whoever says the number 12 gets to add in a new rule and the counting starts again. E.g. "You must say one and ten backwards". I.e. not only would 7 and 11 be swapped, but you'd now also say "eno" instead of 1 and "net" instead of 10. If at any point someone forgets a rule or gets it wrong, you reset to 1 and they go out. The aim is to be the last person standing (by this point probably with a lot of ridiculous rules!) | Free Time, Just for Fun | Any | Any | 7 or older | 7 | At least 5 minutes | 5 | Low | |||||||||
| Twenty Questions | Someone thinks of a famous person and the rest of the group have twenty yes or no questions to try to guess who it is. If the person is not guessed within twenty questions continue anyway till the person is guessed but the person was sucssessful in not getting his person guessd in the alloted 20 questions | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| U are lying, U are telling the truth | Madrichim, and then chanichim, should tell two things about themselves to the group: one true, one false. Chanichim should try and guess which of these statements is true. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Under the Blanket | One person is chosen and leaves the room or out of ear shot. The rest of the group must choose a piece of clothing that the person is wearing. The person returns and lies under the blanket or sleeping bag. That person has to guess which piece of clothing the group has chosen. If they get it wrong, they have to remove that piece of clothing and take it out from under the blanket. This continues until they guess the right piece of clothing. They can then get dressed again. | Just for Fun, Team Building, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||||||
| Underneath your underpants | Sit in a circle, works best with a group of 15-20 people. 1) Go round say your name and a random fact about you 2) Go round again and say a your favourite tagline/slogan i.e. "The Future's Bright, The Future is Orange" 3) Go round again saying "Underneath my underpants" and then the slogan i.e. "Underneath my underpands the future's bright, the future is Orange" Depending on the group and their sense of humour this can be a lot of fun!! | Get to Know You | Any | Any | 15 to 17 years old | 15 | 17 | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | ||||||||
| Unga | Everyone in the circle chooses a random word and an action to go with it (literally any word u want) one person is chosen to be Unga (make up an action for Unga). Unga always starts and calls another person, like in Adman, eg Unga to Bob. You hav to reply by saying your word and action and then the word and action of another person, but you have to reply quickly otherwise youre out. When the last two people are left in, they have to say the last person to be out's word in between theirs, ie unga to c to bob, bob to c to unga. the last person left in wins | Ice Breaker | 5 to 10 | 5 | 10 | 2 or more | 2 | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||
| Utopia? | Split up into groups as small as 4 or as large as 10. Each group must design a flag, write a national anthem, think of foreign policy, education system, health care, welfare, governmental system etc. And of course a country name. Consensus must be drawn for all decisions within the group. Present the countries to the large group. Discuss how hard it was to agree on the different issues at hand, and ask if it really is their perfect society, or did they have to compromise on certain things so that more people were happy with it over all. | Other | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 1 hour to 2 hours | 60 | 120 | Low | ||||||||
| Vampire Game | Everyone stands in a circle, and one person is in the middle. The person in the middle is the vampire. The vampire has to run at a person around the circle and try to "bite" (not really bite) them on the neck. The person who the vampire is running at must then call "AAAAHHHH (another name) before the vampire bites them. The vampire must then run at the person whos name is called, and that person must call another name etc. | Get to Know You | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 5 or older | 5 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | High | ||||||
| Waargh! | The chanachim are put into a circle. One person moves their arms straight outwards and shouts 'WAARH!' or 'Waa!' or 'Wah?', pointing at someone across the circle. The person who was pointed at lifts their arms straight up, shouting 'Wargh!' and the people either side of him move their arms straight towards the person who recieved the 'Wah', in an axe-cutting movement, also shouting 'Wargh!'. The person who recieved the 'Wah' then passes it on by moving their hands straight down pointing at someone else, shouting 'Warrgh', and the game continues. The aim is to keep the rhythm of the game, as all the 'Wahs' should be in time. If someone misses a beat, forgets to go or does the wrong actions they are out. The beat can be slowed down or quickened according to the ability of the chanachim. Variation: Name 'Wargh' - instead of shouting 'Wargh' you use the person's name. Therefore: "Danny!" Danny puts his arms up and Danny shouts 'Danny!' The people either side of Danny move their arms straight towards him and shout 'Danny' Danny moves his arms straight down, points at Sophie and shouts "Sophie!", and it continues. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Simulation, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| War! What is it good for? | Have everyone line up next to each other. Explain that there is a war going on. The enemy is evil and is trying to take over their homes. They are ruthless and stand for nothing good. (Keep preaching this propaganda throughout the activity). Beging training. Train the group to be killing machines. -push ups, running, theory on the bad guys (Make it up). Send them into the forest with wet toilet paper globs, and tell them To throw them at the bad guys. (in the forest you have set up cardboard heads of the bad guys. These should be propped on low branches and other places that they will be found. Try to make as many as possible-Minimum 6-9). When they kill them tell them to take the cardboard with them. On the back every cardboard is going to be a name, that you have written there. Corresponding to the name will be a family, history, friends, favourite food etc. for each 'enemy' soldier. When they have 'killed' them all bring them back to the circle. Let them show everyone how many they got. Then read each history and background. Discussion: How do you feel knowing that your enemy also had homes and families etc.? Do you think that the things you were told about your 'enemy' where blown out of proportion? How do you know if it is really your enemy or if there is alot of propaganda mixed in? Is it okay to kill? In what situation? Do you think you would have acted the same way if you knew the backgrounds of your 'enemy' before hand? | Other | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 3 or more | 3 | 10 or older | 10 | 2 hours to 4 hours | 120 | 240 | Low | |||||
| We're Going To Netanya | Everyone gets into 2 circles - one inside the other. The outer circle runs one way and the inner cirlce runs the other way. Everyone holds hands and sings: "We're going to Netanya We're going to to the fair To see a senorita With flowers in her hair" Then you stop running and sing whilst doing these actions: "So shake it, shake it, shake it" (wiggle bums) "Shake it all you can" (more bum wiggles) "Shake it like a milkshake and do the best you can" (u clasp ur hands together, and do two shakes on each shoulder) "So rumble to the bottom" (bend down and twirl your hands around) "Rumble to the top" (stretch up and twirl your hands around) "And turn around and turn around until the music stops" (keep turning on the spot and when you sing "stop" everyone in the inner circle points to someone in the outer circle, who then joins the inner circle) The rhyme then starts again. When the inner circle is bigger than the outer circle, the people on the outside move inside. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| What are you doing? | Two people battle against each other. One yells out "What are you doing" The other calls out something mad and crazy at which point the original person has to do that mad and crazy thing. THe roles then reverse. This continues until one person can no longer think of something mad and crazy to do, at which point two new people take over. | Free Time, Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Relaxing, Team Building | 20 to 30 | 20 | 30 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||
| What is your favourite font? | As the title suggests, you get the group sitting round in a circle and go round and ask each person to say what is their favourite font and why. For example, "My favourite font is Comic Sans MS because it is fun and funky like me!" and so on... | Get to Know You, Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Whats your rap | The chanichim hear a clip of the backing track, or intro to a rap song, and then have to guess what the rest of the song is about, or come up with one of their own. | Music | Any | 2 or more | 2 | 15 or older | 15 | Any | Low | |||||||||
| Who am I??? | Put a name of someone famous ie moshe or bart simpson or the queen or even just some one in the group on one persons head. they have to go round asking people yes and no questions like am i jewish or am I on TV until they get who they 'are'. | Trigger | Any | Any | Any age | 20 minutes to 30 minutes | 20 | 30 | Low | |||||||||
| Who's Missing? | The group is seated, at random around the room; one person, A, goes out. The group moves around, changing places, and one more person, B, leaves by the other door, or hides. A returns and has 20 seconds to guess who's missing. If s/he does s/he wins if s/he doesn't, B wins. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | Up to 5 minutes | 5 | Low | ||||||||
| Who's Your Daddy and What Does He Do? | The group, sitting in a circle, goes around once or twice and each person says their mother or father's name and profession. Then, the game starts with everyone doing the lap-lap-clap "We Will Rock You" beat. Everyone asks "Who's your daddy and what does he do?", then everyone responds "Roger, project manager". This response is helpful as an example before every round, and it flows nicely with the beat. Saying "roger, project manager" in your best Australian accent doubles the fun. Now the game begins. The person who has been chosen to start yells to the beat the name and profession of someone else's parent in the circle. The person who's parent was chosen then passes the turn to another, calling out someone else's parent and profession, all to the beat! The game's really quite hard, and usually two or three parents are picked on as the ones everyone says. Emphasize that the group needs to remember their friends parent's names and professions at the start when everyone says them! | Get to Know You | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Whose Line Is It Anyway? | This game is a complete rip from the famous radio and TV show, Whose Line Is It Anyway? It is a improv game that can prove to be very fun. The amount of types of game within the theme is nearly endless. First choose your game from the TV and Radio show: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whose_Line_Is_It_Anyway%3F_(American_TV_series)#Games Split the group up into teams and select the required number of players from each team and get them to do the improv game. You, the madrichim, judge the game and award points to the team that deserves to win based on cleverness, speed of answers, comical value etc. Can prove to be very fun, you should also do different rounds with multiple games!!! | Drama, Just for Fun, Music, Splitting Participants into Groups | Any | 1 or more | 1 | 15 or older | 15 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||
| Wink | See "Samurai." Only difference is that instead of the person being in the middle, they are just a single person sitting in the big circle. In this case, the first to kiss them then sits behind them, and the person who let their partner get away now says "Anyone who...". | Free Time, Get to Know You, Just for Fun, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | High | |||||||||||
| Word Association | Everyone is in a circle. One person says a word and the next person has to respond with a word that is associated with it. You can't repeat a word thats already been said. If your word has already been said, or it isn't associated with the word before it, then you're out. The game carries on until there is a winner. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Word Disassociation | This is a more advanced version of Word Association. Everyone is in a circle. One person says a word and the next must respond with a word that is in no way connected with it. If there is a link, however tenious, then they're out. You can't repeat words that have been said before. This goes on until theres a winner. | Just for Fun | Any | Any | 15 or older | 15 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| Would you like to buy a duck? | Everyone sits in a circle and the it goes something like this: Person 1 to Person 2) "Would you like to buy a duck? Person 2 to Person 1) "A what?" P1 to P2) "A duck" P2 to P1) "Does it quack?" P1 to P2) "Of course it quacks it's a duck" P2 to P3) "Would you like to buy a duck?" P3 to P2) "A what?" P2 to P1) "A what?" P1 to P2) "A duck" P2 to P3) "A duck" P3 to P2) "Does it quack?" P2 to P1) "Does it quack?" P1 to P2) "Of course it quacks it's a duck" P2 to P3) "Of course it quacks it's a duck" P3 to P4) "Would you like to buy a duck" etc... | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Would you rather?? | The room, or outside area is divided into two. The players stand in the middle. The leader reads out various would you rather questions, such as: Would you rather have a foot long nose or have a foot long tongue? Would you rather have live forever or die tomorrow? Would you rather have glo-sticks as fingers or pom poms as hands? Would you rather age only from the neck down or only from the neck up? At the same time, the leader assigns one side of the room/area with each of the options. The players make a snap decision and run to their preferred side. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Splitting Participants into Groups | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||||
| Wrap up and unwind | Lay someone down in the centre, everyone walks around with the parachute, which eventually covers them all up. If you pull back on the parachute, they will spin around - back to where they start. | Parachute | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||
| Wshey washey | One person says one word then the next person says one and the next and the next, telling a story. Words CANT be repeated and the story HAS to make sense to a degree... If someone repeats a word or says something that doesnt fit like "One...day...i...went...to...the...zoo...chocolate" theyre out! | Other | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| Yeehar | Sitting in a circle there are various commands that can be used to pass the impulse around the circle. A simple "yeehar" with a thrusting arm sends it to the person next to you. A "Ho-down" with a thrusted elbow downwards, reverses the direction. A "hey barn" pointing your hands upwards, skips a person And a spinning arm movement followed by calling someones name out as if performing a lasso, sends it to a random person. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Relaxing, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Yeehar, little briton version aka "ya i know" | Very similar to the original yeehar game, only "little briton" phrases are used. A "ya I know" send it to the person next to you. An "ee yes" reverses the direction. An "I'm a lady" skips a person. A "ye but no but ye but no but" followed by someones name, sends it to a random person. Finally an "eh eh ehhhhh" results in everyone swapping chairs. Actions can be used to accompany the phrases. | Other | Any | Any | Any age | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | |||||||||
| Yes, No, Black and White Game | A questioner (normally a Madrich) is selected, who will stand in the centre of a group of people and ask each individual member questions. Members must answer these questions but cannot mention the words yes, no, black or white. If a member hesitates, mentions one of these 4 words (in any language), moves their head to indicate a yes or no, or uses words like "yeh," they are out. The winner is the last person remaining | Ice Breaker | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||
| Yes, No, Black and White Game - Not for Novices | The same rules as the traditional game apply, plus a few extra twists. A questioner (normally a Madrich) is selected, who will stand in the centre of a group of people and ask each individual member questions. However, rather than answering a question, a member must answer questions for the person to the right of them. This proves increasing difficult as members get whittled down. Members must answer the questions for another person but cannot mention the words yes, no, black or white. If a member hesitates, mentions one of these 4 words (in any language), moves their head to indicate a yes or no, or uses words like "yeh," they are out. The winner is the last person remaining. If members take longer than 3 seconds, to answer a question they are out, or if they answer a question for the wrong person | Other | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||
| Yes/No Game | Every member of the group gets a sticker on their forehead with the name of a famous person, tv/cartoon character etc on it. However, it should be done so that every 2 people in the group have people/characters which form a pair (e.g. one person might have bart simpson and one might have lisa simpson AND another person might have the queen, whilst another person has the duke of edinburgh... etc). The aim is firstly to work out who they are by asking each questions which can only be answered "yes" or "no" and then to find the other person in their pair (i.e. bart simpson would have to find lisa simpson). When everyone has found their pair, then they can spend time bonding in whatever way might be appropriate for the situation! | Get to Know You | Any | Any | 10 or older | 10 | Any | Low | ||||||||||
| You're on my foot! | Chanichim should get into pairs. Partners should face each other. At the signal they should try to GENTLY stomp on their partner's toes. The first one to do so wins! | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| Your place in Israel? | Your place in Israel By Daniel Roth Zombie, General, Only God can Judge me, Jerusalem How do these Lyrics relate to Israel? (Split up into three groups to discuss the lyrics and any pieces that have anything to do with Israel, and come back to present) Example: In Tupacs song there is a line that says "Don't get caught up in the mix cause the media is full of dirty tricks" This can be related in a few ways.. How many of you are confident in your knowledge of Israeli history and politics? (Split into 4 groups, Write out 100 years of Zionism and Israeli history and politics in point form. The histories that they come up with will no doubt be different at least slightly. ). Why are there such different opinions of the history and politics in this room alone? lay down a piece of tape have the kids line up next to each other on the pieces of tape all faces forward(Not back to front). instructions: Step forward, 1 step, if you think it is Zionist, Step back 1 if you think it isn't, and stay where you are if you don't know or it doesn't matter to you in terms of zionism. THE LIST of things that may be Zionist: Being Jewish Thinking about Israel once a week Thinking about Israel everyday Learning about Israel (History, Politics etc.) Watching the News Watching the News and caring Doing community events like ceremonies, and rallies Going to the Ken Going to Mosh Getting your Chultzah Being Socialist Giving Money Visiting Israel Visiting on a short program (Yedid) Visiting on a long program (Schnat) Working/volunteering in Israel Making Aliyah Joining the IDF Joining a Kibbutz Philosophizing about Israel society Making Babies with Jews to grow up in Israel Making Babies with Palestinians to grow up in Israel Dying for Israel Killing for Israel Discussion: So, What is Zionism? How many of you plan to do a long program to Israel(Machon)/Make aliyah/visit? How Important is Going on a long program or making aliyah to you, To your movement, or to Israel? Is there a must to be a good Member of your movement (If your movement is Zionist), to be a good Zionist? | Educational | Any | 2 or more | 2 | 15 or older | 15 | 1 hour to 2 hours | 60 | 120 | Low | |||||||
| Zip Zap Zob | Players stand in a circle. The aim of the game is to pass a ball of energy around the circle. It has three actions: Zip - to the person to either side of the player. Player points to the player on his or her right with their right hand, and to their left with their left hand. Zap - to any person in the circle except neighbours. A double handed point action is required. Zob - blocks a Zip or a Zap and it goes back to the player it came from. Both arms are held up infront of the player's face. Any wrong action, word, or hesitation results in elimination from the game. | Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 10 or older | 10 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||||
| bang the duck | This game is combination of bang and duck duck goose. You stand in a circle, like for bang, and one person in the middle calls a name. The two people standing on either side of the person who's name was called have to run around the circle and take the place of the other person running. Whoever makes it first stays in, the person who comes in second is out, goes in to the middle, and calls another name. | Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Trigger | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Medium | |||||||||||
| celebrity challenge | Every chanich/a writes down 4 celebrities names on little pieces of paper and puts it in a hat. Then 1 person starts by pulling 1 name out of the hat and needs to explain that person to the person sitting on their left. They cannot say the name or anything. Once the person guesses the celebrity the person who pulled out the first name pulls out another and he/she continues this for 1 minute. Then the next 2 people in the cirlce have a go so for 1 minute one of the chanichim is pulling out a name and describing the celebrity and the other is trying to guess as many as quickly as possible. the aim of the game is to (between you and your partner) have pulled out and guessed as many celebrities as possible. | Just for Fun | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 15 or older | 15 | 10 minutes to 20 minutes | 10 | 20 | Low | ||||||
| crossing the road | two circles of people people are matched up with each other by sharing the same number eg 1 - 5 on inner circle 1 -5 on outer circle the circle have to run round - one anti clockwise one clockwise when madrich says halt they all have to stop and look at the floor then a number is called out and the pair with that number have to swop places still with their eyes on the floor (to know where they need to be they ahve to be looking before the person says stop) | Just for Fun | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| gibberish | 2 (or more) people stand in the centre of the circle. They are told a topic of conversation or setting eg. trying to ask the other person on a date or sitting next to the other person on a train. The pair then have to try and have a conversation based on this, but, THE CATCH: Thay can't use any words at all, but have to speak in gibberish, and try to have the other person understand through tone and body language alone. Other varaitions include using only a particular word such as pasta and attempting this. This can be done like a freeze activity or simply in pairs. | Drama, Get to Know You, Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Tzevet Kef | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| hats and cups | firstly you need about 60 cones (the little coloured ones with a hole in the middle, not like a traffic cone). throw these all over the floor in a rough square, it doesnt matter which way round they go, in fact they should be a mix of the right way round and the wrong way round. split the chanichim into 4 teams and give each team a colour. the aim is to turn all of their coloured cones the right way up while stopping the other team turn theirs the right way up (i.e turning them over again). give them a certain amount of time, maybe just a few minutes, 5 max. and at the end they have to stop and which ever team has the most amount of cones thr right way round is the winning team. | Free Time, Just for Fun, Sport | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | Any | 5 to 7 years old | 5 | 7 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Medium | |||||
| hoop on pole | Ensure everyone is gathered around the nearest flag pole, retreive the closest hoola hoop and attempt to make it so the hoop is around the pole. The suggested method of achieving this is by throwing the hoop onto the pole. In fact this is the only method, any attempts to break the hoop will be penalised. Once the hoop is successfully on the pole you are free to play hoop off pole (see: hoop off pole) | Just for Fun, Sport, Team Building | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| k'buddy | 2 teams. They stand at opposite ends to each other holding hand in a chain. One team sends one person over to the other side. They cannot take a breath on the other side and must be repeating the word "k'buddy" all the time. Their aim is to try and not get caught by the other team who are trying to make sure he runs out of breath. They may not break their chain. | Sport | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low | |||||||||||
| the fruit game | everyone stands around in a circle and going round the circle, in turn everyone pretends to be a fruit. as they do this, other people in the circle have to shout out guesses. the person that gets it right joins up with that person and then once everyone is in a pair, you go around the circle again and in the pairs people have to be a type of fruit. the game is repeated until you have the numbers in each group that you want | Ice Breaker, Just for Fun, Splitting Participants into Groups | 10 to 20 | 10 | 20 | 1 or more | 1 | 5 to 7 years old | 5 | 7 | 5 minutes to 10 minutes | 5 | 10 | Low | ||||
| the sticker song | Materials -A stereo, and a CD with the "Sticker Song" by Hadag Nachash. -The translation of the song. -A list of Political bumper stickers and their translations, from Israel (the song), from Canada and other places. Goals To create awareness about the importance, or unimportance of political bumper stickers, and other "wordy" forms of political activity. To create awareness about political issues in Israel, Canada, and other countries,how they relate, or a comparable. Steps 1) Give out Political Israeli Bumper stickers. Explain their meaning in English. 2) Give out political slogans and stickers from other countries-Canada, America, South America etc. 3) Play the "Sticker Song", by Hadag Nachash. Give out the English translation and go through the context of some of the stickers, their meaning etc. Discussion- What is the meaning of this song? What is the band trying to accomplish by putting this song out?-the song is just slogans, one after another. 4) Discuss the importance of political slogans. -Why do these stickers exist, what is their importance? -Is this importance different in Israel compared to the rest of the world (especially in Canada)? -Do these stickers make any difference in Canada? - Do these stickers make any difference in Israel? Conclusion Political Activity takes many forms. How important is this (Stickers) form? How important are words? What other forms of political activity come in the form of words? Are the Issues in Israel translatable into other political arenas? | Educational | Any | Any | Any age | Any | Low |