The Rules

1. You must only draw your face – no body.
2. You may NOT draw ANY hair. (Not on your hear, not on your face)
3. You may NOT draw any accessories (such as glasses, jewelry, makeup, etc….)

Once everyone has draw themselves in secret (so no one has seen what you’ve drawn), gather all the pictures together and mix them up. Show the group the pictures one at a time and have them write down the name of the person they believe is in the drawing. Once you’ve been through all the pictures and everyone’s answer is locked in, reveal who drew each picture.

For every picture you guess right, you get one point. For every person that correctly guesses the picture you drew, you get a bonus point. The person with the most points at the end wins!

Balloon Smack

One balloon is in the middle of the room. Everyone is divided into two teams and each person is assigned a secret number (between 1 & 6 or however many there are on each team). The leader calls out a number, the person from each team who was assigned that number must grab a pool noodle (on the floor in front of them) and try to smack the balloon against the opposite team’s wall. 1 point per smack. It up to you whether you allow ‘body’ smacks or not.

The Shoe Kick

Each person dangles their shoe on the end of their foot and with a mighty kick, tries to launch their shoe the furthest.

The Slurpie Run

This is a team relay. Each person has a straw. The objective is to suction a small paper square (2 inch square) to the straw and carry it to a pylon and back. If the paper falls, the person must suction it from wherever it falls and continue. First team with all their people through wins.

Pig

To prepare for this game, get enough brown paper lunch bags for about two per person. In each bag, place some sort of snack. You can use mini chocolate bars, mints, a potato chip, some breakfast cereal, a piece of a raw potato, three soup crackers, and whatever else you think of. Staple the bags closed. Divide your players into equal teams. Have them choose one ‘pig’ among themselves – this person should be willing to eat anything. Give eat team two dice. Once the game has begun, each member of each team will take turns rolling the dice. If they get doubles, their team stops all rolling and the person who rolled doubles runs to the center of the room and retrieves a brown paper bag. Once they have returned with their bag, the player will open it and must completely consume whatever snack is in that bag before their team can continue rolling. If the player is unable or unwilling to eat their particular snack, they can feed it to the pig. Once the snack is completely swallowed, the rolling resumes. The team who has eaten the most snacks by the end of the game is the winner.

Musical Glasses

Both teams must try to play the ‘Happy Birthday Song’ using spoons tapping glasses of water. The best song wins.

Scavenger Hunt Charades

Normal charades – but as soon as one item is guessed, the whole team must find and retrieve the object before they can act for the next item.

The Pyramid Scheme

A relay race – One person is blindfolded. They must crawl over to a pile of 6 plastic cups and stack them up pyramid style. Once they do, they get back across their line where the next person will put on the blindfold and do the same thing until all the team as gone. First team done wins.

Instructions

Make a small 6 x 6 grid (each square is about 1ft) marked by masking tape on the floor. In 10 of the 36 squares will be a mine (a ball or any other object that won’t hurt if someone steps on it) placed by the opposing teams. One person on your team will be blindfolded and must navigate through the minefield without stepping on a grid that contains a bomb (tape not included.)

They do this by listening to the instructions of one of their teammates. If they do step on a mined square, they must go back to the front outside edge of the minefield (escorted by one of their teammates). The time it takes them to navigate through successfully will be recorded. Once one person from each team has had their turn, the next person on the team will then be blindfolded, sent through the grid, and their time recorded.

When everyone on all the teams have gone through, the times for your team will be added together and the team with the fastest total time will be winners.

1. Draw an island
2. Draw a palm tree on the island.
3. Draw some coconuts on the palm tree.

Each person tries to draw the picture as accurately as they can, without being able to see what they are drawing. You’re sure to get some interesting pictures.

In the end, each element has a point value. For example:

• If the trunk of the palm tree is touching the island, get one point.
• If the coconuts are actually on the tree, get two points.

The person who has earned the most points wins.

For a complete set of instructions, scoring criteria, and sample picture, download the Blind Pictionary.pdf.

This game has its origins in a camp setting, so I’ll explain it in that context – though you can easily adapt it to fit your situation.

First, organize everyone in small teams. In a group of 50, go 10 teams of 5. For a group of 100, try teams of 6 – 7.

The rules are simple. There is one person who is in charge of throwing the balloons. One by one he will toss a balloon to each team. The team then attempts to catch the balloon. If the catch it, they get a point and are then allowed to ‘get’ anyone on their team (or a designated target such as the camp speaker). If the team doesn’t make the catch, they get no points, and are likely quite wet.

Even though not everyone is always catching the balloons, everyone has fun watching the other teams trying to catch the balloons and getting gushed.

Typically, you start with the normal water balloon sized balloons, and after throwing about a dozen or so balloons to each team, move onto some bigger balloons (worth more points of course.)

Save the biggest balloons to the end to use for “penalties”. Kids love these. Pick the “Driest Guy” or “Most Vicious Girl” or “The kid that looked at me funny” and sit them in the center of everyone and burst the most giant balloons on them. Of course, be sure to pick people who will take it with a good attitude.

Then, wrap up the game by awarding bonus points to the team that collects the most balloon pieces.

If you’re still not quite sure how this all works, check out the pictures below to see the water balloon game in action.

Trying to catch a balloon

Not catching the balloon

Yours Truly Getting a Penalty

Moments before the penalty…

The Penalty in Action

#1. Catch

Everyone goes into a good size room, (if you have a small gym, that works best) close the doors and turn out the lights. Taking about 1 bouncy ball per 3 people, the leader throws them out into the darkness. As soon as he does, everyone tries to grab them. [WARNING: Potential for injuries if players aren't considerate of each other.] Although they are next to impossible to catch in the dark, it sure is a lot of fun to try. After about 10 – 20 seconds, flip on the lights and watch everyone scramble for the previously lost balls that are now in plain sight. Award a point per ball per person. Or have one or two different colored balls that are worth more (or less).

#2. Baseball

This is a great, slightly dangerous game. The game must be indoors for the bouncy ball to bounce off the walls and such – again, a small gym works best. Setup like regular baseball with the four bases, two teams, etc… The difference is the bat is one of those fat bats – the giant red plastic ones from Walmart – and the ball is one of those bouncy balls. When the batter hits that ball… Man, is it hard to catch! You may need to adjust the rules a little bit, depending on the size of your room and group. Try one of these rules to make it fair:

• The batter must get a home run for a point.
• If the batter is not standing on a base when the ball is returned to the pitcher, he’s out.
• The batter can round the bases as many times as he can, getting one point each base. When the play is over, he’s out.

But again I warn you, these game have potential to be dangerous – particularly to eyes. If you have goggles, you may want to wear them.

Here’s how the events are done: Your entire team will participate in a particular order – however you choose. Once everyone has tried the event once, you start back at the beginning and go through the lineup again. So, say the event is to throw the ball in order to knock over a tin can. Bobby throws and misses. John throws, misses. Amy throws, knocks it over. The tin can is setup again, and Lisa throws, misses. That’s the whole team, so back to Bobby throwing again. Then John, etc…. Every time the tin can is knocked down, you add ten points to your point total for that event, set the can up again, and keep going through your line until the three minutes are over.

You can change the number of events or number of teams or length of time per event however you like. Generally speaking, you can estimate about two minutes in between events while the teams tell you their score and move to the next event. So if you do twelve events for three minutes each, plus the two minute wait time, that means this game will take about 60 minutes. So you can adjust things to fit your schedule.

Example Outdoor Events

• From 20 feet away, throw a plastic flamingo into a volleyball net. If it gets stuck in the net, earn ten points.
• Have three metal baseball bats laying close together at different angles. Roll a golf ball at them and listen for the ‘ping’ sound it makes when the bats get hit. If the bats are setup right, you can ricochet the golf ball off them all. For each ping you hear, earn five points.
• Putt a baseball with a broomball stick into a small hoolahoop. With each hole-in-one, earn ten points.
• From 15 feet away, throw a beachball on top of a soccer net. If it lands and stays on top, earn ten points.
• Roll a giant foam dice by bouncing it off your head. Earn ten times the amount shown on the dice – BUT if you roll a ‘one’, you start back at zero for this event.
• Throw a volleyball at a bowling pin on a bucket 15 feet away, if the pin falls off, earn ten points.

Get the idea? You can use whatever you have to make any little game. You will want to do a test run on your event to make sure it’s not too easy or too hard. Regardless of what games you make, the big key in this game is leader enthusiasm. Without it, this (or any other game) will be a dud. With that, here are a few more ideas for indoor events on those rainy days.

Example Indoor Events

• Roll a ball down the length of a slightly tilted table. If it falls into a tin can on the floor at the end, earn ten points.
• From 15 feet away, fly a paper airplane towards a large pail. If it hits it, earn ten points. If if goes in the pail, earn fifty points.
• Using the pieces from a Scrabble game, make as many different five letter words as you can. Each word earns you five points.
• From 10 feet away, roll a football into a hoolahoop on the floor. If it stays inside the hoolahoop, earn ten points.
• With one person from your team standing on a piece of paper, bounce a ping pong ball to them from 10 feet away. If they catch it after just one bounce, and without stepping off the paper, earn ten points.
• Taking turns writing just one letter each, write out the alphabet as many times as you can. For each complete alphabet, earn fifty points.

Setup

This game can be difficult to explain, but it’s easy to set up. All you really need is three buckets, each full of a different colored objects (small squares of colored paper, painted rocks, marbles, or the like). These buckets will be hidden somewhere out in the bush. You will also need some object to represent life in this game – enough for three per person. Since there is so many different characters in this game, you will also want pinnies to know who is who during the game.

Players

There are four classes of players in this game: Plants, Animals, Humans, & Natural Disaster. Each class has different objectives, different enemies, and even different amounts of time to play the game. However, all players start with two lives. If they lose both lives, they can come to a central location and get just one more. After that, they are eliminated from the game. (Players lose lives by being tagged by any player higher in the hierarchy.)

Plants:

Plants are the lowest class. Their job is to find each of the three buckets to collect what they need for survival – nutrients, water, and sunshine. (That’s those colored objects in the buckets!) Once they’ve found each of the three, they simply need to hide or run in order to survive the duration of the game, as they can be eaten by animals and humans, or destroyed by a natural disaster. Choose 60% of your players to be plants.

Animals:

Animals are second lowest in the food chain. They can eat plants, but must flee from humans and natural disasters. They do not collect nutrients, water, or sunshine – they simply eat plants. Choose %25 percent of your players to be animals.

Humans:

Humans are #2 on the food chain and can only be destroyed by natural disasters. They too have no use for nutrients, water, or sunshine – but will eagerly consume both plants and animals. Choose 10% of your players to be humans.

Natural Disasters:

Natural disasters are on the top. Nothing threatens them. They destroy any player they can. One advantage they have is that they will be armed with some sort of weapon so their ability to tag is extended. (Super Soakers on hot days, gator skin balls or pool noodles on cooler days.) Their further advantage is that when they tag a player, they take ALL of their lives – not just one like the others. The destroyed plants, animals, and humans are NOT allowed their third life, but are immediately eliminated from the game. Choose 5% of your players to be natural disasters. (Usually staff)

Game Play

Once the rules are explained and everyone has their two lives, the plants (and only the plants) are sent out to play. they get a 5 minute head start on everyone else to give them a chance to find their resources. Next to be released are the animals. Give them 5 minutes to terrorize the plants before you release the humans. Then after the humans have been released, wait five minutes and let the natural disasters loose. After the natural disasters have had five minutes, the game is ended.

So who wins? Here’s how to score: Each class of players is a team.

For every plant that has all three resources – nutrients, water, and sunshine – and was not eliminated from the game, award 10 points.

For every life that a non-eliminated animal has, award 1 point.

For every life that a non-eliminated human has, award 2 points.

For every life that a natural disaster has, award 4 points.

Then the team with the most points wins!

Notes:

The fairness of this system is very dependent on how the teams are set up, how well the plants resources are hidden, and how big your playing area is. You may need to adjust your point system to fit your particular situation.

When one player tags another and acquires it’s life, the player is allowed to use that life for himself if necessary. Example: If a human tags a plant, but then gets tagged by a natural disaster shortly after, he can give up the plants life or one of his own – there is no difference.

Players are not allowed to tag the same person twice in a row – they must tag someone else in between. Also discourage players from tagging someone who has already been tagged and is in the process of handing over their life.

Setup

On a large playing field, set off five circles with pylons about 20 ft. in diameter. Within each circle place a pin of some sort – plastic bowling pins don’t have much weight and fall over too easy, but empty bleach jugs with a few rocks in the bottom work great!

Divide your players into five even teams and assign each team to a circle. At no time can any team go into any team’s circle – including their own. Each team should wear their team color. You can use pinnies if you have them, or use surveyor’s tape as arm or head bands, or use whatever you have.

Each team chooses a country which they will represent. It can be a real country or a made up one. For an added element, you can have them sing their ‘national anthem’.

A Gator Skin ball is the best for this game – it is easy to grip, doesn’t hurt like other balls when you get hit in the head, and it has enough weigh to be thrown hard. If you’ve never used them, I highly recommend them!

Game Play

The object of the game is to take over the world. Each team must try to knock over the pin in all of the other teams’ circles. If they do, the defeated team joins the winning team and they work together to take over the rest of the world. For example, if the red team knocks over the blue team’s pin, the blue team is assimilated into the red team. With twice the size, the new red team has a much better change of defeating the other teams. If the new red team then takes out the green team, the new red team will now have three times the players of any other team. But if the green team manages to defeat the new red team, both red and blue teams are assimilated into the green team. It may sound a little complicated, but it’s not really too difficult.

The ball is moved in the same way as in team handball – you can hold the ball for three seconds and/or take three steps with it. After this you must pass the ball or throw it in order to knock over the pin. Breaking this rules results in a loss of possession.

Notes

One thing you might want to do on a hot day is to have each team appoint a ‘general’ of their country. When defeated, the losing general gets doused with a bucket of water by the winning general. Alternatively, you have have both generals give a short speech concerning their loss or victory.

If he guesses correctly, he wins all of the kernels in the challenger’s right hand. However, if he is wrong, he must give the challenger that number of kernels from his own collection. If the challenger was holding more kernels in his right hand than the other person had in total, the other person gives all his kernels to the challenger and is now out of the game. He can no longer challenge or be challenged. This goes on repeatedly until one person has won all the popcorn.

Notes

Near the end of the game, the remaining players can have many kernels that take a long time to count out and make the game progress rather slowly. To speed things up a little bit, make a rule that at least half of the players kernels must be offered in a challenge so that it is more likely for people to be eliminated. If it’s still taking too long, make a rule that ALL of the players kernels must be offered in a challenge.