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Brainstorming

Icebreakers

Want a fun and exciting way to get your club started in the morning? Icebreakers are a phenomenal way to "break the ice" and get club members engaged.

A Set

Marshmallow Contests

How many marshmallows can you stuff in your mouth!   Another game is to use small marshmallows, pair up and see how far you can go to catch them in your mouth.

Would you Rather...

Have a leader read out a would you rather question (keep the questions light and focused on inconsequential things ex: movie night or stargazing). Have movie nighters go to one side of the room and stargazers on the other side. People who can't decide stay in middle. Leader then delegates people to speak from each side, who are trying to sway over people in the middle or people on other side. After 5 minutes, side with the most people wins!

Musical Statues

Everybody forms a couple. Play the music and mix up students in a circle following one another.  When the music stops the students find their partner and form the whatever statue that the leader calls out.  The last couple to finish drops out to the game.  Last couple standing wins. Example: – Play Music – Stop – McDonalds, Fire Hydrant, Monkey on Back, Bunk Beds, Baby in Cradle. 

Spider Stands

Students form teams of of 4-8 students.  Each team sits on the ground in a circle linking arms with their backs toward one another.  The first team to stand up together without breaking the link wins.

Extreme Rock Paper Scissors

Randomly pick a partner. Play rock paper scissors on shoot until you have a winner. Loser cheers on winner as the winner goes and finds another winner. Loser of that match joins the other losers in cheering on the new winner. Eventually it'll be two people left for the finale with each having a crowd of supporters!

Frogger

 Sit in a circle of 8-10 people.  Have everyone put their head down and someone not playing game selects a ‘frogger’.  Another person is chosen (it) and stands in the middle looking for frogger.  Frogger get’s people out of the game by sticking his/her tongue out without being caught by the one in the “middle”.  If frogger gets caught he’s “it” and goes into the middle.

B Set

Face juggling

Line up 4 or 5 kids in front of the room.  Place an oreo cookie or another cookie on their cheek (Head tilted back).  The first one to move the cookie down to their mouth without dropping wins.

Trivia

Go through multiple choice questions (put on screen if you can) and have kids move to different corners of the room based on their answers.  Pick different topics.  Sports, entertainment, movies, movie stars, etc. Can also do Kahoot.

Dizzy Bat game

Form teams and then set up relay for students to spin around in circles with their forehead on the bat handle then run back and tag next person.  First one to finish wins!

Four Corners

Up on the screen have a slide with a big cross splitting the slide into 4 categories. Then have students go to the corner they most agree with. Example: Best season, fall winter summer spring. Then have people in group explain why they choose that corner. You can have a few more  questions for people to go through once split into these groups. After 5-10 mins, students return to seats.

Mystery Action

Split into teams and send a player from each team out of the room.  The rest get together to discuss action.  Bring them back in and first to do action wins. The only thing the team can do is encourage by saying “hot” or “cold” (eg. Jumping jacks, squat thrust, smoking cigarette, blowing a kiss, hugging, rock paper scissors).

My Hands Are Tied

Get in a circle of 6-8 people. Grab the hand of one other person and then the other hand with another.  Do not grab both hands of same person.  First team to unlock the knot without letting go of hands wins.  They can jump up go over or around each other.  You can break one hand if game is stalled.

C Set

Heads Up Seven Up

Seven students stand in front of the class. The rest of the students put their heads on their desks. The seven then move about and each touches a student. Once touched, a student sticks his or her thumb up. Then the seven say “heads up seven up!” The students who were touched then get a chance to guess which of the seven touched each of them. If they guessed right, they get to change places and be one of the students in the front.

Hand Wrestling

Two people stand facing each other with about a shoulder's span between them and their feet together. They must try to make the other player move their feet by slapping their opponent's hands only. (touching anywhere else, moving feet, falling, interfering means disqualification and firing squad) Good tactics are to push their hands and then pull yours back so that they can't push you. Also you can pull hands back suddenly when they attack so they fall forward.

Catch the Food

Have people pair up. Give each pair a cup of goldfish or M&M’s. Set a timer for a minute and have one person throw the food and one person catch it in their mouths. At the end of each minute, see which pair caught the most!

"Snowball" Fight

Hand out a piece of paper and a pen to each person playing. They then need to write down three facts about themselves - they can be simple and straightforward, or more obscure. Once they have finished, get them to scrunch up the piece of paper into a "snowball". The next stage of the game is the snowball fight. Kids can throw the paper balls at each other from across the room. This can go on for as long or as short as you'd like. Once you're ready, call out "stop" and get each kid to pick up the nearest piece of paper to them. They then need to un-scrunch it and read the three interesting facts then go around the room trying to find the person the facts match up to. It can be done as a race (ie. first person to find their person wins) or just as a general mixer.

True or False?

Make a list of ridiculous true or false questions. Have students go to one side of the room if they believe the fact is true and the other side if they believe it is false. Have them keep track of the points they got right and whoever has the most points at the end of the game wins.

Mute Organization

Simply announce that you want everyone lined up across the room by birth-date. Only catch: no talking. Once they are all lined up, ask certain people their birthdays just to be sure. You can have them do the same thing, but by shoe size, height, month of birthday, etc.

D Set

Cluster

You need one caller for this game. Every other student is walking around the room. The caller will call out a number and the students need to get into groups of that number. The students that don’t get into a group on time or are left over are out.

Spot the Difference

Divide your group into two teams. Stand the first group in a line facing the second group. The second group have a set amount of time (you decide) to look at the appearance of the other team. Once their time is up, the second team (observers) will leave the room, and the first group must change ten things about them. The ten things must be noticeable (ie. they cannot change things in their pockets or other things previously out of view). When the second group returns, they must observe the first group and work out what ten things have changed. (They may write them down if this is helpful) It's best to give a set amount of time for this to happen also. Once this is done, you can swap the roles of the groups.

Blob Tag

Start off the game by choosing 1 person to be 'it' and have a designated tag area for the game to run in, preferably a large open area (so the other youth can't hide behind, or run between small objects to evade). This 'it' person must run around and tag people, and every-time the blob tags somebody they must hold hands to become 'part of the blob'. Now both of these people are 'it' and must remain connected at all times by holding hands, progressively more and more people will become part of the blob. In order to tag the next person, they must form a circle around them by holding hands (like a group hug). If anybody gets caught in the completed blob circle they must become part of it. The trick is, the blob is allowed to run around as a chain (not a circle) in order to trap people in a corner. The other people are allowed to run through gaps in the chain, but if the blob is quick enough at forming a circle again around the player then he/she is caught.

Bible Rap Off

Create two groups of as many as possible and give them a long bible verse each. Tell the two groups they have a couple of minutes to transform that verse into a quick rap. The best rap will win! You can have as many groups as you want. It might be a good idea to have a backing track ready to go if teams would like to use it, otherwise they can get creative with making their own backing track or beat-boxing along.

Threes a Crowd

Get in groups of three.  Each group needs to find three things in common.  The first to name them wins.  May have to reshuffle and find a group that has four things in common.

Spoon Races

Split into teams and have each person put spoon in mouth and goal is to scoop out a marshmallow with the spoon hanging from their mouth and take it 10 steps to the other side to put in bowl.  Team with most marshmallows in bowl.  Wins!!

List of Icebreaker Questions

Weird Questions

  • If you could hang out with any cartoon character, who would you choose and why?

  • If you could add a word to the dictionary what would you add and what would it mean?

  • What clothing item would make you walk out on a date if someone wore it?

  • The zombie apocalypse is coming, who are three people you want on your team?

  • If you could choose your age forever, what age would you choose and why?

  • If you were to change your name, what name would you change to and why?

  • If you could meet any living person for dinner, who would you pick and why?

  • What is your most used emoji?

  • Would you rather have invisibility or flight?

  • Would you rather live where it only snows or the temperature never falls below 100 degrees?

  • Cats or dogs?

  • Teleportation or flying?

  • Would you rather be invisible or be able to read minds?

  • If you could be an animal, what animal would you be and why?

  • If you could bring back any fashion trend what would it be?

  • What’s your best scary story?

  • If you had 25 hours a day, how would you use your extra time?

  • If you could commit any crime and get away with it what would you choose and why?

  • How would you spend a million dollars? How about a billion?

  • If you could be any supernatural creature, what would you be and why?

  • If you could change places with anyone in the world, who would it be and why?

  • If you could kill any fashion trend forever what would it be?

  • If you had to delete all but three apps from your smartphone, which ones would you keep?

  • What skill do you think everyone should have?

Fame Questions

  • Have you ever been told you look like someone famous, who was it?

  • You have your own late night talk show, who do you invite as your first guest?

  • What would the title of your autobiography be?

  • If you were famous what would you be famous for?

  • What would you do with your “15 minutes of fame”?

  • If you could be on a reality TV show, which one would you choose and why?

  • If you could be any sports personality who would it be and why?

Food & Drink Questions

  • If you were a vegetable, what vegetable would you be and why?

  • If you had to eat one meal every day for the rest of your life what would it be?

  • Coffee or tea?

  • What’s the weirdest food you’ve ever eaten?

  • How do you like your eggs?

  • What are your three favorite foods?

  • What are your three favorite drinks?

  • What is your favorite meal to cook and why?

  • What’s your favorite breakfast cereal?

Travel Questions

  • If you could live anywhere on this planet, where would you choose to live?

  • If extraterrestrials landed on earth and offered to take you with them, would you go?

  • If you could go to Mars, would you? Why or why not?

  • If you could have the power of teleportation right now, where would you go and why?

  • Would you rather live in the ocean or on the moon?

  • If you were stranded on a desert island, what three items would you want to have with you?

  • What’s your favorite place you’ve ever visited?

  • What is your favorite season of the year and why?

  • What is your favorite holiday and why?

  • What’s your favorite place of all the places you’ve traveled?

Entertainment Questions

  • If you could be in any movie, what would it be and what character would you play?

  • Which actor would you want to play you in the movie about your life?

  • If you were a wrestler what would be your entrance theme song?

  • If you were a superhero what would your name be?

  • If you were a superhero what would your superpower be and why?

  • You have to sing karaoke, what song do you pick?

  • If you could broadcast a show, what would it be about?

  • What fictional world or place would you like to visit?

  • What is your favorite TV show?

  • What are you reading right now?

  • What book did you read that changed your life the most?

  • What movie have you seen recently that you would recommend and why?

  • What is your favourite sport to watch and why?

  • If you could see one movie again for the first time, what would it be and why?

  • If you had to play one album forever which one would it be?

  • Which song can you listen to all day long?

History Questions

  • If you could meet any historical figure, who would you choose and why?

  • What is the meaning of your name?

  • As a child, what did you want to be when you grew up?

  • If you had a time machine, would go back in time or into the future?

  • What was the first thing you bought with your own money?

  • What’s your favourite family tradition?

  • Who had the most influence on you growing up?

  • What’s your earliest memory?

  • If you had to lose all your memories which one would want to lose last?

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