Crossed/Uncrossed
Equipment: Scissors
The players sit in a circle on the floor. The leader hands a pair of scissors (preferably children’s safety scissors) to the person on his left and says “Crossed” or “Uncrossed”. The leader should make a point of showing whether the scissors are being passed to the next person closed or open (ie, in a cross shape), but shouldn’t actually say anything about this. Each person passes the scissors to the next person, announcing either “Crossed” or “Uncrossed”, and the leader either confirms the announcement (eg, “Yes, that was crossed.”), or corrects the player (eg, “No, that was really uncrossed.”).
In this case, “The Secret” is that the words “Crossed” or “Uncrossed” do not refer to the way the scissors are held, but rather, they refer to whether the legs of the player passing thescissors were crossed or uncrossed at the time.
Notes: If you want to make it really difficult, “Crossed” or “Uncrossed” can refer to the legs of the player receiving the scissors, or can refer to the leader’s legs
Chinese Whispers
Equipment: None
The players (either arranged in teams or one large team) sit in a circle or straight line. A message is whispered to the first person, who must whisper it to the next person. This continues until the last person receives the message, they stand up and call out the message as they received it. The aim is to see if the original message survived the trip or if it was corrupted along the way. Only one attempt at passing the message is allowed, no repeating
Ducky Wucky
Equipment: None
One player is chosen to be It. It will approach another player and say “Ducky Wucky”, and the other player must respond “Quack Quack” without smiling. If the target smiles, then they become the new It. Make sure that after a few seconds, It moves on to another target rather than waiting for the first target to crack. Other than that, It is free to use whatever vocal inflections, facial expressions, physical gestures, etc. he wants, as long as
the only thing they say is “Ducky Wucky”
Variations: Telephone - One player is blindfolded and faces away from the others. One of the other players is chosen to step up behind the blindfolded player and imitate the sound of a telephone. The blindfolded player must try to guess who made the noise. If successful they swap places
Fortunately, unfortunately
Equipment: None
One player begins by saying something like: "We went to camp last week...". The next player must then say something beginning with Unfortunately such as "Unfortunately, we forgot our tents". The next player continues with a statement beginning with Fortunately such as "Fortuntely, one of us had a large waterproof groundsheet which we used as a tent". This continues around the group alternating between unforuntaely and fortunately
Heads Down, Thumbs Up!
Equipment: None
5 Players are selected to stand apart. The remainder kneel with their heads down and thumbs up. The 5 then select someone and (gently) pinch their thumbs and return to stand apart. Then those that were pinched stand up and try to guess who pinched them. If they guess correctly they swap places with that person. Play for a certain length of time
Notes: No looking!
Instant Story
Equipment: None
layers sit in a circle and one player leaves the room. The others are going to pretend to make up a story. The player will come back in, stand in the middle and ask questions to work out what the story is going to be. In actual fact once the player has left the room the leader explains this to the rest of the players. They will listen carefully to the question asked. If it ends in a voewl they answer yes and if it ends in a consonant they answer no, regardless of what the question is. This will create a bizarre story and confuse the player in the middle
Time
Equipment: Watch
Players sit in small circles of four with their hands behind their backs. The leader calls out 'Start' and the first player in each group must estimate a time of 30 seconds. Then they say 'Now' to the next player who estimates another 30 seconds and so on. The team which estimates the two minutes the most accurately wins
What am I?
Equipment: None
The players sit in a circle. One player goes outside the room and the others decide what that player will be (e.g. a postman) when they come back. When the player returns and stands in the middle each player in the circle will mention something they will need for their job (e.g. a bike, good shoes, van...). If the person in the middle manages to go all the way around the circle without guessing what they are they must go out again. If they guess correctly another player goes out
That Reminds Me
Equipment: None
The players sit in a circle on the floor. The leader begins by naming something. The next player along must say what that object reminds them of. This continues round the circle with a connection each time back to the leader. Then the players must work backwards, each player trying to remember what they said.
Notes: No repeating connections
I Went to Camp
Equipment: None
The players sit round in a circle. The leader will begin the game by saying something like, “I went to camp and I took an Axe”. The next player along then has to choose an item and say “I went to camp and I took a [whatever they choose]”. The leader then will tell them that they can or cannot come to camp. Play continues for a set time or until everyone knows the secret. In this case, “The Secret” is that the item the player is going to bring has to begin with the same letter as their name, otherwise they cannot come to camp.
Variations: The secret could be made more difficult. For example, the first letter of the name of the person sitting to your left and so on
Noughts and Crosses
Equipment: Chairs
Chairs are arranged to form a 3×3 ‘noughts and crosses’ board. The players are arranged into two teams. The leader asks the first player from a team a question. If that person answers correctly they may go and sit on a vacant chair. Play then switches to the other team, and again the first person in line is asked a question. The aim of the game is to get three players in a straight line (horizontal, vertical or diagonal). When a line is scored, that team score a point and play is resumed from scratch. Play until a set time or points limit. Highest scoring team wins
Notes: For a longer, tougher game, play on a larger board<
Searchlight
Equipment: Torch, 'darkness'
A person is blindfolded and put on a chair at one end of the hall. The remaining players sit quietly at the other end. The lights are turned off or lowered to allow a certain level of darkness. Selected players (by touch on shoulder) then attempt to quietly make their way to grab the keys and return without getting caught. The person with the ‘searchlight’ attempts to catch the players in the beam of the torch. He is only allowed to switch the torch on/off quickly in one position, he is not allowed to turn the torch on and swing it round (too simple). Any person caught in the searchlight must stop and sit quietly. If someone manages to escape with the keys he swaps places with the searchlight
Notes: Absolute quiet is needed for the game to work properly
Story Objects
Equipment: One object per player
The players sit in a circle and are given an object to hold (this could be anything). The leader starts by making up a story which must include the object they are holding. The leader then chooses a player at random who must continue the story in a logical way. They must include the object they are holding in the story. This continues until every player has had a turn and the leader finishes the story including their object in it
Silent Writing
Equipment: None
Players stand in a line with a leader for each team. The leader draws a letter with his finger on the back of the first player. This player then passes on the letter to the next player in the same way. Then the leader draws a second letter and so on to form a simple word. When all the letters have been sent see which team can identify the word
Swamp
Equipment: Pen and paper
Diivide the group into teams of 4 to 6. Give each team a large piece of paper and a pen. Each letter in the word SWAMP stands for another word that describes something in nature:
S Stars
W Weather
A Animals
M Minerals
P Plants
On ‘Go’, each team writes down as many words as it can think of that relate to the words STARS. The only stipulation is this: They must be able to see what they write down from where they are sitting (e.g., sky is where stars are seen; clouds cover stars on a dull night). Each team has five minutes to write down as many words as possible. The next five minutes are devoted to the word WEATHER, the next five to ANIMALS and so on until all letters of the word SWAMP havebeen given equal time.
At the end of the writing session, the leader tallies the number of words to see which team has the sharpest eyes, and the most vivid imagination
Notes: Some teams may have to explain their rationale behind writing down certain words - the leader may not understand how they relate to the ‘master’ word
Thief!
Equipment: An 'object'
The players sit in a circle with one person blindfolded in the middle. An object is placed under the middle chair (or by the middle person). The blindfolded person has a limited number of ‘points’ to use (e.g. 10). In silence, a selected thief has to quietly make his way round the circle and then attempt to steal the object. If the blindfolded person manages to ‘point’ him out (directly point at him) he is caught and play restarts. If he manages to steal the object he swaps places with the person in the middle.
Notes: Absolute silence is required for this game to work properly.
