Summary: A guessing game in which people try to identify a person or object in 20 questions or less. Good for rainy days, long car rides, and for learning English (ESL students).
Ages: All. Recommended # of Players: A small group of 2 to 5 people. Messiness factor: No mess, no stress! Materials required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoor settings such as cars, classrooms, and just about anywhere else.
Need a nice set of conversation starter questions to break the ice and get the discussion rolling? We highly recommend this set of hilariously funny icebreaker questions over at our friends at the best Icebreakers website. These open-ended questions are silly, zany and wacky — yet they can also be thought provoking and deep as well! They have a collection of over one hundred of the best activities for various kinds of events, like for school classroom exercises, teambuilding activities for work, and more. Check them out and let us know what you think!
Summary: A game in which players attempt to guess the celebrity via clues (Round 1), charades (Round 2), and one word descriptions (Round 3).
Ages: All. Recommended # of people: 10-15. Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials required: Timer, small slips of paper, pens/pencils, bag or hat. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A team building activity centered around trust. A leader gives verbal or nonverbal instructions to navigate a blindfolded partner to avoid obstacles.
Ages: 14 and up. Recommended number of people: Pairs. Messiness factor: Might break a small sweat. Materials required: Blindfolds. Recommended setting: Outdoors, in a location with no dangerous obstacles.
Summary: A hilarious copycat game in which people try to imitate one leader’s actions, and the person in the center attempts to identify who is the originator of the actions (the leader).
Ages: 8 and up. Recommended # of People: One group of 8 to 16 people. Messiness factor: Might break a sweat. Materials: None. Setting: Indoors or outdoors.
Summary: A funny icebreaker/stationary acting game in which a person randomly chooses an event (e.g. winning the lottery or being surprised by an wedding proposal) and must act out his or her reaction to this event. Based on this reaction, team members try to guess what the event was.
Ages: All. Recommended # of People: Groups or teams of 6-12 people. Messiness Factor: Might break a small sweat. Materials Required: Sheets of paper, pens, a container to hold the paper. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: An icebreaker / action oriented game good for medium and large sized groups. Similar to a game of rock, paper, scissors, two teams face off and decide to become either “giants,” “wizards,” or “elves.” Giants defeat elves, elves defeat wizards, and wizards defeat giants.
Ages: 10 and up. Recommended # of People: 20 and up (large groups work fine too!). Messiness factor: Might break a small sweat! Materials Required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoors or Outdoors.
Summary: A funny storywriting game that involves creating a story as a team. Each player adds the next line of the story.
Ages: 8 and up. Recommended number of players: Teams of at least six. Messiness factor: No mess! Materials required: None – just a great sense of humor!
Summary: An action oriented game where people hold hands and form an amoeba-like shape, and try to get others out of the game.
Ages: 10 and up. Recommended # of People: 10-20. Messiness Factor: Sweaty. Materials Required: Safe, Durable Object. Recommended Setting: Indoors or Outdoors
Summary: A teambuilding activity in which teams are given a small object (e.g. paperclips) and must keep trading and upgrading their objects to get the biggest, best objects possible until the time limit expires. The objects are judged for size, value, and creativity.
Ages: 14 and up. Recommended # of People: Teams of 2-10 people. Messiness Factor: Light. Materials: Paper clips or other small objects. Recommended Setting: Outdoors.
Summary: Wall Ball is a classic playground game that involves throwing the ball against a wall, catching it without fumbling the ball, and trying to get others out! Many variations exist for this simple group game.
Ages: 8 and up. Recommended # of people: At least 4. Messiness Factor: Get ready to break a sweat! Materials required: A small bouncy ball of some sort (e.g. a racquetball, tennis ball, etc.). Recommended Setting: Outdoors or in a very large room with a flat wall (e.g. side of a building) and a hard, flat floor.
Summary: A frantic card game in which players try to be the first to get 4 of a kind. Once one player gets 4 of a kind, everyone quickly tries to grab a spoon from the center! The last person to realize what happened loses the round.
Ages: All. Recommended # of people: 6-12. Messiness factor: Not too messy. Materials required: A standard deck of 52 playing cards, and spoons (the total number of players minus one). Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A quick thinking game of brainstorming unique items within categories!
Ages: All. Recommended # of People: Small groups of 5-10. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: Pens and lots of paper. Recommended Setting: Indoors in a not-too-noisy environment.
Categories (Also known as Scattegories)
Have you heard of the famous party game called Scattegories? You can play this on your own at parties or hanging out with friends.
Set-Up
You receive one point for every unique (not shared by any other player) word that starts with the given letter and fit into the given category.
Start the one minute timer.
Write down as many valid words (those that fit the category and start with the correct letter) for the category as you can. When the timer ends, stop writing. Go clockwise and have each player read aloud their words. If someone else has the same word, both players cross out that word (no points are earned).
If a word is read that doesn’t seem to be a good fit for the category, the other players vote on whether to accept the word or cross it off. In the case of a tie, the word is disqualified.
Each word that remains is worth one point. The player with the most points wins!
If you prefer to buy the official Scattergories party game with prepared categories, alphabet dice, you can buy it from Amazon.
Summary: Human Sculptures (also known as Human Clay) is an icebreaker group game that involves posing people into large human sculptures based on predefined topics. Two versions exist: a competitive version based on a guessing game, and a version that is more about coming up with a creative interpretation.
Ages: 12 and up. Recommended number of people: Groups of at least three. Messiness factor: Minimal – hold a pose for a few minutes. Materials required: Sheets of paper and pens. Recommended setting: Indoors or outdoors.
Summary: A unique open-ended activity that lets players create the rules on white cards!
Ages: All. Recommended # of People: 5-6. Messiness Factor: You’ll move around. Materials Required: pens, blank white cards, an open space.
A Thousand Blank White Cards
How to Play
A Thousand Blank White Cards is a fun game that will ask players to make up creative rules. Everyone starts with a wide open blank canvas.
The facilitator should prepare small stacks (7-8) of white index cards. For about $10 you can large packs of cards online from Amazon. Give each person a pen.
Instruct everyone on how to create a good card. Each card should have (1) a title, (2) a consequence, and (3) a simple drawing.
For example:
Some cards can describe a way to win the game. Other cards can react to that (an “Undo” card or a reaction card if someone seemingly wins, it can take away their win). More explanation on that below.
Each player writes various cards, each with the 3 required parts as described above. It should have the title, consequence and drawing. It can be funny and involve silly actions as well. Collect all the cards once they are written. Place the deck in the middle of the room on a table or anywhere easy to reach. There will also be a “discard pile” in the center for cards that have been discarded.
Playing the Game
Follow the following steps:
If you’re not sure what to write on a card, just ask yourself what cards would be interesting to see in the game. This might be a reaction to another card — for example, if one player creates a card that says “When this card is played, you win the game,” another player could create an “Undo card” or a silly card that reads “Opposite day: If a player wins the game, play this card immediately. That player loses the game and exits this round”
At the end of a game, you can discuss as a group which cards were good and should be kept for play in future games. The fun of this game is not so much winning, but rather being creative in making unique cards that can be retained for future play.
Summary: A rapid-fire guessing game in which players write many clues and place them in a bowl.
Ages: All. Recommended # of People: 10-20. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: Bowl, lots of paper, and pens. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A teambuilding activity that asks people to identify what object they would bring if they were to be stranded on a deserted island. Each person discusses why they brought the object. Within groups, people decide how to improve their chances of survival by combining various objects.
Ages: 12 and up. Recommended number of people: Groups of 5 to 10. Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials required: Paper and pen, if desired. Recommended setting: Indoors.
Summary: A classic get-to-know-you icebreaker in which each person says two truths and one lie. The goal is to figure out which statement is actually the lie!
Ages: All. Recommended # of people: 6-10. Messiness factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: Signs is a simple party game involving stealth, silliness, and not getting caught! Players seated in a circle attempt to “pass” a sign (hand motion or gestures) to each other while a guesser tries to catch the person who currently has the sign.
Ages: 12 and up. Recommended # of people: Groups of 10-20 people. Messiness Factor: No mess! Materials required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: An icebreaker / stationary game in which a person acts out an action only for the next person in line, who in turn acts out for the next person. The acting typically becomes distorted over time and hilarious, as the last person in line tries to guess what the original clue was.
Ages: 10 and up. Recommended # of People: 5-6. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
