Summary: A team based action game in which the goal is to locate and recover the opposing team’s flag before they do the same. A “jail” houses those who have been caught (tagged by the opposing team).
Ages: 10 and up. Recommended # of People: 20+. Messiness Factor: Sweaty. Materials Required: Two flags (any durable, safe, and noticeable object). Recommended Setting: Outdoors.
Summary: SPUD is an action game that incorporates some elements of dodge ball. The ball is tossed up high, someone catches it, yells “SPUD!”, take three big steps, and tries to get someone out!
Ages: All. Recommended # of people: At least 8 players. Messiness factor: Lots of running and throwing. Materials required: A soft ball that does not hurt when thrown. Recommended setting: Outdoors.
Summary: An icebreaker in which people write down two things that they’ve done and one thing that they haven’t on an index card. The goal is to correctly guess who wrote each card.
Ages: All. Recommended # of people: 8-15. Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials required: Several pens and index cards. Recommended setting: Indoors.
Summary: A good get-to-know-you game in which players take turn on the “hot seat”, being asked a barrage of questions, some hypothetical, some silly, and some interesting.
Ages: 10 and up. Recommended # of people: 5-10. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: A chair. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A memory-based game in which males and females compete to get all members of their team seated on the couch.
Ages: 10 and up. Recommended # of People: 10-30. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: Paper, a couch or four chairs, pens. Recommended Setting: Indoors
Summary: A simple icebreaker useful for introducing people to each other and helping people learn names. This game is especially useful when there are new people present.
Ages: 10-21 years old. Recommended # of People: 5-20. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: A fun attitude. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: An icebreaker in which you read various (bizarre) stories and try to guess whose true story it is.
Ages: All. Recommended # of People: 8-20. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: Paper, pens, container. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A team-based scavenger hunt with a twist — bringing back digital photos (or polaroids) of interesting places and things.
Ages: 14 and up. Recommended number of people: Teams of about 4 people. Messiness Factor: Be prepared to walk around. Materials Required: Cameras for each team. Recommended Setting: Outdoors.
Summary: A classic icebreaker game in which the goal is to get your teammates to correctly identify something that is drawn within the time limit.
Ages: 8 and up. Recommended # of people: Teams of 3+ people. Messiness Factor: No sweat. Materials required: Several sheets or two large pads of paper, notecards, pens, a stopwatch/timer. Recommended setting: Indoors.
Summary: An icebreaker where players sit in a circle and take turns saying interesting things they have never done. Each player starts with ten fingers. Each time someone says something that you’ve done, you drop a finger. The goal is to be the last player remaining.
Ages: 8 and up. Recommended # of people: 10-20. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A good icebreaker or teambuilding activity for new people to learn to work together – in close physical proximity! The goal is to figure out how to untangle the human knot without letting go of hands.
Ages: 12 and up. Recommended number of people: 7-200 (group sizes of 10 are ideal). Messiness factor: Might break a sweat – (close proximity – hope you’re not claustrophobic!). Materials required: None. Recommended setting: Both indoors or outdoors.
Summary: An icebreaker that gets the group to move towards various parts of the room and to find others with shared interests and preferences, based on various interesting categories.
Ages: 10 and up. Recommended number of people: 25 and up. Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials required: None. Recommended setting: Indoors.
Summary: A group team-building activity in which people identify common things that everyone has in common, along with interesting characteristics that are unique to a person in the group.
Ages: 12 and up. Recommended number of people: Groups of 5-8. Messiness factor: No sweat. Materials required: Two sheets of paper and a pen for each group. Recommended setting: Indoors.
Summary: An icebreaker where each person has a label with a famous celebrity or character name on their back. Everyone mingles, asking “yes” or “no” questions to gain clues about the name posted on their backs.
Ages: All. Recommended # of People: 20 and over. Messiness Factor: No sweat. Materials Required: Several labels with famous names on them. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: An icebreaker where all players throw a shoe into a big pile. Grab a random shoe and find out three new facts about the person.
Ages: All. Recommended # of People: 10 and over. Messiness Factor: Smelly. Materials Required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoors.
Summary: A hilarious action game that involves stuffing marshmallows in your mouth and trying to yell, “Chubby Bunny!”
Ages: 10 and up. Recommended number of players: 3 and up. Messiness factor: Have a trash can and paper towels ready for a marshmallow mess. Materials required: A few bags of medium to large sized marshmallows.
Summary: A kids’ game in which seven people secretly select seven other kids by pushing their thumbs down at “night”, followed by those kids guessing which of the seven chose them.
Ages: 6-12. Recommended # of People: 20+. Messiness Factor: No Sweat. Materials Required: None.
Summary: Players stand in a circle and repeatedly take turns showing 0, 1 or 2 thumbs up signs with their hands. Players take turns trying to correctly guess the number of thumbs that will pop up.
Ages: All. Recommended # of Players: A small group of 3 to 6 people. Messiness factor: No mess, no stress! Materials required: None. Recommended Setting: Indoor settings.
Summary: A team building exercise in which groups build structures and try to prevent an egg from breaking. A judge tosses all structures (with the eggs inside) from a high elevation at the end. The winners are the groups that successfully protect the egg.
Ages: 14 and up. Recommended # of People: Several groups of 4-5. Messiness Factor: Quite messy. Materials required: Raw eggs, several straws, masking tape, newspaper, and any other materials for building.
Summary: A high-paced, messy relay race in which players pass a banana using their feet and the last person must eat the mushy fruit.
Ages: 10 and up. Recommended # of People: Teams of 7-10. Messiness Factor: Quite messy! Materials: Bananas, at least 1 per team. Setting: Outdoor.