GAMES WITH A PURPOSE
Games with a purpose are games to get acquainted, line people
up, and break into groups. These are games that have been contributed by Guiders and Scouters. Many of them have come from the Guiding/Scouting List and the WAGGGS-L list. If you have a game you would like to add to this page please submit it to me by e-mail.
Divide group into two rows and have them sit facing each other with feet touching. Then have each person carry on a conversation with the person facing you. Tell about yourself. Where you are from, birthdate, favorite color etc. Then exchange bead with that person thread it onto you have traded all your color beads (or have one left), and move down line to your right to next person and do the same thing until you have exchanged all your beads. Tie and wear your new bracelet
Wendy Baker
Marianne Mitchell
Marianne Mitchell
After a while, have people guess their labels and talk about labels in life. It works well with parents too!
Laura
One player is designated to be IT. He takes his place in the center of the players, sitting in a circle in the dark. IT suddenly flashes his flashlight on one of the players and asks "Who are your next door neighbors?" And then he flashes the light on the nearby neighbors. If the player who was asked the question, can't name both neighbors correctly, he becomes IT. If he does name them correctly, IT asks him "How is So and So?", naming either of the players. If the reply is "OK", the players remain seated, but if the answer is "Not so good", all players must change seats. While everyone is shifting IT tries to get a seat. If he succeeds the one without a spot then becomes IT.
Note: Until everyone is sure of the names, IT must give them time to learn the names of their neighbors before they shift.
Jane Maddin
For some reason there is lots of giggling and this game became our most request. Of course we got better at it each week and by Feb. we get all their names. The WFF was richer by $20.00. Interesting though the girls started by them selves to bring in pennies for our name game sock.
Marian Beswick-Arthur
You form a circle and the leader throws one person a pair of socks (rolled up tight in a ball) That person (1) must ask the name of a person (2) she doesn't know then before she tosses the socks to person 2, must shout out person 2's name. Person 2 then has to ask the name of someone she doesn't know, call out that person 3's name, and toss the socks to her....etc. until everyone has caught the socks.
RULE: You must always toss the socks to the same person - but only after you shout out their name.
Now here's the game...
Meanwhile the leader tosses in more and more and more socks. Socks are flying everywhere names are being shouted all at once (sometimes a person may have 4-5 pair and then it's "Susan, Susan, Susan, Susan (pelt, pelt, pelt, pelt) Leaders were running after socks they missed catching...bedlam and laughter abound.
The leader then will start to remove pairs of socks one by one and it 'calms down a bit' and you again get to hear all the names as the last sock tosses around. It's crazy - but like I said - it worked for me!
Margaret A. B. Jones
Each team picks a word at random from the pile of cards. Then they attend to spell out the word, using their bodies for the letters and the other teams try to guess the word. The first team to guess correctly is the next one to pick a word.
This game teaches cooperation at the very least. You can also have the words related to some theme; camping, first aid, etc. It does not take very long, and the girls usually enjoy it.
Jane Maddin
Give each person in the group an open ended question like... "the best thing that happened to me this week was..." or "I really hate it when...", etc. Be creative and make sets of questions for each group so each group has the same 7 questions, but each person only has one question.
Now have them line up their chairs so there are 3 down one side facing 3 down the other side, and have one person at the top or "head" of the table, the Madhatter.
The Madhatter starts by reading her question out loud to the group. Then one side of the "table" starts, and the 3 people on that side make eye contact with their partner opposite them, and answer the question out loud. You need one timekeeper for the whole room, who times one minute. The room can get pretty noisy. The timekeeper yells switch, and the other "side" of the "table" gets a turn to answer the question. Believe me, they haven't had any time to think about their answer, because they've been too busy listening!! After one more minute, the timekeeper yells, "Teacups" and everyone moves one chair clockwise, which puts a new Madhatter at the head of the table, and she reads her question, etc., until all of the questions have been read and answered.
Lots of fun, very hectic, and VERY noisy.
Claudia Lister
Make up a list of famous pairs (Laurel and Hardy, Tom Sawyer and Huck Finn, Lord and Lady BP, etc.)
Make name tags for each name.
Pin a tag on the back of each person as they arrive (make sure everyone has a partner!)
They first guess who they are, then have to look for their partner.
Barb Wright,
Make up a card for each guest/ participant highlighting an interesting or unusual fact about them. hand out a card to each guest upon arrival and have them try to match the fact on the card.
Marianne Mitchell
Examples:
The idea is to move all around the circle, and end up back where you started. It becomes fun because if you move, but your neighbour doesn't, you sit on her lap! Sometimes, you can have three people occupying the same chair!!
Make sure you have lots of categories so that everyone gets lots of chances to move, e.g. all Branches of Guiding, all hair colours (at different times, of course), and so on.
Katherine Town
Jocelyne Pasman
Everyone lies down except for the Grave Master (I don't know what to call that person if you're calling this Sleeping Beauty - perhaps Prince Charming?). The Grave Master walks around among the 'bodies' and tries to catch them moving. (They can breathe and blink!)
When she catches someone moving they join her as Grave Masters and search for 'moving' bodies. The last one 'dead' wins. (Or the last one to move is the Beauty.)
Jane Maddin
Each person is told ahead of time to bring ten objects with some meaning to them to whatever event you are doing this at. When they arrive, give them a bag with a number on it and get them to carefully place their objects into it. Then make sure each person gets someone else’s bag. They have ten minutes to write down ideas about what the person who owns the objects is like, and to try to guess who they are. It is best if you don't do the guessing until after everyone has had their say. This would also work as an end of camp game, to see what people have learned about each other.
Margaret Fraser
Jane Maddin
Jane Maddin
[Personally, I think I'd just have them write their first names and then find people whose last names start with those letters. 1) some people have pretty long names when you put the FULL name together...might have trouble fitting 2) just having the first name on the card forces them to TALK to each other to find out the last names. Just my 2 cents]
Joan D.
Kathi Sheridan
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