getting to know one another, loosening up, dissolving tension

Everybody has to say a positive quality that is true of him, and starts with the same letter as his name. E.g.: Joyful Jeremy, Brave Bella, Happy Hilda, Diligent David, etc. The group responds by looking at the person, smiling at them, and repeating the quality and the name.

We can play it with animals or flowers as well (e.g.: Lion Lawrence, Orchid Oliver, Flamingo Florence ). We can have one more round, when everybody repeats not only his or her quality and name, but also that of all or at least 5 group members. It may become boring when there are more than 15 members. If you have a bigger group, everyone repeats only the 5 names before him.

a short game of focus and cooperation

Pairs of players are standing back to back leaning against each other - otherwise they would fall over. At a given sign they have to slowly bend their knees and squat down. They have to be careful to synchronize their movements. Then they slowly straighten their legs, just as carefully as when they were going down.

When they finish, let the group talk about it: What was your experience? What was hard in this game?

Silent variation | Play the game in silence.

a focusing game of self-and mate awareness with a good laugh at the end

Version A

Four people are sitting around a sheet of A3 paper pens, pencils or crayons etc. in their hands. Their task is to draw something blindfolded. (e.g. a nativity scene with the Holy Family, angels, shepherds, and animals) They are allowed to talk, but they can only see the picture after it is finished.

Version B:

Two people sit with a sheet of paper. One is drawing blindfolded what the other, the storyteller is explaining. The storyteller is allowed to speak, but is not allowed to touch their partner. When the first picture is finished, they swap roles and draw another picture on the opposite side of the paper. Give the pairs time at the end to look at the drawings and talk about how they could cooperate and create something together.

a loud, active game with a lot of running around

Everyone stands in a defined playing area. The leader explains that there is a Bomb that will explode in 2 minutes and the only way to avoid the blast is to have a shield between you and the Bomb.

Each player secretly chooses someone else that will be the Bomb and another person that will be the Shield.

On the ‚Go!’ signal, every player attempts to move so that the Shield is between them and the Bomb.

Since everyone has chosen different Bombs and Shields, everyone is constantly moving and no one ever‚ wins’.

a louder game that creates a sense of community. Involves a lot of walking up and down

The players form pairs and walk around in the room having a conversation about a given topic. They have to avoid saying yes or no. If someone accidentally says yes or no they have to find a new partner.

The given topic can be anything like Christmas shopping, holiday plans, favourite food, interesting family stories etc. The players will soon figure out how to trick each other into saying the forbidden words, yes or no. The group leader signals the end of the game when he/she feels everyone has talked with everybody.

a silent, quiet game that improves self awareness and helps getting to know one another

Accessories | 1 sheet of drawing paper and 1 pencil for each pair.

The children get into pairs, and each pair has one piece of paper and one pencil. They have to hold the pencil together and draw a picture. They are not allowed to speak. After everybody finishes their picture, a discussion of the experience follows.

We can either play this game by telling the pairs what they have to draw, e.g.: a house, a tree, a dog, or we can let the pairs decide the theme of their picture, but without any speaking!

concentration, low activity

The children stand in two equal, parallel lines, holding hands. We place a hat on a chair at equal distance from both lines. The two persons at the end of the lines put their free hands behind them, and concentrate on the hat. As soon as the child behind them squeezes their hand, they will run for the hat.

At the beginning of the lines the group leader flips a coin. Only the two children standing closest to the group leader at the end of the lines are allowed to see the coin, everyone else has to wait in complete silence looking the other way. If the coin falls on the heads, nothing happens. If it falls on tails, the children squeeze their neighbour’s hand, and the children pass on the squeeze as fast as they can. As soon as the electric current reaches the end, the last in the line runs for the hat. The quicker line gets one point. You can play it until one group collects 5 or 3 points.

a game of giving and accepting feedback

The group leader prints a name card for each group member in advance, and prepares the gift cards with objects, skills and character traits written on them. Every player will give one gift card to every other group member, therefore, if there are 5 members in a group, you will need 5x5=25 gift cards, if there are 8 children in the group, 8x8=64 cards etc. Place the name cards and the gift cards in two separate piles, in the centre, face down. The first player picks a name card and gives it to its owner. Then everybody starts looking for a gift for this person by turning the gift cards up. Then we all tell why we have chosen that particular gift for this person, why we think he or she may need it.

The player thanks the others for the gifts and accepts the gift and explanation he likes best. They put all the cards back to the pile. The person whose gift was accepted, can pick the next name card.

For bigger children, it is enough to prepare blank gift cards, and the children can fill out the blank card with what they think the other needs.

a quieter game for better cooperation in the group with some focusing

The treasure is going to be a small object. The group is sitting or standing in a circle. Someone leaves the room (or just stands in a corner with their back to the group). The group members start quickly passing on the treasure to one another. Before the person waiting outside or in the corner wants to enter or turn back towards the room, they knock loudly three times and quickly enter or turn to the group.

The person holding the treasure must hide it either on themselves or right by themselves as fast as possible as soon as the treasure hunter enters or turns around. The treasure hunter player has to find out who had the treasure at the moment of their entry and where it is hidden.

helps the group getting into shape, active, noisy, funny

The children stand in a circle, and close their eyes. Tell them to step toward the centre with both arms stretched out in front of them and randomly grab two other hands. (The group leader who is leading the game can help here.)

When every hand is holding another hand, they open their eyes. The task is to untangle themselves into one big circle again, or as much as possible, without letting any hands go.

a really quiet game, bringing the group together

The players have to line up according to their date of birth. It is forbidden to speak, but they can give signals.

‘The floor is lava!’ version: We may place newspapers on the floor, and the players must stand on them. There must be two extra newspapers on the floor on which they can stand. The floor is lava, therefore players are not allowed to step on the floor only on the newspapers. They are allowed to move the extra papers wherever they need to step in the line. When they are lined up, check the results by everybody telling their date of birth.

Blindfolded version: You can play it allowing the players to speak, but they have to line up blindfolded.

a loud team building game with a lot of physical contact

Accessories | newspapers

All the participants are penguins standing on an ice-floe. The ice-floe is made of newspapers stapled or taped together, large enough for the whole group to stand on comfortably. The group leaders prepare it before the retreat.

The whole group is standing on the ice-floe, and the master of the game is narrating what is happening. The group leader tells the penguins about the waves and the winds and what they can see as their ice-floe is traveling on the ocean.

As they reach warmer waters the ice starts melting and becomes smaller and smaller. From time to time the master of the game tears some of the newspaper off, and the group is traveling on the smaller and smaller ice up to the point when the surface is so small that it is barely enough for them to stay on it together. Penguins always stay together.

a quiet game for getting to know each other

The first player in the circle says his/her name and shows a gesture or a movement. The next one has to repeat the name and the movement and add his/her own name and movement. The following person repeats the names and gestures before them and adds their own etc.

The movements can be squatting, reaching up with the arms, turning around, etc. If there are more than 15 children in the group, repeating every name may become boring. It is best to repeat only the five names and movements before saying our own.

an active, loud, introductory game, helps dissolve tension

One person stands in the middle with a rolled up newspaper (This will be used to lightly whack each other with and could easily be substituted with something else: a foam baseball bat, the cardboard middle of a roll of paper towels, etc.). Someone starts by saying another person’s name. The one who was called has to quickly name another person, before he gets whacked. It is not allowed to name the person who just called you. If the person with the paper whacks you before you named somebody, you trade places. Before sitting down you quickly call somebody’s name and the game continues.

Thematic variation: You can play this game with thematic names. Before starting the game everyone chooses a name depending on the theme of the retreat. These can be people from Bible stories, emotions, animals etc.

Combination with other games: If this game was preceded by an introduction game where people had to choose a quality or movement Alliterating Names (#1) or Name and Gesture Avalanche — #13 you may play this game with the alliterating names or movements used then.

a quiet game of concentration

The players stand in a circle holding hands. One player is standing in the middle. Somebody in the circle sends a letter saying “I am sending my letter to XY’’ and sends the letter in one direction with a hand squeeze. When the person in the middle can see the hand squeeze, he points to the person sending it, and changes places with the sender. When the addressee gets the letter, he/she says “I got it!”. He can start sending the next letter.

a happy, loud and active game for getting into the mood

At first, everyone is at the beginning of the evolution, we are all amoebas. There are a lot of amoebas floating in the water repeating: amoeba, amoeba… When two amoebas meet they play rock-paper-scissors, and the winner develops to be a rabbit. The rabbit starts hopping while honking or grunting (speaking in bunny language). When two rabbits meet, they play rock-paper-scissors, and the winner evolves to be a monkey. Monkeys walk around and chatter like monkeys.

When two monkeys meet, they play rock-paper-scissors again and the winner becomes a human person and wins the game. The loser of every rock-paper-scissors game devolves to an amoeba. The game ends when there is only one amoeba, one rabbit, and one monkey in the group.

a quiet, focusing game of cooperation

We play it standing in a circle while somebody leaves the room. The people in the room choose a secret conductor whose movements they are going to imitate. After coming back to the room, the person has to guess who is the one everybody is imitating.

“The players stand in a circle. One person leaves the room. The others choose a secret conductor. They call the person back to the room, and invite them to stand in the middle of the circle. The conductor makes various movements, and the group members imitate him/her. The player standing in the middle has to find out who is conducting the group secretly. The conductor should avoid making sudden moves. Each player has to watch the person standing across him/her in the circle, because if everyone looks at the conductor he will be too easy to figure out. With good cooperation the group members will seem to move at the same time. When the player in the middle spots the conductor, they swap places. Decide on how many guesses the player in the middle can have. Also, warn the participants that they must try to follow the conductor, and should not imitate any of the inadvertent movements of the other players.”

a fun game for getting to know each other by pantomime and gestures; suitable for introducing the theme of the program.

The retreats usually have one or more background stories that the children hear at the beginning of the program. In this game the children have to mime the characters from the story. These can be shepherds in Bethlehem, sheep, angels, Mary and Joseph, etc.

Two players leave the room and they choose two characters from the story. They are free to choose whoever they like. Then they return to the room and silently perform a pantomime representing the characters. The rest of the group have to figure out who they are. We can have more than one round and encourage the actors to choose the key characters in the story, and not to be afraid to be the part.

At the end we will talk about the characters and what it felt like for the actors to impersonate them.

played in pairs, with slow motions, helping the children settle down and focus

The group leader draws a meandering path on the floor with a piece of chalk. The pairs have to follow the path. One of them is blindfolded. The other is not allowed to touch him or speak any words. The group agrees on three sounds they are allowed to use to navigate their partners.

active, lighthearted, helps getting to know more about one another

The group sits in a circle, somebody is standing in the middle. There are less chairs than children.

The child in the centre, the wind-blower, starts with a statement: “A big wind blows away those who… ( are wearing black socks, have blue eyes, have two siblings… there are endless variations)”. The statement has to be true for the one who says it.

Every time all the children for whom the statement is true, have to stand up and quickly sit down on another chair. They are not allowed to sit on the chair adjacent to their own chair. The child in the middle also tries to sit down. One person will be left without a seat, he will stand in the middle and say another statement.

If the group leader notices that someone is always left out, he can suggest a tornado, when everybody must stand up.

If the one in the middle runs out of ideas, the group leader can help with a question: “What is your favourite season? What is your favourite toy?” The group leader can also whisper a helpful idea in the ear of the wind-blower to make sure the game is fast paced.

a game of improving self-awareness, helps getting to know the others better

The players walk about randomly in the room. At the beginning we agree that everybody is 90 years old. When the leader gives a signal they start talking to each other or creating situations as 90 year-olds would do. On the next signal (clapping, blowing a whistle or changing the music etc.) they become sixty year-olds, and in each signal continue becoming younger: 40, 25, 15, 10, 5 year-olds.

Quiet variation: We can play the game silently, only with gestures and movements.

After the game we discuss their experiences, feelings relating to the various stages of life.

This game may help the children have a healthier, more understanding attitude toward the elderly.

Also, we can talk about the passing of time and the changes happening in us.

a longer, serious and quiet introduction game (only for older students)

We are sitting in a circle. The group leader asks the people to introduce themselves pretending they are their best friend. The speakers stand behind their own chair, and talk about themselves in 3rd person singular: “This is Mary (her own name). I know her very well because we went to kindergarten together, and we are best friends.)” The group leader may help by correcting it when the speaker switches to first person. Ask the speaker to talk about hobbies, skills, sports etc like this: “Does Mary have a hobby? What does she talk about when you meet?” After each introduction the group leader responds: “We can all see that your friend must really love you very much.

God, who knows all your faults as well, says even more beautiful things about you.”

even though there is a lot of laughter, it is a focusing game that helps quieten the group

The players sit in a circle, someone throws a ball or stuffed toy to another person. The receiver holds the objects for a few seconds, and laughs while holding it. Then they stop laughing and throw the object on to the next person. Nobody else is allowed to laugh, only the catcher.

If somebody forgets to laugh or laughs when it is not their turn, they have to stand up while the others play. The players standing are allowed to laugh. Because laughter is quite contagious, most probably everyone will be standing up laughing by the end.

Quiet variation: Toss the smile! (this version is more helpful to make the group focused)

Everyone sits in a circle. The rule is to maintain a serious expression unless you have received the smile that is being tossed around.

The leader smiles, then wipes the smile from their face into their hand and tosses it to someone in the circle, calling the person’s name. The „smile” catcher must put on the smile, wear it for a moment, then „wipe” it off and toss it to another person, calling their name. The person who does not wipe the smile completely off, or smiles out of turn, must stand up. Since smiling is contagious, the entire group will soon be standing... as well as smiling.

a happy, short game for focusing, moving and tuning in

The players stand in a circle with their arms on the shoulders of the person in front. The group leader squats down starting a wave that has to go around the circle.

» Let us stand in a circle facing clockwise. Put your hands on the shoulder of the person in front of you. One person will squat and stand up. The person behind him squats when the first one starts standing up. « The group members have to pay attention to one another. We play it until the group makes a harmonious waving movement. It is good fun and an interesting experience to be part of a wave.

quiet game played in pairs, using the whole space given

The pairs stand up facing each other at opposite ends of the room. One from each pair stretches out both arms with palms up and invites the other one. The other one starts walking towards the first one with closed eyes. When they feel close enough, they stretch their arms palms down and try to grab the inviting hands. The walking person tries to judge the distance between them in their head.

You can make the task harder by placing obstacles, for example two chairs or two children in the middle. The person walking with eyes closed must not touch them. The players have to prepare a full plan in their heads before they start walking.

a quiet communication game of concentration

The players stand in a circle holding hands. One person is sent out of the room. The group agrees where the two gates ( the meeting of two hands) are; here the person in the middle can leave the circle. When the circle is bigger than 10 people you can have three gates. The players ought to give inviting or refusing looks to the player looking for the gates. They have to look into the eyes of this player and indicate yes or no by just looking at them. It is not allowed to support the gate searcher by moving their heads or eyes towards the gate.

When the player in the middle moves in the wrong direction, the players in the circle have to remain holding hands. When the person finds the gate it opens up in front of them.

If the player guesses wrong three times in a row, the group will decide if they give them another chance or not.

a funny but quiet game that helps create a community, and does not involve much movement

The players sit in a circle with someone sitting in the middle, blindfolded. The person in the middle has to guess who spoke.

After blindfolding the person in the middle, the group members quietly change places. Then the person in the middle randomly points to someone. The chosen person has to change their voice and say the name of the player in the middle. If the one in the middle guesses correctly who said his name, they change places.