If you can dodge a wrench you can dodge a ball and if you can count to 10 you can try to count how many times two dogs jumped in a video clip.

The Dodge Ball version was much funnier after editing but the video trivia challenge would have added a whole new element to the movie.

I have been wanting a projector for the youth building for years. About 5 years to be exact. That is how long I have been in this ministry position. I was approved to purchase one but it isn’t like I had the money in the budget. At the end of 2012 the Youth helped with our Royal Rangers tree sales and I got a pretty good payment into the department for some much needed/desired things. I set aside some money for camp scholarships, paid for the giant bounce house I bought at the end of November 2012 (that is another story), and finally bought that new projector.

Of course, now that I have a projector instead of having to beg every time I want to use one, I will be trying to come up with every excuse to use it as often as possible.

A Legend is Born

After testing the new projector I started trying to come up with ideas. I went through video illustrations for the sermon series I’m doing, but honestly, I’ve done that and it just didn’t seem like the right way to celebrate the blessing of a new projector. Then it hit me, to celebrate we should have fun. So I started planning a game.

My good friend Google didn’t let me down. At first I was going to buy a video trivia game but ended up finding the site Rivvid on my first Google search. The concept was perfect. Basically people make a quiz that they share. There is a short video clip followed by a multiple choice question with a count down timer. The question might be about the clip or it may require knowledge of the subject.

There are quite a few categories to choose from and most categories have multiple quizzes already made. Personally I loved the 80s movie trivia and to be honest my students did better than I expected they would in that quiz.

Trivia is not enough

Well, it might have been. The students had a blast just doing the trivia portion, but it isn’t enough for me because I like overkill. When playing Madden I alway take the 2pt conversion because why settle for 1 when you can have 2 right?

I figured the more active students would want something they could do rather than just watching someone answer questions, so I added a physical element, dodgeball.

Rules for Video Trivia DodgeBall

• Students take turns as contestants
• Students take turns as “bouncers” (the ones throwing the ball)
• The contestant picks a category then a quiz
• Everyone watches the video clip and the student has one chance to answer correctly
• If they answer correctly they get a point
• If they answer incorrectly the bouncers throw dodge balls at them
• If the contestant catches a ball they get a point
• If the contestant gets hit they are out for that question
• If the contestant dodges all of the balls they get a point
• But hurry because there are no pauses between questions and the next video

The most important part is to really ham it up as the “game show host.” Work on the voice, keep the energy very high, and keep asking things like “is that your final answer” and “are you sure you wouldn’t like to change your answer” while the clock is counting down. I was able to select their answer as the clock hit “1” one several occasions.

Additional Notes

I went through quite a few videos. I did come across one that had some inappropriate language. So be warned, you should review as many videos as possible. The one I caught was in the teen category. I tried to find it so I could share incase you wanted to know just how “bad” it was and if you needed to skip it or not but I couldn’t even find the category, so it might have been removed.

During the “physical challenge” things need to move pretty quickly. I had three students with dodge balls and gave them each one chance during that particular question. This means the person throwing could catch 3 balls and get 3 extra points. If a student got a point by catching a ball but then got hit I let them keep their point. After throwing I had the “bouncers” retrieve the balls quickly so they would be ready after the next question was answered. In some cases that was actually pretty funny because they would be rushing around trying to find a ball that had rolled under someone else’s seat.

I think the dodgeball addition was a lot of fun and I’ll probably do that most of the time because more students can be involved, but I am also thinking of other physical challenges I can introduce. Maybe a point multiplier where students have to stack cookies on their forehead then if they can answer while the cookies are still stacked they get that many extra points.

If you have other ideas for additional physical challenges or point modifiers leave a comment.

The post Video Trivia Dodge Ball appeared first on My Experience As....

We had the “Winter is over games” and for the opening ceremony I used my t-shirt cannon. Several of the students had never seen it before, so that was a treat. I launched over 30 glow sticks about 40′ into the air. It was pretty impressive. Then the opening game was a snowman building competition, but we have had a really crappy winter (actually really good because I hate cold and snow) so we had to make due. First everyone had to wear gloves, because you can’t build a snowman without gloved, then I gave them a box of instant mashed potatoes, and some candy for decorations. I have to admit, they did a really good job.

Then we had a bob sled competition. Basically I setup an obstacle course in the youth building and gave the teams a big flat piece of cardboard. One person sat on the cardboard and had to be pulled/pushed around the obstacle course. If they crossed any of the lines or otherwise “wrecked” I stopped them for a couple seconds. One person totally missed a turn when they were way in the lead in the first lap, and the reset cost them dearly.

Finally we had a bunch of boxes. I let the winner pick a spot in the room and 3 boxes. I didn’t say why. Then the other team got to pick their boxes. Then I let them in on the rules. They were building an igloo and could use the boxes they picked, then could go get one box at a time and place that box, and only then could they go get another box. Boxes could be moved, but only when the whole team was there, when someone went to get a new box everyone had to leave the igloo alone.

In the end we had a lot of fun, but had a good deal of instant mashed potatoes left over. Turns out that makes some pretty good snowballs. I’m kind of hoping the evidence isn’t in the parking lot come Sunday.

The post Mashed Potato Snowmen and Snowball fight appeared first on My Experience As....

Actually I can’t complain too much about the sleeping arrangements. While I got less sleep than any of the guys (I think some girls got less than me) I did get more sleep this year than any previous camp. The dorms had huge attic exhaust fans, which really helped with the heat. One night I even considered zipping my sleeping bag, but then just rolled over and went to sleep. I am usually the last to go to sleep and was teh first up in the guys dorms all week. That’s just how things go at camp though. I got about 5-6 hours a night though, which is way more than the 2-4 hours I’m use to at camp. This left plenty of energy for fun at camp, not that a lack of sleep ever kept me from the fun. We played plenty of great games, so I figure I’ll kick off this series by talking about some of them, and a few other things we did in the “fun” category.

Soccer

Soccer is a lot of fun by itself, but we add to the excitement by using a 42″ ball. I’m not sure how many goals there were on each side, but getting such a large ball moving is tough, stopping it is even tougher. The highlight reel (if I had remembered to use the video camera) would surely include several of the smaller students being completely run over by the ball. Before you feel too bad for them, I let my own kids play with the ball and it was bigger than most of them.

Swimming

You can’t have camp without swimming. We did that every day. The pool was the nicest of any camp we ever used, between the bunks, pool, and cafeteria I really want to look into this camp again. Mostly the students just enjoyed chilling in the pool, splashing, and generally having fun. One day we went on a very short hike to a nice swimming hole in the river than ran along the camp. Students were given a choice between swimming in the river or in the pool. In the end most went to the pool, but the river was actually really nice. It was probably nicer since the adults in the river had much fewer students. The other really fun thing we did was a midnight (actually it was 2-3am) swim on the last night of camp. I cracked out about 150 glow bracelets and we had a great party. So worth the loss of 3 hours sleep.

Frisbee

Ultimate Frisbee is a super fun game, made even better by camp. If you aren’t familiar, the basic rules are:

• Two Teams
• Football like end zones
• Football like “throw off”
• Once you catch the Frisbee you have 3 steps to stop or throw the Frisbee
• Incomplete, out of bounds, or interception/knockdown results in a change of possession

There are several more rules, but that should give you some sense of how it plays. Of course, we can’t leave well enough alone, so the last 10-15 minutes was played with a frozen (but quickly defrosting) cow tongue. It is amazing how the students get into that. If you were wondering, you can’t really toss a tongue like a Frisbee, more like a bola since the tongue gets kind of stretched out.

Kickball

Again, with the giant soccer ball. I was surprised at how far the students could kick the ball, but more impressive was the manner in which some of the students were taken down. One was running for home when the ball completely bowled him over, another was running for home when someone ran into him with the ball. he tried jumping, but the ball just bounced him into the air, then he supermanned off the ball. I made sure he was ok before laughing … well I at least didn’t laugh to hard till I knew he was ok.

Gestapo

Three teams play at a time, running across an open field to try and put tickets into a bucket. The only thing stopping them, a tired group of adults looking for a bit pf payback holding tube socks with a cup of flour. The adults had to throw then recover the tube socks. Once a student was hit they had to return to the starting line before they could try and cross to the buckets again. Several of the students developed some great strategies to avoid getting hit, including sacrificing slower players as shields and jumping over the thrown socks. In the end I think I needed some O2.

The post Camp Games appeared first on My Experience As....

We had about 50 and the place was pretty well packed. I need to bring up more seating because the seats were pretty well all used. I’ve been told they had 70 a few years back but I’m honestly not sure how you fit that many into that place. It was feeling pretty cramped with 50. I’ll probably start doing break outs again. Not every week to start with but we will build towards an upper and lower Youth group because we will reach our capacity very soon otherwise.

Now for the breakdown of the games.

This was moderately fun at best. I picked two girls expecting them to have ticklish feet. They admitted to it when questioned but there was much less squirming than I expected. I would recommend as a simple ice breaker to begin bringing the focus in while getting something else ready that will only take a minute or two. That is what I did with the game and it filled the space of pulling out other supplies just fine. Don’t expect a lot from it. It is easy to get started and takes up a couple minutes but that is about it.

This was actually pretty fun. I think the students enjoyed the Pizza more than anything but it added to the excitement. If you can pull it off next time you order Pizza for the Youth it adds to it. We gave the winner a $20 tip and the loser a $5 tip. I also asked the winner some questions. The nice part was that he knew several of the youth so they were really excited to see him win.

This is just a great game. It got messier last night than in previous nights but every had a great time. We had a few that made it across without killing any fish but there were also a couple of really good reactions so it makes it worth while. The only problem with this game is you can’t really go to it very often unless you have lots and lots of new people coming.

This went over better than I expected. I planned this as a time killer but once I got enough volunteers together (that was harder than I thought) they had a great time. The dancing was mostly clean and usually pretty funny. One kid threw down with some nice Robot action and a couple of the girls did a waltz step together with the Polka. If you want to get an idea about the overall spectrum of music then you can listen to it. Dance Mix

Sadly we didn’t get to do this. Seriously I’m very sad but there was a miss communication about the fake fish and they were not available for this game.

Ok I got really lucky twice with this game. We got two volunteers which was good since the first callee couldn’t hear and so kept going through “I can’t hear you” over and over. Total bust but the 2nd caller was ready to go. Then I made a big mistake and made my embarrassing question “what kind of underwear are you wearing?” I should have made the question “boxers or briefs?” That would have been much safer since the callee was a teen girl. Can you imagine how bad it would have been with the various kinds of underwear she could have been wearing and a bunch of teen boys listening in on the answer. Fortunately the answer was “boxers.” Yeah I’m so blessed that didn’t go down hill quickly.

This was the second most popular game of the evening. Let me say that it was a huge mess and I learned a couple of really important things. First, those cheep table clothes are great. They are cheep and keep most of the mess of the carpet. You can pull them into a nice bundle and drop the in the garbage when you are done. Now for the game, I let the ice cream sit out for a couple hours so it was very melty. Not completely melted since it was in a good size sealed container but easy to spoon out large drippy quantities of ice cream and aim for the mouth, which is easier said than done. The other consideration is that the chocolate syrup is easier to get in the mouth but that too much is a very bad thing. I got worried for a brief moment before I stopped the person applying syrup that they were gonna kill our volunteer. Finally, I learned that you do not give a jar of cherries to the person dropping the cherries. The first couple of tries were fine but then they poured the juice and that was not cool. Still, everyone had a blast with this game and it has the advantage of being something I can do more often than Walking on Goldfish.

Once again I ask if anyone has had experience with these game or other fun games you would like to suggest? I have about 70 game on file right now but I’ve gone through a great number of them so I really could use more ideas.

The post As promised appeared first on My Experience As....

Find two local pizza places that deliver. During the beginning of the evening, divide the crowd in two and bring up a representative from each side. Hand each representative a cell phone and phone # of two competing pizza places. Have them each order a large pizza, tell the delivery person the situation, and that there’s a $20 tip for the one that arrives first. Clearly announce to the crowd which pizza place is coming for each team.

As you are continuing your program, one side of the room will erupt into applause when a pizza driver comes in representing their side of the room. (Olympic or Rocky theme music is a plus!)

Interview the deliverer and give him the $20 tip in front of the crowd. (You can then have up front games lined up where winners get a piece of pizza.)

Crowd Game: Have 5 students come to the front of the room and remove their shoes and socks. Give each a felt-tipped or ball point pen. On the signal, they run out into the crowd and see who can get the most signatures on the bottom of their feet in the time limit. No one person can sign more than three feet. Can use both feet. Signatures must be legible.

I described it in the post Fun and Games Basically you get 4 or 5 victims that know nothing of the game. You show them the live goldfish (20 or more in a single bowl) and blindfold them while you “spread the fish on the tarp.” Once they are blindfolded you get a can of mandarin orange slices and drop those on the tarp. It is important that they hear the “fish” hitting the tarp and get the crowd excited and making comments about how gross, poor fish … Then they cross the fish grave yard. I make it a “trust” exercise where the crowd guides them across the tarp but others do a timed trial. I like more crowd involvement.

It’s called Dance Dance EVOLUTION because the style of music keeps changing and changing and students don’t know what to expect next! Here’s how you pull it off.

Bring 2-4 students up front and tell them you are going to play a CD that they must dance to…without stopping! Best dancer wins.

Make a CD with snippets (I’d say about 30 seconds each) of different genres of music, (at least 10), the goofier the better. Here are some ideas:
The Wiggles (children’s TV show)
Country Song (something with a lot of twang!)
Rock Song (top 40 will suffice)
Polka
Opera
Heavy Metal
Bluegrass
Gospel
Cartoon Theme Show (like Sponge Bob)
Reggae
Rap/Hip Hop (make sure it’s clean)

Individuals compete against each other for the best dance composition. You can have 2-4 students compete at the same time. Judge them for who has the most creative moves, who wasted the least amount of time trying to figure out what to do, the one willing to be the goofiest, etc.

Here are a couple of rules to help you make the game a hit with your group.

1. You can’t just do the same thing the whole time. You have to change your dancing each time the music changes.

2. Once you stop dancing for more than 10 seconds, you’re out!

3. Make sure the dance moves are “acceptable” by your standards. (Announce this before you begin, or else you WILL see some “dirty” dancing.)

Have fun!

This is a great upfront game. Supplies needed: gummy fish, 3 REAL LIVE goldfish, 10 glasses half full of water (3 containing real goldfish, 2 with just water and 5 containing gummy fish and water—these 5 are kept hidden from the chosen victims…..er students.

Bring three students up front and show them the 5 glasses with water (3 with real goldfish and 2 with just water). Blindfold the students and instruct them to choose a glass to drink. While they are blindfolded switch the glasses to the 5 containing gummy fish and water. Option: Award a prize for the best reaction.

NOTE: This would be a great game in which to have a live video feed hooked up. At the very least, you may want to record this one for laughs!

This is a fun easy game. Pick a student with a friend at home. Ask several simple questions but make sure a couple are embarrassing. The student guesses how the friend will answer. Then call the friend and use speaker phone and the mic so everyone can hear the responses.

Just like it sounds. One person gets a banana split in their mouth while laying on a tarp and the other person delivers the ingredients while standing on a chair.

I’m pretty certain I got all of these games from The Source for Youth Ministry on their Game Pages
. Enjoy.

Also, if you have any game ideas please share. JayDee gave me a great game that almost made this weeks games. I decided to make a theme so it didn’t quite get there, but next time I’m totally playing “Egg Head.”

The post March game night appeared first on My Experience As....

Opening (make announcements blah blah blah)
-Unity
-ATF
-Ask Nick (next week)
–
Order Pizza (Start Pizza Challenge)
Foot Signing contest
Free time while waiting for Pizza and setting up Walking on Goldfish
Pizza arrives interview winning driver
-Name
-Where did(do) you go to school?
-Weirdest thing that has happened while delivering Pizza?
-Favorite Pizza topping?
Walking on Goldfish
Dance Dance EVOLUTION
Goldfish Gulp
Call a friend
Banana Splits in the Mouth.

Closing (thanks blah blah blah)
Remind everyone about Ask Nick and distribute contact info etc.

PS if you haven’t already read it find out why I might go to hell in the post from earlier this morning.
PPS. Yes my actual order of events including the blah blah blahs and missing line after the -.

The post Game Night appeared first on My Experience As....