HT Games
Old Favorites
Charades and drawing games are played very much the same way. They both require that everyone divide into teams. Each player writes a phrase or object on a piece of paper and places it in a bowl for the opposite team to draw or act out. The teams choose someone to begin as their actor or artist and take turns thereafter. The actor or artists chooses a paper from their team's bowl and has to try to either act out the phrase or draw it. Teams are limited to 30 seconds to guess what the key phrase was. When the bowls are empty, the team that guesses the most correct answers wins.
Word Games
One group game that always gets a few laughs is to create a group sentence. This can be done in a couple of ways. For quick thinking fun, create the sentence in time around the room. The whole group claps in time together slowly and each person takes a turn adding onto the sentence, one word for each clap. Punctuation can be added in and count as a turn. For example, the first person would say "a cat" with the first clap, the next person could say "ate" with the second clap, the third person says, "a goldfish," and the fourth person says, "period" with the fourth clap. It continues on in that manner as long as there are people left playing. If anyone fails to add a word with her clap, she is immediately out and the game continues on without them.
Another sentence game involves writing. Each person gets a piece of paper. Everyone takes a turn deciding what kind of word or phrase to add onto the sentence. For example, on the first turn, the starting player tells everyone to write the name of a person in the room at the top of the paper. Fold the paper backward so that no one can see the answers. Take all of the papers and pass them to the left. On the next turn, the next player decides what kind of addition to make to the sentence. For example, everyone can write the name of a famous person with the word "and" before it. When unfolded, the sentence could now read something like "Bob and Mary Tyler Moore...." Fold it backward once again, pass them, and continue on in that manner. The next few turns, add in things such as: a place, an action, a noun, or a phrase as each person takes a turn. As you add to the sentence, be sure to write the necessary connecting words before the new word such as "went to the (place)," "saw a (noun)," or "said (phrase)." Once all of these words or phrases have been recorded, the paper can be passed one last time and opened one at a time to be read to the group. The sentences should read with flow and create some hilarious combinations.
Combination Games
A fun variation on the paper sentence game is to add in some drawing. Everyone writes a random object or phrase at the top of the paper and writes her name at the bottom of the paper. Pass the paper to the next person, who attempts to draw the phrase. Fold the paper back so that only the picture is visible. Then, pass the paper again. The next person attempts to figure out what the picture is supposed to be. Write a phrase that you think the picture represents, fold the paper backward and pass it so that only the phrase is visible. The next person tries to draw the new phrase. The game continues on in this manner until the paper returns to its original holder, as noted by the name on the bottom of the paper. Open the paper and you can see the often humorous progression from original thought to finished product.