Great Games for Youth Groups

Blind Leading the Blind

• To challenge young people to develop communication skills, play a game of Blind Leading the Blind. You'll need an area with open space for this game. Set up an area where simple tasks can be performed such as picking up a ball and placing it in a bucket or transferring sand from one container to another. One person in the group is blindfolded and one person is the spokesperson while the rest of the group are the non-verbal communicators. The youth group leader chooses a task for the blindfolded person to perform and tells the non-verbal communicators. They must get the spokesperson to guide the blindfolded person to complete the task by communicating the act through motions. Take turns until everyone has the chance to experience the different roles in the game.

Find Someone

• For a great game to play during one of your first youth group meetings of the year, play a game of Find Someone, which serves as an icebreaker and gets the young people interacting with one another. This game works especially well in large groups. Make a list of different orders such as "find someone with a school logo or mascot on their shirt" or "find someone who went to sleep-away camp this summer." You can add different things to the end of the statements like "do 5 jumping jacks together" for variety. Make enough copies for everyone in the group and give them pens. Have everyone go around searching for someone to initial the statements on their list that pertain to them.

Find the Quote

• Youth groups often serve as a place for religious instruction. Play a game that familiarizes the students with the Bible or other religious book your denomination uses. Choose a list of specific verses or quotes from the book that relate to a certain topic of a lesson you may focus on, such as respecting others or the importance of charity. Give everyone in the youth group a copy of the book and read out the place where they can find the verse or quote. Everyone then races to find it. Whoever is the first to find it gets to read it aloud and give an interpretation of what it means.

Jelly Bean Trade

• A great youth group game that encourages interaction and communication is the Jellybean Trade game. Give each participant 10 beans of different colors. Each picks one color that he wants and attempts to trade with other students in order to get them. The first person to get all 10 in the color of choice wins the game.