Hobbies And Interests
Fact Sharing Activities
Fact sharing is a basic component of getting to know someone. Write down questions on index cards like "What is your favorite hobby?" and "Who is your favorite hero and why?" Ask the teens to sit in a circle and hand each teen a card. They must go around the circle answering the question. A variation is to pass a bowl of candy around and have the teens share one fact for each piece of candy they take.
Guessing Activities
Guessing activities give the teens a chance to learn about each other while playing a game. Each teen must write four interesting facts about him on an index card. Read each card aloud while the teens write down whom they think wrote the facts. The teen with the most correct answers wins the game. For a variation, mix up the index cards and hand one card to each teen. He must walk around the room mingling with the other teens, while trying to find out which teen wrote the facts on the index card.
Circle Activities
Ask the teens to sit in a circle. Write phrases like "first name," "brothers and sisters" and "favorite food" on an inflatable beach ball. The teens toss the ball around the circle and answer the question that lands under their left thumb each time. You can also create a name activity by having the teens say the name of the person to whom they pass the ball.
Bingo Activities
Print bingo cards and replace the numbers with statements such as, "blue shirt," "blue eyes," "has a brother and sister" and "has five letters in her name" in each square. The teens must walk around finding teens that fit the statements and have them sign that bingo square. The first teen to get a bingo wins the activity. An alternative is to have the teens walk around asking the names of other teens and writing the names in the squares. Call out names at random, and the first teen to bingo wins the game.