Friday, January 8, 2016

Lip Sync Battle

This activity is inspired by the new game show on Spike. Essentially everyone dresses up and does a lip sync performance to a song of their choice. Send around a sign-up sheet beforehand to get people thinking about it and to get an idea of how many people are interested in performing. Let people sign up to perform solo or (even more fun) in groups. It is a good idea to preview the song choices beforehand to make sure they are appropriate for the activity. Inform each group they are in charge of bringing their own music to play as well as bringing any costumes they may want to wear for the performance.

The night of the activity each person/group that signed up then gets to come on stage and perform one at a time. Have one person be in charge of the music to help things run a little more smoothly. Invite everyone to come and watch even if they aren't performing. After everyone has performed, send around a ballot sheet to let people vote for their favorites. You can award the best group a homemade trophy or a fun treat. This one is sure to be a good time!


Monday, August 31, 2015

Inner Tube Water Polo & Jaws

This activity is a fun twist on a regular game of Water Polo. You can find the basic rules and information on how to play the game here. Look over the rules and feel free to make some adaptions for the group of people you are playing with. In this version of water polo, every person playing uses an inner tube to float around the pool while they play. This eliminates the need for treading water, which (for anyone who can't tread water like me) allows more people to actually be able to play. After the game is over, you can watch Jaws while everyone continues to float on their tubes and dangle their feet in the murky waters below.


Wednesday, August 19, 2015

Where's Waldo

This is a fun one for a big group. It's like a live version of Where's Waldo. Pick a public place to play such as a mall or a park. Make sure it's a place where quite a few other people are and that is okay with games (Temple Square is not a good choice). Select a few well known people from the ward to dress up. One person can dress up as Waldo (see picture below), but everyone else should pick something else. The point is not to stand out. They should want to be disguised enough that people won't know it's them from a first glance, but still be recognizable at some point. Some options might be construction workers, security guards, workers from a store at that location, mothers/fathers with children, etc. Those are things you might normally see at a mall or park, but that person wouldn't normally dress like that. Have these dressed up people keep it a secret of how they are dressed and show up at the place before everyone else arrives. Hand them each a different set of stickers and have them casually fit into the scene for the next 30 minutes to an hour while you play. Note: They don't have to stay in one place and can move about and act as they think their character would act.

Split everyone else up into small groups of just a few people. They shouldn't know beforehand how the people are dressed up. Provide the groups with names of people they should be looking for and a sheet of paper to collect stickers. Send everyone off and set a time limit of 30 minutes to an hour depending on how big your area is, how many people are playing and how much time you have. As each group finds one of the dressed up people, they collect a sticker from them as proof they found them. The first team to collect all of the stickers, or the team with the most stickers when the time runs out wins.


Monday, July 20, 2015

Slip N Slide Kickball

This is a fun twist on a regular game of kickball. For this game you need 4 small swimming pools (kid sized, plastic or inflatable) and 4 slip 'n slides (I've heard visqueen works too). Each pool is filled with water and placed at each base. Place the one at home a little off to the side so it doesn't interfere with kicking. Then each slip 'n slide is set up between bases on the running path. As each player kicks the ball, they run and slide down to the base/pool. All the regular kickball rules apply.


Friday, May 9, 2014

Glow In The Dark Party

We used this idea for a small FHE activity but you could change it up to fit your needs. Since we had a small group we used the Relief Society room, but you could separate the games out and put them each in different rooms. We used a lot of glow sticks that we bought at the local dollar store. We gave out some for people to wear and also used some in our games.

For the first game we connected the glow sticks to make different sized circles which we taped onto the white board. We had some that were shaped like a bulls-eye and then some outlying ones. Each spot was worth a certain amount of points. We used Nerf guns with suction darts to shoot at the white board. Wherever the dart stuck is how many points they got.




For the second game we played glow in the dark bowling. We partially filled up some two liter bottles with water and stuck glow sticks inside of them. Then we used a large bouncy ball to bowl the pins over.



For treats we served glow in the dark drinks. I simply mixed lemonade, Sprite, and 2 crushed up Super Complex B vitamins and it really did glow under our black light. Something about the B vitamins makes it glow.

Friday, June 14, 2013

Mormon Clue

I found this idea from Mormon Share. You can find the original link and instructions here. Basically this is a life size game of Clue. Everything you need is included in the link. We started out with an Italian dinner to set up the scene. After most people had finished eating we announced that our Bishop was missing. We had someone dress up like a detective and walk in and announce each of the suspects (who had been eating dinner among the group). As each one was announced they left and walked to their designated room with their clues. From there each table was a group and they went to each suspect to figure out the clues and ultimately who did it, with what, and where. We had the suspects dress up like their character for the game while everyone else just wore a Halloween costume. It was a huge hit and everyone had a lot of fun!


Thursday, April 25, 2013

Blindfolded Lightning

This game works great for a Family Home Evening activity. The original form of this game has many names (Lightning, Knockout, Gotcha, Killer, Elimination, Poison, Crash, Fireball, Dynamite, Putout, Bumpout, Speed, Hurricane, Tornado, Ultimate, Scrum, Chicago Shootout, Bump, etc.) All you need for this activity is two basketballs and some blindfolds. Simple enough, right? You can check out the all-knowing Wikipedia for instructions on how to play the basic form of the game here. For the blindfolded version everyone needs a partner. You can make it boy/girl or just let people choose a partner. One player is blindfolded and the other is left to be their guide. The game is then played just like the regular game with the front two people in line shooting baskets and handing off the basketball once a basket is made. The guide needs to protect their partner from any rebounding basketballs and also help guide them in making a shot by scooting them closer/farther back, angling them, telling them how hard to shoot it, etc. When one round is over and a winner is claimed, switch positions so the guide gets to be the blindfolded player and vice versa.