Superlatives

Objective of Activity: For players to reorganize themselves as fast as possible.

Benefits of Activity: Gets people up and moving around, in addition to getting to know details about people they do not know in the group.

Equipment Needed: None

Recommended Age of Participants: Adults (Age 14 and up).

Description of the Rules: Divide into teams of five to ten people. The objective is for players to reorganize themselves as fast as possible. The leader can use their own categories, but examples of categories include: from shortest to tallest – how many letters are in your first name, from farthest away to closest – birthplace, from least to most – how many brothers and sisters you have, shortest to tallest – height, beginning to end of year – birthdates. As soon as the team arranges themselves, the leader of the group ensures they have done so properly. The first team to organize themselves correctly wins.

Safety Concerns: Watch participants do not run into each other during the rush of the competition.

Reference: Icebreaker Ideas

Protect the Egg

Objective of Activity: To construct a fabrication to protect an egg while dropping it.

Benefits of Activity: Gets the creative juices flowing as participants work with those they do not know to come to a mutual goal by working together.

Equipment Needed: Straws, cotton balls, tape, glue, pop sickle sticks, paper.

Recommended Age of Participants: Adults (Age 14 and up).

Description of the Rules: This game requires creative problems solving and a large group of people. Separate the teams into groups and give them an egg. Make sure there are a variety of materials each team can utilize to protect the egg when it is dropped. Straws, cotton balls, tape, glue, pop sickle sticks, and paper all function well. This game is also fun to play outside where no materials are provided but are available through creative thinking. The leader of the group will institute a time limit to construct a fabrication that will protect the egg. Next, someone from each group stands on a chair and drops the team's egg. The team whose egg does not crack is the winner!

Safety Concerns: Do not throw the egg or other supplies at other teammates or opponents

Reference: Icebreaker Ideas

Electric Pulse

Objective of Activity: To be the team with the "electric pulse" going through all along the line first.

Benefits of Activity: Fun way to get people who do not know each other to work together to achieve a common goal and win.

Equipment Needed: Coin.

Recommended Age of Participants: Adults (Age 14 and up).

Description of the Rules: The name of the game derives from the two long lines of players that looks like electric pulsing. Make two teams using any method. Have the teams form two lines facing each other. Tell the teams to hold hands making two long human chains. At the end of the two lines, put a chair with a small item on it, such as a tennis ball. A judge sits at the end of the lines, facing the chair. Tell everyone to shut their eyes and look down. The judge then flips a coin and silently shows it to the first players on each team. If the coin is heads, the two people at the start of the lines squeeze the hand of the next person in line as fast as possible. Each person, whose hand is squeezed, squeezes the player's hand next to him or her. The objective is to be the team with the "electric pulse" going through all along the line first. The teams that does this first gets a point and the game can continue to a best of 5, 7, 9 and so on. If the team makes an error and tails was actually tossed, they get a point subtracted from their total.

Safety Concerns: Do not squeeze a teammate's hand too hard or jump and hit them by accident.

Reference: Icebreaker Ideas

Game of Possibilities

Objective of Activity: To generate creativity and individual thought processes.

Benefits of Activity: Gets others to know group in an interactive way that showcases their creative thinking skills, perhaps improving them as well when forced to think of a use for a particular object.

Equipment Needed: Random objects.

Recommended Age of Participants: Adults (Age 14 and up).

Description of the Rules: This game is for multiple or small groups. This is a good five-minute team-building game. Everyone is given an object in each group. Individually, someone has to walk in front of the group and show a use for that object. The rest of the team must correctly guess what their teammate is showing. The demonstrator is not allowed to speak, and demonstrations have to be original, outside-the-box ideas.

Safety Concerns: When demonstrating a use for an object, make sure not to accidentally hit or injure someone or something.

Reference: Wrike

Winner/Loser

Objective of Activity: Participants find out how to reshape negative events into learning experiences together.

Benefits of Activity: Talking to others to see how one can rethink of a situation and let go of the negative emotions associated with them.

Equipment Needed: None.

Recommended Age of Participants: Adults (Age 14 and up).

Description of the Rules: Partner A tells something negative that happened to them to Partner B. This can be a personal or work-related memory, but it has to be valid. Next, Partner A talks about the experience again, but only talks about the positive details of the story. Partner B helps Partner A find the bright side of the story. When this happens, the roles are flipped and Partner B tells their story.

Safety Concerns: None

Reference: Wrike

Human Knot

Objective of Activity: To hold hands with people across from you and form a human knot that your group must break out of first to win.

Benefits of Activity: Gets people to talk to each other and work together who may not know each other well.

Equipment Needed: None

Recommended Age of Participants: Adults (Age 14 and up).

Description of the Rules: Everyone stands in a circle facing each other, shoulder to shoulder. Tell everyone to put their right hand out and grab a hand from someone across from them. Next, tell them to put their left hand out and grab another random hand from a different person across the circle. In a pre-determined time limit, the groups have to untangle the knot of arms without

letting go of the hands they are holding. If the group has many members, form more smaller circles and have these groups compete.

Safety Concerns: Watch when climbing over, under, around, between people to untwist the knot.

Reference: Wrike

The Perfect Square

Objective of Activity: Develops good communication and leadership skills. Through telling a few team members to be quiet, this game necessitates a feeling of trust through the team, permitting team members to steer each other in the proper direction.

Benefits of Activity: Gets people unfamiliar with each other to work together to accomplish a task, perhaps forming friendships as well.

Equipment Needed: Long piece of rope tied together, blindfolds.

Recommended Age of Participants: Adults (Age 14 and up).

Description of the Rules: Have participants stand in a circle holding a piece of the rope. Then tell everyone to put on their blindfold and place the rope on the floor. Make everyone walk a few steps away from the circle. Then, ask players to come back and try to compose a square with the rope without taking their blindfolds off. Insert a time limit to make it more competitive. To make it more challenging, tell some team members they have to be quiet.

Safety Concerns: Watch and help other players if they are about to trip on the rope.

Reference: Wrike

The Mine Field

Objective of Activity: This activity focuses on trust, communication, and good listening skills. It serves as good team-building beach game as well.

Benefits of Activity: Gets people to develop their listening and directive skills while having a good time through competition as well.

Equipment Needed: Blindfold, cones, balls, bottles.

Recommended Age of Participants: Adults (Age 14 and up).

Description of the Rules: Locate an open space like an empty parking lot or park. Position the objects (cones, balls, bottles, etc.) in a variety of spaces across the open territory. Have everyone get a partner, and dictate that one person from each pair put on a blindfold. The other person has to lead their teammate from one side of the open territory to the other without stepping on the objects – with verbal instructions only. The blindfolded partner is not allowed to speak whatsoever. To make it more challenging, make specific routes the blindfolded team members must travel.

Safety Concerns: Teammates have to be careful of the instructions they give their teammate so they do not trip or fall.

Reference: Wrike

The Barter Puzzle

Objective of Activity: To find out which group can finish their jigsaw puzzle the fastest.

Benefits of Activity: People work together in intuitve ways to get their brains flowing with good ideas to win, while enjoying themselves as well.

Equipment Needed: Jigsaw Puzzles.

Recommended Age of Participants: Adults (Age 14 and up).

Description of the Rules: There can be four or more smaller groups for this activity. Everyone breaks up into evenly-sized groups. Each group gets a different jigsaw puzzle with the same degree of difficulty. The objective is to find out which group can finish their jigsaw puzzle the fastest. However, there is a twist: select pieces will be in some other group's jigsaw puzzle and your team has to think of a method to get the pieces back, by means of negotiating, trading, switching team members, etc. Regardless of the decision, it must be reached as a group.

Safety Concerns: Do not run into players from your team or another team while in the rush to complete the jigsaw puzzle.

Reference: Wrike

Blind Drawing

Objective of Activity: Develops interpretational and communicative skills. As the drawing is completed, it is noteworthy to see how the drawer took the meaning of the their partner's description.

Benefits of Activity: Helps people develop their creative thinking and story-telling skills in an interesting method.

Equipment Needed: Picture, pen, and paper.

Recommended Age of Participants: Adults (Age 14 and up).

Description of the Rules: Separate everyone in the group into groups of two. Make the two group members sit back-to-back. Give one member the pen and paper and the other the picture. The person that has the picture paints a verbal picture of the image to their partner without really stating what it is. As an example, if the image is a worms in an apple, do not say, "Draw an apple with a worm in it." The partner with the pen and paper draws what they believe the picture is showing, based on the verbal details. There is a time limit of 10-15 minutes.

Safety Concerns: None

Reference: Wrike