Games, Games, Games

Icebreakers

CONCENTRATION: Students stand in a big circle. Teach them the concentration movements:
slap thighs, clap hands, snap right fingers, snap left fingers. Explain that as doing the
movements and chanting the song, they have to say their names and their friend’s name. The
friend must be the one standing on their left. The goal of the game is to finish one round without
anyone making mistakes. If they can finish one round, add another challenge: after one round
they have to change the direction (from clockwise to counter-clockwise) or call names randomly.

Lines: Students must line up according to their age, birthdate, number of siblings, etc.

Human Knot: Have about 8 students stand in a circle, close their eyes and grab the hands of
others in the circle. They must untangle themselves.

River Crossing: Mark a river about 5 giant steps across on the floor and tell students they ALL
receive only 6 stones to step on – after stepping on a stone it will sink. If they use up their 6
stones before all participants are across, they must begin again. Students will quickly learn that
they need to work together, for example have one student stay standing on the stone while
other students use their feet as a stone.

Electric Fence: Hang a “fence” about 3 feet high and tell students they must help each other
to get over it without getting electrocuted. If any student touches the string and is electrocuted,
all must begin again.

Log Game: Use a real log or some sort of long narrow platform, or put a line of tape on the
floor. Divide students into 2 groups and place them at opposite ends of the log, facing each
other. Tell them they must all get from their end to the other end without any students falling off
the log. They must help each other as the two groups cross. Variation: Students stand on the
log in random order and must get into alphabetical order by name or in order of their birthdays.
Variation: Students may not talk.

2 Truths and a Lie: Students tell 3 things about themselves. 2 are true, one is a lie. Other
students guess which is the lie.

Adjective Game: Students say their name and a word to describe themselves that starts with
the same letter as their name. They must also say the names and words of all the students who
have gone before them.

Dance Game: Students say their name and do a dance move. The next student does the
same dance move, then adds a new one. Students must perform all the dance moves if they
can remember them!

Animal Game: Students stand in a circle facing inward. Each student chooses an animal and
creates a gesture for it (example: animal--bunny, gesture--hands next to head like bunny ears).
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Then one student will say his animal and do the corresponding gesture, followed by another
student’s animal and corresponding gesture. That next student then has to repeat his animal,
and “pass it on” to another student. Students who take too long to respond are out of the circle.

Move it! (Have you ever): Students sit in chairs in a circle, or in a tight circle on the floor if
there are no chairs. One student stands in the middle and says something they have done, for
example, “I have ridden in a plane” and all students who have done that stand up and move to
another chair (not next to them). The student left in the middle must say the next thing.

Spider Web: Give one student a ball of string. Have them say something about themselves
(like their favorite food), then throw the ball to the next person while still holding the end of the
string. Pull the web tight at the end to show how we are all interconnected!

Blindfold: Give each student a partner and blindfold one partner. The seeing partner must
lead the blind partner on a walk. Variation: the seeing partner is mute and cannot speak.

Wink Game - Students sit in chairs in a circle with one empty chair. Other students stand
behind each chair and they are the guards. The student who is sitting behind the empty chair
wants a sitting student to move to his/her chair, so he must wink at the person. The student who
is winked at must run to the empty chair. The guard must prevent his sitting person from
moving, so if his/her sitting person is winked at, he/she can tag them before they can move to
the empty chair.

Honey, If you love me - Students sit in a circle. One person is ‘it.’ That person must make
another person laugh in order to sit down. To make another person laugh, he/she must say
“Honey, if you love me, would you just smile”.

Gobblediguk - Students form two teams in two lines face to face. One person from the opposite
ends of each line walk to the middle. They must shake hands and say the work “Gobblediguk”.
The object is to get the other person to smile/laugh. If one person cracks, s/he must join the
other team. Players can make up crazy walks or use other methods to make the other person
laugh.

Bang - Students stand in a circle. For this game, students must do the appropriate gesture. The
person in the middle points at someone and says bang. That person crouches down, and the
two people to either side of them point at each other and say “bang.” The person who says
“bang” last is out. Also, if someone says the wrong thing, does the wrong gestures, or takes too
long, they are also out, so the circle becomes smaller and smaller.

Bob the Weasel – students form a very tigh circle with their arms behind their backs. One
student stands in the middle. The circle passes a stuffed animal around the outside of the circle
while chanting “Bob the weasel, keep it moving, keep it moving…” The person in the middle
must guess who has the weasel. Whoever they point to must show his or her hands; if he or
she has the weasel at that moment, he or she must go into the middle.
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Back to Back - Student partner up and stand back to back. The counselor yells out two body
parts, and the students must face each other and put those two body parts together (example:
elbow to leg!). Hati-hati, ya.

Language Games
Tableaux: Split the groups up into teams of ten or less. Line the students up single file. One
student faces the group and he/she is the model. A counselor/facilitator stands behind the
model so that he/she can’t see the counselor. The counselor has 10 pictures of stick figures in
different poses. The students in the line must direct the model to get into the same position as
the stick figure. They can use language but no gestures. The counselor determines when the
model is close enough to the picture. Once the counselor says ok, the model runs to the back of
the line, and the next person in line becomes the new model. The first team to get through all of
the stick figure pictures first is the winner.

I SPY WITH MY LITTLE EYE: The first speaker in each group (facilitators should demonstrate
first) looks around and chooses any object or thing that he/she can see and notices the color,
such as the garden grass which is green and then says the following : “I spy with my little eye
something that is green.” The others have to guess what the speaker has in his/her mind’s
eye, which has the color of green. For example, one speaker may ask,“Is it a leaf?” but the
answer will be, “No, it is not a leaf.” The next participant may say, “Is it a tree?” and the answer
will be, “No, it is not a tree.” And so on, “Is it a snake?” “Is it a frog?” until finally someone says,
“Is it the grass?” and the answer ill be, “Yes, It is the grass.” And, then, the round will be
finished. Next, someone else can take another turn, looking around and doing the same thing,
and others keep guessing until somebody guesses correctly.

Categories (2+ people)

Think of a category, like “fruits” or “sports,” and compete to see who can write the most terms in
two minutes.

Guessing game (2+ people)

This is a great way to practice asking and answering questions. One person thinks of a person,
place, or thing, and the other person asks yes/no questions to figure out what the other person
is thinking of. (Variation: put the thing/animal/person on a card and tape them to the back of
each student. Students use yes/no questions to find out what they are. You could make the
objects match somehow like “salt” and “pepper”, so once the students figure out what they are,
they must find their match. Then they can do some get to know activity with their partner).

Have you ever? (8+ people)

Arrange chairs in a circle (you need one fewer chair than players). Everyone sits down except
one person standing in the middle. That person asks a question like “Have you ever climbed a
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mountain?” or “Have you ever been to Lombok?” If players have done the activity, they must
stand up and find another chair (they cannot move to the one right beside them). The player left
in the middle must ask the next question. (Variation for 3-5 people: Players take turns saying
“Have you ever…” questions. If a player has done the activity, they put up one finger. The first
person to have 10 fingers up is the winner!

Scramble (2+ people)

Find a word in the dictionary that is at least 8 letters long, like PARLIAMENT. In 5-10 minutes,
each person must try to rearrange the letters in the word to make other English words. (For
example, limp, mat, pen). Whoever has the most correct words wins.

Charades (4+ people)

Divide into two teams. Each team makes a list of words. One person looks at the first word on
the list and has 30 seconds to get his team to guess the word by doing actions – he may not
speak! If his team says the word, they get a point. Then it is the other team’s turn. The team
with the most points at the end wins! (Variations: Pictionary: Instead of doing actions, the person
must draw the word. He cannot talk or write words; Taboo: Instead of doing actions, the person
must explain what the word is without actually saying it.

Fifteen (4+ people)

Players go around the circle saying a number until they reach 15. Whoever says fifteen gets to
change one number to a word (i.e. seven is now “banana”). The next time the group counts,
they must say banana instead of seven. Whoever says “fifteen” changes another number to a
word. If someone forgets one of the new words, they are out. Whoever is left at the end wins!

Simon Says (4+ people)

One player is “Simon.” Simon gives commands to his friends. The friends must do the
command if Simon begins his sentence with “Simon says,” but if Simon does not do this, the
friends must not do the action. If someone messes up (e.g. does an action when Simon does
not say “Simon says”, or doesn’t do an action when Simon does say “Simon says”), he is out.

Chain Story (5+ people)

Each person starts with a piece of paper. They draw a small picture (preferably) at the top of
the paper and pass it to their left. The next person looks at the picture and writes a sentence
describing it, and they fold the picture back so that only the sentence they just wrote is visible,
then they pass it to their left. The next person reads the sentence and draws a picture, and they
fold the sentence over so that only the picture they just drew is visible, then they pass it to their
left. The game continues until the paper is full. Read the stories out loud – they should be
really funny! (Variation: Don’t draw pictures, only write sentences. Each sentence should build
off of the sentence before.)

Would you rather…? (2+ people)

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Take turns suggesting two equally strange situations. (i.e. “Would you rather have feet for hands
and hands for feet, or have eyebrows that crawled around your face like caterpillars?) Discuss
as a group and decide which you would prefer.

Psychologist (4+ people)

One person leaves the room – he or she is the psychologist. The other decide on a “sickness”
that they have, i.e. they must start every sentence with the word I, or they must answer like the
person sitting next to them, or they cannot use the word “the,” no one can answer until he has
scratched his head, etc. The psychologist returns and asks simple questions (i.e. “What’s your
name?”, “What do you do in your free time?”, “Do you like nasi goreng?”) to try to discover the
“sickness.”

I’m going on a trip and I’m bringing a… (2+ people)

One person starts by saying “I’m going on a trip and I’m bringing an Apple” (or any other word
that starts with A). The next person says “I’m going on a trip and I’m bringing an Apple and a
Balloon (or any other word that starts with B). The game continues, with each person adding a
word for each new letter of the alphabet. It will get really difficult to remember all 26 items!

Lie detector (3+ students)

One person leaves the room. The other students think of five to eight questions they want to
ask the person. The person returns and has to answer all the questions, except one, truthfully;
for one question, they may lie. The rest of the group has to decide whish answer was a lie.
They have to give reasons to justify their opinion The person tells them if they were right.

Fictionary (5+ students)

One person selects an unfamiliar word from a dictionary and writes the definition on a small
piece of paper. The other players invent a definition and write it on a small piece of paper as
well. The person with a dictionary reads all the definitions aloud once. The other participants
close their eyes and vote for the definition they think is correct. If people vote for the correct
definition, they get a point. If people vote for the incorrect definition, whoever wrote that
definition gets a point as well. The winner is whoever has the most points after everyone has
had a turn selecting a word from the dictionary.

Telephone (6+ people)

Sit in a circle. One person whispers a sentence in the next person’s ear. Continue until it
reaches the end, and have the last person say the sentence. It’s funny to see how much it
changes along the way!

Hangman (2 people)
Think of a word or phrase, and draw a dash for each letter. Invite your friend to say letter they
think may be in the word. If he guesses correctly, write the letter above the appropriate dash.
For each incorrect guess, draw one body part on a simple drawing (head, body, 2 legs, 2 arms).
Continue until your friend guesses the word, or until 6 mistakes have been made, the drawing
has been completed, and your man is “hanged.”
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PRINCE OF PARIS: A game to work on fluency and listening. Each student is assigned a
number and must remember it. The game begins with the “captain” (teacher) saying the
following: “The prince of Paris lost his hat. Who knows where it’s at? Do you, number 2, sir?”
The student with number 2 assigned to him responds, “Who sir? Me sir?” Teacher: Yes, sir.
You, sir. Student: No, sir. Not I, sir. Teacher: Then who, sir? Student: Number (new one), sir!
New student steps out of the line and continues the same dialogue with student #2. The trick is
if one of the speakers makes a mistake or someone misses his or her number, that person goes
to the end of the line, so all of the numbers of the students bumps up and shifts. Students must
stay on top of their numbers and listen well!

Active Games

Run Rabbit Run: (Big group game) Line up all of the campers shoulder-to-shoulder on one side
of a large field. Select two or three students to be “wolves”; the others are all “rabbits.” The
wolves stand in the middle of the field. When a counselors yells, “Run, Rabbit, Run!”, all of the
rabbits must run across the field without being tagged by the wolves. If they are tagged, they
become a wolf as well. (Variation: The people who are tagged sit down where they are tagged.
They can try to tag rabbits as well, but they cannot stand up or move. Variation 2: The peole
who are tagged join the “wolf pack” and must hold hands with the other wolves, creating a
chain/blob. This “pack” tries to block and tag the remaining sheep).

Steal the Roti - Line the students up shoulder to shoulder on opposite sides of a large field.
Give students on each side numbers 1-10. Place an object in the middle of the field; “The Roti”.
A counselors shouts out a number. The students with that number from both sides of the field
must try to get the object and run back to their line before getting tagged by the other person
with the same number.

Red Light, Green Light – One person stands at the end of the field. When they turn their back
to the others and say “Green light,” the students may run. When they turn around and say “red
light,” students must stop. Any who do not stop quickly enough must return to the beginning.
The first student to reach the leader becomes the new leader.

Musical Chairs – Place one fewer chairs than the number of people playing in a circle facing
outwards. Play music while students walk around the circle. When the music stops, they must
sit down. One students will not have a chair and is “out.” Remove one chair and play again.
Continue until there is only one student left.

Toilet Tag - Students who are tagged by “It” must sit like a toilet. To unfreeze them, another
student must sit on their lap and flush the toilet (their hand).
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Elbow Tag - Student must link together with their elbows - only two together. If the “it” person
links onto a group of two, the person on the opposite side is released and is now “it”.

Globs - Students must mingle among each other until the leader calls a number. The students
must assemble into groups with the proper number as quickly as possible and not be left out.
The groups dissolve and another number is called.

Assassin - Everyone stands in a circle and secretly selects one person to be their “assassin”
and a different person to be their “bodyguard.” Once the game is begun (with a simple “go”),
students must keep his or her secret selected bodyguard in between his or her assassin. It’s a
hilarious game to watch and play because everyone has selected different people.