Presented at the 2003 AEE International Conference by
Faith Evans, Sam Sikes and Chris Cavert
The following is a list and (very) brief description of activities presented at the professional development Sunday Morning session Games with/for Gurus. If you were at the session we hope this will be enough information to spark the memories. If you were not at the session we invite you to fill-in-the-blanks. Adapt the activity, add to it, make something else from it. Most of the activities listed will be in the upcoming book The More the Merrier by Faith, Sam & Chris. If you have burning questions we might be able to help you out (however, response time will vary!!). The letter after the title of the activity corresponds to the person who presented it: Faith (f), Sam (s), & Chris (c). Contact this person directly (after you have made the attempt to figure it out!!) if you have BURNING questions!! Be well and have fun out there.
Beginnings Introductions (f) - With a mass of people mingling around, everyone introduces people they meet in the crowd to other people in the crowd. As Faith says, like its your birthday and you know everyone. But your guests dont know each other. 2 or 3 minutes works well.
Creative Greetings (s) - Pairs of players make up their own greeting that has 3 components to it three parts. For example, a high five, a handshake and a hip bump. After 30 seconds of practice mix players up with different partners. Each person shows the greeting they just made up. Then the two players combine their greetings to make one long one. Pair up one more time with a new person. Share those long greetings and, you guessed it, combine the two for a super long greeting!
Arrow Warm Up (c) - I like to use three large green arrows (printed on a piece of paper) and three large red arrows. Stand up on a chair or box so everyone in the group can see you (spotters if necessary). All the group members are scattered around the area facing you they need to be in front of you to see the arrows. Show one green arrow to the group. All the members stretch their arms out in the direction the arrow is pointing up, down, left or right. The players can also give a little body lean when the direction is left of right. As the facilitator you show the arrow, the group reaches in that direction. As the group is leaning rotate the arrow. When you stop it the group reaches in that direction. After several warm-up stretch rounds, show a red arrow. Repeat the same process, however, this time the group leans in the opposite direction the arrow is pointing. Now for the challenge, shuffle the three green and red arrows together, then show one arrow at a time bring the front card to the back giving it a turn so it points in a different direction the next time it comes up. This is a nice body warm-up and mind stretch.
People-to-People (s) - All players, but one, partner up (the facilitator may be the one left without a partner to model the action). The solo player calls out some body-to-body connection like elbow to shoulder. Pairs perform that action together one players elbow to the other players shoulder. The solo player then calls left knee to left knee one players left knee to the other players left knee, at the same time keeping the elbow to shoulder contact. Another doable body connection call could be made or the solo player could call People-to-People. When this is called all players, including the solo player, hook up with a different partner leaving another player (hopefully) flying solo to call the next round. 6 or 7 different callers is a good number before changing activities.
Wallets (f) - Get into small groups of 4 or 5 players. Have everyone pull out their wallets or some other personal item they my have with them something that has some significance to the person. One at a time, within the small groups, players share a story about their item. Continue around the circle with more items if other groups are not finished with their first round.
For Gurus Activity List Presented at the 2003 AEE International Conference by Faith Evans, Sam Sikes and Chris Cavert
3-D Commonalities (c) - Get into groups of 5 or 6. Players are to discover something they all have in common that can be presented 3-Dementionally to the rest of the group. When everyone is ready each small group presents to the large group who shout out guesses of what the small group has in common. Mix up players into different small groups for another round. 2 or 3 rounds work out well.
Categories (s) - The facilitator shouts out categories like favorite food, favorite form of transportation, favorite color, number of brothers and sisters. Players then get into like groups. Go around and have each group share their common category. You can also allow time for groups to share names and details about themselves before sharing their category commonality.
Crossword People (f) - On a large piece of flip-chart paper create a grid pattern each square in the grid should be about 1 x 1 leaving you with a big scrabble type board. As players first arrive you can ask them to add their name to the grid (with the markers provided), or add something to the grid, or at the end of the program have them add a word to the grid that best describes their day. You can use this grid as an assessment tool or just something fun to create as a group.
Middles Quotes on Cards (f) - Collect a number of quotes and cut and paste them to index cards (or just cut up slips of paper). Have everyone take a quote and pair up with another player to discuss the quote and what it means to them. After their discussion, players exchange quotes and then find someone else to sit down and talk with. You can also have a pile of extra quotes players can use to exchange their quote with another from the pile. This one can go on for up to 10 minutes comfortably.
ABC Charades (f) Form small groups of 4 or 5 players and have each group count off from 1 to 5 (or 4). Player #1 will be the first actor, player #2 is the counter, the remainder of the players are guessers. The facilitator calls out a letter, like P for instance. The actor performs words that start with the letter P in charades style, no talking for the guessers to guess. When they get the word right the actor says Yes, the counter adds one point to the score and the actor goes on to act out another word. After one minute TIME is called. Quickly go around the room to check scores. Then all the players in the group rotate positions. #2 is the actor, #3 is the counter, the rest of the players are guessers. The facilitator calls out another letter and the game is on again. Play enough rounds so every player has the chance to be an actor at least once. Competition? Cooperation?
PairsHave You Ever (c) This is a variation to the classic Have You Ever. Youll need a spot marker for each player to stand in. This one also needs an even number of players (so you can play if needed). Circle up the players and partner off have partners hold hands so you know who is with whom. Ask one pair to go out into the middle of the circle pick up the spots left behind. The players in the middle of the circle (still holding hands) talk quietly between them to find out something they have in common. When they have something they ask a question based on what they have in common, like, Have you ever been in a snowball fight? At this point each player in the circle checks in with their partner to find out if each have been in a snowball fight. If both players have they need to leave the spots they are standing in, still holding hands, and find another pair of spots to occupy (there might be some problem solving here). So, all the pairs that need to leave their spots go look for another place to stand and at the same time the couple in the middle try to get their own place to stand leaving another pair in the middle to call the next Have You Ever (HYE)? Every once in a while, before the center players state their HYE, call out (you the facilitator) a SWITCH. This means that partners let go of hands and connect hands with the other person standing next to them switching up interactions.
For Gurus Activity List Presented at the 2003 AEE International Conference by Faith Evans, Sam Sikes and Chris Cavert
Get the Memo (c) - This one works well with lots of players. First you need to create 5 separate memos. Here are the ones I used written on a half sheet of paper: The Itsy Bitsy Spider Went On A Long Vacation. Three Blind Mice Never Knew They Had It So Good. Hey Diddle Diddle, Im Feeling Good Today. Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star, Wait! Where Did You Go! Mary Had A Little Lamb Who Got Fleeced At The Casino. Secretly before this activity you need to get these memos out to five different players I handed out the memos during the activities before this one. Ask the players you give the memos to, to not share their information with anyone until instructed to do so. When you are ready to play, tell the group there are five memos out there within the group. Everyone in the group needs to get all five memos. However, the public announcement system is not working (no shouting out the memos) and the bulletin boards are all in the shop being painted (no posting the memos on the wall). Tell them in five minutes the Boss is coming over to find out if everyone has received all the memos. So, let them go to figure out how to get the memos. Stopping after 5 minutes I went around to quiz a few players. I asked, Three Blind Mice and asked them to finish the memo. I went around until I got all my answers. Talk about how they obtained the information they needed.
Action Groups (c) As players come into your program hand them a SECRET MESSAGE written on a small piece of paper - I hade an equal number of each secret message. I handed out one of each message before handing out repeats you want to be able to have an equal number of players in each group (or real close to it) by the end of this one. My messages included: You are a flower; You are a couch potato; You are a grandfather clock; You are a roller coaster; You are an egg beater; You are the wind. When you are ready to play this one ask the participants to act out their secret message without any talking. The objective is to find the others who have the same message. So, there should only be 6 groups when all is said and done.
Toe Towers (s) Youll need to have groups of at least 20 players to do this one (max in one group is about 30). The objective is to create the tallest vertical heal-to-toe tower as possible. Players must keep their feet in their shoes and proper spotting must be taken into consideration on this one. Picture this one heal starts on the ground with the toe pointing straight up and then another heal goes on top of that toe (could be the same players other foot) add another heal on that toe and so one up as high as possible. We saw towers of over 10 feet high. THINK SAFETY!
Endings Hands Up (f) Get into a large circle and ask all the players to hold hands with the players next to them. Now ask everyone to hold up their right hand what happens? Now ask them to put their left hand down what happens? Now ask them to hold their right hand up and keep their left hand down what happens? Talk about compromise, sharing and working together. What happens when struggle is present? What can be done about it? There is give and take in everything and we have to know when to use what.
Group Sneeze (c) This one is a quick little group task. Ask all the players with birthdays in January, February, March and April to sound out the word Hashee (accent on SHEE) you count 1, 2, 3 then HaSHEE! Birthday players in May, June, July and August sound out Hishee (the Hi sounds like the Hi in His. Accent on the SHEE) 1, 2, 3 HiSHEE! The remainder of the group sounds out Hoshee (accent on the SHEE) 1, 2, 3 HoSHEE! Now put all theses together for one big group sneeze 1, 2, 3
For Gurus Activity List Presented at the 2003 AEE International Conference by Faith Evans, Sam Sikes and Chris Cavert
Vortex with a Twist (s) Have players circle up and hold hands. This is an activity where players get to acknowledge one another. The lead facilitator drops the hand of the player to his or her right. The facilitator, keeping hold of the players hand to his or left, turns to face the person on his or her left and thanks them (or acknowledges them in some way) for the time they had together. The facilitator then keeps going down the circle of players pulling the other players along everyone acknowledging each other as they pass. This action goes all the way around until the facilitator ends up next to the player they dropped hands with in the beginning they rejoin hands again. At this point everyone in the circle is facing out. Sam says, We have had an experience today we can all take with us and share with others outside our circle. Then he asks everyone to carefully, without letting go of hands, to turn in towards the center of the circle this involves some twisting and ducking. Once everyone has managed to turn in, Sam continues, Always remembering that this day has brought us closer together. (The circle becomes closer and tighter when the players turn back to the inside of the circle.)
Frog Pond (c) A fun closing for any group to meld the experience. This one seems to work best with lots of people standing in a big group. Youll need high voices (sopranos), mid voices (altos) and low (bass) voices. See if you can get an equal number in each group or close to it (dont separate the groups, have them all intermingled!) Ask the high voices to say and repeat over and over, tomatoes, tomatoes, tomatoes.. do this for a few seconds. Stop them and go to the mid voices. Ask them to say and repeat, potatoes, potatoes, potatoes have them repeat this a few times. Stop them and ask the low voices to say and repeat, fried bacon, fried bacon, fried bacon.. after several seconds ask them to stop. Now you want them to put all the sounds together to create a Frog Pond effect. I use my hands to indicate the volume I want them to produce hands apart is louder and hands close together is softer. I also like to keep the beat with my hands going up and down a bit so they dont get going to fast. So, on three each player says and repeats the word(s) they practiced changing volume to the width of the hands. When the hands close together the experience is over and everyone is free to go. 1, 2, 3
Thanks to those of you who joined us at the Guru session. For those of you who missed it we hope to see you at one of our next workshops. And, for a little shameless marketing dont forget to check out the other FREE fun activities on the FUNdoing.com website and check out the on-line store too for some useful community building activity books and adventure-based activity equipment.
Be well out there and I hope you get to play every day!!!
