Game: Just a Couple Games

Type/Purpose: Community Builders

Materials:

• Mechanisms to fasten participants together
• Carabiners (can be purchased in bulk at orientaltrading.com, and can be found at most retailers), bungee cords, lengths of rope, etc. Whatever fits into your budget or whatever you might have available.
• Various supplies depending on what activities you go with (supplies listed below in individual activities)

Set-Up:

• Choose 3 or more of the activities listed below, and have the supplies set out ahead of time.
• Clasp participants together with carabiners (or whatever else you may have come up with). The goal here is limited range of motion, so fasten them pretty closely together.
• How you partner them up is up to you, it may be random, older/younger, boy/girl, etc.

Play:
Couples will be competing against other couples, working to complete the activities first. At the end of each round, about half of the couples will continue, and half will become spectators.

Activities (and supplies):

• Spoons and Knives (plastic spoons and knives)
  • Designate a start and end point across a large room/field.
  • Each participant has a spoon, and they will balance a knife between their 2 spoons. To start the play, each end of the knife must be balanced on each spoon.
  • If a knife falls, participants must not use their hands to get the knife back on their spoons.
• Puzzle Fit (6 or 8-piece kids puzzles, the ones where you have to fit the pieces into specific shaped holes)
  • Place a puzzle in an elevated place, like on a shelf or on raised and flattened music stands, and place the pieces on the floor.
  • Participants will begin in a seated position, and on go, will put the pieces into the puzzle.
• Paper Airplane Fly (normal sheets of paper)
  • Designate a start and end point across a large room.
  • On go, each couple will make one paper airplane and fly it.
  • When it lands, they will go to that point, and fly it again, until it crosses the end point.
• Balloon Walk (uninflated balloons, and 3 chairs or obstacles per couple)
  • Designate a start and end point of a smaller distance with 3 chairs spaced at intervals for each couple.
  • On go, each couple will inflate their balloon to a large fill, place it between themselves, and slalom the chairs (zig zag around them).
• Bubble Blow (a container of bubbles and a wand for each couple)
  • Note: You will want to do this one in the middle, so that other spectators can help in the counting.
  • On go, one person from each couple will dunk the wand into the solution, and the other will blow into the wand.
  • A team has finished after they blow 50 bubbles of any size.
• Ping Pong Ball Kick (a ping pong ball for each couple)
  • Designate a start and end point in a large room or field.
  • On go, participants will kick the ping pong ball back and forth until they cross the end point.
• Toasted Oat Spell (an individual serving or small bowl of alphabet-shaped cereal, and a plastic knife per couple)
  • On go, couples will use the cereal and knife to spell a word.
  • The word may be a theme, like “fruit” or “animal”, or a specific word, like your church or youth groups’ name.

Extra Ideas:

• Instead of doing this elimination style, just have the activities set up for all the couples to participate in.

Teachable Moments:

• Ask participants what it was like to have a partner attached to them during the games.
• Ask them what it may be like to be partnered up like this for a month, a year, many years.
• Compare and contrast the experience with what dating and marriage, and what “being stuck together”, looks like.