Chuck It

Everyone needs a tennis ball and a one-gallon milk jug with the bottom cut out.  A local dairy may sell milk jugs really cheap, and big scissors will cut the bottom.  Toss the ball up.  Whoever catches it can go five steps and then needs to throw it to someone else on his team.  If the ball is not caught, it is a free-for-all.  The goalie has a tennis racket and may also catch the ball with his hands, but he cannot score.  Use a couple of referees with whistles to keep control.  Call “out of bounds” or “roughness.”  A goal has to be scored under the goalie’s neck height.  You may want to set up a parameter around the goal to avoid hits.

Bucket Ball

Two buckets on opposite sides of field and one or two balls

Hula Ball

Big ball or a ball similar to a basketball—it needs to be a ball you can dribble.  Goalie has to be on his knees.  Have a fifty-foot parameter around the hoop.  Attach a hula hoop for the basketball hoop.

The Tower

Give each person twenty balloons and scotch tape.  See who can build the tallest, free-standing tower.

The Wall

A night game.  Create a wall using string, ropes, or caution tape through the middle of a field or woods.  Let the teens see it before the game begins.  Tell them that they are in East Germany and must escape tonight under the wall to West Germany.  The other side is trying to capture them (Capture the Flag idea).  Leaders are the guards on the wall.  They have flashlights but can only use them for two seconds on and five seconds off, and they may not leave the fifteen-foot parameter of the wall.  Jail can be emptied when it has six players in it.  This game is best played on a really dark night.

Water Balloon Volleyball

Attackers have water balloons; defenders have socks with flour.  Each team has a president.  The goal of the game is to assassinate the president who is sitting in a circle. (You can give him a super soaker just to use for revenge, but his using it will not count as a hit.)  If a player is hit by a defender, he is out for the round.  The water balloon has to break in order for it to count.

Communist/Underground Church

Adults are on the inside of the locked church.  Once the church is unlocked, children enter and begin searching for “the light” inside.  Adults who capture them can ask them questions (interrogate), which the children should answer with Scripture.  Captured children may either be taken to jail or be set free.  (They will not know who will let them go and who will not.)  They should ask adults, “Have you seen the light?”  If they have found the right adult, he will tell them that they have found the light.

Pyramid Relay

You can find this one on Youth Specialties’ website at www.ys.com.  Build a four-three-two pyramid with your teens.  Then have two guys on the right leave and run a lap while the bottom row turns and faces the other direction.  Have a good surface for them to fall on—wrestling mats, soft grass, etc.

Big Ball Volleyball over the Bus

Use strobe lights and a glow-in-the dark volleyball.  (Because strobe lights can cause seizures, let all players know ahead of time that you will be using them.)  Use glow-in-the-dark bracelets (or glow sticks) on the top of the volleyball net.

Dodgeball

Goofy Olympics—(twice a year).

Divide your group into different countries.  Compete for medals.  Keep records for fun for the group to break.  Shoot Cheerios out of nose, etc.

Egg Smuggle

Place two five-gallon buckets on opposite ends of a field.  Have one person pass eggs to different people.  The goal is to get your egg to the other side.  Those people without eggs try to find those with eggs and break theirs.

Fresher—(for about thirty people).

Form two lines, and use an inner tube.  Set pods in the middle.  If someone comes off the line, they are “fresh.”  Last guy off is the “freshest.”  The freshest is the only one who can tag.  If someone gets tagged, he is out or in jail.  The pods in the middle provide “safety” for only one person.  Those in prison have to all hold arms and stretch lines.  The goal of those in the pods is to get those in prison out.

Jell-o Night

Play any water game, except use Jell-o instead of water (water balloons, etc.).  Play Tube Tug with the tarp in the center covered with Jell-o.

Swamp

Fill a kiddie pool with wet dog food and use duct tape to attach it to a wall.  Eat worms, mold a monkey head out of Spam, etc.  Have seven or eight people on a team with a leader with every group.

Egg Blow

Clear tubes make it more fun for everyone.

Video Scavenger Hunt

Have players video themselves doing various things.  The person videoing must participate also.