Toolbox — For Training and Youth Work
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Ice-breaker, Group Building Activity, Name Game/Get to know each other
The tool was created by a group of youth workers during the trainign course about gamification, to make the learning processes effective.
Objectives: teambuilding, icebreaking, remembering the names of the people in the group, brain stimulation, improving hand-eye coordination and reflex, increasing the energy level.
Instructions:
→ The warm up phase:
- players standing in a circle, facing the middle
- one player (the facilitator) holds one ball and has a bag or a basket with the rest of the balls in front of them
- the facilitator says the name of another person in the circle and throws the ball towards this person
- the next person says the name of another person in the circle and throws the ball towards that person, and so on
- it’s important to remember the name of the person that you throw to!
- after throwing the ball to someone else the player crosses their arms on the chest
- players keep saying names and passing the ball between each other (every time crossing their arms on the chest after having thrown the ball to another person)
- you cannot throw the ball to a person with their arms crossed on the chest
- the last person without their arms crossed throws the ball to the facilitator
- the warm up phase has ended
- everyone should remember the person they threw the ball to
→ The game phase:
- similarly as in the warm up phase, the players will keep passing the balls between each other
- during the game players don’t cross their arms on the chest
- every one should always pass the ball to the same person as in the preparation phase
- First round:
- the facilitator starts the game by passing the ball to the second person
- the second person passes the ball to the third person, and so on
- when the ball gets back to the facilitator, they ask the group if they think they would manage to have two balls being passed around at the same time
- in the following rounds each player can have maximum one ball in their hands at a time (you shouldn’t pass a ball to a person who has another ball in their hands at the moment)
- if a player receives a ball when they already had one ball in their hands and they end up with two balls in their hands, they show the two balls to the previous person in the sequence, and the person that passed the second ball too early has to do a squat as a “punishment”
- you cannot pass a ball to a person which is doing a squat at the moment
- Second round:
- the facilitator starts the game by passing the first ball to the second person, just like before
- while the first ball is being passed around, the facilitator introduces the second ball into the game by passing it to the second person, so two balls are being passed around at the same time
- when the first ball gets back to the facilitator they put it down, the same with the second ball
- the facilitator asks the group if they think they would manage to have three or more balls being passed around at the same time
- Third round:
- the facilitator starts the game by passing the first ball to the second person, just like before
- while the first ball is being passed around, the facilitator introduces a second ball into the game by passing it to the second person, and after a third ball, so three balls are being passed around at the same time
- the facilitator keeps adding the balls until the group manages to pass the balls around
- at any moment the group can have a discussion on the strategy and the specific things they could improve
- Fourth round:
- the facilitator presents the special ball (it has to be easy to distinguish it from the regular balls, for example by the color)
- when the special ball will appear in the game, instead of throwing it like all the other balls you have to roll it on the ground (you can also invent a different rule for the special ball)
- like in the third round, the facilitator starts the game and keeps adding more balls
- the facilitator introduces the special ball at any time that they want
- The ultimate challenge of the game is to reach the number of balls being passed at the same time which will be equal to the number of the players minus one (for example 15 balls if there are 16 players including the facilitator)
SALTO cannot be held responsible for the inappropriate use of these training tools. Always adapt training tools to your aims, context, target group and to your own skills! These tools have been used in a variety of formats and situations. Please notify SALTO should you know about the origin of or copyright on this tool.
http://toolbox.salto-youth.net/3172
This tool is for
Age: 12+
and addresses
Group Dynamics
Materials needed:
Materials: juggling balls (or other balls suited to the palm size of the players, easy to throw and catch with one hand)
- as many balls as players
- preferably the balls in different colours
The tool was created by
Unknown.
(If you can claim authorship of this tool, please contact !)
The tool was created in the context of
Training Course about Game Creation
The tool has been experimented in
The project “Game in Action” is co-funded by the Polish National Agency in the framework of Erasmus+ Programme. Project reference number: 2020-1-PL01-KA105-079836.
The tool was published to the Toolbox by
Hermine Papikyan (on 3 April 2022)
and last modified
2 February 2022
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