Photo Scavenger Hunt

Summer is a great time for fun, social events that keep girls connected to each other and to you. Without regular events, it's easy to lose touch and for the group to start feeling disconnected. Here are a couple of pre-made YoungLives photo scavenger hunts to use or edit with your own personalized activities. It's guaranteed to be fun and refreshing - and the bonus is that you will collect lots of fun pictures (and memories!) from the event. You could even bring the kids along on this one and get some cute pictures of them, too. A picture of a couple toddlers on the floor making the word "MOM"? Too cute to pass up!

• Photo Scavenger Hunt 1
• Photo Scavenger Hunt 2

Theme Club: Dr. Seuss Club

Check out this great idea from Carol Magelssen, Belton YoungLives:

March Club was Dr Seuss Club.  We thought since March is the Anniversary for Dr Seuss, how appropriate!  We went with the Green Eggs and Ham book because of St. Patricks Day.

   Our reader was dressed in a tall hat like Dr. Seuss (complete with green colors and pretty green bow.) We had a handout for the girls on the importance of reading to your child, even in the womb.  It went over great!  The reader read the book to them as if they were a little baby.  She used the examples that we gave them in the handout. (Contact Carol for the handout.)

Our Mixer was based on the same theme. We had team quizzes with questions based on Dr. Seuss (using a team member as the buzzer.) Another game we played was Tangled: stand in a circle in two teams. Everyone holds hands with someone ( it cannot be the hand of the person next to them.) Then you get untangled without letting go of hands!  It was a lot of fun.

Our club talk was formed around the reading theme.  It was about us reading the word of God.  We used the same bonding reasons we taught the girls about reading to their babies, but with a special spin. Using Matt. 14: 22-29 we discussed how in our storms we need Christ just like Peter.  We get closer to God by spending time in His word.  So when the storms happen in our lives we will hopefully look at Christ in His word for answers not out into the waves of the world.

        Our Meal was two 6ft. long Ham sandwich's and green jello, green punch and, of course, green cup cakes. Since it is Dr Seuss month we found baby Dr. Seuss books on sale for $2.50 and gave each girl a book and a small kite to take home.

Thanks for sharing, Carol!

Turkey Bowling!

Turkey bowling is a fun game that we usually do at club around Thanksgiving time.  Another alternative is Pumpkin Bowling in October. For this you will need:

• 1 frozen turkey
• 1 set of bowling pins 
• space to bowl (either indoors or out)

You can either use real bowling bins (some bowling alleys may donate old ones to you) or use empty soda or juice bottles (pictured). Many Young Life areas already have a set of bowling pins, so check with your staff first. You can also do this with a roll of plastic or a tarp and grease it down with vegetable oil. Teens bowl the turkey using the handle, keeping the bird inside the package.

You can always send the turkey home as a prize or give to a girl in need.

Truth or Dare

At our pajama club last week we played a "clean" version of the classic, truth or dare! Before club began our mentors wrote up fun truth and dares and placed them in a hat. We had the girls sit in a big circle and one by one had them pull a "truth or dare" from the hat.

Some of the truths?

"Tell us where your dream vacation would be."

"Share your most embarassing story."

"Share with the group your dream job."

Some of the dares?

"Sing your favorite song while gargling water!"

"Lip sync to the song "Firework"!"

"Teach me how to Dougie!"

"Put lipstick on one of your friends, while blindfolded!"

Ooh... Scary!

For our October club we played a mixer where we all created scary stories together. 5x7 cards were passed out, each with a scary first line of a story already written on it. Each girl was given a pen and asked to add one sentence to the card and pass it on to the next girl. The girls added lines to each story that they recieved until their card had gone all the way around the circle and returned to them. To finish we each read our finished story out loud. It was so much fun as girls incorporated mentors and their children into the stories! Here's a sample of our finished product...

"From the open grave rose a... smelly diaper... filled with baby poop and... the graveyard worker threw up in his mouth... the diaper smelled so bad that... Diamonds eyes popped out the back of her head, then ran down the street... They've never been able to find the culprit or her eyes since!"

Hahaha... then we all died of laughter!

Shared by Renee McKim- Chicago,IL

Poet's Cafe

Growing up I used to go to poet's café's in NYC and there is a whole culture around it. We wanted to recreate that scene going even farther back to the Beatniks. Girls don't really know what that is but we just had fun with it and set the mood.

Jazz music, dim lighting and instead of clapping, everyone had to snap their fingers.

We asked girls to prepare a poem/essay in advance about being a mother. They had to keep it clean of course.

To introduce them two leaders dressed in all black and scarves (or a beret is preferable) entered the room to a jazz song (very smooth/strong bass/etc). One leader called herself SMOOTH, the other was JAZZ and together they were "SMOOTH JAZZZZZZ"... Each leader made up a silly poem and had to read it very seriously, poetically and with a beat or rhythm almost like a song.

"roses are red
violets are blue
sunflowers are yellow...yeah"

Then instead of clapping, the audience was to snap their fingers and the characters would talk about how smooth or deep the other's poem was....then when we were done we introduced the girls one by one to share their poems.

They were a little nervous, but seeing us be silly, helped them to be ok with sharing themselves. The girls laughed a lot through the skit. So many moms write poetry or write in journals to express their pain. They often don't share it with anyone but this gave them opportunity to do just that in a safe place.

Shared by Karil Greaves-Bronx, NY

Where's Waldo the Wonder Bra?

One of the funniest thing's that we do at club is to spot the Wonder Bra! It started out as a joke, when we were launching Easter Eggs from an old beat up bra, but then my mentor team had the great idea to have the bra make an "appearance" at every club. Sometimes it shows up as part of a game, a skit, or sometimes a mentor is actually wearing it and every now and then goes to adjust her strap. The girls love it! The are always on the look out for it and when they find it they scream "There it is!"

Shared by... Amy Schmeideskamp - Quincy, IL

*Bling Bling*

Last club we played a game called "Bling Bling every time I come around I see a Leader Bling Bling" Call up 3 leaders to the front and give them each 2 full rolls of aluminum foil. Then have girls go stand in front of a leader (make sure teams are even). Then tell them when the music starts they have until the end of the song to Bling Out their Leader (by using all their aluminum foil) The most creative wins!!

Oh! And... we played the song "Bling Bling" (clean edited version) while they were blinging out their leaders! :)

Shared by Erin Grace -- Champaign-Urbana, IL

We All Scream for Ice Cream!!!

We recently played a game called "I Scream, You Scream, I Can't See My Ice Cream" Call up 6 girls (2 per team) and then blindfold everyone. One girl will put her arms through the other girl's arms and will have to feed her ice cream. Start music ( I googled "ice cream songs" and picked the most popular one they would know) The one who eats their bowl of ice cream first wins. (This can get rather messy).

Shared by Erin Grace -- Champaign-Urbana, IL

Valentines Day!!!

For Valentine's last year, we had a "Stupid Cupid" dress up contest as a mixer. Girls broke up into 4 teams and then chose a "cupid" to decorate--it could be a mentor or a teen mom. We gave them:

Depends
Red Paper Hearts
Crepe Paper, etc

It was so funny to watch cupid evolve!

Candy Heart Bingo

Here is a game just in time for Valentine's Day!

Materials needed:
Candy Heart Bingo cards
(download and print on cardstock-26 different cards available)
1 bag Necco brand Sweethearts
bingo markers--1" squares of red or pink paper
(you will need roughly 20 per person)
one or more prizes
background music

At club give everyone a bingo sheet and some markers. Have a caller pull a heart from the bag and call it out. If it is on their sheet, they can mark it off. When they get a full row they call 'BINGO.' Or you can play a variety of games (an X, all the edges, or blackout).

For background music play cheesy love ballads.

Baby Baby Mama Game

Okay...this is a super simple game that we played one time because some other game fell through at club. I did it half-heartedly, thinking it would just be okay. It turned out to be great fun! The girls all had a blast and were laughing and playing...like kids!!

Basically, it is 'Duck, Duck, Goose' with the words changed to 'Baby, Baby, Mama.' Everyone sits in a circle on the ground. One person is 'IT.' The person who is 'IT' walks around the outside of the circle. Each person she passes, she taps on the head and says, 'Baby.' Then she will tap someone's head saying 'Mama.' The person who is called 'Mama' has to get up and chase the 'IT' around the circle. The goal is for 'IT' to get back to the empty spot before the 'Mama' tags her. If she makes it back, the 'Mama' is now 'IT.' If the 'IT' gets tagged, then she takes another turn being 'IT."

The girls had a blast! I think it allowed them to be kids again for a few minutes. You do have to be careful with pregnant girls...just monitor to make sure they take it a little bit easy!

BRRRRRRRRR....

Frozen T-Shirt Game:

Call up three "volunteers" to participate in this challenge. Give each girl a frozen t-shirt to unfold (freezing instructions below). The first girl to unfold the t-shirt and put it on is the winner! ...and she gets to keep the shirt. This can take a little while depending on how frozen the t-shirts are but it's guaranteed to get everyone laughing!

Prep:
1. Get 3 t-shirts - YL shirts work great!
2. You can wad them up or fold them flat
3. Dip the t-shirts in water
4. Freeze overnight

Roxanne In Her Red Dress

Call up a few girls and mentors to participate in this crazy (and

messy!) game. All you need is saltines + soda + willing mentors +

"Roxanne" (by The Police). The girls stand behind the mentors and act

as their hands holding saltines and soda. Every time they sing

"Roxanne" mentors have to take a sip of soda and every time they sing

the words "red light" mentors have to eat a saltine. This can get

mighty messy so be sure to lay down some plastic on the floor before

hand!

IT'S A WRAP!!!!!!!!

Bring in a Little Christmas Cheer...

Here is a fun mixer for your Christmas club! Break your group up into teams and each team has to "wrap" up one of their teammates as a present. Give each team a bag of wrapping paper, tape, garland,

ribbon, bows, pretty much anything and play a fun Christmas song. As soon as the song is over line up the presents and have each team cheer for a winner. This can also be done with the girls being Christmas trees instead of presents. You can use ornaments, garland and Christmas lights - it's always hilarious when you plug all of the trees in for the final judging!

To take it up a notch, have the girls wrap mentors as presents and trees. Good laugh for everyone! Again, make sure Christmas music is on and loud while the decorating contest is going on! You can also have mentors "sell" the game dressed as elves, Santa, Mrs. Clause, crazy Christmas carolers, busy Christmas shoppers...get creative!

Markered Mentors

This is an easy, fun, and funny game for club. Divide the room in small groups, making sure that each group has a mentor. Tell the girls that these mentors love to dress up, but need their help because they have no costume! Then pass out makeup, markers (washable), and eye liner. Tell the girls that they have 5 minutes to make their mentors into a character. When the time is up, have each group present their mentor to the crowd... winning team is found by round of applause!

This is a great game to play at a theme club and use the mentors that come without costumes! For us... it was Halloween!

Shared by Erin Kennedy-- Chicago, IL.

Blanket Mixer

1. Go around the room and have everyone say their name. 

2. Divide the group into two teams on each side of the room. 

3. Two mentors hold a blanket up vertically in the middle of the room. 

4. Each team puts one person in front of the blanket. 

5. On the count of three, the leaders drop the blanket. 

6. Each person tries to say the other person's name standing on the other side of the blanket first. The faster person captures the other and brings that person over to their side. Give each person one or two turns depending on the size of your club.

Christmas Club Blizzard

Collect newspapers from recycle bins. You will need newspapers and masking tape...love cheap ideas! The newspaper serves as “snow” for the blizzard that will hit your club!

1) Divide girls into two teams; divide newspapers evenly to both teams. When music starts (Christmas, of course), the first team lay down flat on their backs and cover themselves completely in newspaper (head to toe) wins. Everyone on the team must be covered, which means the last few people are trying hard to cover themselves. All girls and mentors play. The blizzard has come and the snow is freshly covering the ground.
And what do you do after a fresh snow??? Snow ball fight!!!

2) Have everyone stay in their teams. Draw a line down the middle of the room with tape. Each team must stay on their side of the tape. Again, divide newspapers evenly among both teams. When music starts, the teams must crumble up all their newspaper into snowballs and start throwing them onto the other team’s side. They cannot cross the line, but as snowballs come across to their side, they can pick them up and throw them back over. Stop the music after a few minutes. The team with the least amount of snow on their team wins!
Christmas candy is a great prize for the whole team.

Shared by Lindsey Patchell-The Woodlands, TX

Whip Cream Fairy!

Venita Ballard of PV Young Lives, AZ. had a great idea with the whipped cream fairy. A fella or a very outgoing lady dresses up in an outrageous fairy costume and constantly interrupts club by dancing around the girls saying in a high pitched voice "Whipped cream fairy, whipped cream fairy, whipped cream fairy!" all while squirting whipped cream straight from the can into different girls mouths! Fun and funny!

Shared by Erin (Ramos) Kennedy-Chicago, IL

Van Pile In

A very easy game for club is to have as many girls as possible pile into a van. We did it with a mini-van that we parked right in front of the church. You can introduce the game by having someone (it really is best if it's someone who is not even a part of YoungLives- like the pastor of the church, etc.) run in, interupting the leader up front and telling them they better get out to move the van asap before they are towed away. You can have all of the girls run out with you and have them all pile in. Girls will sit on top of each other, in the trunk, etc. Just don't close the doors once they're in!!

Shared by Anneke Brown-Norwalk, CT