Return to Year of the 4-H Club blog
Roll Call Ideas
In November, Regional Specialists asked members for ideas about their best roll call ideas. Here are some of the ideas which were submitted:
- Give a short impromptu speech on a specific topic - eg. What would you like to be for Halloween and why? How old is too old to trick or treat?
- Get up and high five the President (leader, person with "b" in their name, etc.) and then sit down as your name is called
- The club elects a Communication/Education representative (could be combined with Parlaimentarian) and their are responsible for different roll call topics for each age group (Jr., Int., Sr.) The topics range from specific to the Season (Halloween, Remembrance Day) or more general. They always require at least a one sentence answer.
- How to touch someone's life
- My favourite pet
- In a drama club - "Name one technical effect needed for our achievement day performance" which can create lots of great ideas which leaders furiously write down
Games
Candy Introdu tions | Gotcha | Common Ground | Clump | What If | Line Up | Catch the Ball Head the Ball | Counting Game | Apples to Oranges | If I Were | Wizards, Giants and Goblins |
Looking for games to play at your next club meeting, here are some ideas:
Candy Introductions
Materials: Candies of various colours, enough for each person to have up to 6 pieces. Examples of candy types are skittles, smarties, m&m's, lifesavers, etc. A maximum of 6 types of candy is good. If you want you can purchase up to 6 different candies.
.Pass around the candy and tell each participant to choose anywhere from 1 to 5 pieces of anything that they want. Instruct them not to eat it yet, though. After they have chosen their candy, you will tell them what each candy type/color represents.If there is a whiteboard or chalkboard present, write on the board the following:
- Red – Favorite hobbies
- Green – Favorite place on earth
- Blue – Favorite memory
- Yellow -Dream job
- Orange – Wildcard (tell us anything about yourself!)
Other ideas for each colour include - Project you would like to take this 4-H club year, fun thing you did over the summer, activity you would like to do in 4-H this year, or any other topic you would like find out about members.
Gotcha
Have participants stand in a circle, arms out to the side. Left hand palm up, right index finger pointing down and touching on neighbor's outstretched palm. Instruct the members: " When I say the word go, do two things.... grab the finger in your left hand, and prevent your right finger from being grabbed... 1 ... 2 ... 3 ... [add suspense] ... Go!".
Repeat several times. Put lots of energy into the countdown and saying "Go!" to make it exciting for the members. The trick is dramatizing the "Go!", the build up of suspense, and most will jump the gun, adding to the fun.
Try a different trigger word, e.g., "Cheese", and mention lots of other "eeze" words for humor - peas, sneeze, wheeze, please and freeze.
Another possibility is to use a word related to your project or the subject of your meeting.
Common Ground
Have the club stand in a circle with the activity leader on the outside. Read a series of statements, one at a time and ask everyone who answers yes to that question to step into the centre of the circle. After each question they return to the full circle. Examples of questions may be:
- I have been to Disneyland or Disney World
- A plan to attend a summer 4-H program this year.
- I have completed my project (taught my calf to lead, ridden my horse outside of club riding practices or some other 4-H project related question)
- I have sisters
- I have brothers
- I am the oldest child in my family
- I am wearing green (or pick another colour) socks (or pick another article of clothing)
- I love Brussel sprouts.
- I love country music.
- I play a musical instrument
- I ride the school bus for more than (insert time) minutes each day.
- My favourite colour is (pick one)
- My favourite subject at school is (pick one)
- The best flavour of ice cream is (pick one)
You can keep this going for as long as you have questions to ask. If you want to make it more active, ask the group to line up on the outside of the room and make them run to a centre area. This is an easy game for people to join as they arrive.
Clump
This group works best if you have a large open area like a gym or hall with very little furniture in it and a fairly large group of people. Ask the group to mingle around moving constantly until the group leader shouts out a number. All the players have to try to get into groups with that many members in it. If they are in a group with the wrong number of players in it they are disqualified. Variations can be that they need to get into groups of people with similarities - such as same shoe size, same colour of shirt, same colour of hair, eyes, etc.
Return to Top
What If
Materials: paper and pens or pencils
Prepare a number of small sheets of paper - about 1/4 sheet of an 8 1/2 by 11 sheet of paper works well.
Give each member a paper and ask them to draw a horozintal line across the centre. Ask them to write "What if . . . " and finish the question on the top half of the paper. then fold the paper in half along the line. Ask the group to exchange papers. When they get a new paper, ask them to write the answer to a "What if" question on the bottom half of the page without looking at the original question. Ask the group to exchange papers again and when everyone has a paper, go around the group and ask each person to read the question and answer on the paper they have. Since the questions and answers won't match the results are often silly and sometimes hilarious.
Return to Top
Line Up
This can be a quick game to add some energy to the group, or you could play it before your meeting starts.
Have your group form a line in order of . . . . .
- Tallest to shortest
- Oldest to youngest
- Date of Birth (excluding year) January to December
- Distance they travelled to the meeting
- Weight of their 4-H calf
- Any other topic you can think of.
To add a greater challenge get the group to do this silently, using sign language or some other way of communicating.
Return to Top
Catch the Ball, Head the Ball
Required: Large open area - like a gym, ball which will not hurt if you hit it with your head
Arrange all the participants in a circle. Explain that you will be passing to ball to each person and that you will give them instructions to either catch or head the ball. The catch is that they have to complete the opposite action- if told to head the ball they have to catch it and if told to catch the ball they have to head it. To start off - pass the ball to each person in turn with the instructions as you throw the ball to them. Players who get it wrong have to sit down. As the game grows momentum, start passing to individuals at random until you have a winner.
Return to Top
Counting Game
Have everyone in the group pair up and face each other. Each person holds zero to ten fingers behind their back. On the count of three everyone pulls their hands from behind their back. The first person from each pair to yell out the correct sum of all the fingers wins. Do best two out of three and then have the winners play off until you have a winner or until the time allocated for the game is up.
Return to Top
Apples to Oranges
Required: One apple and one orange, paper, pencil, container and music
Print slips of paper that you will pull out of a container. Each slip will be labeled differently as follows:
- Before the apple
- Before the orange
- The orange
- The apple
- After the apple
- After the orange
You might want to do a couple sets in case certain slips become detectable after use. Once you've completed the slips place them in the container and mix them up Have members stand in a circle . Give the apple to one member and the orange to a member across the circle. Start the music. Members pass the fruit from person to person until the music stop. . When the music stops, pull a slip of paper out of the container and read it. If the paper states the specific fruit, that person is out. If it states "After the" specific fruit that person is out. If states before the fruit, that person is out. You don't only have to worry about holding the fruit, but where it is in the circle. If you have a very large group you may want to create more than one circle (or a circle within the circle). You can use colored balls or other object rather than the fruit. You may want to vary the rounds by changing how they pass the fruit - under then leg, behind the back, etc.
Return to Top
If I Were
This game is one which could be used to encourage impromptu speaking or as a roll call topic.
Ask each person what they would be and why, if they were:
- A piece of fruit
- A historical figure
- A household object
- A cartoon character
- Any other off the wall group you can think of!
Possible answers:
- I would be a pineapple as I am exotic, sweet and zingy.
- I would be a whisk as I like to stir things up.
- I would be Taz as I rush around like a crazy creature!
Return to Top
Wizards, Giants and Goblins
This game is a variation on the traditional rock, paper, scissors. Form two teams of equal numbers. For each turn, the teams will need to decide which of the three characters they will be:
Wizards - stretch out their hands, wiggle their fingers and go "Kaaaaazzzaaaaam"
Giants - put their hands in the air, jump up and down and make a low growling sound
Goblins - crouch on the ground, wave their hands at their ears and make a high pitched cackle.
The rules are as follows:
- Wizard beats Giant
- Giant beats Goblin
- Goblin beats Wizard
- If both teams choose the same character, then its a draw and the teams have to choose again.
Teams line up a few meters apart, with each team having agreed "safe" base to return to. The game facilitator counts down the turn "Three, Two, One. GO" and ton the word go each team acts out their character. The winning team then chase and catch a member from the losing team. Anyone caught before reaching the safe base has to join the winning team.
Return to Top
|
