The amazing Newspaper Night is great for younger teenagers. Encourage your group to invite their friends to a suitable venue for a night to remember. Make sure you have a large supply of old newspapers collected in the preceding weeks.
Read through the games carefully before you use them. Many are based on common party games and adapted through generations of youth leaders. It's probably impossible to say who first thought up any of these games, but whoever you are, thanks!
Although most of the games feature friendly competition, please don't emphasise 'winners' or 'losers', emphasis the fun! Award a small prize for each game, as many of the young people could gain several during the course of the evening. The 10 games that follow are some of my favourite newspaper games and have worked with many different groups.
FASHION SHOW
Pair off the group into couples. Supply each girl with plenty of
newspaper and a roll of masking tape. The girls have ten minutes to
re-dress their male 'model' (over his clothes!) using the newspaper and
tape you have provided. Some amusing creations will emerge!
AND/OR
Divide the group into teams of 4-6. Give a stack of old newspapers to
each team with one or two rolls of masking tape. Give each group a
sealed envelope containing the theme of their fashion parade. All their
newspaper costumes need to link to the theme. Allow 20 minutes to
complete the challenge before you hold your fashion parade. Have the
other groups try to guess the themes. Examples of themes you could use
include Star Wars, The Wizard of Oz, The Wild West, The Simpsons, King
Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table, and other movies, TV shows
or books. Have a camera ready to record the evidence!
AND/OR
Ask the group to pay careful attention. Make an origami newspaper hat,
describing your actions as you go, and place it on your head. Give each
person a sheet of newspaper and ask them to make their own hat. They
have five minutes to create headwear based on your design, or more
likely a loose interpretation of it! Invite the group to wear their
hats and judge the winning creation. You can download template to make
your hat from here.
NEWSPAPER RELAY
Divide the group into two teams and give two sheets of newspaper to
each team. Each person in turn has to place one piece of paper on the
floor, stand on it, put the other piece down in front of it, step onto
that one, pick up the piece from behind them and then put that down in
front and stand on it. This continues up and down the hall or room,
until every member of the team has completed the relay.
NEWSPAPER PUZZLE
Divide into teams of five or six people and give each group a copy of
the SAME newspaper. Ask them to spread the newspaper out in front of
each team. Describe a particular advert, article, fact or picture from
the paper and the group has to find it, rip it out and bring it to you.
The first team to bring it gets a point. Continue calling out items and
the winning team is the one with the most points. Watch the paper fly!
NEWSPAPER HUDDLE
Divide your group into pairs and get them to stand in two circles, one
inside the other. Each pair is given one sheet of newspaper. Play some
music. When the music starts the inner circle walks anti-clockwise and
the outer one walks clockwise. When the music stops, they must find
their partner, put the piece of paper on the floor and stand on it. The
last pair to do so is out. Repeat this and the next time the music
stops, the teams have to fold their piece of paper in half, and stand
on it. This continues for several turns with the paper getting smaller
and smaller with each extra fold. The last couple in the game is the
winner.
PAPER TOWERS
Divide the group into teams with equal amounts of newspaper and some
rolls of masking tape. Within a time limit of five minutes, ask them to
construct a paper tower. The winning team will be the group which
manages to construct the highest tower without it falling over.
SWAT
Ask the group to sit in a circle. Make sure everyone knows each other's
names. Invite a volunteer to be 'it.' 'It' is given a newspaper roll
and asked to name any person sitting in the circle to 'swat'. They run
to that person and try hit them with the newspaper (gently on the
legs!) and the person who is about to be hit must call out the name of
someone else in the circle or become 'it.' 'It' then runs to the person
whose name was called and tries to swat them before they call out
someone else's name, and so on, until someone else becomes 'it.'
Players in the circle are not allowed to call out the name of the
person who just called them, or the names of the people sitting to the
right and left of them. In my experience, this often causes just enough
hesitation for 'it' to strike!
TAKE THE TREASURE
Ask the group to sit in a circle. Place a chair in the middle of the
circle. On the chair place the treasure. A set of keys is ideal. Ask
for a volunteer to be the guard and give them a rolled up newspaper.
They will defend the treasure from thieves. However, they will be
blindfolded! A thief is chosen from the circle to attempt to snatch the
treasure, without making any noise to alert the guard in the middle. If
the thief is swatted by the newspaper stick, he must return to the
circle. If the thief succeeds in stealing the treasure, they become the
new guard.
PASS THE OVEN GLOVES
A simple game based on the children's party game of Pass the Parcel.
Prepare a present for the game i.e. a box of sweets or a book. Wrap it
in several layers of newspaper that will be very difficult to remove.
Tie each layer with tape. Ask the group to sit around in a circle. In
the centre of the circle place the wrapped present and a pair of oven
gloves or mitts. Pass a pair of dice around the circle. Large foam dice
are the best. The first person to roll double numbers runs to the
present, grabs the oven gloves and puts them, then tries to unwrap
the present. The dice continue to go around the table until someone
else rolls a double, at which point they rush out and replace the
previous player, and so on. The dice need to move around the circle
quickly. This is hilarious to watch and a lot of fun! The person to
successfully get the last layer off the present wins it!
SNOWBALL WAR
As the finale to your evening divide your group into two teams. Try to
play this in a small room or enclosed space. Each team takes their
position at either side of the room. Place a row of chairs down the
middle of the room to separate the teams. Ask each young person to take
several sheets of newspaper and roll it up, each sheet in a separate
ball, to produce the newspaper 'snowballs'. Each team should have an
equal number of snowballs and I would suggest about 3 or 4 snowballs for each team member. Once this is done you are ready to
begin the 'Snowball War'.
On the blow of a whistle each team has 2 minutes to get as many paper snowballs as possible to the other team's side. This includes paper
which has been already thrown over the chairs by the other team. This
needs to be seen to be believed! Take a photograph and send it to your
local newspaper to show them how your group recycles the news!
At the end of the 'war' comes the cleaning up, but even this can be
made into a race to see which team can collect the most paper! Make
sure you have plenty of garbage bags to remove all the newspaper.
GOOD NEWS FOR THE WORLD
If the youth group have invited friends I generally use the teaching
time as an evangelistic opportunity. Illustrate using some topical
stories from local or national newspapers that there is often a lot
more bad news in the world than good. Explain that Christians believe
Jesus came into the world to bring Good News to everyone. Good News
that will never turn bad. This could either lead into a small group
discussion, asking the young people what they think this Good News is,
or a short evangelistic talk about God's purpose in sending Jesus into
the world.
Luke 4:18 'The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, for he has anointed me to bring Good News'
If the Newspaper Night is used during Advent link to the Christmas story.
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Congratulations you've reached the end. In the coming weeks I plan to
add more themed evenings with icebreakers and teaching, along with
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Thanks for dropping by Jeremy. Glad to be able to serve you.
Posted by: Grahame | 05/11/2007 at 20:07
Hey thanks for this blog!!!!
I am also a current youth worker always looking for tips, encouragements, etc...
Thanks!
Posted by: jeremy z | 05/11/2007 at 15:58