This is a great game for over 20 people, with a good mix of boys and girls, although you can divide up however you see fit.
Supplies needed
Slips of paper, pens, pencils
Goal of Game
To get all of the same gender on the couch.
Instructions
Place four chairs in the front of a semicircle of chairs, if you have 20 people it would look like this.
On the four chairs that make up the couch choose four students to sit boy, girl, boy, girl on the couch. The rest of the students can sit anywhere except for the empty chair (marked on the diagram as… empty chair).
Once everyone is seated, have them all write their names down on the slips of paper (or if you have names on something else like popsicle sticks, that you use regularly, you can use those). Put all the slips of paper into a hat and have students randomly draw out a name.
This is now their name for the rest of the game. They are not to tell anyone their name, as that would ruin the game. They might not have a name of the same gender, and that’s ok.
After everyone knows their new name the game begins. Let the students know that it is their goal to get all of their gender on the couch. As there are two boys and two girls starting on the couch, that means the boys are trying to learn the names of the two girls on the couch to get them off and vice versa.
The game begins with the person to the right of the empty chair saying a name of someone in the group (not the name written on their paper). The person who has that name (on the paper) moves to the empty chair, now leaving a new empty chair. The person saying a name is always the person to the right of whatever chair is empty. The game ends when all of one gender on the couch.
Some extra rules that make the game easier:
One can’t call the name of someone that was just called. So if the order goes, Dan, Suzie, Jamie, Grace, Phil, then the next player can’t call Phil again, but the other names are fair games.
Players can not whisper to other players who to call, that’s cheating and its just no fun.
No peeking at other people’s papers.
This game works even if people don’t know each other, but you might want to go around and introduce yourselves before you start, just so names are fresh in the minds of players.
If you don’t have an even number of boys and girls you can always split them into team A and B and as long as they remember who was on their team the game works the same way.
Enjoy!
SARA GALYON is the Sr Youth Director for Messiah Lutheran Church (ELCA) in Madison, AL. She has been working with youth in some capacity for 15 years and has an MA in Youth Ministry from Memphis Theological Seminary. She is a wife to a fellow youth minister, mom to three boys and two dogs, and underfunded world traveler.
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