source: www.youthwork-practice.com | 2000 Games, Devotions, Themes, Ideas and more for Youth Work
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Colour your Emotions
Feelings and Emotions
This material was provided by the Christian Youth of Germany, the Rock Solid Club. The Rock Solid Club is a place where teenagers can experience something they do not experience anywhere else. There are crazy games, events and discussion groups and there is bible work...
The evening of feelings
The aim of this evening is make the children aware of the feelings they experience and to help them keep their feelings under control.
Crowd breaker...quick pressure
Aim: Two teams try to pass on information through pressure signals.
Length: 5 min
Material: Whistle, stool and a coin
Preparation:
Split the group into two teams of equal size. They should stand in two parallel rows opposite each other and be holding hands. A stool with a whistle on it is placed at the end of the row.
Game:
Position yourself at the start of the row as far away from the whistle as possible. You toss a coin and only show whether it is heads or tails to the first player in each of the rows (you turn your back to the others). If “heads” is thrown a pressure signal is sent down the row with the hands and when the pressure signal reaches the last person he blows the whistle. The first person to blow the whistle receives the point. However if a signal is sent along the row when “tails” is thrown, the whistle means a minus point. “Mistakes” are also handled in this way (if the coin hasn’t even been thrown for example). After each throw of “heads” the player at the start joins the other end of the queue. At the end, everyone sits down, the winner is announced and you welcome everyone personally.
GAME 1...The crazy relay
Aim: Teams try to be first to complete all of the tasks.
Length: 5 minutes
Material: Bags and notes with instructions
Preparation:
Split the group into smaller teams. Prepare the following list with instructions with each instruction on a separate piece of paper. All teams receive the exact same notes:
- Run around your team while you celebrate a goal like a footballer!
- Look for a player of the opposite sex, kneel down in front of her/him and ask: "Darling, will you marry me?"
- A crazy person is threatening to shoot you. Fall to your knees and beg for mercy!
- Stand on a table and shout out as loud as you can: "I am so angry that I could kill someone!"
- Encourage your team to laugh as loudly as possible!
- Sneak up on a member of another team and shout something in his ear so that he jumps with shock!
- Call out: "That is not fair!" and break into tears!
- Stand on a stool in front of your team with a “petrified” face and do not move from the spot for one minute!
- Sing your group the first verse of a well-known love song!
- Roll around on the floor together and say: "I can stand it any longer!"
Place each set of tasks in a different bag and point each team to a new bag. The teams sit in a circle and the bags are placed in the middle of the circle.
Game:
The players take turns to run to the bag for the group and take out a piece of paper. They then return to the team. They read out the task and perform it. One leader per team should watch over the performance of the task (if a player does not have the courage to do something, another player can step in). Once the task has been completed the next player runs to the bag to collect a new task. The first to complete all of the tasks is the winner.
Info... Emotional info
Aim: The chosen players must guess which emotions the others are presenting.
Length: 5 minutes
Material: None
Game:
Choose 3 volunteers who go out of the room with a leader. The others now agree on an emotion which they can act out well (in love, happy, scared, bored, sad...). When the volunteers come back into the room you choose an everyday situation where the players can act out this emotion (e.g. cleaning teeth, frying an egg or going to school...). The volunteers are now allowed to choose 2-3 players for the game. While the volunteer is guessing the emotion, you record the time it takes. The winner is the player who guesses the emotion in the shortest time.
GAME 2...The “Out” family
Aim: An "ice-breaker" with a built in shower!
Length: 5-10 minutes
Material: Bucket of water, cups and hand towel
Preparation:
Send the whole group out of the room with a group leader. While they are gone three leaders make a row and stand with their hands behind their backs. The first leader should be male and the second female. The sex of the third leader is not relevant. This leader hides a cup of water behind their back and keeps refilling it from the bucket which remains out of sight.
Game:
This game induces the emotions rage or anger or annoyance! Fetch the players in one at a time and say: "I want to introduce you to the “Out” family: That is Mr Out (the first leader smiles and shakes hands with the player)! This is Mrs Out (she does the same)! And this is her son/daughter “let it out”! (and they throw the water in the player’s face)." Give the victim a hand towel to dry himself off. He should now sit down in the room and keep quiet while the next victim comes in. The family must prepare themselves again and the door is opened. The whole thing carries on like this until all of the players are wet.
Go... the restaurant sketch
Length: 10 minutes
Material: Prop table, fabric, a menu, a stool, a woolly hat, a pistol and some costumes
Plan:
This sketch should be acted out by 4 leaders or guest actors from your community (see the end of the page for the sketch text). To introduce the play you can say that it deals with the theme "feelings – how I should deal with my feelings and how I shouldn’t deal with my feelings”.
Chat... Feelings
Length: 5-10 minutes
Material: Worksheet feelings, pens
Plan:
Everyone receives a pen and a piece of paper. The sheet should be filled out in smaller groups during discussion with a leader. On the left hand side of the page, they should tick how often they experience the emotions given. On the right hand side, they should note down the situations which lead to these feelings (e.g. fury - unfairness, brothers/sisters...).
The group leaders can use the following questions to help fill out the sheets:
- Which feeling do you feel often/hardly ever?
- Which feeling would you like to experience less/more often?
- Do you have you feelings under control? When don’t you?
Background... emotion MOT
Aim: Show three principles which should help to keep your emotions under control.
Length: 5 minutes
Material: Board/over head projector and pens, pictures from newspapers and magazines showing people with different emotions (e.g. a sportsman celebrating, lonely people, worry lines...).
Procedure:
At the beginning you should have already have some to the conclusion (through the discussions and sketches) that emotions are natural things which are not always bad things in themselves. However they can run out of control (e.g. fury, affection). Lots of people of your age are like yo-yos. Their emotions go up and down all of the time. Now write the letters M O T on the board/film underneath each other. This word should be a memory aid which can help you to keep your emotions under control.
While you introduce the letters, you write the relevant word on the board.
M – Mull over;
This is the first step in understanding your feelings. What am I feeling at the moment? We cannot avoid our emotions – they simply come whether we want them or not. It is important that you do not ignore your feelings but try to find out what you are feeling at the time. That is particularly true of "negative" feelings. You can be really sour about something or get really annoyed. It might be difficult to talk to someone about your feelings but, in order to accept them you have to be true to yourself and try understand what you are really feeling. With the help of these pictures you can start to understand how some of these feelings are shown. You can also ask what the individuals were feeling at that time (without asking why – that will come later).
O – Obtain understanding,
Once we have realised what we are feeling, the next step is to find out why. What sparks off the emotion? Relationships or experiences are possible reasons. Hold these pictures up once again and ask what could have sparked the emotions off in these people. At this point, you can also refer back to the first step. The right hand side of the discussion sheet might also give you some ideas.
T – Take action,
If we know what we feel and why, the last step is to react in the right way. The best thing to do is something which will change the cause, the situation or the relationship if something is not right.
Our emotions are sometimes caused by things which we cannot change ( e.g. Loss of a friend or family member). Then the best thing you can do is to talk to someone about your feelings; someone who you trust (but God as well). A few examples should make this more clear (from the experiences and pictures which have been shown). Explain that this is the way to a new beginning (you write “take action” next to the final letter on the board). That is the emotion MOT which can help everyone. The following examples should explain the steps in more detail.
Let’s Do it... Practice
Length: 5 minutes
Material: None
Event:
The young people decide the best way to react in certain situations for themselves. This part should follow the background and should be kept quite short. In small groups, the kids are faced with certain situations and they must decide how they would feel and how they should react.
- Your best friend has been involved in a bad accident and is so badly injured that he only has a 50% chance of survival.
- Your parents decide to divorce
- You are being bullied at school
- Someone who you really like wants a date with you
- Your parents do not let you go to a party which you have been looking forward to for weeks
- You receive a message on your mobile phone that your girlfriend/boyfriend has been seen kissing someone else.
- You have promised your little brother that you will play with him as your friends suddenly appear and want to take you to a concert.
- You see a report about an earthquake in Peru in the news and hear that there are thousands of dead.
In all cases, the leaders must take the feelings which are described seriously and accept the opinion. It is not wrong to be angry or bitter – those are normal human reactions. The question is how to deal with the feelings.
At the end, all of the group should compare their results. If required, something can be said to the different solutions. Congratulate them on their answers. If you want, you can also find out which group has the best answers.
GAME 3... Poker face
Aim: Two players must stare at each other without laughing.
Length: 5 minutes
Material: 2 stools and a prize
Game:
Choose two volunteers who sit opposite each other on two stools. On the start signal they start to stare at each other. The player who smiles or laughs first has lost. Play several rounds. You can play a winner stays on version or you can split the group into pairs in tournament style. The winner goes onto the next round. The last remaining player is the POKER FACE and receives a prize.
INPUT... Flowers
Aim: To show that God can help us come to terms with our emotions.
Length: 5 minutes
Material: Two of the same plant or flower – one is fresh and the other is wilted, a table, a board or OHP + a pen
Course of events:
Say that you want to introduce two good friends - Peter and Paul. Fetch the healthy plant and introduce it saying: "This is Peter! Say "hello" to Peter!" (wave with the flower pot and then place it on the table). Then fetch the other plant (Paul), introduce it and place it next to Peter.
Tell a little story about why Peter is happy and why Paul is sad. Use as many jokes as possible like "he is still a bit green behind the ears", "he is in full bloom"," he is juicy", "he has fallen in love with Rosie Marigold from next door (a sweet plant) and he knows that he isn’t a wall flower". On the other hand, Paul has just split up with Polly Birch. Since then he has been going out with Heinz's mother-in-law but that didn't work either. He feels like a (all feel sorry for him). Now ask the group what they would recommend to Paul so that he feels better and looks as great and healthy as Peter again. Paul does not need a new girlfriend or lots of money. He should go to the florists around the corner and have a stiff drink! Then he is bound to feel better. Obviously this is just a little joke but there is an important truth in it. In order to grow, every plant needs light, earth and water. If one of these things is no longer there the plant starts to suffer, just like Paul.
The same is relevant to us. We also need the right things to feel good emotionally. If we tell the truth, all of us want to feel nice feelings like joy, love and peace - but this somehow does not seem to work and we also have negative feelings at the end of the day - sadness, loneliness, fear and depression etc. Ask them what they believe we need to feel the positive feelings. Wait for a couple of answers and then write Galatians 5, 22-24 on the board/film and read it out. Explain that the bible teaches us the best way to fill our lives with positive things like love, joy and peace and lots of others things. These are things which cannot be produced by having a boy/girlfriend, lots of money drugs, alcohol or sex. Those things can help you to feel good but they can also bring negative feelings with them deep down inside. However we can allow God's spirit, or better, God himself to come into our lives. That doesn't mean that Christians are always in a good mood and are always happy but it does mean that God helps through all difficult or sufferable situations and to keep bad and painful feelings under control. He will give us all of the good things. Think about this!
CRUNCH... Lemon biter
Aim: Everyone must bite into a lemon quarter without twisting their faces.
Length: 5 minutes
Material: Lemons (washed and quartered), a water pistol, prizes
Game:
Imagine this game as a game in which you are not allowed to show any emotions. Choose a couple of volunteers and bring them to the front. Each of them receive a lemon and must bite into it without grimacing or twisting their faces in any way. Anyone who does this is out. Those who manage come into the next round. The player is shown that they are out of the game by being squirted with a water pistol. The last player left is the winner. The game is also over when all the lemons have been used. Anyone who is still "in" receives a prize.
RESTAURANT SKETCH
Players:
Director (R), Man (M), Lady (F), Waiter (K)
Scene:
A restaurant, in the middle of the stage is represented by a table with a tablecloth and menu. The director sits on one side of the stage with his back to the audience. The word "director" is written on his chair. The director is filing a restaurant scene and the actors keep making mistakes. The scene must be repeated again and again like this:
- Take 1 – boring, without any pep,
- Take 2 – very fast and full of energy,
- Take 3 - in slow motion,
- Take 4 - "Slapstick", in Laurel and Hardy style,
- Take 5 - romantic,
- Take 6 - violent,
The details (texts) can also be change be it is recommended that you practice the sketch beforehand!
| R: | Restaurant scene, take 1 - action! |
| M&F: | (come in, sit down and study the menu) |
| K: | (comes in) Your order, please? |
| M: | I would like the steak and my wife will take the fish. |
| K: | And what would you like to drink? |
| R: | Cut! What is that supposed to be? I have never seen something so boring! A snail could play the part with more enthusiasm! We need more action here! So, lets try it again! With more action this time! |
| M,F,K: | (leave the stage muttering: Good, more action...) |
| R: | Restaurant scene, take 2 and action! (Like before but this time the two of them suddenly run into the restaurant, run to the table, panic because they can't find the menu, the waiter takes the order twice as fast etc.) |
| R: | Cut! No, no, no. I said more action! You aren't 100m sprinters! That was far too fast. This time a bit slower, OK? So, once again please, but slower! |
| M,F,K: | (leave the stage muttering: Good, slower...) |
| R: | Restaurant scene, take 3 and action! (Like before but in slow motion! The text should be spoken as slowly and as deeply as possible.) |
| R: | (is slowly becoming angry) Cut! Who do you think you are? Do you still go to nursery school? I didn't mean that at all! Do it at normal speed but make it interesting! We need more humour! |
| M,F,K: | (leave the stage muttering: Good, more humour...) |
| R: | Restaurant scene, take 4 and action! (This time the waiter offers the man a stool and then pulls it from under him when he wants to sit down. You can also add in other jokes...) |
| M: | Waiter, there is a fly in my soup! |
| K: | That explains your dirty trousers! Would you like some parmesan for your soup? (M says yes and K shakes his hair over the soup) While we're talking about food... (The whole thing can be put up a notch until...) |
| R: | (sour) Cut! That is worse than an episode of Neighbours! A tin of peas has more acting talent than all of you put together! Enough with the Charlie Chaplin nonsense, I want more Dedication! Understood? Dedication! |
| M,F,K: | (Leave the stage like before) |
| R: | Restaurant scene, take 5 and action! |
| M,F: | (come in one after the other, see each other and look at each other over-exaggerated lovingly) |
| M: | Oh, Waltraut! |
| F: | Oh, Alfred! It has been so long! |
| M: | Yes, the 5 minutes I didn't see you felt like days! |
| F: | I almost died of longing for you! |
| K: | (comes and gives F a rose) Look at the beauty! I saw you two from afar! Tell me your names - as you came in, I couldn't keep my eyes from you! Tell me what I can do for you, my darlings! And I will do it for you tenfold! |
| F: | Oh you mysterious stranger! How torn I am between two lovely persons! I will take a glass of water please. |
| K: | I will climb a mountain to fetch you the freshest, clearest water! (Falls to his knees) Oh, you beautiful lady, will you marry me? |
| R: | (really sour) Cut! What on earth is going on here? I said Dedication, but no two-a-penny novel! That is worse than a soap opera! I don't to see this rubbish anymore - more aggression, please! |
| M,F,K: | (leave the stage, muttering: more aggression...) |
| R: | Restaurant scene, take 6 and action! |
| M,F: | (come in and sit down arguing about what they should order - he gets a slap around the ear) |
| K: | (comes in, stands next to the table and looks at the two baddies) What do you want? |
| M: | Who do you think you're talking to? I think I’ll fetch the manager! |
| K: | The manager is dead! (Pause) The police found him on the bottom of the river today with his feet buried in cement! And I tell you what: I killed him! So tell me what you want otherwise you'll be in the same boat! |
| M: | You awful brute! You've found your match in me! Let's go outside - man against man! (stands up and stands in front of the waiter) |
| F: | Will you two stop it! I have had enough! (Stands up and gives both of them an upper cut) |
| R: | Cut! Enough now! You're all fired! (Pulls out a pistol and shoots all of the actors) To himself: Really! You can't find any good actors nowadays! Really! What will become of this world...! (Leaves the stage) |
Work sheet
How often do you feel these emotions? Draw a cross on the line at the point to show the frequency of these emotions. Then you should think about the effect this feeling has – write this down in the space at the side.
Feeling – how often do you feel it? What do you feel?
| Love | 0 ......................... 100 | |
| Anger | 0 ......................... 100 | |
| Depression | 0 ......................... 100 | |
| Fear | 0 ......................... 100 | |
| Enthusiasm | 0 ......................... 100 | |
| Joy | 0 ......................... 100 | |
| Loneliness | 0 ......................... 100 | |
| Pride | 0 ......................... 100 | |
| Sadness | 0 ......................... 100 | |
This material was provided by the Christian Youth of Germany, the Rock Solid Club. The Rock Solid Club is a place where teenagers can experience something they do not experience anywhere else. There are crazy games, events and discussion groups and there is bible work...
There is a special club night for the Rockies every four weeks. Something crazy happens here such as a car race, pizza party, Banana-Joe or town rally. Rock Solid also means bringing fun back into youth work. The Rock Solid Club programs are specially developed to reach the particular questions, needs and interests of young people.
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