Games - Best of the Mess - Grow Curriculum

Games – Best of the Mess

In this post, here’s what we’ll cover:

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Best of the Mess

Description:

This is the messiest event you will do, and it is the best! There is just something crazy good about getting a ton of students and leaders together and throwing them into a mess.

What To Get:

  • BREAKFAST TUG O’ WAR.
    • ROPE. Make sure the rope is long enough for both teams to get everyone on each side leaving enough room in the middle for the breakfast pool. Grab some HERE.
    • SMALL INFLATABLE POOL. Just a small pool where the sides are inflatable so when students fall in it doesn’t hurt them. Grab one HERE.
    • Syrup. Get the cheap stuff…and a lot of it!
    • Corn Flakes. Buy the cheap, off-brand…and a lot of it!
    • Powered Milk. Cheap and a lot!
  • FLOUR WAR. 
    • FLOUR. Biggest bag and as many as you can get.
    • CONES. To mark the boundaries. Grab some HERE.
    • DIXIE CUPS. The smallest throw-away cups. You need at least 2 per player, but it’s safe to have extra, as this will get insane. Grab some HERE.
  • SHAVING CREAM DOMINATION. Buy as many of the cheapest shaving cream cans you can buy! Then drive to another town and get more!
  • CONDIMENT BALLOON POP.
    • SMALL INFLATABLE POOL. Smallest you can get away with but still have enough room for two people to sit on a balloon inside. You WILL throw this away after! Grab one HERE.
    • KETCHUP Cheap and in bulk.
    • MUSTARD. Cheap and in bulk.
    • RELISH. Cheap and in bulk.
    • MAYO. Cheap and in bulk.
    • ANY OTHER CONDIMENT YOU CAN THINK OF! Cheap and in bulk.
    • BALLOONS. 2 per player. Grab some HERE.
  • WATER SLIDE
    • THICK PAINTER’S PLASTIC. This can be as big and long as you want. Grab some HERE.
    • WATER HOSE. You really should have guessed this one. Grab one HERE.
    • BABY OIL. Cheap and a lot. Grab some HERE.
    • ZIP LOCK BAGGIES. Weights for the edges. Grab some HERE.

What To Prep:

  • BREAKFAST TUG O’ WAR. Inflate the kiddie pool and add all of your breakfast ingredients. You can add a little water to the mix to make it go further. Lay out your rope next to the pool so you are ready to go.
  • FLOUR WAR. Use cones to mark your boundary lines. Divide your cups and flour into two equal piles at opposite ends of your playing field.
  • SHAVING CREAM DOMINATION. Depending on space, you can use the same field as the flour war or you can create a second field for this game. Divide your shaving cream into two equal piles at opposite ends of your playing field.
  • CONDIMENT BALLOON POP. Inflate your kiddie pool and add all of your condiments. Mark a starting area for the race a predetermined distance from the condiment pool. Inflate all your balloons to the same size and keep them in trash bags near your starting area.
  • WATER SLIDE. Lay out your painter’s plastic and weigh down the edges with zip lock baggies filled with water. Drench the slide with baby oil. Don’t use it all because you will need to keep spraying the slide with water and oil throughout the game.

How To Play:

  • BREAKFAST TUG O’ WAR. Person running the game will call out how many people can be on the rope at a time. i.e. Right side 3 people vs left side 8 people. Do multiple rounds to make sure everyone has gotten really messy!
  • FLOUR WAR. Teams start of their side of the field with the object to cover as many people as possible with as much flour as possible. Each player may hold one cup in each hand and must go back to their bags of flour to refill. Have an adult leader at the flour station helping pass out flour. Cleanest team wins!
  • SHAVING CREAM DOMINATION. Teams start on their side of the field with the object of covering as many people as possible with as much shaving cream as possible. Each player may fill each hand with shaving cream and must go back to their base to refill. Have an adult leader at each base helping to reload their hands with shaving cream. Cleanest team wins!
  • CONDIMENT BALLOON POP.  Teams get 1 balloon per person (if teams are uneven, then the smaller team will get extra balloons). Then one at a time, in relay fashion, a student runs to the kiddie pool and has to sit on his or her ballon to pop it. Students must sit on their balloons with their gluteus maximuses and no other part of their bodies. First team to pop all their balloons wins!
  • WATER SLIDE. Team 1 vs Team 2 – Line them up in a straight line a distance from the slide (for running room), and the team that can get everyone across the slide the fastest wins. You may only have one player on the slide at any given time. If a team breaks this rule, both players caught on the slide a one time must return to the back of the line.

Pro Tips:

  • TIP. Depending on how many students you have, you can either have two teams play against each other on every game, or if you have a good number of teams, you might want to consider having multiple teams and just build out a rotation in which each team can play other teams at the different games. The last version will require more supplies to play some of the games more often.
  • A simple way to win with parents on an event that will already worry them about the interiors of their cars for the ride home is to encourage students to bring a change of clothes and then give each kid a trash bag for their clothes. Some might even just throw the clothes away.
  • Game Variations.
    • SHAVING CREAM DOMINATION.  After you have played this game a few times through, you can change the object to get an adult leader or two. Just a fun way to get rid of any extra cream.
    • WATERSLIDE. The original idea of this game is to help clean off teams since it’s just them using a water slide. But if you have a lot of extra supplies left from your other games, you can add some or all to the waterslide as the king of the mess waterslide!
    • EXTRA GAME. If you play the waterslide using extra supplies from the other games, you will be left with a lot of really messy students! Parents will not like you if you send home students who are covered in all the mess from the games before. One way to can get students really clean is to have a race on who can get the cleanest the fastest. Just give each team a water hose and let them go!

    Creators:

    Kenny Campbell

    Get More Games.

    We know it’s hard to find (or create) quality youth group games, which is why we decided to put together the most incredible library of games we possibly could! The Grow Games and Icebreakers App has a library of more than 500+ games, and it’s always growing! There are team games, party games, screen games, team games, outdoor games, and indoor group games for youth ministry. All the games you could ever want, basically.

    This app is built for kids and youth ministry. All of our games are created by church leaders and ministry-tested!

    Plus, the games are fully customizable. Every game comes with graphics, instructions, and a place for you to add your notes, photos, videos, game categories, and game ratings. You can even submit your own original games if you have some you’re proud of!

    The app also comes with handy tools you might want to use during a game (or a sermon) like scoreboards, clocks, a prize wheel, polling capabilities, and a random name chooser.

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