“Breaking the Ice” or “Fun Games to Play with Teens”



“Will Work for Candy”

Sometimes it can be hard to get teens excited about coming to the library. Class visits or any large group of teens can be particularly difficult. One way to get the teens excited is to start your visit with a game and some candy. Teens love food and everyone loves to be rewarded when they answer a question correctly. So go buy a couple bags of mini candy and play some games:

Who Wants to Win a Candy Bar: Based on the popular game show “Who wants to be a millionaire” This game uses pop culture trivia questions and easy props. You can tailor your questions to be relevant to a holiday or theme. You start the game by asking a question that everyone should be able to answer. The person who is able to answer the question first and correctly becomes the contestant. From there you ask a series of increasingly difficult questions. This is where you can tailor the game for your purpose. You can make up questions on just about anything: pop culture, general trivia, a presentation that you are giving or any other themes.

The contestant has all the same lifelines as in the original show (ask the audience, phone a friend, and 50/50). You can make easy props (a cardboard phone, foam poll the audience sign, etc). After each correct question the contestant is given a small piece of candy, from there they have a choice to keep their candy and quit or risk their candy for the big prize (a large candy bar). The teens love the cheesy props and really get into the questions. This is a fun game that is popular with everyone.

Hangman- This works best if it is a class you have already worked with. I use book titles that I book talked the week before as the words. Since they are playing collectively, I let the teens take turns guessing the letters. Because they are generally books that someone checked out the last time, it doesn’t take long for the group to guess the title, but the teens love it. Give them candy every time a letter is revealed correctly and a couple pieces to the person who deduces the title.

Flipping the Book Talk- After I give a few book talks, I ask the kids to tell me about a great book they read last time and what makes it so wonderful. It is a great chance for them to learn to summarize a book on the spot and describe its attributes. Not surprising is that teens love to talk about good books as much as we do. Give a piece of candy for every book discussed.

[pic]created by Rainey Wyatt

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