Illustrations by Kasia Serafin/agencyrush.com
Five-minute fillers
Got some space to fill in a unit meeting? Try out these filler games
Here are some fun, quick games for you and your unit to enjoy. You can use them at the start or end of a meeting, or even when you just have a few minutes spare. We’ve suggested sections for each game, but they have no age requirements. So let loose and have some fun.
Lighthouse
Work together to get the ship to shore.
- Choose one person to be the lighthouse, one person to be the ship and the rest of you are rocks.
- If you’re the ship, go to one end of your space and put a blindfold on, or close your eyes. If you’re the lighthouse, go to the other end of the space opposite the ship. Now that the lighthouse and ship are in position, all the rocks need to spread out around the space between them.
- The goal is for the ship to get to the lighthouse without crashing into the rocks. As the ship moves, the lighthouse needs to make a continuous beeping noise. The ship needs to listen to the beeping to find the lighthouse. If the ship gets too close to a rock, the rocks need to make a swishing sound like waves to guide it away.
- Watch out! If the ship crashes into a rock, reset the game. You can swap around the roles. Try and find the best way to get your ship to shore!
Howdy, howdy
Say hello to a friend… then race to take their space!
- Get into a circle and sit down.
- Choose one player to start. They need to stand and begin walking around the circle. That player will choose an opponent by tapping them on the head.
- If you are tapped, stand up and walk in the opposite direction to the other player.
- When you both reach one another, stop, shake hands, and say “Howdy”.
- As soon as you’ve finished your howdies, turn and race back in the direction you walked to the empty spot in the circle. Whoever gets there first sits down and the other player stays standing.
- Too slow? Let’s go again! The player who didn’t make it will repeat the game. Keep going until you’re all howdy’d out!
Queen for an afternoon
Make each other laugh and have fun acting like royalty.
- Choose someone to be the Queen. They need to sit on a chair with their eyes closed or wearing a blindfold.
- One by one, you need to approach the Queen and say, ‘Good afternoon Your Majesty’. Disguise your voice to avoid detection! Make it silly and unexpected to amuse your Queen.
- The Queen must guess who spoke. If the Queen gets it right or laughs, they need to swap roles and you’ll have a new Queen. If the Queen gets it wrong, it’s someone else turn to try and make the Queen laugh.
Dress to impress relay
Split your unit into two or more teams.
- Mark out a starting line at one end of the room with masking tape.
- Choose one player from each team to stand at the other end of the room - they are the mannequin. The rest of you stand in your teams behind the starting line.
- Your leader will place a bag of clothes in front of each team. On the count of three, go! The first player should grab an item out of the bag and put it on.
- Player one can now race towards the mannequin player. When you reach the mannequin, take off the item of clothing and give it to them. Mannequin, put on the item. Once the mannequin has the clothing on, the first player can race back to the rest of the team and tap in the next player.
- Now, the next player should put on an item from the bag and repeat step 4.
- Keep going until the mannequin has all the clothes. Mannequin: when you’ve got it all on, and your team are back behind the starting line, race back in your new outfit. Then take all the items off and quickly put them back in the bag.
- The first team to complete the relay, wins!
One minute portrait
Get to know a friend and challenge your inner artist.
- Grab a sheet of paper and get into pairs. Each write your name at the top of your paper leaving a big space below.
- Swap your paper with your partner. Turn to your partner and tell them one fun fact about yourself. It could be your favourite food, the name of your pet or something you’re interested in. You’ll need to remember your partner’s fun fact for later.
- Now, it’s time to draw! Your leader will set a one-minute timer. When they tell you to go, pick up your pen and draw a portrait of your partner. BUT WAIT…you’re not allowed to look at your paper. Your challenge is to keep your eyes on your partner for the whole minute and draw their face without looking down at your sketch.
- When the timer is up, look at your masterpiece and show your partner the portrait!
- Form a circle and one by one show everyone the drawing of your partner. Introduce them by sharing the portrait and telling everyone their fun fact! Was it hard to keep your eyes off your drawing?
Alien, tiger, cow
Warm up for your unit meeting with this fun elimination game.
- Stand in a circle.
- On the count of three, choose one of these three options: Alien: hold your fingers up to your head like an antenna and say “Bleep, bleep, bleep”. Tiger: throw your hands out like claws and say “ROOOAAARRR”. Cow: put your hands to your tummy, stick your fingers out like udders and say “MOO”.
- Look around the circle. If the one you chose is the least popular, you’re out and need to sit down. Last person standing wins!
- Want to switch it up? This time try changing the goal, now everyone tries to become the SAME thing. See how many tries it takes for you to be in sync. You can’t discuss or signal to each other.
Four corners
Choose wisely so you can stay in the game and be the last player standing.
- Look around the room and give each corner a name. For example, you could name them after colours, or after each Girlguiding section. Make sure everyone knows which corner is which.
- Choose one player to stand in the middle of the room with their eyes closed. This player will do the guessing.
- Your leader will play some music, or you can all sing your favourite Girlguiding song. While the music is playing, everyone else move around the room, from corner to corner in whatever order you like. When your leader gives you the signal or when they pause the music – quickly rush to a corner!
- If you’re the guessing player, shout out the name of one corner. Everyone in that corner is eliminated! The guessing player can look to see who is left. If you’re out, go and sit in the middle of the room around the guessing player.
- Keep playing until the guessing player has eliminated everyone or when there is one winning player left standing.
Ping pong football
Score a goal in your mini ping pong football teams!
- On a table mark out two 10cm goals with masking tape on either end.
- Next, split into two teams of four. The remaining players can cheer the teams on, commentate, referee or set up more tables and have a tournament.
- Ready, steady, blow! Score a goal by blowing air through a straw at the ping pong ball, so it goes towards the other team’s goal. Work together to beat your opponents! You need players in defence as well as goal scorers.
- First team to score three goals, wins!
Teddy bear game
Catch, throw, catch, throw…make sure you’re not the one who drops the bear.
- Stand in a small circle, the smallest possible. Choose one person to start with the teddy bear. You’re going to need to pass it around the circle without dropping it.
- If you drop it, you need to go down on one knee. If you drop it again on your next turn, go down on both knees. Drop it three times? Place one of your arms behind your back. Four times? You’re out!
- Each time the teddy bear gets back to the person who started, everyone take one big step back. Keep passing the bear round the circle and taking steps back until all but one person is out, or you can’t take any more steps out of the circle.
Can I have a biscuit?
Laugh, cry or smile…use your acting skills and get emotional about biscuits.
- Stand in a circle.
- Your leader will call out an emotion. For example, it could be anger, fear, happiness, confusion, excitement, frustration, or love.
- Now go round the circle and each player will say, ‘Can I have a biscuit?’ in a way that represents the emotion.
- You can add actions or change the sentence to make it more of a challenge. Try saying words with different emphasis; does this change the meaning of your phrase?
- Entertain both yourself and your unit with your acting skills. Which emotion is the hardest to portray?
Zombies
This is a great icebreaker for the start of a new term to get to know everyone’s names.
- Stand in a big circle and go around the circle and one by one say your name like a zombie would. Zombies are slow and gruff, so do your best zombie impression!
- Choose one person to be the zombie. They should walk into the middle of the circle zombie style. Zombies walk slowly and have their arms stretched out in search of brains!
- Your leader will call out the name of someone in the circle. The zombie needs to start zombie walking towards that person. Before the zombie reaches them, they need to call out someone else’s name three times in a row.
- Zombie, if you hear a name three times in a row that’s your new target. Start walking to your new target. If you catch anyone, they become the next Zombie. Make it easier or harder by adding your own rules – like the size of the circle, or that you can’t call someone’s name whose been said before.
Who am I?
What if you weren’t you? What if you were someone else? Do you think you can guess your new identity?
- To begin, stand in a circle with a sticky note and pen.
- As a unit decide a theme, for example cartoon characters, pop singers, or superheroes. You have one minute to write down the name of a well-known personality on a sticky note.
- Stick the sticky note on the forehead of the person to your left, or pass it to them face down to stick on their own head (make sure they don’t see what it says).
- Look around at who everyone has got and then spread out around the room.
- When your leader tells you to go, start moving and approach different players. Ask each player one question at a time to discover your identity, and then move to another. You can only ask yes or no questions.
- When you think you know your identity, shout out: I KNOW WHO I AM! Everybody will pause to hear your guess. If you get it wrong, everyone will un-pause and keep asking questions. If you get it right, you win! Keep playing and answer questions to help the other players.
- See who is the first to work out who they are. What questions were the key to discovering their identity?
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