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This is a simple yet innovative game created by Calvin Teo, a student facilitator from National University of Singapore (NUS). Called Facilitators@NUS, they are a bunch of very enthusiastic students who conducts teambuilding programme for the varsity clubs and societies. I had the privilege of training them in games leadership and facilitation skills.

Prop(s): 1 ball.

How to play:

• Give a group (not more than 8 members) a ball.
• They are to travel a route (set by you) with everyone touching the ball with the tips of their index fingers at all times.
• Include some ‘obstacles’ along the route (e.g. stairs, narrow pillars) as challenges.
• If anyone loses contact with the ball, the group will have to restart the game.

Variation:

1. An alternative to restarting the activity as a forfeit is to blindfold the person who loses contact with the ball.

Caution:

• When the players are going up or down stairways, position yourself below the group to ‘spot’ them in the event of a fall.

Baloon Tag

Prop(s): 1 balloon per player.

How to play:

• Everyone inflates a balloon up to about the size of a human head.
• Each player has to balance his balloon on the back of his outstretched hand. No one is allowed to grab the balloon between his fingers.
• Each player has to try to knock the balloon off the other players’ hands while preventing his own balloon from being knocked off.
• Anyone who loses a balloon is out of the game.
• The last player left with a balloon wins.

Variations:

1. Allow players to pick up their own balloons should they dropped them on the floor and continue playing. Stop the game when everyone has had enough fun.
2. Players form pairs and interlock elbows. 1 partner balances a balloon while the other tries to knock other players’ balloons off (see picture - below).

Note to the facilitator:

• Players are only allowed to hit the balloons of others. Hitting of hands to knock off the balloon is forbidden. But then again, if the players are having fun and not complaining about it, let it go.af

Baloon Tag

This game was originally introduced by Karl Rohnke as ‘Never, Never Miss’ (source: Funn ‘N Games). I adapted it by using markers in place of shoes and adding a new condition, thus transforming it into a problem-solving game.

Prop(s): 1 blue marker and 1 red marker for each player.

How to play:

• Have everyone sit in a circle around a table or on the floor.
• Everyone gets 1 blue marker and 1 red marker.
• Place the blue markers on the right hand side and the red markers on the left hand side of the players.
• Sing the following ditty:
• Di Di Dum
• Di Di Dum
• Di Di Di Di Dum (Keep repeating)
• Every time the word ‘Dum’ is said, each player must pass his blue markers to the person on the right and the red marker to the person on the left.
• If the pass is done correctly, everyone should have 1 blue marker and 1 red marker.
• The challenge is to do so repeatedly without making any mistakes such as messing up the colours of the markers.

Variation: Have a special set of markers for 1 player (e.g. wrapped with a special tape). The target is for the group to move their markers until the set of special markers returns to the original person.

Note to the facilitators: You can use anything as long as they are available in 2 sets. They can be 2 sets of different coloured balls, 2 sets of different coloured ice-cream sticks or 2 sets of different items (e.g. a marker and a plastic ball). You can even try using a pen and a crumpled piece of paper.