Turning Club Announcements Into A Game

Written by Rob Schreiber, Area Director in San Diego, California.

Many of you have played the childhood game of telephone. Here’s a way to use an old familiar game to share your announcements in a creative way.

How to Play

• First, choose the phrases kids whisper by selecting specific announcements or funny things about kids or leaders. Have these written down.
• If you have enough space, get everyone in a straight line, spaced far enough apart so that others can’t hear what you’re whispering into the next player’s ear. If space is tight, try arranging everyone in a circle instead.
• The first player starts the game by whispering a single word or phrase into the ear of the next player.
• If the next player didn’t quite hear it, well, that’s a part of the fun of the game! The next player whispers what they think they heard to the following player, and so on. This continues until the word or phrase reaches the very last person.
• The last player gets the most important part, announcing what word or phrase they heard! It’s fun to get to see just how much it changed from one person to the next!
• The first player then goes on to state what the actual word or phrase was.
• The last player then gets to jump to the first player position so and starts the game over.

Variations

Drawing

• In this variation, the first player chooses a word and uses pencil and paper to draw a single line to begin the illustration of the word.
• You cannot lift the pencil, and once you do, it’s time to pass it to the next player.
• The next player is quietly told the word and must continue the drawing, again with just one line.
• At the end of the round, the last player is not told the word and must guess the word by looking at the drawing!

Teams

• This is the best way to play with a large group and fun if you like competition!
• Even teams are made and one single person whispers the same phrase to the first player on each team.
• Whichever team is closest to having the correct phrase at the end wins!

Rumor has it

• In this variation, instruct each person to change just one or two words out of the entire phrase and see just how much words get twisted, just like a rumor that gets spread!

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