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THROUGH THE EYE OF A NEEDLE
While this game requires no actual needles, eyes are fairly necessary.
10 mins
Get each member of your group to make a paper plane and explain the game. One at a time they should come to the throw line (a line somehow marked out) and aim to throw their paper plane through a hula hoop (not the salted potato snack, obviously) held up by you or one of your leaders. If they manage to get the plane through the hole they progress to the next level. If they fail they are eliminated. Start with the hula hoop a couple of feet away from the throw line, and for each level move back an additional few feet, raising the skill level required to throw through it. If you have a larger group, who may get impatient waiting for their turn, have a couple of hoops for people to throw through simultaneously. Encourage the eliminated players to pick a plane to support as the levels progress.
THE WIND-TUNNEL CHALLENGE
The ultimate wind tunnel challenge is standing downwind of someone who’s just eaten a curry. This is somewhat more pleasant.
15 mins
Divide your group into teams of four or five and get each team member to construct a paper plane and mark it with a team emblem or colour. While they are doing this, find the longest length of space you have available and place along it, at random, as many electrical fans of various sizes as you can - to create your wind tunnel. Angle them so they create inconsistent air-flows, and challenge your teams to see which of them can get their planes to fly the furthest distance along the ‘wind tunnel’.
Once your teams have managed to work out the best technique for this (allow them to repeat a number of times to work this out as a team), rearrange your fans so they are all on side, blowing the same way directly across the ‘wind tunnel’. See if any of your teams can get their planes to turn at a right-angle using these as aids.
Finally, get all your teams to work together to try and divert the flight of one plane by simply using the power of their (collective) breath. Get them all grouped together in one spot and gently throw a plane past them. Then get them to try and blow in unison to affect the flight of the plane as much as possible. They probably won’t be able to, but it might be fun to try!
HANG-TIME
Another paper plane game. Not the US basketball- based teen sitcom, unfortunately.
5 mins
The challenge in this game is to construct a paper plane that will stay in the air the longest. Once everyone has made their planes, divide them into groups of about eight and explain that these are the qualifying groups. One group at a time. They will all have to throw their paper planes, ensuring that they throw at the same time, and the planes that stay in the air the longest will qualify for the timing rounds. Make sure you have plenty of leaders and helpers to keep track of the planes that are the last to ‘land’. Dependent on how many players you have overall, you might want to adjust how many planes qualify out of each group. The intention should be to arrive at a final group of about eight who have qualified, so adjust your qualification bar accordingly!
Once you have your final eight, time their flights individually to find the best two, and then set them to fly head-to-head in a final hang-time battle. Get them to throw at exactly the same time. The one whose plane remains in the air the longest wins.
PAPER PLANE PIGEON POST
Perhaps the most complicated game in Premier Youthwork history.
10 mins
This game requires a large playing area. Divide your group into threes and give each player a pile of paper and a pen. Send one member of each three to the far end of the hall, getting them to spread out evenly across the width. Place one member of each team across the middle of the hall (also spread, matching their teammates at the end of the hall), and get the remaining member of each team to go to the other end of the hall (again, matching the spread of their team).
Give each player at the far end of the hall a Bible and explain to everyone that you are going to give the team member at your end of the hall a set of (numbered) instructions and questions, which they have to communicate to their teammate at the far end of the hall. The teammate needs to reply, and so on. Player two in the middle of the hall, through whom the teams’ messages have to pass, will also have a set of (lettered) instructions they will need to act on before passing the message on. The players are not allowed to speak and can only communicate via written instructions on paper planes.
So player one writes the question on a piece of paper, makes an plane out of it and throws it to player two (in the middle of the hall), who has to carry out their instruction, before passing it on to player three at the far end of the hall. They then have to find the answer, write it down and pass it back (via plane, and passed through player two) to player one, who can then move on to the second instruction.
To make matters trickier, the players aren’t allowed to take more than one step to retrieve a paper plane that has been thrown to them, so if the throw is inaccurate the player who threw it will need to rewrite the message and make a new paper plane.
The winning team is the first in which all team members have completed the instructions / questions. You can make up your own set of instructions, and make it as complicated / creative / long as you like, but an example of what might work is included below. Put the instructions in sealed envelopes, labelled instruction one, two, A, B, etc, and give them to the appropriate players under the condition that they cannot open the next instruction until they have completed the first one.
Example instructions:
Instruction one: Find out what activity King David did in…
Instruction A: Add the Bible reference: (2 Samuel 6:14) to the message.
Instruction two: Find out what creature is mentioned in…
Instruction B: Add the Bible reference: (Luke 13:34) to the message.
Instruction three: Do the activity from instruction 1, in the style of the creature in instruction 2 and get player two to do the same.
Instruction C: Do what player one tells you to do, and tell player three to do the same.
