[0:00]John from California in the United States, asks, what are some quick energizers I can use with a large group? That's a great question, John. And in my opinion, you can never have too many energizers that are fun and engaging to add to your activity repertoire. If this sounds like something you'd like to know, here's what's about to happen. I'm going to share five of these quick energizers in under five minutes.
[0:33]See the clock up there? That's a stopwatch, and this is my commitment to you. I'm going to share five in five, five quick energizers in under five minutes, roughly one minute each. So over the course of the next few minutes, no more than five minutes, and there's my judge, you will walk away with five activities that are energizing in their nature, that will work with any large group that you work with. Oh, and if you make it all the way to the end, I've got a special give away bonus just for you. Number one, the clapping game. With my group in front of me, I instruct them to be sure that they can see each of my two hands. And their only instruction is to focus on the two hands and watch every time they might pass in front of the other. And when they see that, each person, but collectively as a group, is invited to clap, to give one simultaneous clap, for example.
[1:31]Notice that I've changed the direction, I've changed the pace. I have it above my head, below my head, under my leg. I have a little bit of fun with that. I do smart ones. I do short ones. I do quick ones. And then at some point, if we really want to trigger a lot of laughter, is that I I go like that. They think that my hands are about to to cross, and of course, they think that's going to happen and they end up clapping. Without doubt, it always triggers a great deal of laughter. Okay, time's ticking. Number two, gotcha. Every one is invited to place one of their hands. Make it clear, right hand or left hand, nice and flat in front of them. And then to pair up or be with a small group to use their index finger and place it into the palm of their partner or another person in their group. You can probably work out what's going to happen from here. When you say the magic word go, the object is for each person to catch the finger of the person who has their finger in their palm at the same time. Each person's trying to avoid being caught. Explosive triggers of laughter at that moment. Because you sometimes don't know what's about to occur, and there are just so many different ways of varying this, not the least of which is just changing the hand. So now you've got a different finger placed into the palm of your partner. You can have a whole big circle, you can cross your arms, you can do it to two people away from you. If you check out playmeo.com, it'll give you lots of different variations that you can use to squeeze even more value from that energizer. Our third energizer is kind of oddly named, but if you look carefully, it's actually my name spelled backwards, Kram Drallock. And that's what you're inviting everyone to do, is that either with a partner or in small groups, invite everyone to think about their name and to say it out loud as if they were saying it backwards. So, for example, if your name was Peter, you'd be retep, as the same way Mark becomes Kram. So everyone has a bit of fun with that, they think that's hilarious, when you say your name backwards. But more importantly, invite the rest of their little group to listen to the name and then imagine where in the world would that name perhaps be to originate. So Kram Drallock, sounds like someone from a Viking time in Denmark. It doesn't matter, you can't get this wrong, but it's inviting people to have a little bit of a playful moment with their names to generate some energy. Number four really ramps up the value of interaction and inviting people to share at a level that they feel comfortable. Here, you just simply need to ask a series of questions of the whole group who are perhaps in partners or in small groups and to respond to the each question. And you don't want to make them really dumb, like, you know, if you were a car, what type of car would you be? Or what's your favorite color? Ah! Do something like, right now, what's stuck to your refrigerator door at home? Or where in the world would you describe as paradise? Go to playmeo.com, the icebreaker question exchange has dozens and dozens of really fun, non-traditional and interesting questions that you can use that will energize your group. And of course, you've probably got time for one, two, or three questions in the space of a couple of minutes. With an eye on the time, I've got time for one more. Mr. and Mrs. Wright. It's way up there in terms of my top energizers for large groups. I invite people to stand, or they could be sitting, it doesn't really matter, but they just need a little bit of room so that they can either step to the left and right, or lean to the left and right. And as I share the story, they are invited to lean or step to the left every time they hear the word left, or lean to the right or step to the right every time they hear the word right. So, for example, I'd like to tell you a story about Mr. and Mrs. Wright. Everyone steps to the right. One evening, they were baking cookies and Mrs. Wright suddenly called out, Oh no, there is no flour left. You will need to go out to the store right now. You get the idea. Enormous amounts of energy, lots of fun, very simple, and you can never have enough of those energizers as part of your kitbag. Hey, how did I go? Did I manage to share five energizers in under five minutes? If I did, go ahead and hit the like button for me, would you? Or if I happened to go over five minutes, but you actually enjoyed one or more of those activities, could you do us a favor and go ahead and like the video? And if you really liked what I've just shared, go ahead and subscribe to our YouTube channel, because what I've got now in store for you is a special bonus. As a special bonus for getting to this part of the video, because you're into the business of working with groups and energizers, I've got a free e-book for you. If you simply go to playmeo.com/free-ebook, as you can see on the screen, and you'll be able to download a 32-page ebook, which features 10 of my favorite top 10 icebreakers, energizers, and group games. Completely free, all you need to do is give up your email address. So check that out, playmeo.com/free-ebook. It's yours for free. If you haven't already, go ahead and hit the like button, the subscribe button, the bell button, all of those buttons down there at the base of this video. I would really appreciate it. And as I always do, I really appreciate you watching all the way to the end of this video. Thank you so much. Just remember, I'm just a comment away, so if you've got a question based on anything I've just shared here, or anything related to facilitation or group games and activities, I would love to hear from you. So just drop it in the comments below, and I promise, I will respond, ordinarily, within 12 hours. Again, thanks so much for watching. Have fun out there.
