Sosnovo Games!

I was a little worried about this trip regarding games. Usually on a mission trip I can bring some supplies and things to play with and leave with the Day Center, but on this trip I only had one bag that I could pack and take with me overseas and this would need to hold all the crafts, Bible Study material, and anything else I could fit in. I didn’t have room for a lot of games, so I was concerned things wouldn’t work out… but I was wrong!

There are many games that can be played without supplies! One game we played had all the kids sit at a table in a circle and place their hands on the table. But their hands had to crossover the person next to them. Then they had to slap their hand in order around the circle. Sounds simple enough, but visually the order is confused when you have the hands crossed. I think the kids could have played this game for hours! They loved it and there was no supplies needed.

Then we had them in a room and we had them mill about. We would call out a number (in Russian) and they would have to make a group according to that number. Well, that game got pleasantly violent as kids grappled for one another to create a group. You will see on the pictures the kids in a clump on the floor having the best of time!

One of my favorites is a game I call “Head Plant” although that’s not the real name… its just the name I gave it! The kids are in two groups of five or more. We would call out, “5 hands, 4 feet, and 2 heads” and the kids in each group would have to configure themselves so that their group had only 5 hands, 4 feet, and 2 heads touching the floor. It’s a crazy game and again no supplies were needed!

Lastly, Tina and the translators worked on a game for several days that we would do on Thursday. We had two teams and each team would roll a dice to see what number they would get. The kids in each group would run to find a paper pinned on the wall that matched that number. We placed 50 of these numbered games around the outside of the building in various order. On each numbered paper was an activity that the team needed to complete before they could go on to the next numbered game. Each of the 50 games were things like, “count backwards from 50 (in Russian of course), wrap a group member in toilet paper head to toe, or take a bite from an apple hanging from the basketball hoop.

Again, this took little supplies and required only a big imagination! A BIG thanks to Tina who led the games and created a lot of fun for all of us!