Retreats: Silliness
Now that you have all these gals together, what do you do with them?
Finding activities that fit your group, your creative theme and your spiritual theme can be a challenge. But, not impossible. There are ideas everywhere. Of course, some ideas work better than others and we have had our share of ideas that worked great on paper then flopped in real life. Here are few things we have noted when it comes to planning actvitites for groups of ladies.
There are so many ideas out there for simple, short activites that can be adapted for groups. Using 2-3 volunteers who dont mind being front of people to compete against each other make them even more fun. Competing against a few to use one hand to remove all the kleenex from a box , or unroll a roll of toilet paper or crepe paper as fast they can will make for a great, entertaining reason to laugh and loosen up!
These are great for when you have a speaker with a heavy topic, or after something especially emotional. It helps create some good balance to the day. Here are some of our favorites silly activitites: Musical ChairsHave everyone who wanted to participate stand up and move to the outside of the room. Beforehand we have everyone turn their chairs facing away from the table. Turned a number of chairs facing back towards the table, then play music. Of course, when the music stops all those without a seat are out.
To put it lightly, it was a hit for us! (From experience, watch those fiesty old ladies ..they are the most competitive!) Dramatic ReadingYou can ask for a volunteer to read a silly book (we used Green Eggs and Ham). You can quietly pre-assign a number of gals to respond in specific ways to certain repeated phrases in the book. For example, when your narrater reads "Sam I am" you may have a gal jump and quack like a duck; or maybe stand up, walk around her chair and sit back down. We had 5-8 of these.
By the end of the story things are pretty chaotic, and everyone will be laughing hysterically...guaranteed. Look at the sidebar for a downloadable file for this activity! Blind MakeoversNothing is funnier than having a gal blindly making over her sister! Taking two volunteers, have Girl #1 stand face the audience with her hands clasped behind her. Girl #2 stands behind the first, reaching her arms through the arms of Girl #1. Girl #2 is acting as the arms of Girl #1 now, and as such she will take a number of items (red lipstick, eye shadow, hair bows) lying nearby to 'makeover' her friend.
You can add in a pair of shoes, some over-sized clothes and a hat to finish the look. Using several sets of gals, you can add an element of competition with adds to the fun. First one to dress up wins! Princess Scavenger HuntBefore the activity began distribute a number of items in the audience. Place 2 princess scepters, 2 rolls of toilet paper, 2 tubes of red lipstick and 2 plastic tiaras on tables on ladies' heads, under chairs, etc.
Use 6 volunteers, and divide into 2 teams of 3. On each team is a Princess (seated on a chair), a Lady in Waiting (standing next to the princess) and a Knight (in the audience). The Knight must collect 5 items (sceptor, roll of TP, lipstick, tiara and a borrowed pair of fancy), take them one at a time to the Lady in Waiting, who then dresses the Princess in her gown (the entire roll of toilet paper), her lipstick, her scepter and her fancy shoes . The winning team is the one who collects and dresses their Princess first. Audience participation makes this one all the more fun. Funny Money One of our all time favorite activities was one that lasted all day. Start off with a pile of play money at each seat. At the beginning of the day, explain that earned money will go towards an auction at the end of the day for doorprizes or "favorite things" (every lady brings a "favorite thing" like favorite lipstick, case of favorite drink, favorite books, etc.).
There are many ways you can let the ladies earn money. For the morning icebreaker have a series of things you would "pay your sister" for. For instance, "Each person pay $5 to the sister at your table who has lived in the most countries." Or, "each person at the table pay the mother with the most kids as many dollars as she has children." or, "pay the woman who has been married the longest $50". Do this throughout the day, along with "paying" volunteers for activities, or leading discussion groups and for participating in things. Several times throughout the you can do things like "I will pay $20 to the first person to jump up on their chair and do the chicken dance" or "I will pay $10 to the first person who can sing a commercial jingle". You can be very creative to come up with reasons to pay each other, and with ways they can spend it at the end of the day! It is hilarious what a bunch of gals will do for fake money! |
Courtney Kendall Steed
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Have more ideas? Let me know and I will add them! I know your fellow planners would appreciate all the great input!
For some more serious ideas for activities, click here.
For some more serious ideas for activities, click here.