Following are some suggestions for short activities to encourage participants to move around, relax, take a break from what they are doing or get to know each other better. Some may have relevance to a topic, some may develop skills and others are designed simply to change the pace or focus of the training. Energisers and games can be particularly useful after a long presentation, or to start the first afternoon session of a workshop. As a general rule, energisers should be chosen with a sensitivity to the cultural, gender and religious norms of the group. People’s physical abilities should also considered.
‘Fruit salad’ - this is an energiser that can also be used as a way of forming random groups. First decide on the number of groups needed, then elicit the same number of types of fruit from the group (e.g. four groups = oranges, bananas, mangoes, papaya). Allocate a fruit to each person, making sure all the fruit types are used. Arrange a circle of chairs in the middle of the room, with one less chair than the number of participants. Everyone sits, except for one person who stands in the middle. The person in the middle then calls out one of the fruits. All those with that name run to find another chair at the same time as the person in the middle. One person will be left standing in the middle again, and they then call out a fruit name - all those with that name run to find another seat. At the end, the facilitator calls out “Fruit Salad” which means that everyone has to get up and find another seat. The energiser should only last ten minutes, and after this, all the fruit types can form small groups.
‘Move to the spot’ - this energiser takes five minutes. Ask participants to spread around the room and to pick a particular ‘spot’ that is ‘theirs’. Then ask people to move around the room, doing something suggested by the facilitator, such as: “Say hello to anyone wearing red; Hop, skip or jump; Whistle or make a strange sound; Walk backwards”, and so on. When the facilitator says “Stop!”, everyone has to get back to their ‘spot’ as soon as possible. This game can be fun, and gets the energy going, if it is not done for too long - people will get bored quite quickly.
‘Ha!ha!ha!’ - this energiser is useful for changing pace or if there is tension in the group. The facilitator explains that s/he is going to make them laugh. The facilitator starts by saying “Ha!” and getting the next person to repeat this, adding another “Ha!”. Participants then repeat what their neighbour says, adding another “Ha!” each time. In this way, people are ‘made’ to laugh and very quickly everyone will be laughing. Try it out in social situation first - it does work!
‘Making rain’ - this is similar to the ‘Ha!Ha!Ha!’ energiser. Everyone sits in a circle and the facilitator starts by drumming her/his fingers on a table or chair. The next person starts to drum their fingers, then the next, until everyone is drumming their fingers. The sound is like that of heavy rain or a thunderstorm. End the exercise when everyone is ‘making rain’.
‘Animal families’ - prepare slips of paper with the names and family members of different animals (e.g. Mother Elephant, Father Elephant, Sister Elephant and Brother Elephant; Mother Lion, Father Lion...). Participants are given a slip of paper and they should go round the room looking for their ‘family’ . The facilitator then calls out “family reunion” and everyone has to quickly find their ‘family’. Noises of the animals can be made if an extra element of chaos is wanted.
‘A’s and B’s’ - this energiser can also be used to form random groups. Find an open space for this exercise. Participants should silently choose one person in the group to be their ‘A’ and one person to be their ‘B’ (there are no criteria for selecting As and Bs). Once everyone has made their choice, the Facilitator explains that people should now try to get as close to their ‘A’s” as possible and as far away from their ‘B’s’. People should be encouraged to move quickly - the only rule is that they are not allowed to touch anyone. After a few minutes, participants are asked to reverse the process (getting close to the ‘B’s’ and far away from the ‘A’s”). This exercise will make people move about in unusual ways and should generate a lot of laughter.
Knotty problem – this energiser can be used for problem solving or giving clear instructions. Ask for 2 volunteers for this exercise, and then ask them to leave the room. Then ask everyone left to stand up, and get themselves into a ‘knot’ by intertwining hands/arms, while holding others’ hands. Then, when the group is in a significant muddle, ask the 2 volunteers to come in and sort out the knot by giving instructions. They should be able to enable the group to form a circle while holding hands. This only works when the volunteers empower and encourage all participants to work it out together - otherwise they don’t generally get far!
Another option is to give (or get someone else to give) instructions to the group, i.e. “all talk to each other and work out a way to undo this knotty problem. Go ahead. Over to you. That’s it. etc.” and observe the dramatic difference - generally, knot undone within a minute or two.
Plank – this energiser is good for helping people learn names, laugh and get to know one another. Ask participants to line up in two places in the training room. Now ask them to reorder themselves alphabetically by name (or by birthday, without the year, or other) without talking to one another. The trainer then checks for accuracy.
One-two-three, stamp-clap-? – Ask participants to get into pairs. Count out loud alternately 1,2,3,1,2,3 etc. Develop a rhythm, and then ask pairs to find another partner, and replace 1 with stamping your foot. Then find another partner and repeat, but also replace 2 with a clap. Find another partner and repeat, but replace 3 with any sort of gesticulation and accompanying noise that you want. Ask each pair to demonstrate their stamp-clap-? to the whole group
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