WeRead Powered by ReaderPub
Ten recreational parties cover

Ten recreational parties

Chapter 29: 5. BALLOON SNATCHING
By Helen Durham
Open in WeRead

Explore more books like this:

How To ...Plays/Films/Dramas

About This Book

A practical manual offers ten themed recreational programs for small groups and community gatherings, presenting step-by-step plans for games, relays, costumed scenes, and simple dramatics. Each program includes suggestions for invitations, decorations, props, participant arrangements, and scoring, ranging from playful parlor contests using peanuts, newspapers, or balloons to pantomime and cultural tableaux, a mock street or circus scene, and a brief Christmas service. Directions balance quick, low-prep amusements with more elaborate costuming and staging so groups can scale entertainment to their time and resources.

BALLOON PARTY

Decorate the room with balloons, and perhaps crêpe paper streamers. Upon arriving give every guest a crêpe paper cap to which he may attach a balloon for decoration. Give balloons as prizes for each game. All the balloons which are used as prizes may be effectively used as a central decoration in some such way as follows. Have a large barrel hoop, bound with crêpe paper, suspended from the ceiling in the center of the room. To this attach by strings dozens of colored balloons. When a person wins a balloon, give him one of these at once or wait until all the games are over and the final score is taken and then present the balloons as a final ceremony.

1. BALLOON RELAY

Three or four strings should be stretched tightly from one end of the room to the other, about four feet from the floor. An ordinary brass ring hangs on each taut string. To each of these rings attach a bright-colored balloon.

Divide the players into even groups, according to the number of strings. Line them up at one end of their respective strings. At a given signal, the leader of each line starts blowing the balloon on his string down to the other end of the room. After each leader has taken his balloon down to the other end of the room, he runs back to place and touches off the next player in line, who runs down to the balloon and returns it to the original place in the same fashion. The third player in line then takes his turn, and so on. Of course no player must touch the balloon with his hands. A balloon is given as a reward to the player in each line who accomplishes the feat most quickly.

2. BALLOON TOSSING GAME

Keep the players in the same formation. Each group is given a large sheet which they hold by the edges parallel to the floor. At a given signal the director tosses a balloon into the center of the sheet. Each team tries to keep this balloon tossing in the air by moving the sheet up and down. No one is allowed to touch the balloon save the director. Even if it falls to the floor the director must pick it up and put it back in place. The group which keeps the balloon moving the greatest number of minutes wins. Each player of that winning group gets a balloon as a prize.

3. MUSICAL BALLOON PARTNERS

Give each person a colored balloon, being careful that there is an even number of each color. The two people having the same color march together. An extra person, who marches alone, is given a balloon of any of the colors used. When the music stops, everyone must quickly change partners, choosing a new one who carries a balloon of the same color as his own. This gives the extra person an opportunity to get a partner, who, however, must carry a balloon of his color. When the music again starts, the new person left without a partner marches alone, waiting his chance to get a partner.

4. BALLOON VOLLEY BALL

Stretch a piece of colored string across the room. The object is the same as in volley ball, that is, to keep the balloon off the floor on your own side and make it touch the floor on your opponents’ side. Use either one or two balloons, depending upon the number of players. Of course use only the simplest rules of volley ball, thus making the game suitable to play in the average room. Each player on the winning side gets a balloon.

5. BALLOON SNATCHING

A large balloon is placed on a chair, or preferably on a small stool, anywhere on a line which is halfway between two even lines of players. At a given signal a player from each line walks forward to the balloon. Each tries to snatch it and run back to his place without letting his opponent touch him or the balloon. If he arrives safely it counts one for his side. The next two players then try the same stunt. After each pair of players has tried the stunt, each member of the line having the largest score gets a balloon.

6. TABLE BALLOON

The players are seated at a table. The object of the game is for each side to bat several balloons back and forth without letting them drop on the table. If a side fails to return the balloon while it is in midair, it counts one against them. Players may rise to bat the balloon when it is necessary but they must immediately sit down again. Each player on the winning side gets a balloon.

7. BALLOON DANCING

This introduces the game element into social dancing.

Give to each person a colored balloon, being sure that there is an even number of balloons of the same color. Each dancer must find and dance with a partner with a balloon of the same color. When the music stops, everyone must find a new partner with a balloon of the same color.

Give to each couple a balloon. At a given signal all start dancing, at the same time keeping their balloons tossing in the air. If a balloon falls to the floor it counts against that couple. The couples who keep their balloons in constant motion throughout a dance receive a balloon as a prize.