Stacks - an Ice-Breaking Game: Be Prepared to Sit on Players' Laps

This is a fun game to play with a large group of teenagers, possibly a youth group, when you need to lighten the mood and get everyone comfortable with one another. Stacks is a great ice-breaker activity. In order to use this game with your group, you will want to make sure no one is opposed to slight physical contact with one other as they will be sitting on one another's laps.

First of all, have everyone place their chair in a circle and designate a leader, who is usually the group leader who wants to partake in Stacks to be with the kids, but doesn't actually want to physically play. After everyone is settled in a large circle, the leader will call out a classifying statement such as, "Everyone wearing sneakers..." and then tell them to move a certain amount of chairs, "...move three seats to your left." If you're wearing sneakers, you then stand up and move three seats to your left and if someone is already sitting in that chair, that's okay, just sit on their lap!

The leader continues to call out classifying statements and directions until your group gets tired of the game, as there is no real end or purpose, besides to get a good laugh. At the end of this article I will include several examples of classifying statements to be used.

This activity is just for entertainment since it isn't hard for the leader to do a little calculating in their head and end up having five, six, seven people sitting on the same chair. (Note- be sure the chairs you are using are sturdy to prevent any injuries.) If you are on the bottom of the stack and the leader calls out a classifying statement in which you fit, you can't move unless everyone on top of you classifies too. The only way for anyone in a stack to move is if the person on top of them has to move too.

As the leader of the group, feel free to mess with the group since this game is simply to get everyone to laugh, enjoy themselves, and open up to each other.

Here are several samples of classifying statements but feel free to change them to suit your group and add as many as you wish since there is no real "end" to this activity except your own time constraints.

"If you're wearing anything blue, move two seats to the right."

"If you're the youngest child in your family, move four seats to the left."

"If you're wearing clothes, move three seats to the left." (Statements that obviously include everyone should be used occasionally to keep everyone on their toes.)

"If you're in high school, move two seats to the right."

This is just one of the many activities you can do with your group to get everyone feeling more comfortable with one another, check out some of my other articles about ice-breaking activities for group settings.