Number of Players: 6 to 12
Age: 10+
Supplies Needed: None
Often teens are a challenge at family reunions. So here’s a fun game that the teens at your reunion or anytime will love. I learned this game while in college and introduced it to my high-school age sister who played it with her friends. It provided hours of free and simple fun. This game needs at least six players to be fun and more than twelve is too difficult.
To begin the players sit in a circle and each player chooses a discreet and silent sign. For example touching a knee, elbow, or nose, holding up a finger or two, scratching the tummy, sticking out your tongue, lifting your eyebrows, etc. You want a sign that can be done quickly, easily, and without calling to much attention to yourself.
Each person does their sign and shows the rest of the group, no one can have the same sign. Go around the circle at least twice as each person repeats his or her sign. With younger players this may need to be done a few more times.
Then one person is chosen to be it and leaves the room for a minute. Another person is chosen to start the sign. When the person who is it comes back in they stand in the center of the circle. Then the person chosen to start the sign does their own sign then somebody else’s sign. That person does their own sign to acknowledge receipt of the sign and then somebody else’s sign. The sign is passed around the circle this way (it doesn’t have to go to the person seated next to you, but anyone in the circle). The person who is it tries to discover who has the sign. If they say the name of the person who has the sign they take that person’s place and he or she is now it.
The key is to pass the sign quickly and often. This keeps the game fun and the person it constantly searching. If the person who is it has a hard time discovering who has the sign you can have them switch places with the person who does and start over again.