Once upon a time, this was my blog for Ward Activity Ideas. Since then, I have served in YW, and Mid-singles. Currently, I am leading the Primary Children's singing time. Thus, I have expanded this site to include anything LDS activity related.

Sunday, August 16, 2009

Jigsaw Jamboree

Who: All adults, 18+
Objective: To mingle and get to know one another
Budget: $0 (used plates and napkins we already had on hand)
Flyer:
Set-Up: There were 5 round tables set up, each containing 1-500 piece puzzle.

How-To-Play: Players are invited to sit at a table, and told not to begin their puzzle until the sound of the bell (which I held in my hand). Players are also instructed that it is a competition and the first table to complete their puzzle wins. However, there is a catch. Anytime the bell is sounded, players must get up from the table and switch to a new table. It does not matter which table they move to, as long as they move. The bell is sounded at random intervals.

We did this in January as our kick-off activity. Everyone loved it and it was fun because you never knew when you would have to get up. I was worried that 500 pieces would be too overwhelming. Surprisingly enough, it was not. Once the first table finished, the other tables did not want to quit. They wanted to continue until all of the puzzles were finished. We have a good mix of young couples and elderly, so this was something that all were able to enjoy without trying to explain too many rules (like if we would have played Scattergories or something).

Turn-Out: We had about 25 people come, which was actually perfect. It would have probably gotten a little too crowded with more than 5 or 6 bustling around each puzzle.