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When I've gone on bus trips with my mother's work to New York, the
woman who has organized the trip always has planned activities (and
this is for a bunch of adults). One of the games she always plays is
BINGO, using regular playing cards. We would play $1 for 4 or 5 hands.
Each player gets 5 cards (mix together a number of decks to get the
needed amount of cards). Using a single deck start calling off the
cards (i.e., 8 of spades, Queen of Diamonds). As a card is called,
anybody who has that card "turns it over". Once a person has "turned
over" all 5 cards in their hand they yell BINGO!!! That person then
gets a fourth or fifth of the pot. Instead of having the kids buy in to
play you could just have inexpensive prizes, probably the sillier the
better.
The other thing she always had are those word puzzles, you know like
the word GROUND with 6 feet underneath it means "Six Feet Under
Ground", etc. She would have mimeographed sheets of these things, pass
them out to each seat (presumably two people). She then would give a
time limit and we would see who could get the most of them figured out.
Good Luck on your trip.
Patty
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| We used to travel a lot .... I think that book stores carry 'popular
travel games' books, most games don't require anyone to get out of
their seat.
Some games we did;
o License plate game - write down all the different license plates you
see and try to see how many states you can get.
o Alphabet game - You have to look around and find something that
begins with each letter in the alphabet, sequentially. Thus first you
have to see something (outside the bus!) that begins with "A"
(automobile), then something that begins with "B" (bridge), then
something that starts with "C" (coffee shop) etc etc. You can vary it
- it has to be a SIGN, or has to be a store, or whatever you like.
o 'I'm going on a picnic'. This is fun because they have to listen,
and it requires intense concentration. For a group that large, it'd be
best to break into groups of 8 or so. Go through the alphabet, and
each person has to bring something, 'on a picnic' that coincides with
their letter of the alphabet. The 1st person has to pick something for
'a', the 2nd person has to repeat 'a' and bring something that begins
w/ 'b', the 3rd person has to repeat 'a' and 'b' and bring something
that begins with 'c'. And so on. If you mess it up, you're out, and
the rest continue. You can make it be whatever you want - say it can
ONLY be food, or has to be related to sports, or whatever. It's hard
to remember 26 things! So, for example, if I'm on the letter 'F', I'd
say something like "I'm going on a picnic, and I'm going to bring;
apples, bananas, cucumbers, dandelions, an erasable pen and fifty
frogs! ... you get the idea.
o 20 Questions Each person is ASSIGNED a person (or an event). You
should set this up ahead of time. Everyone else knows what this person
is, but this person does NOT know. They can ask 20 yes/no questions to
determine who/what they are.
o Who Am I? Each person thinks of someone (real or fictional, but
should be well known) and writes it down so no one else can see, on a
piece of paper. The rest of the people are allowed to ask as many YES
or NO questions as they like, until they guess who it is. They HAVE to
be yes/no questions. Usually this is played in a circle, so you have
to wait your turn to ask a question, but it can be more fun to just
'blurt out' questions. Beginning questions are usually like; are you a
male? are you a female? are you alive? are you dead? were you ever
alive? (as in a cartoon character!) are you in politics? on tv? Again
you can focus it to a particular topic (it has to be a famous sports
figure, or someone from the movies or whatever).
o I'm thinking of .... a simple-minded guessing game; look around the
bus and mentally pick something. Then you say 'I'm thinking of
something' and the rest of the people have to guess what it is, again
with yes/no questions. For the little kids, when I play this, I
usually also indicate the color of it - "I'm thinking of something red"
o Balloon-volleyball. Get a few small balloons and fill them with air
(NOT helium), then you have to bat the balloons around, and not let
them touch the ground. This is probably fairly easy on a bus, so you
may want to have lots of balloons going around to make it more
difficult.
o Find out what type of music the kids like, then borrow some of the
most popular tapes (from them!). Have a contest to who can 'sing the
next 10 words' (or however many). Play a portion of the song, and then
stop the tape in the middle of the song .... the kids have to try to
finish the song, or sing the next part.
o Name the capitals .... try to see who can name the state capitals,
maybe tie it in w/ your license plate games.
o Name all the states that end in "A" .... the majority of them DON'T
end in "A", but you'd be surprised how many do!
o Try one of those Alphabet games with musical groups .... you know, it
would go something like (A-B-C-D...)... Aerosmith, Beach Boys, Culture
Club etc (of course they've probably never HEARD of these groups! (-;)
o If you don't mind them standing up, you can have a contest to see
what 'row' can pass the apple the fastest. Most buses sit 2-across in
a seat, 2 seats across the width of the bus. This would give you 4
rows down the length of the bus. In the front row across, give each
kid a large apple (or maybe grapefruit, or softball or something), and
have them tuck it under their chin. They have to turn around in their
seat and pass it to the person behind them, who takes it with their
chin. And so on down the line. You're not allowed to touch it with
your hands at all - JUST your chin/chest. If it falls, the person who
was passing it puts it back under their chin, and continue on. Whoever
makes it to the last row first, wins. You may need to rearrange the
kids temporarily to fill in any gaps. This can be quite humerous!
I think the biggest challenge is keeping their minds occupied, and if
you can keep them thinking the whole time, you're more likely to have
fun and a lot less of the 'I'm Bored!' .... of course there's nothing
like a good game of balloon-volleyball to use up some energy!
Good Luck!
Patty
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