The Bean Bag Toss.

The Bean Bag Toss is a good icebreaker for teambuilding, coordination and communication. The goal is to toss, and catch a bean bag, or other item, in a particular sequence, around a circle of participants.

This activity is great for four or more people. If you have more than 12 people, break them into groups of 5-10.

Materials required:
Several bean-bags, balls, or other items that are easy to toss and catch. You will need 3-5 for each group. You will need enough space for the group(s) to stand in a circle with no obstructions in the middle

The Set-up:
Form groups of 5-10 people each. Have each group stand in a circle, facing towards the center. One person will be holding the bean-bag.

Play the Bean Bag Toss
At the signal to begin everyone, except the person with the bean-bag, raises one hand. The person with the bag, tosses it to someone with their hand raised, and remembers who he/she tossed it too. The person who catches it, lowers their hand and tosses the bag to another person with their hand raised. As each person catches the bag, they bring their hand down. The last person to bring their hand down, tosses the bag to the one who had the bag at the beginning. The rotation continues with each person tossing the bag to the person they had originally tossed to.

After a rotation or two of Bean Bag Toss everyone begins to think, "this is not difficult". Then the first person intoduces another bag. After the second person tosses their bag, the first person tosses another bag, so there are now two bags being tossed around the group in rotation. Care must be taken not to have the bags colied.

As soon as the group is comfortable with two bags in rotation, a third bag is introduced into the rotation, then a fourth, and a fifth. See how many bags you can have in rotation, before one is dropped or bags collied.

To make a game of Bean Bag Toss, two or more groups compete to see how many bags they can have in rotation. To be successful, the last bag added, must complete a full rotation.

This game typically takes 15-30 minutes to complete.

Variations
To increase the difficulty level, you could call a person's name. When a person hears their name called, they must step into the center of the circle and maintain their place in the rotation. That person stays in the center of the circle until another name is called. The first person returns to their place in the circle, and the second moves to the center.

Another variation would be to move people around in the circle. As each person tosses the bag, they switch places with the person to their right.

Yet another variation would be to see how quickly a bag can be tossed in rotation without dropping it.

If you have some good icebreaker activities you would like to share. Please enter them on the Contact Us page. Please include your first name and location, so I can give you credit for your contribution. Your email address will not be shared, or sold, to anyone.

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