Game: Chocolate-Coated Challenge

Type/Purpose: Community Builder, Food/Messy

Materials:

• There is a certain candy manufacturer that produces certain candies in a variety of flavors: plain, peanut, peanut butter, pretzel, dark chocolate, almond, etc. Purchase two or three different varieties.
• Masking tape (if playing indoors) or sidewalk chalk (if outdoors)

Set-Up:

• Create a grid using the tape or chalk. The size depends on your group, but should be roughly big enough to hold most of the participants.
  • If you have 10 participants, a 3 x 3 grid should be fine.
  • If you have 20, go 4 x 4.
  • Etc. according to size.
• Pour some of each bag of candy into a bowl, and shake it up.
• Divide your participants into 2 equal teams, and have each participant randomly take 1 candy out of the bowl.

Play:

• The leader reaches into the bowl, and chooses a candy (i.e. red pretzel candy).
• If any participant on either team has a candy that matches, they get to select a space in the grid.
• If nobody matches that candy, the leader disposes of or consumes that candy, and selects another one.
• The game plays like tic-tac-toe. If any team gets 3 in a row across, vertically, or diagonally, they win.

Extra Ideas and notes:

• Take into account food allergies of your group. If anybody is highly allergic to peanuts, consider using taffy or marbles instead.
• To make game play move more quickly, direct participants to grab 2 or 3 candies initially, so that they have multiple back-ups.
• If there is ever a tie (two players have a yellow dark chocolate candy), play Paper, Rock, Scissors to decide who gets to step into the grid first.