It’s that time! Back to school! And if you’ve ever worked in a school, you know that means large group icebreakers, teachers games, and teacher team building! My school administrators usually have pretty interesting teachers inservice ideas including planning large group games for school staff during our professional development meetings. Last year, my admin team organized a super fun and simple mystery gift swap game for our huge group of staff members. It was one of the best large group team building games for teachers we have played. But you can play big group games for team meetings of any type!
It was basically a Dirty Santa in August kind of thing with a little White Elephant mixed in. The game stretched to span three days of staff work training (teachers inservice), and everyone waited with excitement for their turn. It give everyone something to look forward to.
I spoke with one of my administrators who came up with the idea when she realized she was running short on door prizes to make it through all three days of training. She wanted to come up with an idea to make things fun for the staff without spending money. After thinking things out, she came up with the idea for this staff gift exchange game idea. The only thing needed to run the game is a roll of raffle tickets.
Who Would This Large Group Game Be Good For?
This large group game is good for any companies that offer inservice training or professional development to a medium to large number of employees. The larger the group, the more fun the game. I’m not sure this game would be much fun for a very small staff.
Most large companies or large staffs need icebreakers for big groups at some point. This mystery gift game can be used as a large group icebreaker activity or just as a team building activity to add some excitement to a routine training.
If you need low-budget games for big groups of adults or teens, this is one to try!
How To Organize A Staff Gift Game for Big Groups
Step One: Ask Staff to Bring a Gift
A week or so before the game, you should send an email to the staff, asking each person to bring a wrapped gift – new or used – to the first day of professional development/staff training. The key is the gift must be wrapped. The gift can be something really good, something really bad, something silly, or something that will cause a buzz. (Of course, each person should keep their gift appropriate for a work environment!)
A few days before the first training day, you should send a reminder email about the gift.
Step Two: Give a Raffle Ticket to Each Person Who Brings a Gift for the Big Group Game
You should collect each gift and give a raffle ticket to each person who brought a gift. Place all gifts on a table in front of the training audience.
Raffle Ticket Option One:
One option is to give raffle tickets out only on the first day of training with each person responsible for keeping up with his ticket for all the days of training. The game leader would continue calling from the same pool of raffle numbers from the first day.
Raffle Ticket Option Two:
A second option is to hand out new tickets on day two (and again on each subsequent day) for those who have yet to have a turn to open a gift. This would be on the honor system. If a person opened a gift on day one, he should not be seeking out a new raffle ticket on day two. His turn is over. Yes, we are talking about big group games for adults, and we should expect adults to be honest. But…
Luckily, we teachers (and other grown folk) are pretty diligent about minding other people’s business so if anyone tries to cheat, he will probably get ratted out!
Step Three: Call Out Raffle Ticket Numbers at Different Times of the Day
You must set aside certain times of the day to call raffle tickets. This can be done at specific times on the clock or you can plan to call three or four numbers after one or two agenda items are finished on your training itinerary. (This is the way we played the game at my school. It was a great way to break up the monotony of the day.)
Either way, you need to do the math so you call a balanced number of raffle numbers each day. For example, let’s say sixty people bring a gift to participate in this large group game, and your training lasts three days. You would need to plan to call 20 raffle numbers throughout each day on all three days. If you have forty people participating in your teacher inservice activity, and your training lasts three days, you would need to plan to call around 13 numbers a day.
Step Four: Facilitate the “Stealing” in the Large Group Game
When a raffle number is called, the person with the matching number is allowed to choose a gift. He has the option to take a gift that has not yet been opened or to “steal” a gift from that has already been opened by someone else. The person he steals from is allowed to open a new gift or steal another one, etc. (You may have to put a “three steals and it’s done” rule in play to keep things moving.) At this point, the game works like Dirty Santa.
Step Five: Offer a Bonus “Speed Round” at the End of the Last Day
This bonus round will only be possible if you happen to have extra gifts left at the end of the last day of training. For example, if some people brought more than one gift to contribute to the game, there should be extra gifts left at the end. If this happens, you can announce an optional bonus round at the end of the last training day. The game organizer hands a new ticket to whoever shows up and just calls raffle ticket numbers fast until all the gifts are claimed and taken.
Potential Names for This Gift Steal Game
I tried to think out some clever names that we could call this game. I’m not sure how clever they are, but here are a few ideas.
- Greedy Colleague Game
- Greedy or Sweetie Game
- Greedy Gift Steal Game
- Dirty Deeds Game
- Gift Steal Game
- Open or Steal Game
Gift Ideas for This Large Group Game at Work
I’m just going off of memory here, but some of of the gifts that were brought to our large group game at last year’s teachers inservice included cool puzzles and old cheesy teacher mugs someone had pulled out of a teacher closet. Also, there was a cooler/stool for tailgating and such (score!), some well-loved novels, an old copy of Harry Wong’s “The First Days of School” teaching book (ha!), and probably 40 more things. I snagged an old copy of “What to Expect When You are Expecting.”
Remember, the gifts should be a mix of old and new, exciting and boring, cheesy and cool.
And there you have it – a brand new idea to add to your collection of large group games for teacher inservice or team building activities for large groups! Whether you need large group icebreakers or just something to add a bit of excitement, I hope you will give this one a try! I really appreciate my school administrator for agreeing to let me to share her fun gift steal game idea here on the bloggity blog!
Be Sure To Catch Up On Some of My Other Posts for Educators
Classroom Door Decorating Contest Ideas
Dirty Santa Ideas for the Classroom
Tips for Back to School Shopping for Teachers and Parents
Christmas Dress Up Days for Teachers
Teacher Must Haves from Amazon
Christmas Party Ideas at School
Sharing Good Things with Students
Valentine’s Day Treats for the Classroom
Christmas Treats for the Classroom
Decorative Hat Wall for the Classroom
Yvonne Spike
Thank you for these amazing ideas.
The Teacher Treasury
Thank you for sharing these game ideas! Love the idea of “stealing” gifts HAHAHA Sometimes, it is really difficult to play with a large group, but these games are perfect for a big setting.
The Gifted Gabber
Yes, it really is difficult coming up with something for such large groups! And our group loved this one!