One great way to get the group interacting with each other is through an activity or craft. You do not want to have something that is too difficult or time consuming, but something that everyone can at least try together.
- It is vital that you personally have done any craft or activity that you are going to try on the coach. You can determine what will be difficult for a group and you will have it down pat so you can be clear and avoid confusion in the instructions.
- Go at the pace of the slowest person, step by step. Make sure everyone is with you before you move to the next step. If you lose them or make them feel like they are not good at it, they will stop. This also allows others who are quicker to help those around them and make a connection with them.
- You want something that the majority of people are going to succeed at. I find that for those that are bad at it or it doesn’t work just laugh it off. Some even want to show off how bad theirs turned out.
Craft Ideas:
You can google the age group you are working with and find tons of crafts even that fit with the themes of your tours.
- Folding a dollar Bill into a Ring (you can also use this as a time to teach about the things that are on a one dollar bill or the history of our currency)
- The only thing that everyone needs is a dollar. Generally everyone has one or can borrow from someone around them. It is good to have a few extras with you if needed, but you don’t want to go broke giving away money 🙂
(PowerPoint available in “Resources” section)
- Origami Crane (give some of the history of what the crane means in other cultures)
- It is best to have origami paper, as that makes it easier to fold and is the correct shape without having to cut in a square.
(PowerPoint available in “Resources” section)
Activities:
- Collecting State Quarters– This is good for long trips.
- Purchase one of the display folders for the state quarters.
- Announce that as a group we are going to collect the state quarters and those who participate will have a chance to win the collection.
- Anytime someone turns in a state quarter they get a raffle ticket (you can get a big roll at the dollar store). They get one and you keep the other that has the matching number. Tell them they must hold on to the tickets until the drawing as they must have it to win. This saves you from having to keep a record of who gets what ticket. This also allows them to give tickets away. I had one trip where most everyone gave their tickets to the one 10-year-old boy we had on the trip so that he would win.
- Right off the bat, you will start out with the states that people already have in their possession. Then each day you can give a little update as far as which ones we are looking for and still needing.
- You have two options for quarter collection
- You only accept quarters that you do not have. The quarter display folder makes it easy since there is one labeled slot for each state, you can easily look and see if you have that state quarter. If someone offers you a quarter that you already have, you do not take the quarter and they do not get a ticket. The downside is that some people who really want to participate never get a ticket since they are beaten to the punch. The other downside is that you do not get reimbursed for buying the quarter display.
- You accept any quarter that is a part of the state series. Anytime they give you one they get a ticket, even if it is the 5th one of that kind you have received. I do let them know if we need it or not, but generally, people want a chance to win the collection. The benefit of this is that more people have a chance to win and you have extra money coming in. With that extra you can reimburse yourself for the quarter display and then use the extra to 1) Give to the winner- making it even more of a prize. or 2) Have a second winner that gets the extra quarters, or 3) Think of some fun way to give it out, maybe a prize for another game or you give a quarter to the first passengers back from a stop, etc. This also allows the game to go longer than collecting the quarters. Even after you announce that all the quarters have been collected people will want to collect quarters to get tickets to win or make the prize pot bigger. It is important that you decide and tell them how the extra quarters are going to be used upfront so they don’t think you are running a scheme :).
- When you decide to do the drawing give everyone time to get their tickets out and then do the drawing. Before I do the drawing I pass around the quarter collection so that everyone can admire it and build excitement about winning it.
- The reason this is great for us is that you can also tell a little bit about each of the states as you get the quarters. You can ask who has been to that state, what they like about it, etc. Then you can tell them a little about what is on the quarter. I don’t do this for all 50 states but it is a nice little filler during the day and a good discussion starter for people to share their travels with each other. It is also is a little selling point for them to do more tours to see the states they have not been to yet or revisit ones they enjoyed.
- Writing short letters. Hand out little cards for:
- Letters of thanks to active military
- Christmas cards for children’s hospitals
- Valentines for children’s homes
- Thank you letters to veterans homes
- There are many organizations that receive and distribute cards, you can tie it in with a season or holiday or just say, “Let’s give back today”.
- Stretching– Lead group in some stretches on long travel days
- Teach some words in another language– Maybe you are going to Little Italy to have dinner so you teach them a few words in Italian to use for fun.
Random Give-Away Ideas:
Often we get some little trinkets from places that we stop, postcards, bumper stickers, etc. Beyond using them as prizes for games, people love just being surprised with a gift out of the blue. After you have randomly given away a few things it adds an excitement where people want to get back on the coach because they never know what will happen. Here are some ideas for random giveaways:
- As people get back on the coach count them off and tell them to remember their number. Once they are on have the driver randomly pick a number between the 1 and the amount of passengers you have. That person gets a prize. You can also draw a number out a hat or use a 50 sided dice. The reason I really like this one is that it is a subtle way let people know where they are in order of returning to the coach. This is good if you have some people who are starting to linger they get the hint when you say “number 49 and 50”. 🙂
- Use a 50 sided dice to pick a seat number to get the prize. If no one is in the seat roll again until you get a winner. (You can also do a drawing, but that requires you make papers with all the numbers in it.)
- Have the driver pick a month. Then roll a dice to get the day (you can get a smaller dice, but using the 50 is fine it just adds suspense if you have to roll it a few times to get a date). The person who has the closest birthday to that date gets the prize. If people share a birthday do it by the time they were born on that day or flip a quarter for it.
- Ask the driver’s birthday and give it to the person with the closest birthday to that date. (The reason I try to use the driver a lot is that it gives another connection to the people and the driver. It gives them something to talk about with the driver and allows the people to get to know them better)
- Trivia about something you have said or a place you have visited. It needs to be hard enough that not everyone will get it.
- Have a soft non-breakable object that you have the passengers pass around as fast as they can like a hot potato. You turn your back so you do not see it going around the coach and you randomly say stop, whoever is holding it gets the prize. To keep people from just holding on to the object tell them that if they cheat then they have to mop out the coach and do not get the prize. Everyone will call out people they think are holding it too long, but most people will not want the shame of being a cheater.
- Have everyone write their name and put it in the hat and draw a name.
- Have one piece of paper with a mark on it and all the others are blank. Each guest draws out a piece of paper until someone gets the paper with the mark on it.