Group Thumb Wars

by | Nov 22, 2022 | Team Building

Line up your group in 2 lines facing each other. The players facing each other are partners. Have the partners spread out from the other partners so they don’t easily hear another partner group sharing. If you have an odd number of players, then one person has a “bye” round. Come up with a question that each person needs to answer. It can relate to this month’s character quality, recent or upcoming holidays or anything of note happening in the community. The idea is to find a question that encourages sharing and getting to know one another better. You will only need one question. Announce the question and have each partner share the answer. Now the partners have a thumb war. Have them clasp fingers of their right hands with their thumbs up. Now they all chant together, “One, Two, Three, Four, Let’s have a Thumb War.” While they chant, they move their thumbs back and forth, trading places being on the left or right side. Once the chant is done, the war begins. The first person to pin the other’s thumb for several seconds wins. You can keep score by determining how many people on each side won and keeping a tally or you can just play round to round. Now have one of the lines take one step to the left. The left-most person will need to move all the way to the right. Each person will now have a new partner. Have each person in this new partnership, answer the question posed in the beginning and then stage another thumb war. You can play until the original partners are partnered again or until time runs out.

To process the activity, ask these or similar questions:

  • Was it fun to play thumb war?
  • Did you modify your answer to the question after hearing the answer from others?
  • Did you find others that had similar answers? Totally different answers?
  • Did you learn anything new about the people in the group?