Youthscape Bricks discussion game for Youth by Becky Lawrence, Youth & Children’s Worker, St Mark’s Church MK

 

Before I start I must confess, I haven’t used this game myself yet but when I saw it, I knew it would be a winner! I love anything that helps young people open up and chat, i’ve got loads of discussion card tools and quite a few years ago I even made my own version of this game by writing questions on Jenga blocks!   Sometimes as much as we might try, it can be tough to get young people to open up in discussion, especially when sat in a circle when everyone is looking at each other! I find it works much easier if there is a distraction activity, either a simple craft, a campfire or set of discussion cards or a game like this to help break the ice and make it easier to introduce some deeper questions.

So what is it?  This resource is a set of stickers for you to accessorise a set of Jenga blocks, designed to turn the game of Jenga into a fun discussion game.  Each sticker has a question on it so when young people pull a brick out of the tower, they answer the question on that brick!  This is a great tool and resource for any youth leader to use as an icebreaker or game in almost any context, with a youth group, in school, 1-2-1, on detached work – the sky is the limit!

 

Here’s what Youthscape say about their resource:

“Turn a Jenga™ set into a fun discussion game for ages 11 and up! Explore the foundational beliefs, values and relationships that young people build their lives upon and how Christian faith can make a difference.

Youthscape Bricks builds on the popular tower-based tension of Jenga™ to make space for fun and rich conversations.

Big conversations – about life, faith, values, hopes and priorities – can be transformative in the lives of young people and we wanted to create the space and opportunity for those conversations to take place. The result is 54 questions that are guaranteed to get young people laughing, thinking and talking. The questions are split into three general categories – faith, values, and friendships/relationships – supporting the overall theme of foundations. The questions come in the form of removable labels that you simply apply to your Jenga™ bricks. You play the game as normal but as each brick (and question) is removed, the individual playing follows the instruction on the sticker – either answering the question themselves, choosing someone else to answer, or discussing the question with the whole group. The game continues until the tower is knocked down!

Youthscape Bricks is designed to work in church and community youth groups or schools. You can use the game in 1-2-1 mentoring sessions and in both small or large groups. So why not get involved and get your group talking – as a special offer postage (usually £3) is FREE for Youthscape Bricks!”

 

You can order your own set here from Youthscape for £8.50 https://www.youthscape.co.uk/store/product/bricks

Whats in the box? – This product supplies the stickers for Youthscape Bricks, but before playing this game with young people, you’ll need your own copy of Jenga™ or other tumbling tower game. Please note, we have designed the stickers to fit neatly onto a genuine Hasbro Jenga™ set with bricks that measure 1.5 × 2.5 × 7.5 cm (0.59 × 0.98 × 3.0 in). As sizes vary between manufacturers, you will need to make sure that the bricks of your game are the right size to fit the Youthscape Bricks labels (labels measure 7.2 x 2.1cm).