This holiday season may look different for many families. The pandemic has caused most of us to stay indoors which may mean bringing our usual holiday traditions to a halt. To bring some holiday cheer, we want girls and their families to feel empowered to use Zoom to start new family traditions. Our queen of Culture Club: Coffee and Cavorting- Irene Fizer, Community Engagement Vista, curated a list of her favorite Zoom activities.
Pictionary using the Whiteboard function on Zoom
We love a good game of Pictionary- this holiday season try our virtual version of Pictionary. It is just as fun!
What you need: Whiteboard function on Zoom. If you’ve never used this function do not fret it’s easy to use and so much fun. Here is a ‘how to’ from Zoom.
How to play: One person will volunteer to draw a predetermined prompt such as “dog”, “campfire”, or “smoothie”. The remaining players will try and guess what the drawing is and whoever guesses correctly first wins!
Make it festive: Try topics like “mistletoe”, “santa’s sleigh”, or “Dreidel”. Get creative with it!
Origami: Paper Craft Walkthrough
If you’re like us, you love a good craft where you can learn a new skill and be creative. With Origami it takes a bit of practice and preparation beforehand but once you have the hang of it, it’s so fun to show others how to make what you learned.
What you need: Origami paper or regular sheet of paper. Try recycling paper like a page out of a magazine or newspaper.
How to play: Get all of your loved ones on Zoom and teach them step by step how to fold the paper craft you decided to make. Then do it again with another shape.
Make it festive: Try an Origami Santa, Star, or Christmas Cracker. Other things you want to make? Try a Google search.
Loaded Questions
One of the games we come back to often during Coffee and Cavorting is Loaded Questions, it’s so fun to hear what answers everyone comes up with!
What you need: around 3-4 pocket questions for about 30 minutes of play. Some examples are “If you could have any superpower, what would it be?” or “what is your favorite book?”.
How to play: One person will read their pocket question aloud and ask everyone to privately chat their responses to that person. Once all of the responses are in, the host will read them out loud (they can throw in their own answer too!). Then, one person within the group will be tasked with matching the responses to the players! The person guessing will receive one point for every correct match and the players will receive a point if their answer was guessed incorrectly!
Make it festive: Switch up your pocket questions to holiday related prompts like “what is your favorite holiday tradition?” or “What is your favorite holiday song?” What questions can you come up with?
Scattegories
A game we can play for hours on end!
What you need: Everyone needs a piece of paper. You will need to know how to use the Chat function on Zoom, here is a ‘how to’ from Zoom.
How to play: One person sends five topics in the chat and provides one letter from the alphabet. Everyone silently on a piece of paper writes down one word that starts with the letter provided and is related to the topic. Then, you go around the Zoom room and each person says the word they wrote. If you had the same answer as someone else, then you both lose a point but if you had an original answer you get a point. The person with the most points at the end wins the game.
Make it festive: Try using holiday themed topics like holiday décor, cookies, song, activity, tradition. What other ideas do you have?
Zoom Scavenger Hunt
We love doing a virtual scavenger hunt, it always ends with so much laughter!
What you need: No supplies needed. You might want to prepare the topics in advance.
How to play: One person is the host of the scavenger hunt and has a list of five objects they want people on the Zoom call to find. Everyone starts in a central location somewhere in their home. The host then calls out (or puts it in the Zoom chat) the objects one at a time and gives everyone 10 seconds to find their object then everyone brings that one object back to the screen. The first person to come back with their object wins the round. Once everyone is back with their object, we love going around the virtual room and asking what they chose and why. Then do it again with the next object until all five rounds are done. The person with the most points wins. Once the five rounds are over ask if anyone else wants to host the next game and do it again.
Make it festive: Have everyone find five objects that have to do with the holidays like a star, holiday book, snowflake, something plaid, or holiday food. What else can you think of?