1.
Ask any size group to make a fine facing you, standing shoulder-to-shoulder
so that the oldest person (to the nearest day) is to your left
and the youngest person is to your right.
2.
After the fine is established, take a minute to establish a median
age for the group, and establish if there were any birthdays
occuring in the same year? month? day? Who knows, with something
in common, two people might even talk to one another -- stranger
things have happened.
3.
Ask the younger end of the fine to fold around and walk toward
the other end of the line so that the youngest ends up facing
the most venerable. (The oldest, but you don't have to say that.)
Each person should have a face-to-face partner. Ask everyone
to shake hands with the person opposite them to make sure that
each individual is part of a pair.
4.
Explain that you would like each pair to share a matching set
of words or sounds e.g., shoe-foot, buzz-ball, peanut-butter,
whiskey-sours. In addition, each person should choose one of
the words or sounds as theirs. You will soon see why this distinction
is important.
5.
Ask each pair to announce their choice in order to enjoy the
humor of the more inventive selections, and more specifically
to make sure there are no duplications.
6.
Indicate that each line represents a group that will soon move
to opposite ends of a gym, field, parking lot. Then ask each
member of the pairs to walk to opposite ends of the field with
the instructions that they are to put on blindfolds when they
arrive.
7.
The object is to find their work partners; and since everyone
is blindfolded, the most functional means would seem to be verbal.
Right! So, each participant shouts their partner's word/sound
in order to pair up. For example, if I'm PEANUT, I would yell
BUTTER over and over until my partner and I become PEANUT BUTTER.
8.
Choose one of the participant's words and shout it as loudly
as you can to demonstrate what type of volume is expected.
9.
After the blindfolds are on, ask the participants to mill around
to keep them from eyeballing their partner at a distance.
10. Also teach the "bumpers up" position;
i.e., hands up and palms forward, in order to provide personal protection
while
moving sightlessly around.
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