games, science, crafts for teens?

Question

I need some ideas for simple, cheap craft, science and games for teens. We are putting on a community family games night and I would like to be sure that any teens who come are engaged and have a great time. The empasis is on literacy, but we will consider other themes as long as it is fun. Messy is fine. Any help is appreciated.

Answer 1

Any of the games by cranium are great. They are a lot of fun and creative to play.

Another fun thing is tie die -- just be sure to use good dye (Add urea) and pretreat the shirts with a soda ash soak.

Charades is an oldie, but goodie.

If you are a fan of Mythbusters - Discovery put out a book called "Mythbusters-Don't try this at home." It has all kind of things you CAN do! Lots of fun experiments.

Instead of having them play the game "Scene it" Make a version called Read it!" On slips of paper write quotes from books they have been reading and popular books from their age group -- read them out to teams, and see who has read it and identifies which book it is from. Have small prize like donuts or book marks for the winning team members.

Have folks dress up as their fav book characters to get a bonus prize when they arrive. (Again - something small.)

Hope some of these help

Answer 2

Nothing to do with literacy, but we're having fun with our Kubb set at the moment. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kubb You can make the pins look pretty by painting or carving, but it's completely unneccessary. Just go down to your local hardware shop and get them to saw stuff up. It might cost a bit, but it is completely reusable, so worth it. Just make sure you have a box for the pieces to belong in, so they don't get lost. If you can't figure out the rules, your local SCA group probably knows. That's how we found out about it. Just locate your closest group (http://www.sca.org) and drop someone an email. They'll be happy to explain. The guys in particular like it, and it can be played as a team, or people can wander in and out. Actually winning isn't so important.

Answer 3

http://answers.yahoo.com/search/search_result;_ylt=ApNbtl261BDVNPZkKtanPZzxxQt.;_ylv=3?p=teen+crafts