Peanut Butter River

3.5 shiney stars

For this game you need two ropes to represent the banks of a river. The goal is to have the group cross the river.

Give the team six carpet squares (or something similar) to use as "rafts".  Each raft can only support one hand and two feet at any one time.  Any more than that and it will sink (meaning a leader takes it away and it's no longer available to the group).  If a raft is left untouched for more than a few seconds, it floats away (again, have a leader monitor for this and remove any rafts).  If anyone in the group touches the water, the team must start again.

The game sounds simple, but it's great for team building, as it requires everyone to participate and contribute towards the goal.  

 



Features
  • Free / Low Cost
  • Sharing, Get to know you
  • Night
Objectives
  • Ice breaker
  • Team Building Teamwork
Space
  • Indoor
  • Large area
  • Outdoor
  • Small area
Age
  • Primary or Elementary School
  • Teens (Age 12-15)
  • Teens (Age 16-18)
  • Young Adults

Group Size
  • Small Groups (1-9 people)
  • Medium (10-29 people)
  • Large groups (30+)

Duration
  • Medium (11-29 mins)
  • Short (1-10 minutes)
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Comments

How many people per carpet square? If I have a group of 15 kids...how many carpet squares should I have?
- Angie (12 Sep 2008)

It really depends on the size of the carpet squares, and the width of the river. For 15 kids, I'd start out with 3 squares - if they are struggling, give them another one, if it's too easy, take one off them!
- admin (12 Sep 2008)

so is the aim to move the people with the carpets or just get as many people on the carpets as you can?
- chanelle (13 Oct 2008)

@chanelle - the aim is to get from one side to the other (using the carpet as rafts)
- admin (15 Oct 2008)

I don't get it. How do the rafts move?
- Rob (15 Oct 2008)

@Rob - The kids can pick them up and move them (obviously when there is no one standing on them!)
- admin (15 Oct 2008)

Why is the game called Peanut Butter River if it has nothing to do with Peanut Butter?
- Genevieve (7 Jul 2009)

I think this is a great game for team building!
- Andy (9 Nov 2009)

I ended up asking my kids why it was called Peanut Butter River, and they came up with clever responses! :) Let them be creative!
- Saba (18 Dec 2009)

i played it in a training camp months ago ! it was amazing !! we all were like screaming and yelling to tell our teammates not to leave the papers ''which we used as the carpets '' but eventually we learned a simple way to do it !
- Mohammad (23 Mar 2010)

We ended up just having the kids jump from carpet to carpet doing different things like hopping, skipping,ect,ect. We wnded up having a great time! But be carful! We had a child slip! On the Carpet square.
- Elissa (12 Apr 2010)

I did this at school. We had one less square then we had people on our team. Ultimatly we had to figure out that you have your feet on 2 at a time sharing with the person in front and behind till the last person has only his/her foot on the last one then they have to pick it up and pass it along the line so that the leader can put it down and step her next foot on it and everyone takes "a step forward" to start the chain again
- Karly (15 Jun 2010)

have tried this with 6 children and just can't figure it out.we did as Karly did but still couldn't manage it. Are we missing the obvious?
- meme (3 Aug 2010)

This game is Way fun!! We played with our youth group and we all loved it!
- Nikole (12 Oct 2010)

We've done this, except we are crossing a sea of boiling Hot Chocolate on Marshmallows. :)
- Amber (8 Mar 2012)

how wide is the river?
- chris (29 Mar 2012)

one carpet square is one raft?
- ben (18 Apr 2012)

So when we played they just jumped from raft to raft, was I missing a rule?
- Kris (27 Sep 2012)

This is what I get from the game. Say you have a 20 foot river and maybe 10 squares. I guess you get 9 kids on the rafts with one empty raft on the back and they pass the last raft to the front and after its at the front everyone hopes one raft forward and repeat. I guess that's how you play it?
- Zach isbell (19 Jul 2013)

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