Acronyms
Hey folks, just received a note from a long-time client describing his joy at using a wonderful variation of one of my all-time favourite arrival activities – ACRONYMS!
He recently encountered your typical group of disengaged young people, and soon after he rolled out this exercise, he’d broken the ice and had them in fits of laughter.
First, here’s the activity…
At A Glance
A group attempts to decipher a variety of acronyms as they are presented one after another.
What You Need
- List of ‘acronyms’ printed on index cards or sheets of paper
- Paper and pens (optional)
- 10 – 20 mins
What To Do
You know how it feels when the clock says it’s time to start, but it’s obvious that not everyone is here. I hate waiting, so I have developed a bunch of really simple, non-threatening activities that can occupy (think reward) those folks who are on time, yet not disrupt the group’s fun when the late-comers finally appear.
Well in advance, grab a magazine, newspaper or both and start flicking through the pages spotting as many acronyms (you know, a word that is formed from the initials of other words) as you can. I’m sure you know many off the top of your head. Write these ‘words’ onto a set of index cards or sheets of paper. You’ll need at least 40 or more.
Can’t think of any? Check out pages 57 & 232 on Count Me In for dozens of them, such as:
PIN DOA QANTAS LASER NATO AD
ANZAC FAQ BBC BMW LED HMS
RAM FUBAR NIMBY ATM SCUBA pH
MGM WHO FUNN UFO DINK RSVP
MASH GSOH CEO UNESCO ISBN IVF
The basic idea is to present this series of cards, turning one card over at a time, asking your group to decipher as many of the acronyms as they can, in as little time as possible. Get it right (bing!) and you show the next card. Can’t work it out, either tell them the answer, or put the card aside to work on later as you move onto the next one.
As an opening (arrival) activity, let me describe my all-time favourite version…
I make an ‘unofficial’ start by asking people to bunch on in, sit them down (often on the floor), introduce myself briefly and pull out the cards. Within a few minutes and a dozen or so cards, I have not only fostered engagement and some laughter (I often encourage silly answers). I’ve found this to be an awesome, creative way to kick off many programs.
And, hey, did you know that A C R O N Y M is really an acronym? A Contrived Reduction Of Nomenclature Yielding Mnemonics, or Abbreviated Codes Rarely Or Never Yielding Meaning. Or, how about Annoyingly Cryptic References Of Names You Make-up?
Variations
- Separate into smaller groups, and hand each a number of acronym cards. Their object is to correctly guess as many as possible, perhaps within a time limit.
- As above, but this time add a number of blank index cards and supply a magazine or newspaper. Each small group is now challenged to find a variety of acronyms within the pages, write them on the blank cards, and invite another group to translate as many as possible.
- Use a series of common and humourous text / SMS abbreviations as your acronyms. Terms such as IMHO (in my humble opinion), LOL (laugh out loud, or lots of love), ISO (in search of), and tons of others*. Click HERE for a list of 50 of the most common SMS / Text phrases to get you started.
* Thanks to Andrew Davis, Wodonga VIC for this last variation 
Taken from ‘Count Me In: Large Group Activities That Work.’
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Hi, I'm Mark Collard.
This blog shares some of the most successful group games, team-building activities & programming tips I know.
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