Friendship games help bring together girls from different backgrounds and cliques. Generally starting in elementary school, girls form exclusionary groups called cliques. According to a PBS Parents article, forming a clique is normal, but a problem occurs when the girls in the clique ignore or bully anyone outside of their group. Through friendship games, girls learn more about their friends and peers as they participate in trust and communication exercises.
Control Tower
The Control Tower game builds trust among girls, while encouraging teamwork and communication. Partner up the girls and give each pair of partners a blindfold. The "control" partner blindfolds her mate and leads her through an obstacle course by giving her specific instructions on how to navigate the course. The control partner tells her mate when to move left or right, step up or duck down, for example. After the blindfolded partner completes the course, the girls swap roles. For a competitive game, time the girls and award a prize for the fastest team.
Human Knot
Girls get literally tangled up in knots in this teamwork-building game, best played in groups of six to 10 people. The girls stand shoulder-to-shoulder in a circle. Each girl reaches across the circle with her left hand and joins hands with another girl, as long as its not the girl standing next to her. Then each girl reaches across the circle with her right hand, and again, takes the hand of another girl, as long as it's not the girl to her immediate left or right. After everyone has joined hands, the girls must untangle themselves without ever letting go of each other's hands. Several groups can play at once and compete for the fastest time.
Friendship Quiz
A friendship quiz helps girls learn more about each other. Each girl fills out a questionnaire about her interests, favorite things and family. Topics can range from favorite music to what she wants to be when she grows up. One person collects the quizzes and reads the answers. The girls try and guess who gave which answer and get points for each correct guess. The girl who earns the most points, gets a prize for knowing her friends the best.
I'm Your Friend
I'm Your Friend is a relatively basic game, best played with younger school-age children. One blindfolded "It" girl sits in the center of a circle. The other girls get one turn to fool their friend. One by one, the girls come up to the blindfolded girl and disguise their voices while exclaiming, "I'm your friend!" The blindfolded girl tries to guess the name of each mystery friend. Each girl can take turns being "It." The girl who guesses the most correct names, wins.