The River Crossing
The River Crossing
A Fun Youth Group Game
Watch the Tutorial Video
The River Crossing takes classic logic puzzles and brings them to life by turning your students into the characters in each challenge.
Overview
Ideal # of Participants: 6 to 40
Where to Play: Indoor / Outdoor
Age of Participants: Middle School / High School
Approximate Time to Play: 15 to 60 Minutes
Materials Needed: Gym Scooters (Optional), Bandanas (Optional, Recommended)
How to Play The River Crossing
This game takes a classic riddle and brings it to life.
Most people have heard of the famous logic puzzle where a man needs to get a chicken, a fox, and grain across a river using a boat.
The trick is that the chicken can’t be left alone with the grain, or else the chicken will eat the grain. The fox can’t be left alone with the chicken, or else the fox will eat the chicken.
Well, in this game, your group members are going to become those animals, as well as some other fun characters!
Set Up the River Crossing Game
This game has 3 rounds.
For the first round, teams are ideally made up of 4 people each. For the second round, 6 people each. And for the last round, 5 people each.
If you have more people on a team than you need, some players can just act as the brains behind the challenge. If you have less people than you need, you can give the team any object to act as an extra person.
Describe to everyone that there is a giant river that runs right through the middle of your room, and their goal is to get everyone safely to the other side.
Thankfully, each team has a “boat” that can carry up to two people at a time.
When I played this with my group, I tied two gym scooters together so that they actually had a vehicle to transport themselves across the room. You could just as easily have people link arms and walk across the room, pretending that they have a boat.
If you use the scooters, I made my group paddle using their hands, but if any other part of their body touched the ground, they had to start over.
Round 1: The Fox, Chicken, and Grain
For the first round, one person from each team will be given the role of the man, one person will be given the role of the fox, one person will be the chicken, and one person will be a bag of grain.
Then, read the following challenge aloud:
A man has to get a fox, a chicken, and a sack of grain across a river.
He has a rowboat, and it can only carry him and one other thing.
If the fox and the chicken are left together, the fox will eat the chicken.
If the chicken and the grain are left together, the chicken will eat the grain.
How does the man do it?
If you look in the description, we have a sheet of paper for you to use that has this challenge written out, as well as a written-out solution.
The Solution
The solution for this puzzle is to:
- Send the man and the chicken across.
- The man returns on his own.
- The man takes the fox across the river.
- Since he can’t leave the fox and chicken together, he brings the chicken back.
- He leaves the chicken and takes the grain across, leaving it with the fox.
- He returns to pick up the chicken.
- The man and chicken head across the river one last time.
After each group has successfully gotten everyone across, you can give them another challenge.
Round 2: The Clowns and Cannibals
This time, three people will be given the role of a clown, and three people will be given the role of a cannibal.
To differentiate who is who, I gave all of the cannibals bandanas to wear.
The challenge is short, but difficult to think through:
Three clowns and three cannibals want to get to the other side of a river. Your small boat can only fit two. To prevent a tragedy, there can never be more cannibals than clowns together.
The Clowns and Cannibals Solution
To solve this puzzle, each team must:
- Send 1 cannibal and 1 clown to the other side together.
- The clown comes back.
- Send 2 cannibals across.
- One cannibal returns with the boat.
- Send 2 clowns across.
- Bring back 1 clown and 1 cannibal.
- Send 2 clowns across.
- One cannibal returns with the boat.
- The last cannibal gets picked up and brought to the other side.
If your group can solve the first challenge, this one gives them another opportunity to work together and think through the problem from a different angle.
Round 3: The Family and the Fisherman
And if your group is still feeling like they want another challenge, you can give them one last one.
You’ll assign one person to be the mom, dad, son, daughter, and fisherman, then read this:
Parents with two children—a son and a daughter—came to a wide river. There was no bridge there. The only way to get to the other side was to ask a fisherman if he could lend them his boat. However, this boat can only carry only one adult or two children.
How does the family get to the other side and return the boat to the fisherman?
The Family and Fisherman Solution
To solve this one:
- The children go across the river first.
- The son comes back.
- The father goes by himself over to the daughter.
- The daughter brings the boat back and picks up the son.
- The son returns to give the boat to the mother.
- The mother goes to the father and daughter across the river.
- The daughter jumps in and goes to her brother so they can both return to their parents.
- The son goes back by himself to return the boat to the fisherman.
- The fisherman crosses.
- The daughter picks the son back up, and they reunite with everyone on the other side.
Tips for Playing The River Crossing
- Explain the imaginary river clearly. Make sure students understand where the river begins and ends before starting each challenge.
- Use gym scooters for added immersion. Tying two scooters together gives students a physical “boat” to move across the room.
- Use bandanas to identify the cannibals. This makes the second challenge easier for everyone to follow.
- Let students strategize. Some students can act as the “brains” behind the challenge if your teams have more people than the puzzle requires.
- Give extra characters if needed. If a team doesn’t have enough people, use an object to represent the missing character.
- Don’t give away the solution too quickly. Let students wrestle with the puzzle and communicate with one another before offering hints.
- Use all three rounds for a longer activity. The three puzzles can easily turn The River Crossing into a 30–60 minute team-building activity.
Lesson Handout
Want to make this easy to share with your volunteers or students? Download the “The River Crossing” Lesson Handout (PDF) below!
Where Games Meet God's Word...
Most leaders just look for games to play, but miss their true value. When used well, games help teach your lesson, because experiential learning is by far the most effective way to teach a lesson that sticks.
If you want to see this principle in action, check out Uplift, our FREE youth group lesson that is built for engagement. It contains a fun game, but then your students’ experience from the game ties into the Christ-centered message you’ll teach.
