Works with Claude, ChatGPT, Gemini, or your own local model: paste this prompt and your AI will co-facilitate this exercise with you.

Help me prepare and run the exercise below. First ask for my participant count, time, setting, access needs and intended result. Check these against the stated limits. Use the supplied rules and materials. Explain any proposed changes before using them, and label them as adaptations. Do not invent source claims or require personal disclosure. Give me one step at a time when I say start. I manage the people, physical activity and clock; do not claim to observe the room. Ask me what happened before choosing a next step.

Reference revision: 29f1595c0f1c71fd93bf042f0f923c5e906dd3929743f14766bdfa895286a4d2

# Super Smile

Participants form a circle and race against the clock to pass a smile across the room. As each person sends a smile, they begin jumping in place until the entire room is in motion.

**Time:** 6 minutes. UWT suggested plan allowing for rules, two timed attempts, and a brief wrap-up.
**People:** 6 to 24. Single full circle standing face-to-face

## Choose this exercise

**Purpose:** Energize a group through rapid non-verbal interaction and light physical coordination.
**Use it when:** Use during an afternoon energy drop or between intense thinking blocks when people need quick physical movement.
**Skip it when:** Skip when participants have mobility limitations that make jumping uncomfortable, or during somber, high-stakes formal meetings.

## Materials and tools

- 1 stopwatch or smartphone timer

## Before participants arrive

1. Clear a central open space where the whole group can stand in an unobstructed circle.

## Say this to open

We are going to time how quickly a smile can travel across our circle. I will make eye contact, send a big smile across the room, and start jumping gently in place. Once you receive that smile, smile back, pick someone who is not jumping yet, pass the smile to them, and join the jumping. We stop the clock when everyone is jumping.

## How to run it

### 1. Form circle and explain mechanic (1 minutes)

Gather everyone into a single standing circle. Check that everyone can see across the circle. Explain that jumping serves as the visual marker showing a person has received and passed the smile. Offer low-impact movement choices.

### 2. Run round one (2 minutes)

Start the timer. Facilitator makes direct eye contact with one person, gives a broad smile, and begins jumping in place. That person smiles, finds an unactivated participant across the room, smiles at them, and begins jumping. Continue until every person in the circle is jumping. Stop the timer and announce the recorded time.

### 3. Run round two (2 minutes)

Challenge the group to beat their round one record. Reset everyone to standing still. Let a volunteer initiate round two. Start the stopwatch as soon as they smile. Stop the clock when all participants are jumping. Announce whether they set a new personal best.

### 4. Debrief and transition (1 minutes)

Invite 2 quick comments on what helped or hindered the flow before returning to seats.


## Debrief questions

- What made it easy or difficult to catch someone's eye quickly?
- How did the visual cue of jumping help you track who was left?

**Finished output:** A group completion time recorded across two consecutive rounds.

## Remote

This physical circle game requires direct sightlines across a shared space and does not translate directly to video grids due to the lack of shared eye direction. For a video grid energizer, use 'Camera Wave': one person calls out a name and does a silly face or gesture; that person copies it, calls the next name, and the group tracks the time to pass it through every screen.

## Hybrid

Run the physical circle with in-person participants. Remote participants act as timekeepers and spotters who call out 'full room' when the last person starts jumping.

## Access and participation choices

- Anyone unable or preferring not to jump can sway side to side, tap feet, or raise and wave both hands continuously.
- Participants can opt out of being passed to by crossing their arms loosely over their chest, serving instead as the official timekeeper.

## If the session gets stuck

**Two people send a smile to the same person at once.**

Remind the group that the receiver takes the first smile they see, jumps, and passes forward. The second sender quickly picks someone else.

**The final one or two people are hard to spot in a large circle.**

Remind jumping players to look for people who are still standing still and point subtle glances toward them.


## Terms used here

- Contagious smile: A deliberate, broad smile passed via direct eye contact to trigger a reciprocal smile in another person.

## Sources and adaptation

Observed in Playmeo library records, which attribute the activity to Nate Folan.

Retained the core mechanic of passing a smile across a circle while initiating jumping, recorded by a stopwatch, as documented by Playmeo. UWT added exact timing, an explicit opening script, seated or low-impact physical accommodations, a remote alternative, and structured debrief questions.

[Playmeo](https://www.playmeo.com/activities/fun-large-group-games/super-smile/)

[Playmeo](https://www.playmeo.com/activities/fun-large-group-games/super-smile)

Current run sheet: https://unitedwetransform.com/exercises/funny-circle-game-triggers-unstoppable-smiles-super-smile/