On the last day of our Vacation Bible School (VBS), we had each child write down five (5) things that they learned during VBS. Then, we presented each child with a pass to go to “Sundae School”. Each child was allowed to make their own ice cream sundaes in “Sundae School”. We had ice cream, fruit, marshmallows, gummy bear, nuts, M&M’s, chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, caramel, whipped cream, and sprinkles.
It was a fun way to end VBS and we were able to relate it to the Bible.
Read moreHave a music night. Select 5 different secular artists/groups. Place one artist/group per room. Give the youth autograph books. Tell them they need to get every artist/groups autograph. Get your Sr. High group involved, have them play the artists/groups (Spice Girls, Backstreet Boys, etc) The security guards take the autographs from the youth. In order to win they must have all the autographs, which will be impossible, because you will take one or more away from them as they run from room to room. Build your devotional around what is good music, and have them come up with the criteria, but you may have to guide them. Then play a song from each of the artists/groups you had present, and discuss if it fits the criteria you have listed. You can make this as big an event as you want, we used two youth group meetings for this topic. Get your actors to really play the roles of the artists well, etc. Expand and mold this to your group. Its a great way of discussing this all important area of the life of a youth.
Read moreThis game is a relay between however many players you would like. Simply have one person eat crackers before attempting to blow up a balloon. Then, have the person put the balloon between there ankles while another participant tries to pop the balloon (after first chugging a can of root beer) without using his hands or feet (i.e. mouth, or any other part).
Read moreBring a box of ginger snaps or graham crackers. Have one or two kids volunteer to be stackers. The rest of the kids take turns lying on a couch on their backs. The stackers see how many crackers can be stacked in a pile on each forehead. The person with the highest stack wins. Usually laughing knocks the stack over early.
Read moreThis game is great fun, we love to play it lots. What you do, is get all the youth(and leaders – they love it too), in a circle, and add another chair. Make 4 of the chairs (if possible) a different colour so they can be recognized. The aim the game is to get all boys or all girls (depending on what sex you are) onto these chairs. The way this is done is: Everybody’s, name is written on a piece of paper, and each person picks one of those names out of a hat. Then the person to the right of the empty chair calls out a name in the group, and whoever drew that name out of the hat moves to the empty chair. Next the person to the right of the new empty chair gets to call out a name. After a while they will begin to remember some of the names and it gets really involving.
Read moreGet tape and make a rectangle, have two goalies at each end, and then a team of four to five on either side. Each player must get on his hands and knees, they cannot cross the line of tape with their body. The object of the game is to blow a ping pong ball across the other teams goal line. Remember they can only blow on the ball. Just like foosball, have intermittent players on either side.
Read morePut a small amount of water into a plastic 2 litre soft drink bottle. Attach this “loaded” bottle to the end of a rope about three metres long. Have the group stand in a circle around a leader and “Spin the Bottle.” The idea of the game is that the youth in the circle jump over the bottle each time it passes them. If they are struck by the bottle they are out. This game is a huge favorite with our youth!!
Read moreThis is a very easy and simple game. We started it by accident one day and the youth love it. Simply take a small butter bowl with the lid off and have the youth stand in a circle. The object is to hit the butter bowl up with your hand and keep it going. The bowl goes everywhere and creates many goofy attempts to try and ‘save’ it. Our personal record is close to 75 hits in a row. We allow our youth to hit it mulitple times and with their arms, feet, head, etc.
Read moreThis is awesome and keeps kids entertained for as long as the Jell-O Jigglers will last, sometimes longer! Use a wall or surface that you either don’t mind messing up or that has a cleanable surface, such as semi-gloss paint. Put a tarp down if you are inside. You can use teams or individuals. Make a different color of jiggler for each (star shapes are the best). Have each team at the same time hurl their jigglers at the wall. You can have winners in the categories of the most sticking to the wall at one time, who is the last jiggler sticking, or any other. The jigglers become stickier and more fragile with more throws, so after awhile the prize categories don’t matter. The kids just want to see the splat.
[Ed. Note: See a package of Jell-O for instructions on how to make Jell-O Jigglers. From what I can recall, you usually use twice the amount of Jell-O to water.]
This idea started when the Bible lesson was the great commission from Matthew. The verse said Jesus and the eleven disciples went up the mountain. I asked them if anyone knew why there were only 11 not 12. No one knew. So I told them if they found the answer I would give them a candy bar.
The next week I had a different question.
Surprisingly, they enjoyed finding answers. In fact, one week I didn’t have one and they were disappointed. I think this is a good way to get them to open their Bible and become familiar with the stories and people.