Get several bags of Cheese Puffs any brand. Can be done in teams or individually.
Take one cheese Puff and nibble a little bit of one end away. Then,take another Cheese Puff and do the same. Now,moisten the nibbled end of one of the Cheese Puffs and stick it to the nibbled end of the other cheese puff. They will stick like glue and remain that way. Now keep adding to the fused Cheese Puffs to see how long you can make a bunch of Cheese Puffs. This is a riot and a very tasty game.
Read moreOn 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 moreDecorate a wall with a large oval mirror frame and a pane of glass instead of a mirror. Coat the glass with a sheet of aluminized window reflector (available at hardware stores), making the glass into a 2-way mirror. Put an operator behind the glass in a darkened compartment, with a dim green bulb in his compartment and a bright light in the viewer’s side, connected by dimmer switches. The viewer will look into the mirror and see only his own reflection when the light is on his side. The operator (dresses in black except for a white face) should dim down the viewer’s light and turn up the green light on his face. The viewer will them see the face in the magic mirror talking to him.
Read moreIn my Sunday School class I did this with middle school age kids and they had a lot of fun. We covered a wall in paper and painted vines all over it, using brown, green, and purple paint and some inexpensive foam stamps of leaves and grapes. They just painted brown lines all over for the vine and branches and then added leaf and grape stamps everywhere. Then we took pictures of all of the kids in the church and glued their photos on all the branches.
Read moreWhenever I show a video and there is a sudden scary part, I get in the back to the room behind the kids with a pair of cymbals and crash the cymbals as hard as I can for added impact. The kids jump through the ceiling, fall on the floor, food goes flying everywhere, etc, and they laugh about it for hours (and so do I).
Read moreInstead of having a Lock-in at the church, ask members of your church or local businesses to host the youth for one to two hours throughout the night. At each house, have a plan activity plus snacks. We start at 5pm at the church and end at 7 am back at the church. The Kids have a blast!
Examples of activities
1.Wal-mart supermarket sweep and all items will be purchased for the local food banks. 3am in the morning is a great time. Only workers are in the store. Always have an adult with the groups of kids. Put clues in easter eggs and send them on their way.
2.Midnight Easter Egg Hunt – use flash lights or car lights
3.Slinky races down the stairs. Metal works the best
4.Tug of War
5.Dye easter eggs
6.Flash Light Tag
7.Easter Egg toss
8.Tumbling Contest in members yards
9.Hula Hoop Contest
10.Pudding Eating Contest – the catch is, MUST BE DONE THROUGH A STRAW
11.Pizza at the Pastor’s house
The list can go on and on.
Keep them busy or they will get tired. SO WILL YOU!
I get the youth at my church to plant flowers, plants and award them at the end of the year. Fisrt I put them into groups and then I allow them to choose the location they want to use. Next they fence it around with whatever attractive material they can find. The youth will learn to be dedicated, and nurturing. They pull out all the stops in collecting they most beautiful flowers they come across. In competing they beautify the church grounds and work towards the coveted trophy and a cash award donated by the youth department!
Read moreAll Youth like to get crazy at times and with the “Male Beauty Pageant” they can do just that in a safe and secure atmosphere. The way to start is to announce that you are having a Youth lock-in or even a fundraiser. (sell tickets). Get as many “Male” volunteers as you can and instruct them to wear at least a tee shirt and cutoffs. Then assign the girls in teams of two. They can then choose from the list of male volunteers. The girls in teams of two then have about one hour to make their male volunteer as beautiful as possible. They can use makeup, dresses nylons, wigs, ( the works) . Then you can proceed in a number of ways. Last year we had a board of judges (The pastors wife was one of them) and the contestants walked down the runway and were judged according to overall beauty, talent and most memorable.
(We laughed until it hurt) This year we are combining it with a dinner fundraiser where the contestants will wait on the tables and the guests will be the judges. Don’t forget to video tape this for later. The Youth will want to see it over and over.
Depending on the size of the group of Youth to be sponsored …. ask parents (or singles) to sign up to sponsor the group for an activity once a month. This could be in the form of a picnic, barbecue at the sponsor’s house, bowling, hiking, etc.. For a group of 12 youth, we asked two couples or 4 singles to sign up as sponsors and gave them a choice of what month they would want to do this. This has been very lots of fun and encouraging. We start each activity with a bible study or class, then move into the activity.
Read moreSplit the group into two equal teams . Have three blown up balloons tied up above each team. Say there is a sweet / chocolate for everyone that listens well , if anyone doesn’t listen you will burst a balloon from their side if all the balloons are popped that team forfeits their rewards they are given to the other side. You rarely have to burst more than one balloon. There is a lot of peer presure on the usually disruptive children. At the end of the meeting say they can take their reward IF they feel they have deserved it. You will be surprised at the honesty from those you would least expect to be honest. You can then call that person back and reward their honesty.
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