Posts Tagged: indoor

Trash Can Game – Team Variant

The game is played out just as it is in the Trash Can Game (free-for-all), except that everyone is on one of two teams.

Form a circle around the trash can, then have a leader count everyone off 1-2-1-2-1-2…etc. The goal of each team is to work together to get the other team members to touch the trash can without touching the trash can themselves (though at times self-sacrificing can be worthwhile to take down those difficult opponents). Confusion can set in as people quickly are tagged out and players often ask others which team they are on.

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Pingball

Very similar to baseball. We use a drumstick for a bat and a ping pong ball for a baseball. You get a point for each base and you must run until you get to home plate or are tagged out. Each team gets five outs. Great for small rooms!

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Bible Scavenger Hunt – Around the Church

These clues will lead youth to locations throughout the church building and grounds. On each location, post a few slips of paper with the Bible verse number that points to the next clue. Give the groups the first clue. At the position of the last clue, put “return to the youth room and receive your prize.” This scavenger hunt took 3 groups of 4-6 middle schoolers 50 minutes to complete. It was made up using the New Revised Standard version of the Bible. The clues are arranged from easier to harder.

A few hints: The groups will sometimes pick up a clue that they find without having been led there. To prevent this, tell them not to pick up any clues unless the Bible verse led them there. Or, you could have them check back with a youth leader each time they pick up a clue to make sure they got the right one. If they don’t get the clues in order, it’s likely they won’t find all the clues.

It’s hard to find active things to do indoors here in Michigan, where it’s cold ten months out of the year. The kids really enjoyed this and it was nice for the youth leaders to lean back and watch them run around the church. It helps them become more familiar with both the Bible and the church building too.

Church front door–Matthew 7:7
music room—Psalm 149:1
communion table—Mark 14:22
Tree–Psalm 1:3
oven—Hosea 7:6
nursery–Matthew 21:16
Pulpit Bible–2 Timothy 3:16
baptismal font—Galatians 3:27
Sink—Matthew 27:24
stairs—1 Kings 6:8
ice maker—Psalm 147:17
showers –Psalm 65:10
preacher’s chair—Jeremiah 52:32
furnace room—Daniel 3:23
church office—1 Timothy 3:1
mailbox—Acts 15:30
drinking fountain—John 19:28
Refrigerator—Judges 3:24

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Ricochet Stadium

This is an indoor baseball game best played in a small auditorium (ours seats about 180 max.) I recommend a foam bat and a FOAM ball so nothing gets damaged.

Start the game with multiple teams (3 or more is best) of any number of players per team. You will need a scorekeeper with a whiteboard and marker, or just paper and pencil if you’re boring 😉 There is one batter standing on or near the stage, facing the auditorium. There is one pitcher, put your mound wherever it is easy to pitch from. Every other player is a fielder, standing wherever they choose.

Teams take turns batting homerun derby style. Each player gets three hits on the ball (hits, not pitches or strikes). Pitchers may rotate as you see fit, usually when the batters do. Team with the most points wins.

Scoring points are assigned for the following reasons:
Retrieve the ball after hit: 1 point
Catch the ball out of the air: 2 points
Your hit caught out of the air: -1 point
Hit an easy object: 1 point (For our game, these were two huge banners hanging from the balcony, the size of bed sheets.)
Hit an impossible object: 10 points (four very tiny windows on either side of the banners were open. No balls went through in 45 mins!)
Break the projector: -50 points and -$1500

Most points will be won by retrieving balls, so it becomes a frenzy for students trying to push each other out of the way and dive to the ball first. Teammates can retrieve hits from their own team’s batter. The pitcher may retrieve or catch hits. If you have a way to mark teams for the scorekeeper (i.e. team bandannas) it’s a good thing.

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Who Sir? Me Sir?

Have everyone sit in a line or a circle, and designate the #1 ranked seat that everyone is trying to get to. Then number the seats after #1 in numerical ascending order (this is the ranking order).

The object of the game is to get a dialog going so fast that it causes players to mess up their response, so they lose their rank and they move to the end of the line.

The youth leader or a fast talking kid is the “caller” throughout the game (you can switch callers to avoid fatigue). The caller is not a player and is not trying for a seat, so there is no penalty for a caller when they mess up.

The caller will begin a dialog. If a player messes up they go to the end of the line and everyone who was below them in rank gets to move up one spot. If the group is not familiar with the dialog, you can write it out, but then as the group gets more proficient, take away the cheat sheet! Make sure everyone knows their seat number when you begin, then it is up to each player to know which rank number they are. Remember as players move up and down the rank, their number changes, based on the seat order! You may start as #9, but if someone ahead of you messes up, you move up to being #8.

The player whose number is called must respond perfectly with the correct dialog response before the caller says “go foot!” If a player messes up in any way, they are moved to the end of the line.

Here’s the dialog, start slow and work up to ridiculously fast, putting any rank number in the place of the ones I have used:

Caller: “The king of Paris has lost his hat and number 3 knows where to find it. Number 3 go foot!”

Player 3 must interrupt the caller as soon as they have heard their number called with the following before the caller say “go foot”: “Who, sir, me sir?”

Caller: “Yes, sir, you, sir,”

Player: “Oh no, sir, not I, sir!”

Caller: “If not you, sir, then who, sir?”

Player: “Number 6, sir!”

Caller: “Number 6 go foot!”

At this point Number 6 would have had to interrupt the caller to keep the dialog going:

Number 6: “Who, sir, me sir?”

Caller: “Yes, sir, you, sir,”

Player: “Oh no, sir, not I, sir!”

Caller: “If not you, sir, then who, sir?”

Player: “Number 1, sir!”

Caller: “Number 1 go foot!”

If the phrase “go foot!” gets spoken before the player interrupts the caller, the player is sent to the back of the line. When any player is sent to the back of the line, the caller restarts the entire dialog with “The king of Paris has lost his hat and number ___ knows where to find it.

Decide a time limit to the game, the person sitting in the #1 chair is the winner at the end of that time.

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