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Showers for the Tender Harvest--"Let my teaching fall like showers on tender plants." - Deuteronomy 32:2
Goofy Games for Great Get-Togethers
by Jill Nelson (Jill's bio)
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Children's ministry is not all preaching and praising. Sometimes it's fun and games. And sometimes thinking of new games to play with your active crowd can be a teeth-gnashing experience. To help you out, I've listed three games that have come across my path recently and went over big with the kids.
M & M RELAY
Hard to find a kid who doesn't like yummy, chocolaty M & Ms. They'll be motivated to play this game with gusto!
Large bag(s) of plain M & Ms
Chairs
Cereal bowls
Drinking straws, cut in half
Position the chairs in lines approximately 10 feet apart, facing each other. On each seat, place a bowl. Leave the bowls empty in one line of chairs. Put the same amount of M & Ms in each of the bowls in the other line. The children line up in relay teams behind the chairs with the M & Ms. Each child receives a straw. At the signal, the first child in line sucks an M & M onto the end of his or her straw. He/she must carry it successfully to the opposite line of chairs and deposit the candy into the empty bowl. When this task is successfully completed, he or she runs back to the starting line and tags the next kid to go.
Whichever team empties one bowl into another first is the winner. M & Ms can be the prizes but not the ones that fell on the floor, of course.
BALLOON BOUNCE
Small or oddly shaped balloons, inflated
Line the kids up in even relay lines. Hand the first child in each of the lines a small or oddly shaped balloon. These are harder to pass along.
The first child must toss the balloon into the air and bat it to the next child. The next child must bat it to the next, but at no time can the balloon touch the ground or be held. The balloon must remain airborne until it reaches the end of the line. The last kid in line grabs the balloon and runs to the front of the line to start passing it down again. The first team to go through all their kids as starters wins. This game can get quite active and hilarious.
WATER RACE (outdoor game)
5-gallon buckets half full of water
Ice Cream Pails
Heavy-duty plastic bags with several small holes punched in the bottom half
Set the ice cream pails in a line about 15 - 20 feet from the line of 5-gallon buckets. Place a holey plastic bag in each water bucket. The children should form relay teams behind the buckets. First in line fills his or her plastic bag with water, then runs to the empty ice cream pail and pours the water he has left in his bag into the pail. He or she then runs back to the team and hands the plastic bag off to the next person in line.
The first person to fill their ice cream pail with water wins.
Anyone with more great game ideas who would like to see them published on-line, feel free to contact me. I'll run another column like this later in the year and give YOU credit for your idea if I get enough of them.
Copyright 2003, Jill Nelson. All Rights Reserved. Used by permission.
| About Jill Nelson: Children have been the focus of Jill Nelson's ministry for twenty years. She and her husband have four--two boys, two girls--all teenagers. (Prayers, please.) Jill supervises the children's ministry at her local church and delights in writing her own material. Her heart is to glorify God by guiding children into a powerful personal relationship with Him. E-mail Jill |
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