Children’s Ministry Inspiration Vault

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(For Parents To Do With Children At Home and/or Children’s Ministry Leaders to Use for Activities)

1. Indoor Scavenger Hunt/Beat the Clock

a. Make a list of items for the children to find. Be specific: red sock, black comb, box of Wheaties cereal . . .
b. Keep track of how long it takes everyone to find these items and how long it takes to put back in the proper places.
c. Use the same list again. See how long it takes a second time to find the items and then replace them.

2. Indoor Hide and Seek

Playing Hide and Seek as a family is a memory that will last a lifetime! Before starting, sit down together and make a list of rules.

3. Hat Day

Using brown paper bags and scraps of things found around the house, have each family member make a funny hat. Everyone can wear the hat at dinner.

4. Beat the Clock Clean Up

All family members, including parents, clean up their rooms in a certain amount of time.

5. Indoor Picnic

Involve the entire family in fixing the meal. Spread out a blanket on the floor and enjoy!

6. Crazy Olympics

Work together in setting up various events:

a. Discus throw using paper plates
b. Javelin throw using straws
c. Shot putt using marshmallows
d. Diving with each person tossing jelly beans into a container of water
e. One-yard dash by pushing a marshmallow across the floor with nose
f. Indoor mile – 50 feet with hands on ankles
g. Twenty-Foot Dash – hop a given distance on one foot
h. Fifty-Yard Dash – unroll toilet paper from one end of room to the other

7. H. O. P. Day

This is Help Other People. Make a list of things you can do for family members, neighbors or friends. This might include mowing lawns, washing cars, washing windows, writing a letter for an elderly person, cleaning the toys at your church nursery, volunteering to help your church custodian.

8. Cupcake Decorating

Make cupcakes and divide them among family members. Provide supplies with which to create, such as: icing, sprinkles, M & M’s, raisins, nuts, etc. Each person decorates his cupcake.

9. Game Marathon

Play one round of every table game your family has.

10. Paper Airplane Mania

Create airplanes from leftover school notebook paper. See whose will stay in flight the longest and whose plane is the winner of the distance race!

11. Progressive Dinner

Decide on several fast food restaurants. Eat french fries at one, hamburgers at another, drink somewhere else, and top it all off with a dessert!

12. Peanut Hunt

Buy a large bag of peanuts. Toss them into a grassy area in your yard. Give everyone a paper sack. At a signal, start to hunt for the peanuts, dropping them into the sack as found. See who gets the most. The one who got the least amount can scatter the peanuts for everyone to find again. Play until interest runs out, then divide the peanuts evenly and enjoy!

13. Water Balloon Fight

Set rules for the fight. Then fill balloons with water, tie securely and stack in the designated place. On your mark, get set, throw!

14. Wacky Volleyball

If you do not have a volleyball net, just tie rope or yarn between two trees or take two chairs outside. Use a large beach ball.

15. Balloon Volleyball

Tie a string from one side of the room to the other at about chin height. Play volleyball, using a round balloon. Anyone over 4′ 6 must play on their knees! Remove lamps and other breakables before starting!

16. Pizza Party

Make a list of all ingredients needed to make your very own pizzas. Go shopping, then work together as a family creating individual pizzas.

17. Parent Wrap-Up

Children wrap-up parent using toilet paper.

18. Crazy Contests

Burp – who can burp first after drinking a soda?
Whistle – who can whistle first after eating a soda cracker?
Balloon blow – who can be first to blow up a balloon until it pops?
Bubble gum race – who can blow a bubble first?
Seed spitting – who can spit watermelon seeds the longest distance?
Kleenex blow – who can keep a Kleenex in the air the longest by blowing on it?

19. Reading Safari

Everyone finds a favorite book, looks for a comfortable place, and reads!

20. Bible Memorization Fun

Bible memorization is imperative for spiritual strength and guidance. Memorize verses together as a family. Consider the following options.

21. Yard Sale

If you haven’t used it in a year, you don’t need it! Have all families members clean their own rooms. Work together pricing items and hold a yard sale. Price items the way you would buy. Advertise in the paper – it’s not that expensive. Put up at least 4 signs and take them down when done. Be sure and put date, address, and arrows on your signs.

22. Trash Detectives

Walk around your neighborhood and pick up trash. This will begin to teach your children that we are to care for God’s world, by helping to keep it clean.

23. Anything Goes!

Use a familiar table game and let each child make up different rules.

24. Exercise Together

Family members can take turns leading aerobics.

25. Frisbee Golf

Each family member needs a Frisbee. Collect carpet squares or get small rugs from around the house. Go outside and set up a golf course, the rugs serving as greens. Play as regular golf, each toss counting as one stroke until the Frisbee makes it to the green.

26. Jigsaw Puzzle Challenge

Get a difficult puzzle and work together completing it.

27. Spoons

Deal each player four cards. Place in the middle of the circle a spoon for each player, minus one.
The dealer begins the game by looking at the top card in the deck. If he wants that card, he replaces it with one in his hand. The discarded card is laid down for the player on his right to look at . . . and so on around the circle. The goal is to collect 4 cards all the same. When you achieve the goal, you show no reaction – but sneakily reach out and take a spoon from the middle of the table. Everybody else who’s paying attention then grabs for the remaining spoons, with the slowest person being left out. That person is penalized with an S. If it happens again on a subsequent round, the person gets a P, and so on until a loser finally accumulates S-P-O-O-N-S. The game then starts again.

28. Dramatize a Bible Story

Read a Bible story together and then act it out.

29. Bean Bag Basketball

Use a large container or box in the center of the floor. Toss in the bean bag. Keep points.

30. Pretzel Fun

Soften package of yeast in 1 l/2 cups warm water.
Add 3/4 teaspoon salt; 1 l/2 teaspoons sugar.
Mix in 4 cups flour.
Knead into a soft, smooth dough.
The children can roll and mold to their hearts content.
Place shapes on a cookie sheet. Brush with beaten egg.
Bake at 425 degrees for 15 minutes or until golden brown.

31. Cleaning Party

Put on a CD that everyone enjoys. Clean until the end of the music, then everyone gets surprise refreshments.

32. Treasure Hunt

Start with a note, Make your bed, then read the note taped to the pillow. On the pillow is a second note: Vacuum the living room, then read the noted taped to the handle. Taped to vacuum handle, Look in refrigerator. A note there says, Take out the trash. On the trash can is taped a note: Good job. You’re done!

33. Outdoor Fun

Play some outdoor games, such as: baseball, volleyball, croquet, or badminton.

34. Terrific Tacos

Each family member fixes one item for the tacos: shreds cheese, cuts up lettuce, dices tomato, or fries hamburger.

35. Sundae Sunday

Everyone make their own sundae on a Sunday afternoon. This can become a family tradition!

36. Down Memory Lane

Get out family picture albums and look through them together.

37. Giant Board Game

a. From a cardboard box, cut and tape together a cube. Make dots with a marker to resemble a die.
b. On sheets of paper, write instructions: Go back one space; lose a turn; roll again; go back to start; etc.
c. Lay game spaces in any design on the floor.
d. Cans from your cupboard can be used as playing pieces.

38. Paper Sack Puppets

Each family member makes a sack puppet with markers or crayons, and using construction paper and yarn for adding features. A simple puppet stage can be made by standing behind a table or hanging a curtain from a spring curtain rod in the doorway.

Excerpts from “Making Bible Memorization Fun-52 Games and Activities” and “Bible Memorization.”
© by Betty Robertson
Creative Christian Ministries

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