30 Games and Activities for Children's Church

November 12, 2014LaBreeska Ingles

GAMES AND ACTIVITIES

Cool tricks.  Have each kid think of something wacky they can do that they can show to the other kids.  For example, demonstrating double jointed limbs, whistling a fun song, turning their eyelid inside out.  Crazy stuff like that.

Human Knot.  Get all of the students in a circle.  Have them reach across the circle to connect their right hand with someone else.  Then, reach across the circle and connect their left hand with someone else.  The goal of the game is to untangle the hands and make a perfect circle. 

Dance off.  Play upbeat music and have every kid dance their best moves.  Slowly touch students shoulders to sit down, leaving the best dancers up front for everyone to see.  Once you have narrowed it down to 2 awesome dancers, have the rest of the class vote on the best dancer by using a clap-o-meter (which is you).  Place your hand about one dancer, the kids clap and cheer.  Then the other dancer, the class claps and cheers.  You decide who got the loudest cheers and give them a prize.

Shoe Scramble. Have all of the students take off their shoes and throw them into the middle of the room in a large pile.  Everyone then stands against the wall and waits for the music to come on.  When the music starts, the students all leap into the middle of the room to find both pairs of their shoes and return to the wall, put the shoes on, and tie all of their strings.  Whoever finishes first, wins!

Balloon volleyball.  You can just have the whole class try to keep a ball up in the air, and if the ball touches the floor that person is out.  Keep playing until there are 2 contenders.  The last one standing wins a prize.  Or, you could divide into two teams and divide the class with a row of chairs and play more organized balloon volleyball.  Count points for teams instead of students having to “be out” if they drop the balloon.

Sing-Off.  There is a singing game where you divide the class into 2 teams.  Each team sends up one person at a time. The two students from separate teams must sing a song without messing up the words as loud as they can on the count of 3.  The songs must be different and you can not repeat any songs that have already been sung.  The game gets more and more difficult the longer it goes. One student may sing Jingle Bells while the other sings Row Row Row your boat.  If both students succeed, then they go to the back of the line for another turn, if one forgets the words or can’t think of a song, they must sit down.  Then, the next 2 students come forward and repeat the process until one team is left with the final person and the other team is all sitting down.

Hula Hoop Contest.  Divide the kids into two teams.  Each team sends up one person at a time to compete in the hula hoop contest.  The winner goes to the back of the line and the loser sits down.  Whichever team has the most people standing in line at the end wins.

Toilet Paper Games.  It’s a water themed sort of day.  Divide the class into teams.  Play some wild and crazy music while having the teams dress one student in toilet paper.  They can come up with any sort of design.  At the end, vote on the best dressed toilet paper model.

Noodle Baseball.  Take the class outside for a fun game of noodle baseball.  You use water noodles as the bats and a large beach ball as the ball.  You can even use kiddie pools for the bases.  (keeping in the water theme of baptism)  This game could be played inside without water, if the weather is cold or rainy.

Simeon says.  Do some out of the box moves, then let some students take turns being the leaders.

Obstacle Course.  Create an obstacle course out of objects in the room.  Blind fold a student and take them through the course with using only words for directions.  Change it up by using only sounds and not words.  Discuss how hard it can be to follow directions blindly.

Crab Soccer.  Play a game of soccer using a balloon or a very light ball.  The only rule is that the students must stay on all fours, with their hands behind their legs (like a crab).  Could get interesting.

Corn Hole.  Good ole corn hole time!  You can bring in some boards or create your own.  Use anything you want, like rolled up socks for the bean bag and trash cans or Dixie cups as the hole/goal.

Bowling.  Buy a kids bowling set or make up your own game.  You could set up Dixie cups and bowl them over with soccer balls, or create a funny human bowling game, where the kids are the bowling pins and they must fall over if the ball touches them.

Sock Wars.  This is a wrestling game at its best.  Two contestants wear socks and get in the middle of the class circle.  The first person to remove the others sock, wins.  For safety, make sure the rules are clear and they can not touch the other person except for the foot/sock.

Price is Right.  Bring in a few items and have some volunteer students vote on the cost of those items.  Whoever gets closest to the actual retail price is the winner.

Broom Hockey.  Divide the class into two teams.  Put a trash can down on each side to be the goal.  Give each team a broom.  Have the students get in a line.  The teams will send one contender into the ring at a time.  (This is a little like steal the bacon).  One person from each team comes to the middle of the room, with their broom.  Put a puck type item (could be a paper wad) in between the two contenders.  Whoever can get the puck into the trash can goal using only their broom wins a point for the team.  Then, the next two contenders approach the middle.

Basketball.  The trashcan is the hoop.  A paper wad or a small kids ball is the basketball.  The students line up to take one turn at a time.  If they make the shot, they go to the back of the line.  If they miss they take a seat.  The last one standing is the winner.

Limbo.  Turn on the limbo song.  Hold up a broom or water noodle and have the students do the limbo under it.  Lower it at the end of the line and keep going.  If a student falls, they have a seat. Change it up and start low and have the students jump over the pole.

Jazzercise.  Play some fun music and ask a student to lead the class in jazzcercise moves.  It’s like follow the leader plus aerobics plus dancing.

Charades.  Write down some different items on strips of paper and have the students draw one out of a hat.  They act out the word without using words and the class guesses the word(s).

Tag.  There are a million different versions of tag.  Google knows.

Balloon pop.  Throw one or more balloons in the middle of the circle and have the kids race to pop the balloons any way they can.  Whoever pops the most balloons wins.

Relays.  There are lots of ways to do relays.  Start with 2 teams and have them do ridiculous things like pass a ball over their heads, under their legs, around their sides.  Use a hula hoop.  Have the students hold hands and pass the hoop through the line without letting go of their hands.  Pass an egg without breaking it.  Pass an apple using only your chins.  Have every student hold a cup.  Pass water from the beginning of the line to the end and see which team can fill a pitcher fastest.  Lots more ideas on the internet.

Four Corners.  Have one student stand in the middle and be blindfolded.  All of the other students pick a corner of the room.  The blindfolded student picks a corner.  If you are standing in the corner, then you are out.

Eating contest.  Bring in all sorts of foods.  Have two contestants compete to see who will eat the most or the fastest.  You could bring in some yummy things, like cupcakes, but also bring in some interesting/yucky things like sardines.

Board Games.  There are board games in the kids closet.

Movies.  There are movies in the kids closet to choose from.

Partner Shoe Game**.**  Before telling anyone what you are doing today, have all of the kids throw their shoes into one corner of the room.  Next, have the students pick a partner.  Turn on some fun music.  One partner sits on one side of the room, while telling the other partner how to find their shoes in the pile of shoes.  Once the shoes are found, the person who found the shoes puts the shoes on their partner for them.  Then, switch.  The partners who finish putting each others’ shoes on first wins.

Flashlight tag.  Remove all of the chairs and furniture from the classroom.  Turn off the lights.  Choose one person to be “it”.  The kids move silently around the room in the dark.  The IT person must turn on their flashlight at random times to tag a person.


We hope you enjoy these free games and activities. If you are interested in additional resources, children's church curriculum, and lesson plans, check out the Kidsministryteam store.