Freeze Tag
This common game of tag, forces a person to freeze in place, when tagged. Other people who are not frozen can unfreeze a person by tagging them.

Application
A game of freeze tag serves as an active visual illustration of the fact that we are unable to break free from the oppressions in our lives. In a sense we are also stuck, frozen, unable to break free from the oppressions in our lives. Only when Jesus frees us are we able to be truly free. Unfortunately, sin often touches our lives again and we find ourselves back in the same condition. Jesus says, “So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.” (John 8:31-36) True freedom comes from being set free by Jesus Christ. True freedom is freedom to be myself as God made me and meant me to be. This freedom comes only when we completely surrender ourselves to Jesus and invite Him to be our Lord and Master of our life.

Icebreakers Ahead: Take It To the Next Level

This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.

Click here to find out how to get your hands on this incredible resource!

Fun for Mother’s Day!

Whose Kiss?
Blindfold the mother, then have a couple of the children in attendance kiss her on the cheek. Give each child a number and have the mother guess which number her child is. Give a few Hershey’s Kisses to the mother-child who guesses correctly.

Mother – Child
All mothers stand in a circle. Then all children form a circle around them. The inner and outer circles contain an equal number of people. Each mother should be with their child. Mothers begin walking clockwise while the children walk counterclockwise. A leader then interrupts by calling out “Birdie on a perch” At that moment, both circles stop and children must find their mother. The mother must place the child on her knee. The slowest mother and child to assume the designated position is eliminated. Continue until one couple is left.

Variation
Instead of calling out “Birdie on a perch” call out two body parts and in a position couples must assume. For instance, one might call out, ”Wrist to nose!” or “Knee to elbow”.

Silhouettes
Set up a sheet so that if someone is standing behind it you can’t see them, only their shadow. You can then place mothers behind the sheet and have children try to identify their mother, or vice-versa.

Holiday Collection

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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Materials
Purchase several pairs of tube socks (at least four). Gather the same number of items that relate to mothers — lipstick, pacifyer, ring, kitchen utensil, etc. Be sure objects are not fragile. Place one item in each sock, tie it closed, and pin a number on it.

Activity
Children and Youth have to feel each sock using their FEET ONLY and try to guess what is in the sock. Write down each guess by number on a sheet of paper. Whoever guesses the most items correctly wins a prize.

Variations
Obtain interesting objects belonging to various individual mothers or have the children bring a “show and tell” item relating to his/her mother. For a mother-child activity you can also put items belonging to the children in a sock.

Application
Just as there are numerous items related to mothers, the things that mothers do for us are also numerous. But the true glory of a mother is not found in the things she owns but in the child she nurtures. Her children are her greatest treasure.

This game for Mother’s Day reminds children and youth of the numerous roles that mothers play in our lives

Holiday Collection

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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Activity
Invite mothers to the Sunday School classroom. Temporarily separate the mothers and the children or youth. The teacher asks some planned questions to the group of mothers and each mother is expected to try and guess the answer her child/teen will give to each question. Answers are written on a large peice of cardboard or a piece of paper that can later be held high for everyone to see.

Bring the mothers and children/youth back together. Assign point values for each question in which the parent successfully guessed the child’s answer. You can also reverse roles for the next set of questions and have the kids try to predict their mother’s answer. The mother-child with the most points wins a prize.

Some sample questions
“Most common thing you fight over?”
“You are most alike in what characteristic?”
“What is your favorite activity together?”
“What is the funniest thing that happened when you were together?” “What is one music group you could listen to and both enjoy?”
“What is a television show you watch together?”

The parent and child answer the questions on an index card, without talking to each other or having any type of collaboration at all on answers.

Makes a great activity to encourage mother-child communication, especially among teens.

Holiday Collection

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

=> Tell me more about the Holiday Collection

Play this like “doggie doggie where’s your bone!” Except you choose one child to be the baby bird in the middle and the child with the hidden block or toy is the mommy. The Bird points to a child and asks “Are you my Mother?” the child answers “Yes” if they have the block or “No I am a ___” and fills in the ___ with cat, dog, boat.. etc On the third guess if the child guesses incorrectly the child should respond “I am a Stork” and everyone can point to the “Mother” for them. Of course the stork brings new babies so someone else become the baby bird and the game continues.

This game can be a fun filled activity for Mother’s Day. For a nice bridge into mother’s day… say it is not really storks that bring babies, but God. And God puts them into the loving care of mothers.

Holiday Collection

Creative Holiday Ideas has over 300 pages of ideas to help you plan your next New Year’s Day, Valentine’s Day, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, Halloween or Fall Festival, and Thanksgiving event. If you’ve ever wondered what you’re going to do for all these holidays and how you’re going to do it, this resource is for you.

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This game is based on a skit I saw as a teen called “Aunt Sally.”skit

Preparation
Divide the youth into at least two teams of 4-8 people. Line each team up in a line, sitting side by side in chairs. (To make it more humorous you may wish to have teams lined up facing each other.)

Game Play
Instruct each team in the following dialog. This will start with person in first chair and be with the person next to him/her.
1: “Guess what?
2: “What?”
1: “Aunt Sally went shopping again.”
2: “Oh no.. what did she buy this time?”
3: “A rocking chair” and begins to rock back and forth in his chair.
4. “Oh, a rocking Chair.” and begins to rock. He then turns to the next person and repreats the process. Meanwhile he and the first person continue the actions. Actions are passed down the line until the entire team is doing it.

Everyone continues with actions non-stop adding each new one as it comes to them. When it gets to the last person, he ends with the name of the item e.g. “Oh, a rocking chair”, but instead of doing the action, he runs to the leader for the next item. Every one on his team scoots down the line one chair, so that the last person in line is able to sit in the first chair. He then begins the process by repeating any previous actions in the appropriate order and then adding the new item he received.

Winning
First team to get through all the items wins.
The Last Person on the last action says:
Guess what? What? Aunt sally Died! all fall on floor from exhaustion.

Items that can be used are:
Rocking chair (rock back and forth)
Knitting needles (knitting motions while sitting down)
Toothbrush – motion brushing your teeth
Basketball – mime dribbling a basketball and shooting a shot
Bicycle – sitting in chair pretend you ar epedaling with your feet
Pogo stick – get out of chair and jump up and down
Hula Hoop – sway those hips like using a hulahoop
Jump rope – pretend you are jumping rope
Accordian – Side to side motions as playing an according
Escape from Prison – All stand Up – last guy must crawl through legs

Of course you can add or remove any items to control the time required for the activities. You may wish to start with the simpler actions and move to the more vigorous and humerous ones. Be sure to have a list of actions and corresponding motions to give to each youth as they come up.

Application
This game can be used as a discussion starter about going through the motions in our Christian walk. They are not really doing the things on the list but only going through the motions. What are some of the things we do as Christians simply to be seen by others?

Icebreakers Ahead: Take It To the Next Level

This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.

Click here to find out how to get your hands on this incredible resource!

Preparation
1. Get a large group of youth together and split them into two teams.
2. Give the members of each team a colored cloth to use as an armband so that they can easily identify friendlies and foes. (You can also use different colors of waterguns to identify teams.)
3. Give each person a water gun, a string, and an Alkaseltzer tablet.
NOTE: If you allow youth to bring their own water guns, specify a maximum size inorder to prevent one person with a large super soaker from dominating the game.
4. Have each youth tie the tablet around their neck with the string. It must hang down the front of the shirt and be visible.
5. Have a designated refill point for each team. A couple buckets of water will do the trick.
6. Have kids wear old clothes as this can get a little messy. Rule out white t-shirts to pervent embarrassment when they get wet.

Play
Let everyone run around in a large area squirting each other with the squirt guns. If a person’s tablet dissolves, he’s out. First team to eliminate all the opponents wins.

Variation
This game also works if you want to play every man for himself.

GREAT SUMMER FUN

Icebreakers Ahead: Take It To the Next Level

This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.

Click here to find out how to get your hands on this incredible resource!

For small to large groups

Have all players sit in a circle and then chose a person to be “it”. “It” must then leave the room. While “It” is gone, one to four players move to a new seat in the circle. When “it” returns he is to figure out who has moved in the circle. Great ice breaker for new groups! If he guesses correctly, he swaps places with the person who moved.

Variation
Instead of moving locations, have someone change body position.

Icebreakers Ahead: Take It To the Next Level

This 170 page resource not only provides 52 of the world’s most popular group icebreaker activities and games, but also includes lesson ideas and discussion questions to smoothly transition into conversations about the issues common to most groups.

Click here to find out how to get your hands on this incredible resource!