There are a few tools I keep in my back pocket when I need a game or lesson quick. This is by far not a comprehensive list of all of the great resources I pull from. These are just the ones I find myself frequently pulling for on a regular basis. What are your typical “go to’s”?
Great Books on Middle Schoolers:
Junior High Ministry by Wayne Rice
Middle School Ministry by Mark Oestreicher and Scott Rubin
It was originally called “Ups and Down” but I changed the name because we are currently in a superhero series. When it comes to games in my book I take what I learned from the great Shakespeare, ”A game by any other name will be just as fun.” We played it this past Sunday and this simple game was a huge success.
This is how we played:
Give each student three cups and have them place the cups around the room.
Divide the large group into two different teams. One team will be the “UP” team and the other team the “DOWN” team.
When you say “GO,” the students must run around the room and attempt to turn the cups over to the direction of the team they are on. For example, the “UP” team has to get all the cups turned up while the “DOWN” team turns them over so they are facing down.
At the end of two minutes, stop the game and have one person count how many cups are up and another person count how many are down.
The team with the most cups facing its direction is declared the winner.
Sometimes coming up with games can be a big time stealer so when I find resources that in this area, I am stoked! I discovered this game in one of the two free game eBooks at youthministry.com. This fantastic resource was created by Ryan Nielsen. Ryan has been providing resources for youth workers on his website pastor2outh.com for nearly 15 years. Be sure to download both ebooks for here for 40 quick game ideas. Check out Ryan’s website for hundreds more.
We are kicking off a new series in Riptide and I wanted a comic book feel for the set design. Being that I personally have no cartoon drawing abilities, I took to good ole’ fashioned GOOGLE to help me find someone who did. I came across a website called BeFunky.com. It allows you to upload photos and then create some fun effects for free. To actually download the photos and have even more effects and editing abilities, you can pay a $4.95 a month (with an options to quite anytime). I’m sure there are some free programs that let you do this online, but this website was the easiest to use and had the effects I needed.
This event had two of my favorite things: simplicity and fun. I have been wanting to do something with a few crazy elements that we might not be able to pull off on a Sunday Morning Service. I have also been wanting more events where students and leaders can just have fun and build relationships. So, we canceled small groups for one week and gathered all of our middle schoolers together for one ‘hair-raising-event’ called Mad Hair Night. Here’s how it went:
SCHEDULE:
Check-In & Snacks
Silly String Hair Contest: Take the adult volunteer from each team to sit in the front of the room. At the clock, students would take turns every ten second interval spraying silly string on their adult representative. The best hair style at the end of a minute…wins!
Hair Raising Relay : Take one volunteer from each team (preferably the one with the fluffiest hair) and have them sit in the front of the room. At the clock, students take turns putting dry, uncooked spaghetti noodles in the student’s hair. When the time is up, the student that has the most spaghetti in their hair, wins the points for their team.
Hairography Contest: This idea was taken from an episode of Glee. Each team was given five minutes to prepare a 30 second dance to MC Hammer’s “You can’t Touch This.” The key was the have a dance that focused on their hair!
“Hair Through The Ages” Talk: Simple talk about how hairstyles change, what people think about us may change, but the love God has for us never does.
Best Hair Contest:
Winning Categories:
Tallest Hair
Best Wig
Most Color
Best Bed Head
Announcements:
Our next crazy event: WACKY WINTER LAND IN DECEMBER
We kicked off the Fall with a series called, “Prepare for Take Off.” Entering middle school is a lot like stepping onto a plane. There needs to be some preparation and precautions, but if you are willing to jump on, it will take you to some pretty spectacular place and experiences. During the next four weeks we are going to look at this voyage called middle school. We will look at how God has a specific route planned for each of us and what we need to do if we veer off that route.
OPENING VIDEO:
OPENING ACTIVITY:
Paper Airplane Flying Contest: Just gave the student a piece of paper and the plane that flew the farthest won.
LARGE GROUP GAME:
Another version of the popular Gorrila, Man, Gun. Students stand back to back. Count to three and then they turn around doing the motions for either Pilot (driving a plane), Flight Attendant (showing the exit signs), or Air Sickness (hand over mouth and other in the air). Flight Attendant beats Air Sickness, Air Sickness beats Pilot, and Pilot beats Flight Attendant.
The theme is fun. Great kick-off with the new 6th graders. The key is to have enough volunteer help, otherwise there will be paper airplanes being made the entire morning. I also think group question time would be beneficial.
I have always been a firm believer that “one size does not fit all.” I feel this way for small group curriculum as well. For the last couple of years, I think have become more and more obsessed about curriculum. I am constantly looking for new lessons written in different formats, on different topics, and for specifics genders. Anyone can walk into my office and see this is true. I have shelves packed with books I have collected over the years. In a weird sort of way, I think this obsession has made me a little crazy in the head.
While organizing small groups last year, I tried to give each small group curriculum that fit the age group of the students, the gender of the group, and the teaching ability of the leaders. This worked for about eight weeks, and then I was out of lessons for each group. To make the process a little easier I decided to just picked out lessons based on subjects that the leader thought was appropriate for their group. Again, it was a nice fix for about six weeks. But by Christmas, I was dreading doing this process all over again when we returned from break. It was not only getting stressful for me and but for my leaders as well. They were reading through different books, with a different formats, every so many weeks. The whole situation was what some would call, “one hot mess.”
This year, I had the opportunity to work on a project with Simply Youth Ministry in planning a two-year curriculum. The idea of having 72 lessons written specifically for Jr.High aged students at my finger tips, was a HUGE relief. As I got the know the format of the individual lessons, I got even more excited! Each lesson is customizable by the leader so they can make it fit exactly for their specific group. There is also all sort of additional perks, like letters to parents about each lesson, text message ideas for students before they meet. It is fantastic!
The other great thing about this curriculum is that is all online. The userabilty is super easy, even for some of us ‘not so computer techies.’ I, as the administrator assign different lessons to each week. It is all laid out on a calendar that I can even add my ministry events to it as a reminder to my small group leaders. I can upload my permission slips to the website as well.
Although our small groups don’t start for another couple of weeks, I presented this curriculum to our leaders at our small group training. One of my veteran small group leaders came up to me afterwards and said, “Just knowing all of the lessons are planned for the entire year is a HUGE stress off. The biggest challenge of figuring out what to teach and that is already taken care of. The rest is easy. “
Needless to say, I am excited to see how this works in the trenches this year. If you are interested in checking it out yourself visit the Simply Youth Ministry Website and even try a demo for free.
I’m not usually a crier. I can watch a marathon of romantic movies and never shed a tear, but give me a real life story of hope and inspiration and I’m done for. It really shouldn’t have surprised me when my husband showed me the story below and I began sobbing. In fact, the entire website “Gives me Hope” is filled with real life narratives that show the goodness people are capable of doing in this world. This website can be a great resource if you are in need of a story to encourage your students that big and even small acts can change the world.
So pull out the Kleenex, read the story below, and then watch the video. It is amazing what a difference one life can do.
In 1938, Nicholas Winton helped 669 Jewish kids escape certain death from the Nazis. He never told anyone that he did this.
While on ski trip in Switzerland, Winton took a detour in Czechoslovakia to help the children of refugees. Nazi Germany had recently annexed a large part of Czechoslovakia and the news of Kristallnacht, a violent attack on Jews in Germany and Austria, had just reached Prague.
Winton set up a rescue operation for the children, filling out the required paperwork for them to be sent to homes in Sweden and Great Britain. He had to raise money to fund foster homes for all of them, and then he sent 669 children away from Czechoslovakia on trains before the Nazis closed down the borders.
Winton told no one that he did this, not even his wife. In 1988, his wife found a scrapbook full of pictures of the children and letters from parents in their attic. She arranged to have Winton’s story appear in newspapers.
Many of the children Winton saved went on the BBC television program, That’s Life, to meet him for the first time since the war. They refer to themselves as “Winton’s children”.
Winton is now 101 years old and has received awards from Israel and the Czech Republic as well as Knighthood from the Queen of England in 1993. (via Gives Me Hope)
Last week we attended a city-wide DYE WARS event at my old stomping grounds, College Avenue Baptist Church. I have always loved this event for three main reasons. First, it is just fun chaos to run around with a couple hundred middle schoolers blasting each other with colored water. Secondly, it is always a win to bring several churches together for one fun event. And thirdly, it’s simple and easy to pull off. I learned how to put on this event during my intern days. I think DYE WARS is too great to keep a secret, so here is the recipe:
Schedule for the Night:
Students arrive
Check in and get raffle ticket and hand marked with a colored marker of team
Pizza and soda served
Raffle or upfront game
Speaker (15-20 minutes)
Rules
War!
Supplies Needed:
A field or parking lot that has been roped off.
trash cans filled with water (For us, 1 trash can for every 15 students will last about 15-20 minutes) The more water, the longer the game.
Four different colors of food coloring…buy it in bulk (staff team always gets red since it is the brightest)
A hose with water access to rinse students off after the game.
Give-a-ways and raffle tickets (optional)
Small cups for those who forget their water guns.
Rules of the Game:
Rule #1: The object of the game is to spray the opposing teams with dye.
Rule #2: If you leave the field of play once the game starts, there is no returning.
Rule #3:No Squirting people outside the field of play.
Rule #4: Watch where you shoot
Rule #5: Must wear shoes at all times.
Rule #6 : No physical contact
Rule #7: Be sure to get rinsed off before leaving the playing field.
Rule #8: Have Fun!
It could be really boring to just tell the kids the rules from a stage, so make a video. Here is a little video we put together from my intern days:
Tell the students before they arrive:
Wear bathing suits with a light colored t-shirt.
Bring a water gun
Bring a towel
TIP: If you are planning on inviting other churches, be sure to get the information to them several months in advance. Here is a video we sent out to churches one year:
How to organize the war:
Get the kids in the four corners corresponding to the color of their hand.
Once everyone is there, ring a bell or bull horn and just have at it until all the water is gone.
Then rinse them off and have them waiting at the curb for their ride.
With BIG TIME encouragement and BIG TIME training for youth workers, you absolutely do not want to miss the National Youth Worker’s Convention this year!
