As we all attempt to reopen our kid’s ministries and/or continue to do online services there are a lot of new challenges we are facing together. One big challenge is finding games that work for our current situation. A lot of the things we normally look for in a game like messy and hands-on are out and contact-free, hands-off is in! I spent hours racking my brain and scouring the internet to come up with my best list of hands-off games for our kid’s ministry and I wanted to share them with you to save you the time and energy! We plan on using these games pre-service to engage the kids when they come in and post-service if we need something to fill the time if the pastor preaches extra long that day. I hope this list of games makes your life easier and your kidmin fun, while keeping your kids and leaders safe and healthy.
Game List:
• Simon Says
• Sit Down If (Example: sit down if you are wearing the color blue.)
• Human Rock Paper Scissors (Choose large motions they can do, can be different things other than rock, paper, and scissors too for different rounds. The leader will do one of the three motions, any of the kids doing that motion for that round is out.)
• Getting Dicey (Roll a large dice for each round, each number represents an action: 1 – Sitting, 2 – Standing, 3 – Jumping, 4 – Hopping on one foot, 5 – Squatting, 6 – Everyone’s safe, roll again.)
• Charades (Leaders will act out words or phrases for the kids to guess without speaking.)
• Guess That Word/Phrase (Use a large white board for this game. Put dashes on the board for every letter, separate words with a big space between the dashes each word. Call on kids one by one to guess letters. If that letter is in the word/phrase put the letters on the correct dashes, if not, write the letter in the top corner so the kids can see which letters have been guessed.)
• Pictionary (Use a large white board for this game. Draw pictures of a word or phrase for kids to guess.)
• Follow the Leader (Kids will follow the leader by doing whatever actions/exercises they do.)
• Would You Rather
• I Spy
• Categories (The leader will pick a category and the kids will have to stand up one by one and name something in that category that no one has said so far in that round. The round is over when a kid can’t come up with something new or repeats a word. For example: Category – animals, kids must say different animals. Category – ice cream flavors – kids must say different flavors.)
• Name that Biblical Character (The leader will choose a Biblical character and describe them to the kids without saying the name. Give a small detail and allow the kids to guess, then give another detail, until the kids guess who it is.)
• Statues (To play this game, the leader is the museum keeper, and the other players are statues. The statues all have five seconds to freeze and the museum keeper walks around the room patrolling. As he/she walks past, the statues try to change position without the keeper seeing. If the museum keeper catches them moving they are out and must sit down.)
• 20 Questions (Choose something and allow kids to one by one ask a question to find out info about what it is. The round is over when a kid guesses what it is.)
• Read My Lips (The leader will mouth a word or short phrase for the kids, but they won’t say it out loud. Mouth the word/phrase multiple times and allow a few kids to guess before telling them what it is.)
• 2 Truths and a Lie (The leaders can start, then choose kids to share two truths and lie about themselves for kids to guess which one is the lie.)
Here is a fun printable list of these hands-off games for you to print and give to your leaders.
Which hands-off games do you love playing with your kids? Let me know in the comments!