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Three Last Minute Christmas Game Ideas (Covid-19 safe)

Help!! I’ve run out of time and I need a game for a large group of kids ASAP and I don’t know what to do?

Have you ever felt like that? I know for me time slips away far too quickly and more times that I’d care to own up to, I have found myself in a situation where I need something that needs very little preparation but will entertain the kids, young and old!

Fear not! I’m here to share with you three quick and easy no prep (well maybe a little prep) Christmassy games! This term our Kidz Klub has continued to meet weekly online due to the on-going pandemic. In many ways it felt like the easiest option as had we decided to meet in person, we would have needed to come up with creative ways to play games without coming into contact with the other kids or eachother. Meeting online made it easier. Obviously it’s not ideal as we don’t see all the kids we normally see in person, but we do have a great turnout every week. We always play a game at our session and so Christmas party means extra games! This year we are going to keep things simple by playing these easy no prep games via zoom. Please note that we take lots of precautions when preparing anything that we send out to the families, and Christmas is no exception. All our resources are placed in bags and left to sit for at least 72 hours before we invite families to pick up in person from our meeting point or delivered to their doorstep by our team (wearing masks and gloves).

So let’s get started on these last minute game ideas!

Game 1. Chocolate Coin Game

You will need one chocolate coin per person.

This game is an adaptation from the Minute to Win it Cookie game, but works just as well and is great because it is covid-19 safe!

Take a large foil wrapped chocolate coin. (That’s all you need!!) If you have access to a timer or digital countdown (there are lots on YouTube) set yourself 60 seconds and have the children balance their coin on their forehead. We would generally use a ‘Minute to Win It’ times from Youtube, but you could easily use the stopwatch function on your phone. Each child will have 60 seconds to move the coin by twitching and gently shaking their head from their forehead to their mouth. Super simple! However it’s not as easy as it sounds. In the past when we have played with cookies, if it drops on the floor then the contestant is out of the game and the cookie goes in the bin. The benefit of playing with a foil wrapped coin is that they can pick it up,wipe it down and start again and have as many attempts as they can within the 60 seconds.

I would strongly advice that the game be played in heats. We allocate around 15 kids to each breakout room and it would be impossible for the team to watch all 15 children play at once so we divide them up into smaller groups of 3 or 4 children and the winner of each round then competes to see who is the over all winner.

Another fantastic thing about this game is it can be played in person or via zoom and you don’t have to worry about finding a prize to send out to the winner because winners and losers alike will have the prize of being able to eat their chocolate coin at the end of the game. Win Win!!

Game 2. Nativity Bingo!

The kids that we meet with every week love a game of bingo! So we try to play it once a term, but rather than stick to the same old bingo sheet with numbers on it, we like to take it up a notch and make the bing cards reflect something of our theme for that term. Since going online we haven’t had much of a theme to be honest, so that’s why Nativity Bingo is ideal! I have created this Nativity themed bingo game which you can purchase and download at my teachers pay teachers store here. All you need to do id download the files, open the pdf and print out the bingo cards. The file contains two formats of the game, one suitable for printing on A4 paper, the other for 8.5 x 11 inches. The file also includes flash cards if you are playing in person and don’t want to use a computer, but just in case you are playing online I have created and included the PowerPoint presentation to go along with the game. I also thought that if you were planning on reading the Gospel of Luke nativity to your kiddos, you might like to use some of the slides to illustrate the story. Bonus!

The game works well for any age group as the children just need to be able to match up the image on their sheet with that being shown. I have found that even those who don’t have English as their first language are able to join is as they are able to match the images even if they can’t read the word or understand what is being said.

Nativity Bingo

Game 3. Christmas Name that Tune

This game would be best suited for slightly older children who are more likely to have listened to Christmas music. But you could easily adapt it for your group as you will know them best. I found this video on YouTube with 25 Chtistmas songs, so all you need to do is play it to the kids and have them write down the answers. It does share the answers at the very end of the video, but they are also listed in the decription box of the video too.

If you wanted to make this for some younger children you could grab yourself a Christmas CD and play it live in the session. If I were to pick some Christmassy songs to play a younger audience, I would probably choose songs like:

  • Jingle Bells
  • Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer
  • Away in a Manger
  • We Wish you a Merry Christmas
  • Silent Night
  • Santa Clause is coming to Town

There are so many songs and carols to choose from, but you will know which ones are best suited for your group. Again this game is great for Zoom because you can share the audio or the video by using the share screen function in the meeting room and everyone will be able to join in.

I hope that this has given you a few games to play which require very little preparation. One of my secrets to working with children is to over prepare. By that I mean I always have something extra up my sleeve just in case I find myself with extra time on my hands. So with that in mindI have two bonus games you can play with very little preparation!

Bonus game 1 – Christmas Musical Statues. Ideal for socially distant activities, can be played virtually just share some more Christmas music.

Bonus game 2 – Christmas Pictionary – We love playing pictionary on zoom. It doesn’t matter that we can’t draw, we just have fun trying. Why not try to draw the following Christmas themed items:

  • Christmas Pudding
  • Roast Turkey
  • Stockings
  • Santa’s hat
  • Baby Jesus
  • Angels
  • Shephers
  • Christmas bauble
  • Mary and Joseph
  • Christmas Star

I will be posting more Christmas activities and games in the coming weeks, so please make sure you come back regularly for more of my Socially Distant Christmas ideas.

Alternative Halloween Party

Halloween is only a few days away, how on earth are we going to deliver a fun filled online Halloween Party?

2020 is a year like no other, I’ve planned, cancelled plans, and made new plans and repeated so many times I can’t recall the number. The whole, ‘will we won’t we’ is exhausting and like so many things this year I have learned that I just need to make a decision and run with it. So this year we will be hosting out Alternative Halloween, Light Party, Superhero Party, whatever you want to call it, on zoom and this is what it will look like.

Let’s Get the Alternative Halloween Party Started!

We have been running our mid-week children’s ministry online this whole term. Initially we had hoped to have some kind of hybrid sessions but with so many constant changes happening due to the pandemic, we have had to settle for online sessions only. Sadly this does mean that not all the kids we are used to seeing attend, but we do try to visit those kids at home.

We have a well-tested format now for our online zoom sessions and we tend to stick to that format not only to benefit the volunteers but it helps the children too as they know what to expect each week.

Our Alternative Halloween event will follow a very similar format although we do hope to add in an extra activity but we will stay with the usual format on the whole.

Each week the kids are set a challenge where they have to make something and then send us a photo, the winner receives a small prize and our alternative Halloween party will be no different. The challenge we have set them is to make a Superhero mask, we have sent out some resources to them so everyone should be able to participate and it shouldn’t put too much pressure on parents to provide the resources.

Once we’ve welcomed the kids into the session, we pray, then announce all the competition winners and congratulate them, then we quickly move on to our breakout room activities.

Breakout Room Activities

We will be dividing the children between 3 different activities, I’ve found it works best to mix the age and ability of the kids so that it doesn’t put too much pressure on our team.

We always have two adult team members in a breakout room, if we have junior helpers (teens who come regularly to help) we add one of them to each breakout room and then we try to have no more than 10 in a room so we may have multiple rooms doing the same activity. This way kids feel noticed and have an opportunity to get involved.

Halloween Game Idea

Over the last few months we have played numerous games on zoom from Pictionary, to spot the difference using the shared screen function, but one of the kid’s favourite games is Bingo! It takes a little bit of preparation, you need to make up the bingo cards and get them out to the kids in advance. I have made our Halloween bingo cards from scratch this year, if you are interested, you can pick up a set of 24 bingo cards plus the flash cards or PowerPoint in my TpT store here.  It’s such a simple game and because its pictures even our youngest children can play along. We always ask that they shout out “bingo” when they have managed to cross off every picture on their card. We only have 7 minutes to play the game so it will be fairly fast paced.

Halloween Craft Idea

Here in the UK it’s hard to find readymade Christian craft activities so last year I invested in a Silhouette Portrait 2. It has been such a blessing to me and it has definitely paid for itself over the last 6 months as we have been sending out craft packs to our kids.   This Halloween I spent some time designing and creating a little lantern for the children to make. I cut out the panels on my silhouette and then gave each child the cut out panels and then base along with some coloured tissue for them to stick inside to give a ‘stain glass’ effect on their lantern. We’ve told parents where they can pick up some LED tee lights that don’t cost too much so that they can have their lanterns glowing come Halloween night. Again this craft has to be suitable for a wide age range of children and completed in a relatively short space of time.

Treat Room

This is going to be our Halloween Treat bonus room, we’d normally only have two breakout rooms running, but given that it is going to be Halloween we have added in an extra room but reduced the length of time each room will run to allow us a third room for one night only!

In our treat room we will be making chocolate sprinkle apples. We’ve given each child a chop stick, a little chocolate bar and some sprinkles and we have asked the parents to provide the apple. Had we been able to meet in person we would have helped the children to dip their apples in the melted chocolate and then cover with the sprinkles and then set aside to harden so that they had an apple to take home. But we are doing this party virtually, so we will need parents to help melt the chocolate. Our experience is that parents are happy to get involved and help their kids with these activities because they haven’t had to think it up, they didn’t have too much to prepare in advance and the kids really love it. During our online holiday club we thought we were being extremely brave by asking parents to make up dye for tie dye, but it went down well and not only did the kids at the holiday club tie dye their t-shirt, but it seemed that the whole family got involved and everyone had tie dyed clothes last summer.

Teaching Time

The breakout rooms will last for 21 minutes with the team moving from room to room (it’s much easier to move a few people rather than all the kids). It’s now time for us to turn our attention and focus on Jesus.

I always feel that Halloween is a great time to show people that there is an alternative to all the dark spooky and evil stuff that fill our supermarket shelves. For me there is no better time of year to evangelise than at Halloween!

This term we are actually doing a study of the book of Acts with the kids. So I worked out the teaching so that it falls in line with Acts chapter 8 and Simon the Sorcerer. This is a perfect opportunity for us to encourage the children to reflect on what is the Real and what is Fake. What is the truth and what is a lie, and so that is where I started to build up the lesson for this party.

We are using a child friendly version of Acts called “The Diary of a Disciple – Peter and Paul’s story”. During the first stage of lockdown earlier this year we use the first book in this series which is called “The Diary of a Disciple – Luke’s story”, I have an amazon affiliate link if you are interested in purchasing either of these books.

All the children have their own copy of this book and we take time to read the passage together before we head off into our lesson. For me this is a new experience, we’d normally watch an animation of the bible story, but the kids have really enjoyed being given the opportunity to read out loud to all their peers and they are keen and eager to read on through the book.

Once we have read the passage we want in this case it will be Acts 8:1-13, I usually take over the lesson. I had several ideas on how to teach this lesson.

In Person Lesson – had we been able to meet up for this party I have planned to have several different types of foods or drinks. For example

Hnz Baked Beans vs Supermarket own brand

Hagen Daz vanilla ice cream vs supermarket own brand

Coca-Cola vs generic coke drink

Mashed real potatoes vs instant mash

I would have invited four children to come to the front and take a taste of one of the items. So one person takes the beans, one the coke etc and they have to work out which is the original brand item and which is the fake.

As we can’t meet in person I have decided to pull some photos off the internet of some designer and fake bags or shoes etc and will ask the children if they can work out which is the designer bag and which is the fake.

The point is, this can actually be quite difficult. It can be hard to tell which is fake and which is real. Simon in our story looked like he could perform miracles, but he wasn’t, he was performing tricks to make people think he had mystical powers. It tells us in the story that Simon could see there was something different about Philip, he could see the POWER of Jesus in him and he wanted that for himself.

When we see the power of Jesus, when we see him working in the lives of those around us, we want to have a part of it too.

At the end of the lesson we will give the children the opportunity to respond to what they have heard. Some will say they already have the power of Jesus in them, but hopefully others will want to have that power for themselves. We have an activity for all the children to participate in, in order to respond to the message. Each child has been sent a sachet of tomato ketchup and a dirty coin and a sheet of kitchen paper. We will speak about how when we ask Jesus into our hearts, we are cleaned by the blood of Jesus, the ketchup will represent the blood of Jesus and the dirty coin will be us.

Once the children have put their coins into the ketchup and a symbol of asking Jesus to forgive them, we will lead them through a short prayer and ask at the end, who said the prayer and who really meant what they were saying.

As we draw to a close we will give the kids the opportunity to ask any questions they have about the lesson and try our best to answer them. We’ll pray for them all, offering them the opportunity to pray too and then release them from the room.

To help make things easy, I’ve put all this together with a Halloween Activity Sheet in my Teachers Pay Teachers store, you can purchase your copy here.

Any child that makes a commitment will then be followed-up in person by our team during the following week with a short home visit. We are fortunate to have really good strong relationships with the parent and so they are very open to having us pop over and chat on the doorstep so that we can check in on their child.

I used to think that we weren’t doing enough. Yes there is always room for us to improve and perfect what we are doing, but just being there for a child, sharing a game and the word and letting them know that we care is enough.  Whatever you do this Halloween, make sure you have fun, that you speak light into the darkness and your kids know you are there for them.

All About Me – Puppet Activity

‘All About Me‘ is wonderful way to get to know your students. Whether you are distant learning, in peason teaching or just wanting to get to know your group of kids better this will help you know them on a whole different level!

Who would have thought at the start of this year that we would have had to change and adapt so rapidly to a new way of teaching and a new way of learning. In July I hosted a virtual holiday club for the first time. I’d successfuly hosted almost 100 zoom meetings with children aged between 5 and 14 years and we had had a blast! Our summer camp was scheduled for the end of July, but due to the ongoing pandemic it was put on hold, so we moved everything online.

We had several children join us online for the first time and this craft activity was a great way for us to get to know them in a short space of time even although we weren’t meeting in person with them.

All About Me Puppet Activity comes with printable costumes (t-shirt) in 8 different styles. A printable sheet of eyes and mouths. Plus two different ‘All About Me’ worksheets, it’s so much fun the kids won’t even know they are doing work!

I don’t know about you, but I have found that some children can be fairly shy and don’t like to speak infront of others. However, give them a puppet and they take on a whole new persona!

‘All About Me’ puppets are easy and quick to make, all you need are some small brown paper food bags. These can be purchased from places such as Amazon, click here to find the best bags, some wool for hair, coloured pens or pencils, glue stick and some scissors.

I was so thrilled with the way that this cute little puppet activity turned out that I decided to upload it to my Teachers Pay Teachers store, you can find it here. Each pack contains black and white t-shirts, coloured eyes and mouths, plus a choise of 2 different worksheets. The pack comes with English UK and English US paper sizes and spelling.

I’ve also make a short instruction video sharing step-by-step instructions on how to make the puppet.

Whethere you have been teaching in person for a while or just coming back into the classroom now, this is a fantastic little craft activity to set you up to get to know all about your kids in a fun and creative way. I hope you enjoy this ‘All About Me’ activity, do let me know how you get on and please tag me in any instagram posts!

My first blog post!

All About Me!

Let me introduce myself, my name is Alison and let’s face it, I’m new the this whole blogging thing. I generally have a lot to say about everything, so I’m nervous that this will become the place I come to ramble. That’s not what I want this space for so I am going to try to keep this to the point!

I live in London in the UK and have been the senior children’s worker at The Urban Family since it’s conception back in 2012, and I’ve been leading this ministry since it started way back in 2006. Now that I finally find myself will a little extra time on my hands (thanks to Covid-19) I thought I should really start to do some of the jobs I’ve been procrastinating over for years!

Earlier this year I started a course to learn how to make the resources I have been creating over the last 14 years into something that might be sellable. With very little confidence in myself I decided to post a product for free on Teacher Pay Teachers website and break the ice. I did so and then thought nothing more of it until I received an email with a question about my product and discovered that over 500 people had downloaded it! I was shocked and surprised, the thought that 500 classrooms or nurseries or playgroups might have my little hand washing (thanks to covid-19 again!) posters up blew me away and has now given me the courage to contiune.

It might be a little late, but that’s ok, there is always next year, but I have just completed my next product for Teachers pay Teachers and I am about to post it there this afternoon. So if you are looking for a little activity to do with your kids at the start, or even the end of a term, maybe you are just coming into the classroom now after a period of distant learning, this is the idea getting to know you activity called All About Me.