Ideas for Children's Youth Group Activities

Dress the Mummy

• Dress the mummy is a silly game that you can play at youth group, especially if a youth group meeting falls around Halloween. In this game, groups of three are assigned and one player on the team volunteers to be the mummy. The other two players must wrap the mummy in two rolls of toilet paper as fast as possible, covering as much of the person as they can in toilet paper. Teams compete against each other to create the best looking mummy. After the time is up, the youth group leaders will judge the winning team based on how well the mummy is wrapped.

The Human Knot

• The human knot is a game that encourages communication and leadership skills, both of which are skills that are taught to children who participate in youth groups. In the human knot game, all of the youth stand in a circle and are instructed to hold the hand of someone across from them in the circle. Then, they are told to hold the hand of someone else with their free hand, so that each player is holding hands with two different players. The youth group leader realigns the players by moving them around, and nobody is allowed to drop hands. Once the players are tangled up into a human knot, the goal of the game is for the youth to work together to untangle themselves without letting go of the hands they are holding. Through communication and leadership, the kids will collaborate to get out of the knot.

3 Truths and a Lie

• Three truths and a lie is a game that challenges youth to guess which of the player's statements are true, and which statement is the lie. Each player takes a turn telling the group four pieces of information. The player might say, "I was born in England. I met Kevin Spacey at a dinner party. I went whitewater rafting. I once ate a spider." Players are encouraged to think of the most unbelievable facts about themselves to share. Then, players must guess which of the statements is the lie. Make sure that each of the kids in the youth group have a turn.

Scavenger Hunt

• A scavenger hunt is a great way to allow youth to bond and work together. Youth group leaders should prepare a scavenger hunt that requires kids to work in teams to search for all of the items on their scavenger hunt list. You can make the activity more interesting by delivering the items on the list in the form of a crossword puzzle or a riddle that the kids must solve to find the next item. The team of kids that finds all of their items first wins the activity.