5 Water Games For $10!

Pools are amazing fun in the summer! But not everyone has the space or budget for a pool. So we went down to the local dollar store and dreamed up 5 variations of some of our camp water games that you can play at home with your family! We found all of these items for around $10 total. You can use a hose in place of the tub for most of the games.

Here’s what you need to play all 5 games:

3 Plastic Cups (16-24 oz.)

2 Buckets (you may need extra if you have multiple teams, see below)

1 Large Tub/Water Source

Water Balloons

Sponges (1 pack of large sponges)

Splash Catcher Set (one per team)

1 Deck Of Cards

1) The Raindrop Race

What You Need:

2 Plastic Cups (16-24 oz.), 2 Buckets, Tub Of Water

What To Do:

Cut a single hole in the bottom of both cups (about the width of a pen). Divide into two teams (this game works with 2 or more players). Place the buckets on one side of the playing area and have the players stand next to their bucket. On the opposite end, place the large bucket or water source. On “go,” the players run down to the other end, fill up their cups, and run back towards their buckets. The player must hold the cup over his or her head at all times while running. Once the player makes it back to the bucket, he pours the water into the bucket. If more than one player on a team, he then passes the cup to the next player, who takes a turn. Teams continue in this way until one team fills up their bucket to a predetermined line or until the water runs out. The team with the most water in their bucket wins.

2) Bucket Catch

What You Need:

Water Balloons, 2 Buckets per team

What To Do:

Using the buckets, do a classic water balloon toss (similar to an egg toss). Players stand about 10 feet apart. One player places the water balloon in their bucket. The player tosses the balloon (using the bucket) to the other player, who attempts to catch it in his/her bucket. If the player misses or the balloon breaks, the game is over. If the players succeed, they each take one medium sized step backwards, away from each other, and throw again. The object of the game is to be the furthest away and make a catch. If you have enough people and supplies for multiple teams, count off 3-2-1 and have the teams toss at the same time. Note: You can also play this game with small cut up sponges (1/2 of a regular size sponge) if you run out of balloons.

3) Sponge Tag

What You Need:

Sponges (large), Tub Of Water (water source)

What To Do:

This is a normal game of tag, except that the player who is “it” has a sponge to tag with. Set a boundary area to play in. Give “it” a sponge, and have them soak it in water. On go, all the other players run away from "it," trying to avoid being tagged. “It” must tag the other players with a sponge. If this happens, the player who is tagged becomes the new “it,” soaks the sponge again, and play continues. Play for about 5 minutes. Take a break between games. Note: If you have a larger group, you might want to have more than one player be “it.”

4) Balloon Catcher

What You Need:

Splash Catcher Set (one per team), Water Balloons, Plastic Cup, Tub of Water/Water Source

What To Do:

Play a few warm-up rounds with the splash catcher as intended (dip it into water and toss it between two players, who attempt to catch it). Once players get the hang of it, make the catch more complicated. One player uses the catcher to fling a small water balloon (you don’t want these to be too heavy) towards the other player, who attempts to catch it with his splash catcher. If the player is successful, he throws the balloon back. If the player misses a catch, the other player gets to dump a cup of water on him. If the balloon breaks, the player gets two cups dumped on him. Note: You may also want to add a rule than an “uncatchable throw” gets a cup of water dumped on the thrower instead.

5) Red Or Black

What You Need:

Deck Of Cards, Plastic Cup, Tub of Water (Water Source)

What To Do:

Find a nice shady spot and sit in a circle (or across from each other if two players). Place the deck of cards in the middle. Each player takes turns taking the card off the top of the deck.

For two players: If the player picks a red card (right on me!), he dumps a cup of water on himself. If the player picks a black card (back to you!), he dumps a cup of water on the other player.

For three or more players: If the player picks a red card (red=right), he dumps a cup of water on the player to the right. If the player picks a black card, he dumps a cup of water on the player to his left.

Play continues in this way until the deck runs out of cards.

Note: If you have a larger group, you can also play this as an elimination game. When the player gets the water dumped on him, then he is out of the game. The game continues until only two players remain. Switch to the two player rules for the last round.

Want to see more ideas for a ministry or summer camp? Visit KidSpot’s Idea Factory at:

http://www.thespot4kids.com/#!ideafactory/c1mdb

5 Back Pocket Camp Games

No matter how prepared you are for camp, you always need extra camp games to get you through rainy days or spare time. We've put together 5 quick and easy activities that require no supplies.

Name 5
The object of this game is for campers to name 5 of something in a particular category. Split the campers into teams. Each team writes down 5 answers in each category. After all the teams are finished, they read the answers out loud. Teams earn 1 point for each answer, and 2 points for an answer no other team came up with. Here's 10 categories to get you started. Name 5:
    -Movies with a princess    -States that start with an "M"    -States that start with an "N"
    -Fruits                             -Baseball Teams                       -Candy Bars
    -Colors of the rainbow     -(of) Santa's reindeer                -Types of soda
    -Vegetables that aren't green

Linked Up Four Corners
Play a normal version of four corners, but with a twist. Campers pair up in groups of two, standing back to back and linking elbows. Pairs stay together, working as one unit, moving to the corners. The game gets played in the same way, with the leader turning his/her back, counting to 20, then calling out one of the corners. All the pairs in that corner are out. Play until one pair remains. That pair wins! Split up into new pairs and play again.

Anywhere In The World
In this game, campers sit in a circle. Every other person is on either team A or team B. The first person in the game says the name of a place in the world. The person sitting next to them clockwise must then say a name of a place in the world that starts with the last letter of the previous players answer. Campers can use a city, state, country, continent, river, or geographical formation, even the name of a famous building. As long as it is a place, it counts! Continue until a player misses or can’t answer. For younger campers, the counselor should tell the last letter of the previous answer to help out the next player. 

Team Tag
Play a regular version of tag, but split the campers into 3 teams. Team one is the tops: they place a hand on their head. Team two is the middles: they put a hand on their stomach. Team three is the shoulders: they put a hand on their shoulder. Play with regular tag rules. When a team tags someone, they become a part of the other team (if a "top" tags a "middle", that person becomes part of the "tops" and starts doing their motion). If two people tag each other at the same time, it's a draw and nothing happens.

Would You Ever?
Ask campers to discuss these questions. Each camper should give an answer and explain their answer to the group. 
        -Would you ever go skydiving?
-Would you ever move to a foreign country?
-Would you ever shave all your hair off?
-Would you ever eat a cricket?
-Would you ever toss a pie in someone’s face?

Make Your Summer Outreach Effective!

1) Be Unique.

It seems like every church, daycare, and family goes to the nearest theme park in the summer. How can you change your outreach event or strategy to set you apart from the pack? Start with this question: What can you do on your campus that’s more exciting than standing in theme park lines for hours on end? Here’s three ideas:

-Have a wet-and-wild Saturday where every parent brings water balloons (filled up) 

         for the world’s-most-epic water ballon fight

-Are your kids talented? Host a “(Your City)’s Got Talent” and invite local amateur 

         musicians, dancers, and people with all kinds of talents to compete.

-Hold a Game Night where families bring in board and video games for a full night of 

         gaming goodness.

By having kids come to your campus, you offer something unique that gets you noticed when you advertise it to your community. During these events, you can show videos, have a short talk, or promote your church.

2) Communicate with participants beyond summer.

Summer outreach should be about more than just a spectacular moment. Even though we can create fun, exciting times during the summer, outreach is about having influence and making a lasting difference. Start by getting simple contact information from all your participants. If you have sign-ups for VBS, make every family give an email address so that you can keep in contact after the event is over. Encourage participants to interact with your social media so you can keep in touch with them.

3) Create value beyond the moment.

Families don’t want momentary value, they want connections that last. Find a way to create value for the families that come to your outreach. Here’s three ideas:

-Email a take-home portion that accompanies your event

-Show a video with a cliffhanger during your outreach that families can only see the 

         end to online at your social media site

-Create a four-week email course where you give parents quick tips once a week 

         (these could be about parenting in general or relating directly to the theme of your 

         event)

Why not use those connections to advertise your church or ministry? When you add value for people, they will be more receptive to your message. The impact of your outreach grows as your connection with parents and families grows.

3 Transitions Between Activities

Getting from point A to point B in a service or camp day can sometimes be tricky. How do you transition between two high energy activities? Or how do you go from something exciting and active to a prayer? Try out these three transitions below to make your day or service move a little bit smoother.

1) The Quick Question

When transitioning between two segments that are similar, sometimes you need a mental break to get your students refocused. Try asking everyone in the audience a quick question. These can relate to your topic, or they can just be something fun, like: What’s your favorite ice cream? What’s the best kids movie ever? What is your favorite color? How many marshmallows is too many marshmallows to eat in one day?

Have your students get up, go across the room, and ask someone else for the answer to that question. Give everyone 15 seconds to get (and give) the answer and get back to their seats. Then, have all the students say on the count of three what the other person’s answer was.

This is a great way to help your kids get to know each other better. If you’re transitioning out of something active, switch it up so that the kids can only talk to someone next to them or in the row in front or behind them (no getting out of their seats). If your students are younger, you may need to give a few extra seconds to get the answer to the question.

2) Praying Pose

A quick way to get your students ready to pray, especially when there is a lot of loud energy in the room, is to teach your students this process: Put both hands in the air, bring them together (clap), bring them down in front of you, bow your head, close your eyes. Call out each step as you go. If you do the motions in the same way every time, your students will recognize when you start the process that it’s time to pray.

3) Do What I Do

If you’re coming from an active game or segment and need to get the attention of your kids, play a game where the kids have to follow the motions you do. Talk to just one person (preferably on the front row) and tell that student to do exactly what you do. Then, start doing motions. Put one hand up, two hands up, lean to the side, clap once, touch your head, etc. The person on the front row will do the motions along with you. Clapping works well as the sound makes your other students look to see what’s happening. Keep changing the motions, once every few seconds, as the rest of the group joins in to mimic what you’re doing. If you have some kids that still aren’t paying attention, make one of the motions poking your neighbor or making a “shh” sound. This will help your students pay attention better. Play the game for about a minute, or until everyone is ready for the next segment.

5 Apps That Will Make Your Life Better

So much of our lives and ministries happen using technology. We've compiled a list of 5 apps that can help make your life easier. We'll give you the list below as well as how each one can be an asset to you!

#1 - Pinterest

This app might seem obvious since many people use this app personally. But when you want to find creative ideas for crafts, activities, and more, there's not a better place on the internet right now than Pinterest. Explore it for an amazing supply of ideas for your visual and kinesthetic learners. Best of all, it's free, even if you only use it to look and not post anything!

#2 - Plickers

Winning the "most interesting name" for this list, Plickers helps you collect answer data from a large group of children all at once, using your phone. So if you wanted to play our "Can You Believe It?" gameshow (found here), you can use this app to gather every group's answer at the same time, and it even keeps score for you! The app is designed for teachers who want to measure student results on the spot, so it's also useful for classroom teachers from preschool to high school!

#3 - Adobe Voice

Have you ever wanted to create a quick video giving a great tip to your volunteers to make them more effective? How about a video of you telling them thanks for all the hard work or Merry Christmas? Or how would you like to create a video of someone reading a Bible story that's illustrated, that you can show during service or let parents download to watch with their kids? If you know nothing about video, this can be a daunting task. Adobe Voice is a free app that makes story telling easy. Simply record your voice on each slide, and pick the visuals you want to see on the screen from a wide array of choices. Though it's designed for story telling, you can use the app to create quick training videos for staff, e-cards, or whatever you'd like to send! Definitely give this one a try on your tablet!

#4 - Bible For Kids

Every one of your kids needs a Bible. For the ones that have smart phones or tablets (a quickly growing percentage of your students), why not have them download a free Bible app that's designed for younger students (ages 5-9). All your children can follow along with the story in a beautifully illustrated, easy to read version. Stop translating "thee's", "thou's," and "begat's", and dive deeper into the text with your children!

#5 - Dropbox

We all live busy lives. And you're not always in front of a computer screen when you get the inspiration for a perfect idea to do this Sunday. Dropbox helps you keep all your files at your fingertips, so you can import your lesson videos for the week, schedules, volunteer lists--every document you need. Best of all, you can create folders inside of Dropbox to share with others. So create your midweek service folder, and share all those lessons with just your midweek volunteers. Stop emailing files with attachments that are too large--just send a reminder that the Dropbox files have been updated for the entire month! Once a volunteer accesses the shared folder on Dropbox, they can easily get to the lessons every month. Make your file-sharing simple, and bring all your volunteers on the same page!

5 Easter Games For Under $5

Need some Easter game ideas, but don't have a huge budget?

We went shopping at our local dollar store, and came up with these 5 games that you can do for Easter for $5 or less! Download the PDF over at our website for free and use the games for an Easter service or an Easter-themed camp day!

Download the PDF at http://www.thespot4kids.com/#!idea-factory-downloads/cf7p

If you'd like to get a new idea every week, make sure you like our Facebook page using the link above to get weekly updates!

Easter Printable: He Is Alive

It's that time of year again! We have created a printable activity sheet you can use in your ministry. You could use this for an activity for children who arrive early to service, during the service, or as a take home to give to all your children.

Take it, use it, and have fun! Join us next week when we'll show you 5 Easter games you can do for $5 or less!

To download a PDF version of the printable, visit www.thespot4kids.com/idea-factory-downloads

If you'd like to stay up to date with our weekly ideas, like our Facebook page! We post the new ideas there every week.
www.facebook.com/thespot4kids

Can You Believe It? Bible Facts Gameshow

In this game show, your kids will have a chance to test their knowledge of Bible facts. Split the kids into teams of 2-4. Give each team an answer stick.

We made ours by taping a red and green piece of paper together, and attaching them to a ruler. You can also use paint sticks (you can get them for free at a hardware store).

As you read each statement, the groups will decide whether they believe it or not. If they believe it (think its true), the team holds up the answer stick with the green side facing you. If they don't believe it (think it's false), they hold up the red side. Keep track of each team's answers for each question. The team with the most correct answers wins.

We have created a Power Point presentation with the questions that you can download at the website below.

http://www.thespot4kids.com/#!idea-factory-downloads/cf7p

If you'd prefer to print out the questions, you can also find a PDF version to print.

Have fun!

3 Ways Summer Day Camp Can Help Your Ministry

We created a video to show 3 ways that Summer Day Camp can help your ministry. Check it out below!

If you'd like to find out more about how a summer day camp can help your ministry, visit:

http://www.thespot4kids.com/#!whycamp/c24da

3 Day Camp Strategies You Can Use on Sunday

At summer day camp, we spend a lot of time thinking about how to make every minute of the day effective and fun for our campers. Here are three strategies we use for camp that you can apply to a Sunday service to make it even better. 

1) Keep It Moving!

Change up your activities and segments every few minutes during the service. There's nothing worse than a segment that goes too long. Your lesson planning and programming for Sunday services should be responsive to the ages and attention spans of your students. Keep your segments short. Transition between different levels of activity by having active and inactive segments. An active segment could be a game, hands-on activity, or a praise song with motions. An inactive segment is a skit, object lesson, offering teaching, or anything where students aren't directly involved. Mix the order of these segments so students don't sit as spectators for too long.

2) Don't Confuse Structure with Sameness

Having a basic structure for your services is a good way to help students understand what's expected of them. However, having a structure doesn't mean you have to do each segment in the same order every week. Try mixing up the schedule so your students don't get into a stale rhythm with your services. Try doing praise and worship last one week. Shake things up by having a large group game to start the service. Change it up to keep it fresh.

3) Find Every Way To Add Fun

Make every part of your service, from check-in to pick-up, more fun. No child has ever left a service saying "I don't want to go back there because it was TOO MUCH fun!" Constantly analyze what parts of your service could be more fun. Inject it into everything you do, and you'll find that students are more engaged and remember more of what is being taught. 

Bankrupt Without Love Game Show

Here’s a great way to teach 1 Corinthians 13:3. The Message Bible reads: “If I give everything I own to the poor and even go to the stake to be burned as a martyr, but I don’t love, I’ve gotten nowhere. So, no matter what I say, what I believe, and what I do, I’m bankrupt without love.”

In this game show, contestants will try to gather prizes and pick up the “love” slip in three tries. Set up 6 gift bags (we used bottle-sized bags from the dollar store). In 5 of the bags, place small prizes, such as toys, candy, or even money. In one of the bags, place a slip of paper that says love (depending on how many times you are going to play, you may want to laminate it). If the contestant finds “love,” he/she gets to keep the prizes for two other bag choices. If the contestant doesn’t get “love,” he/she doesn’t get the prizes (you may want to have a small consolation prize just for playing).

Here’s how to format the game: the contestant points to a bag. Open the bag and reveal the prize inside, setting it to the side or in front of the bags. If the contestant finds the love slip, hand it to the player. Then, the player picks another bag. The contestant gets to open three bags. At the end, the contestant can trade the love slip for the other two prizes he/she has revealed (or if the contestant can't find "love," they have lost and the game is over). While running the game show, make sure to say, “Even though you’ve found lots of great prizes, just as the scripture tells us, if you don’t have love it doesn’t matter! Love is what brings all the other good things in our lives together.”

After a contestant plays, replace all 6 of the bags secretly (you may want to have a volunteer do this for you), and give another contestant a chance. If you have multiple contestants fail in a row, try adding another love slip into the bags to make the game a bit easier.

Here's our version of the love slips, you can right-click to download them to use.

3 Camp Activities You Can Use on Sunday Morning!

Camp is filled to the brim with fun activities. Bring that excitement to your Sunday morning with these three activities, which are good for large or small groups. Let's get into it!

1) Joseph's Journey

This is the classic game of four corners, themed to reflect Joseph's life. Each corner reflects one four parts of Joseph's life: brother, servant, prisoner, and king. Play a normal game of four corners (rules below).

Have one child who is “it”. Assign four areas to be a corner. Each corner represents a time in Joseph's life: brother, servant, prisoner, and king. The person who is “it” needs to put their head down or have their eyes covered and count to 10 loud enough for all the children to hear. Have the rest of the group pick a corner quietly. When the person who is “it” finishes counting, they call out one of the corners without looking. The children in the picked corner are out. Play another round. This continues until there is only one person left. The winner gets to be “it” next.

Use this activity to talk about how God used every aspect of Joseph's journey and turned it into something good, just like Romans 8:28 tells us: "...in all things God works for the good of those who love Him..."

2) Togetherness Tag

In this game, children link arms and have to work together in pairs to try to tag or escape other teams. Use this game to talk about how we need to work together as a team, in unity. The rules are below.

All the children pair up. The teams lock elbows standing side by side. Pick one pair to be "it." The "it" pair tries to catch one of the other teams using normal tag rules. Each team may not unlock arms at any point, or the team is out of the game. Teams must communicate and work together to tag the other teams or stay away from "it." The last team remaining in the game that hasn't yet been tagged is the winner, and gets to be "it" next round. After a round or two, play the game with shrinking boundaries, where the play area gets smaller as more and more teams get tagged out.

Ecclesiastes 4:9 tells us that "Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil." When we work together, we can accomplish great things!

3) Daniel's Lions Tag

Live out the story of Daniel and the lion's den with this game. Each player is one of three roles: an angel, a lion, or a Daniel. Set up two boundary lines, about 50 feet away from each other (if you're playing indoors, make the boundary lines the walls on either side of the room.) See the rules below.

Pick at least three players to be lions. The lions stand in the middle of the playing area. Pick at least one player (up to 3, depending on your group size) to be angels. All the other players are Daniels, and they stand on the outside of the boundary line on one side. On "go," the Daniels must run across the playing area and attempt to get to the other side. The lions try to eat the Daniels by tagging them. The angels try to protect the Daniels by tagging the lions. If an angel touches a lion, the angel says "be still!" and the lion must freeze for three seconds. If a Daniel gets across, he/she waits until the next round. If a lion eats a Daniel, he/she is out and stands on the side. Once all the Daniels get across, wait a few seconds and call out "go" again, making the Daniels run back to the other side. Continue until only three Daniels remain, who become the lions for the next game. If the game is too easy for the lions, add more angels. If it's too easy for the Daniels, take away angels or add more lions from the players who have already been tagged out.

This game is designed to last 15-20 minutes, making it a great way to reinforce the story after you've already talked about it.

Have fun with these activities, and don't forget to keep checking the Idea Factory! We post new ideas and tips every week.

You can also visit us at www.thespot4kids.com to see our summer day camp curriculum full of over 350 fun activities!