Footsteps Memory

Substitute Indoor Game:	Footsteps Memory

Age Groups:

• elementary
• preschool

Equipment Needed:

• Sets of game cards, in matching pairs, featuring images and concepts from the week's lessons on the obverse, and identical footprint emblems on the back.

Overview:

Wikipedia has an article describing the basic game, but we're going to play it with cards that feature things from the week's Bible lessons. I'm including some small thumbnails of the card pages below. To get a version that is suitable for printing, see SVG Documents.

Preparation:

Make enough sets of the cards so that small groups of 2-4 children can share each set. Print them on card stock, with the identical footprint backs on one side and the lesson concepts and images on the other. Each set should consist of two copies of each card, so that they can be matched up. Use a paper cutter to separate the individual cards from one another on each sheet. (If you laminate the cards, you can continue to use them for a long time after Bible School is over, reminding the children of the lessons from VBS.)

For the preschool age group, remove the cards that feature words, leaving only the pictures.

Instructions:

Divide up the kids into small groups and give them the decks of footsteps memory cards (one deck per group). Instruct the kids to shuffle the cards and, without looking at the backs, lay them out in rows with the footprint up. (For preschool, remove the cards with words on them, and help them shuffle and lay out the remaining ones.) Then they take turns each turning over two cards, trying to get a match. If the two cards match, they get to keep those two cards in their pile and take another turn. If they do not get a match, they turn the cards back over and it's the next person's turn. The goal is to get the most matched cards in your pile. If time remains, shuffle and play again.

Don't Break the Rod

Indoor Game:	Don't Break the Rod

Age Groups:

• elementary
• teens

Equipment Needed:

• chairs
• toilet paper
• toy pool nets (one per team)
• buckets (one per team)
• small wading pool
• foam packing peanuts
• fish (you can use the fish sponges)

Instructions:

Set up the pool full of packing peanuts (in lieu of water) and fish at one end of the room. Divide the group into equal teams and line them up at the other end of the room. Each team must line up single-file starting next to their bucket.

Each team receives a connected strand of toilet paper containing one square for each team member. This is their fishing rod, which they must not break. Each team member must hold onto one of the squares, so that the entire team is holding the rod, and the person at the front of the line carries the net.

When the starting whistle is blown, the team must make its way across the room to the fish pool, retrieve one fish (but no packing peanuts) using the net, then return to their bucket and deposit the fish there. They may then pass the net to the next team member and go back for the next fish.

If at any time a team's rod breaks (i.e., the toilet paper tears), they must stop, return any fish they may be carrying to the pool, and go back to their bucket. They will then be issued a new rod and may start again.

Play until time expires or the fish run out. The team with the most fish wins.

Copyright © 2003—2009, Theresa Wagoner and the Galion Grace Brethren Church, but you are welcome to use it in your local church. See licensing for more detailed information about rights and permissions.

Indoor Fish Relay

Indoor Game:	Fish Relay

Age Groups:

• elementary
• teens

Equipment Needed:

• buckets (4)
• fish (You can use the same fish-shaped sponges we've been using all week.)
• toy pool nets (2)
• blindfolds (2)

Instructions:

Divide the group into two teams. Each team receives a bucket full of fish, an empty bucket, a net, and a blindfold. Place the two buckets a distance apart. For older agegroups, difficulty may be added by placing the buckets on opposite sides of some obstacle, such as a table or chair.

Each team member in turn must be blindfolded, and then, following instructions from the other team members, must use the net to retrieve one fish from the starting bucket and move it to the other bucket. The first team to move all of its fish to the second bucket in this manner, or the team with the most fish when time expires, wins the game.

Copyright © 2003—2009, Theresa Wagoner and the Galion Grace Brethren Church, but you are welcome to use it in your local church. See licensing for more detailed information about rights and permissions.

Sheep Soccer

Equipment Needed:

• cotton balls (many)
• drinking straws (one per)
• two identical goals

Overview:

Cotton balls (sheep) are strewn through the playing area (e.g., a table or floor). Each participant gets a drinking straw through which to exhale in the general direction of said cotton ball sheep, gathering them into that team's sheep fold (i.e., goal area).

Instructions:

Divide the participants into two approximately even teams. Hand out one straw to each player as you explain the rules, then stage a short countdown and let everyone start at once, blowing to herd the sheep into their team's fold. Inevitably some cotton balls will leave the playing area, and a leader may collect them and restore them to play as time allows, but if a few don't make it back in, don't worry about it. When there are no or very few sheep left in the playing area, call a halt to the action and count up the score, i.e., the number of sheep in each fold. The team with the most sheep in its fold wins the round. If time allows, you can rescatter the sheep and repeat the game.

Tangled Wool

Equipment Needed:

• one ball of white yarn for each small circle of participants

Instructions:

Have several people (up to about a dozen) stand in a circle. (Make as many circles as you need for all your participants.) Take a ball of white yarn (wool) for each circle and tie the starting end to a stationary object.

Hand the ball of wool to one of the sheep in the circle. Each person (sheep) who gets the ball passes it behind his back or around an arm or leg or something (avoid the neck) then tosses the ball to another person (sheep) somewhere across the circle.

When the ball runs out, everyone must untangle himself, then the group must attempt to untangle the knotted wool and reroll the ball. (They will not get all the knots out before time expires, but let them have fun trying for a while. If excessive frustration ensues, an adult can make a couple of strategic cuts with scissors (sheep shears) to free things up a bit. Do not give scissors to the sheep/children.)