Large Group Game: First Time on the Potty

restroom-99225_640I have a toddler, so potty time is full of excitement, celebration, and incentive awards. Here is a large group game that is hilarious with any age group (especially elementary-aged kids) that plays on the theme of potty time. I use it at camps and other events. I learned it from my good friend Justin Brooks, who is a super Children’s Pastor/Speaker.

Here’s how it works:

  1. Pick 4 volunteers from the audience. It helps if they are very expressive and dramatic people. If there are adults in the room, it makes it even more funny to make at least 2 of your 4 people adults. These 4 people are the competitors in the game.
  2. Take your 4 competitors out of the room, far enough away so they cannot hear people talking in the main room where the audience remains. Explain to them that they will be competing to act out their first time on a roller coaster. They will sit in a chair and act out going up the hill, down the hills, around the bends, screaming, yelling, calling for mommy, etc. They can make sounds, but they cannot say anything about a roller coaster or what they’re doing. Tell them that it is like charades and the kids will be watching to see what they do.
  3. Meanwhile, have someone else (or yourself if you want to do double-duty) coach the audience in the main room (make sure the competitors are still out of the room and out of ear-shot). Tell the audience that the 4 competitors are coming in one at a time and acting out their first time on “the big potty” when they were potty training. Tell the audience they can laugh and cheer and make noise if something is funny, but they CANNOT say anything about toilets or potty.
  4. Call in the competitors one at a time (keep the others out of the room while each one competes). Give each of them the chair and 30 seconds. Watch and laugh away!
  5. At the end, have the audience vote on their favorite competitor. Then thank the competitors “for showing us your first time on the toilet!”image

Hello, My Name Is…..

Writing encouraging words for one another.
Writing encouraging words for one another.

A few weeks ago, I got to speak at Covenant Cedars Bible Camp in Hordeville, Nebraska. The weather was sunny, breezy, and in the 70’s all week. It is a wonderful camp on a river in the middle of rural Nebraska – a perfect location for a retreat from the noise and busyness of everyday life.

The Bible theme for the week was “Identity”, which explored our identity in Christ. The kids were elementary-age children and it was a fun group with whom to discuss how God sees us. Through the grace of Jesus Christ, we are his “masterpieces” (Ephesians 2), sons and daughters of God (1 John 3), and “a chosen people, a royal priesthood, a holy nation, a people belonging to God” (1 Peter 2).

For our response time at the end of the Bible teaching one night, we had the kids tape “Hello, My Name Is…” posters on one another’s backs. Then they went around with markers and wrote positive, encouraging words on each kid’s back – a way to lift one another up using words that God sees in them. It worked really well and the kids really got into it. They even got to write encouraging words on the backs of their teenage and college-age counselors.

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4 Great Apps for Teachers

I love using big fun visuals for kids when teaching or leading games. These are some apps I recently found that I will definitely be using for my camp teaching this summer. I’ve been looking for apps likes these.

It is important to note that these are apps that work best when you can use an adapter on your device to project the screen of your device onto a large monitor or screen for the kids to see.

Random NameSelector – This app from Walsall Academy is super for selecting kids at random to play a game or participate in something. You have options for different groups and names within each group. I also love the simple visual of a magician’s hat on stage and then the kid’s name popping up on a big star. The app is free with ads or only $1.99 for the Pro version (no ads).

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Too Noisy – While most teachers use this for keeping a class quiet (it has a dial that rises when the class gets too noisy and lowers when they quiet down), I will instead use this to egg on kids to get as loud as they can. That’s just what you do at camp. And kids love trying to break a sound meter!

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ClassRoom Timer – A simple alarm clock that counts down from any amount of time. It rings and then explodes when the time runs out. You can click mid-timer when a child answers or wins and then the timer stops and celebrates the win. mzl.cptyrnrs.320x480-75

 

Keynote – For $10 you can get Apple’s famous response to Power Point. The app version of it is very user-friendly and has lots of features that are intuitive to tablet/device use. I love using this for presentations, images, illustrations, etc. It is clear, simple, and easy to use.hero_keynote