World Record Night

If you have a Guinness book of world records, you may begin this night by reading some of the more interesting records (i.e. longest kiss, most valuable car, etc.). Next, tell the group we are going to create our own record book. From the book, choose eight to twelve items and see who will hold the record. Some items are known now (who has the most kids). Other items may not be known but can be easily found out (who has the biggest head), and some items may require a little contest to find out who will hold the record (who can drink a twelve-ounce soda the fastest). If you are doing this with the entire church body, it may be helpful to divide into two categories—under twelve and twelve and over. Pick the records your group would most enjoy. Make sure you publish your records in the next church newsletter or bulletin.

Volleyball Variations

There are many different ways you can make volleyball an exciting activity even for those who are not very good at it. We find having an activity with just one focus can be very fun. Often we practice these games on a Wednesday night in a short game time to test for an evangelistic activity. Youth Specialties has a book called GAMES with a section of volleyball games with many of the ideas coming from these pages. We have taken the basic idea (four bounces, one handed) and just applied it to our situation.

Adaptation of Crazy Volleyball: Play Volleyball with four hits per side and a bounce on the ground considered a hit. (It cannot hit the ground two times in a row.) This makes it so anyone can have a chance of doing well with the added one bounce.

Challenge Volleyball: From an idea from “Prisoner Volleyball,” we began to allow the team who is serving to call a name of a person on the other team who would be out if the serving team won a point. Upon winning the point on a serve, the person called is out. The team continues to call names and knock out players until the serve is lost. The other team, upon gaining the serve, may call back the “lost” players or knock out some of the other team’s players. This brings great intensity to a game, and a team may get down to one player and come back to win. We still play to fifteen. Because the players picked on are the athletic players, the less athletic can become the heroes. To play a quick game, do not allow knocked out players to be called back in.

Revenge Feature: To speed the game along and give it a twist, you can call for revenge. If a team calls out a player and does not win the point, the player called may choose the server or any player (his choice) to be knocked out.

Human Net Volleyball: When there are too many players for just two teams, add a third and have them play as the net. Take out the net and give a team a three-foot area to stay within. The net can block and interfere, but it only gains a point when it catches the ball. You can play three short games; and in the end, tally the score to come up with the winning team.

Big Ball Volleyball: Instead of playing traditional volleyball, it is fun to play with an oversized ball (not necessarily as big as an earth ball). A three-foot red rubber ball can be purchased at Toys-R-Us for a very reasonable price. The game can be played just like regular volleyball, except for the serve. The serve is accomplished by two people holding the ball while a third runs up to the ball and hits it over the net. This is typically done only three or four feet from the net.

Some Dos and Don’ts:

1. The ball cannot be caught and then thrown back over the net; it must be hit over the net.
2. Several people can hit the ball at one time.
3. Some variations are as follows:

• Have no out-of-bounds and count points only when the ball hits the ground.
• Play rally volleyball—each serve counts as a point no matter which side served the ball.
• Count a point for the serving team each time the balls goes over the net, until the ball hits the ground. Then have the other team serve—results in a high scoring game.

Mud Fest

To kick off a week of teen emphasis, we used mud as the center of our activities. We took an unused water retention and made it into a volleyball court-size field with a mud pit in the center. Our mud pit was a big circle about nine feet in diameter. Dig one as big as you wish. We made ours about two feet deep, filled it with water, and brought back in some of the dirt to make it very soupy and sticky.

We played these games:

1. Tug O’ War—Start with four teams and end with two.
2. Mine Field—Put tennis balls and marble and almost anything in the pit and have teams find them in timed segments. You may do this girls with girls, boys with boys.
3. Tube Tug—Have a steal-the-bacon competition using inner tubes in the mud pit.

Tips and Hints:

• You may wish to serve Mississippi Mud Pies or chocolate sundaes.
• We preached first so we did not have to re-enter the buildings. We taught on the cleansing power of Christ.
• Prepare for the amounts of mud they may track around the church. You may wish to do this off property. Prepare the parents so they are ready for the muddy teens coming home.
• Our teens all loved this activity, and a parent was the first one to make the entry into the pit.

Egg Races

Have teens in teams make a homemade raft for their egg to float down a stream or river.

Teens can use things they find in the forest or things they have in their cabins. This was done in three heats:

Egg speed—The fastest egg wins.

Egg drop—Boats must drop (from bridge or just tossed into the creek) and then race down the river.

Egg Bombardment—Other teams can throw sticks, stones, or logs at the egg boats. Any surviving egg gets points.

The teams are out of the races when their eggs are broken. You may choose to give them two eggs with which to compete. Award points for first, second, and third place.

Duct Tape Theme Night

We had teens come “ducted out” with their duct tape clothing or inventions and rewarded them for their effort.

Prizes:

Duct tape cup—Get a plastic kids cup from a restaurant or any cheap cup. Cut the bottom off about an inch up, and cut the brim of the cup. Take it from there with the duct tape. We cut strips and then taped over them making a cup that collapsed and held water or juice. It did have a tape flavor to it.

Duct tape measuring tape—We took the idea of a sewing tape measure but improved it with color and handwritten numbers.

Duct tape brief cases

Duct tape juggling balls (three colors) over golf balls

Mega Candy bar—made of three or four candy bars duct taped together.

Lollipop duct-taped bouquets.

We made team flags which were sure to be seen for Capture the Flag. We gave each team eight-foot pvc pipe (.87), a sheet of card board (ours was 4×8, but any size will work), and colored duct tape rolls. Each team made their flag size and decoration. They turned out great, although some were a little heavy for running when being captured. This project encouraged good team participation.