Creative Youth Ideas

Although gummy bears were invented by German Candy maker Hans Reigel in 1922, the gummy worm is a relatively recent concept. The Gummy bear wasn’t shipped to America until around 1981 and then an American candy company extended the idea to gummy worms to give kids something fun to eat and to shock their parents. Gummy worms are one of the most popular gummy candies around. Use these games with gummy worms as an object lesson to talk about Jesus’ call to his disciples to become fishers of men.

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What You Need

Lots of Gummy Worms

Games using Gummy Worms

NOTE: The intention is for these games to be played with gummy worms, but if you can’t get gummy worms, you can use extra long Twizzlers, or string licorice.

Chicken Races – In this crazy youth game, everyone is a chicken. Place gummy worms in a shallow baking pan with crushed oreos piled on top and place it at the opposite end of the room. You can use one pan for each team or have them all fight over the worms in a single pan. On “go”, the first team member from each team must flap their arms like wings and make clucking sounds while running to the pan to collect a worm using their mouth (beaks) only. No hands allowed. Once they retrieve a worm they can return to the team and the next youth repeats the task. Worms must still be whole to be counted. First team to have everyone retrieve a worm wins. Variation: Instead of oreo cookies, use chocolate pudding sprinkled with oreo cookies.

Chicken Feed – This is similar to the chicken race, but have a deeper pan with more chocolate pudding and oreos. Each team chooses one representative. The youth who retrieves the most worms from the pan in a designated time wins.

Worm Fishing – To play this game you fill a fishbowl with pretzels or goldfish crackers, and the youth use a fishing rod to get one out and eat it. The bait is gummy worms that are nice and sticky. If you don’t have a real fishing rod, use a stick and some string. You could even add a reel if you wanted to. If you don’t have a fishbowl handy, any clear, large bowl will do the trick. Use lukewarm water to wet down a gummy worm and then pat it dry so that it’s nice and sticky. Tie the worm to the end of the string on the fishing rod. Players have one minute to use the wishing rod to “hook” a pretzel/goldfish from the fishbowl by getting it to stick to the ooey-gooey gummy worm. No hands allowed. Then, once one is “caught,” it must be brought back to the player’s mouth and she must eat it before the timer runs out in order to win the game. To make it more difficult, increase the distance to the fishbowl. If a pretzel/goldfish falls off the gummy worm it must be abandoned and another one “caught” on the gummy worm. If a player touches the string or gummy worm while a pretzel is attached, that pretzel won’t count. String may not be wound around the finger during an attempt. The player(s) with the most pretzels at the end of the 60-seconds wins.

Worms between your toes – Fill 5 or 10 gallon buckets (or kiddie pools) about 1/4 of the way up with water and drop at least 20 gummy worms in each one. Everyone takes off their socks & shoes. The first person in line for each team will run to bucket and dip their foot in the water, pulling out a worm with their toes. They must then transfer the worm into a bowl located beside the bucket. Teams only get a point for worms dropped into the bowl. Whoever has the most worms at the end of a designated time limit wins! (If you•re indoors, have some towels on hand for participants to dry their feet. You may also want to lay tarps down to minimize the mess.) Variation: Instead of a bowl, guys lie down with their heads beside buckets. The girls feed them to the guys using only their feet. The girl and guy team who can eat the most gummy bears in 2 minutes wins.

Gummy Worm Rulers – Provide a list of measurements in gummy worms of various items around the youth room. Youth must find the item that matches the measurements. The team with greatest number of correctly identified items wins. (Tip: Measure the length of a typical gummy worm and then just measure things in the room with a ruler like the length of a table, width of a door, height of a poster, etc. Divide the measurements by the length of a typical gummy worm to get the lengths in gummy worms – 3.5 gummy worms, etc)

Gummy Relay – Pair up the youth. One end of a gummy bear goes into each person’s mouth. The pairs must then navigate an obstacle course without break the gummy bear or allowing it to drop from their mouths. Fastest pair wins!

Gummy Worm Race – Placed a marshmallow a pretzel, or even a donut in the middle of a gummy worm. On go, players must eat their way to be the one to finish off the marshmallow. Whoever eats the marshmallow wins the game. Variation – The team who eats the worm the fastest wins!

Gummy Worms Pictionary – Played like normal pictionary where you have to draw the clues for your teams to guess the word or phrase, but in this variation, instead of drawing, lay out the gummy worms to create shapes. No numbers symbols or letters are allowed. You can do it on a cookie sheet, chopping board, or butcher paper.

Gummy Worm Stretch – In this game, the goal is for partners to have the most stretched-out gummy worm without breaking it. Check your results with a ruler.

Fishies – Take a couple fishing poles and stick a gummy worms to them with string. Bindfold the youth and dangle the gummy worms around. The first person to find the gummy worm with their tongue and eat it, wins.

Make Dirt Cups as snacks – You’ll need 8 ounce clear plastic cups, chocolate pudding mix, milk (as specified on pudding box) chocolate sandwich cookies like oreos (crushed) and gummy worms. Mix the pudding according to the package directions. Layer the pudding and the cookie crumbs in cups. Top the layers with more crumbs and gummy worms.

Gummy Worm Gulpers – Youth race against the clock to eat gummy worms hanging from the ceiling. You’ll need clothespins, strong string, and lots of gummy worms. Cut various lengths of string, attach one end to the ceiling or from a tree and one end to a clothespin, and clamp a gummy worm in each clothespin. Youth run from string to string and, using only their mouths, snatch and eat the gummy worms. The winner is whoever eats all the worms in the shortest amount of time.

TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

How would you describe a gummy worm to someone who has never seen or eaten one before?

What are some of the characteristics of gummy worms?

What are some uses of real worms?

Has anyone ever fished with a worm?

MAKE IT SPIRITUAL

Read Matthew 4:17-22

Worms are attractive to fish. What are some things that are attractive to people?

What things does the world go fishing for?

What are we to fish for as Christians?

Is a person a fisherman if year after year he never goes fishing?

Is a person a fisherman if he never catches a fish?

Is a person a true disciple of Jesus Christ if he never attempts to win a soul for Christ?

MAKE IT PRACTICAL

As a fisherman, do we cast our nets in our backyard or do we go to a place where fish can be found? (Jesus never suggests that the world should come to the church but commands the church to go into the world to witness. Jesus has given us the example – he goes to the people, he never waits for the people to come to Him.)

How is telling others about Jesus similar to fishing?

Lures are attractive to fish. How can you make the good news of Jesus attractive to your friends?

MAKE IT PERSONAL

What can you do this week to be more effective as a fisher of men?

KEY SCRIPTURE

Matthew 4:19: “Come, follow me,” Jesus said, “and I will make you fishers of men.”

It is impossible to know where and in what form the first paper airplanes were folded and flown. There is evidence to suggest it was Ancient China, or Japan. Paper was certainly available and common. Da Vinci, the Wright brothers and many others are known to have used them to understand the mysteries of flight. In this youth Bible Study, Paper airplanes are used to remind us that we also do not have to be weighed down, but can fly to great heights in our relationship with God.

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What You Need

Rubber bands, paper clips, paper, masking tape, a measuring tape

Games using Paper Airplanes

Air Show – Award prizes for the following: longest flight, shortest flight, smoothest takeoff, roughest landing, highest altitude, bumpiest route, biggest loop-the-loop, widest zigzag, and most creative flight pattern, most creative design. Encourage a lot of “oohs” and “aahs” during the performances. You may wish to allow two throws or best of three, depending on time constraints.

Target Practice – Set up a series of rings hanging from a strong as targets. Have youth take turns trying to launch their planes so that they pass through the various size rings or hoops for points. The smaller the target the higher the points.

Air Race – Stretch several strings across the room, making sure that each of them is tight and will not come loose. Make several small, light airplanes, one for each string and hang each by its nose or tail by means of a hole threaded through the string. The hole should be the size of a paper punch, so that the airplane will move easily along the string (race course) Line up your contestants and at the signal “Go,” each proceeds to blow his airplane across the string and see who can reach the goal line first. Anyone who touches his airplane or the string is automatically disqualified.

Pass The Plane – Just like hot potato, you sit the youth in a cirle and give them a paper plane and start the music. When the music stops who ever is holding the plane is out and the game will continue til there is only one youth left.

Flight Plan – Create an obstacle course in the room. Obstacles can be a small table that the plane must land on, a door or window it must fly through, chairs and obstacles it must fly around, targets it must hit, things it must fly over, under, or through. Fastest time in the obstacle race wins.

Airplane Blitz – Bring a stack of paper and have the youth write their names, and something significant on the paper, like a favorite verse, prayer request, or something they learned at a recent youth event. They can write another one on another piece of paper (or several). Then let them make paper airplanes out of these. Then you need some way to clearly divide the room in half. (The taller the divider the better.) Put half the youth on each side of the divider. Put half the paper airplanes on each side of the divider. Explain that they can only throw ONE plane at a time and they must stop when the leader says “Stop”. On “Go”, they throw the airplanes over the divider as fast as they can. Planes are flying in both directions. When you say “stop”, count the airplanes on each side of the divider. The team with the least number of planes wins. THEN: Have each person pick up an airplane and read the fun fact on each plane while everyone else tries to guess the identity of the person.

Largest Paper Airplane contest – Provide butcher paper or newsprint, scissors and masking tape, and one Bible per student. Have the group design a gigantic paper airplane. sharing their paper airplane construction techniques. Have them test out some of their ideas with a normal sheet paper. When the group has decided how to design the giant airplane. have youth fold their huge piece of paper accordingly. Award prizes for the best in various categories.

Fewest Throws – Count how many throws it takes to get their paper airplanes across a room and land on a table. Reward the youth with the least amount of throws their airplanes took.

Paper Airplane Dodgeball – Play a game of dodgeball using paper airplanes. If a player is hit with a plane, he hands over his plane and is out of the game. Here are some more rules: Airplanes must be thrown. Simply touching your opponent with your airplane is considered a self-destruct and you are out of the game, forfeiting your planes to your opponent. Airplanes cannot be picked up until they stop moving. (They can’t be stopped with your foot, either.)

TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL

Were you focused on trying to achieve a specific award or did you just create a general purpose plane? Why?

What were the key characteristics of your design? Why?

What were the keys to success for each award category?

MAKE IT SPIRITUAL

In what ways are the paper airplanes similar to people? Similar to Christians?

MAKE IT PRACTICAL

The Scriptures in Isaiah 40:31 promise us eagle wings as we wait on God. What does that mean?

What things keep us spiritually grounded / prevent us from soaring as high as we can as a Christian?

What things weigh us down spiritually?

How can we lighten our load?

What purpose do goals serve in helping us to reach a higher calling in the Christian life?

What goals did Paul have in life, what did he aspire to reach in life?

What were Christ’s goals?

What factors / keys to success make someone a winner in the Christian life?

What things can we people to be more successful?

When it comes to accuracy, the word “sin” means “to miss the mark” as we all have done. Romans 3:23 says “For all have sinned and fallen short of the glory of God.” Every one of us has sinned against God and missed the mark of God’s perfection. What are some things that cause us to miss our goal as Christians? How do we recover?

MAKE IT PERSONAL

What are your goals in life? As a Christian?

Do you have just one goal or many goals? Why?

Which goal is most important to you? Why?

How are you similar / different in your goals as compared to Paul / Christ?

What do you need to change to be more successful as a Christian?

SCRIPTURE

Exodus 19:4 – “Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles’ wings, and brought you unto myself.”

Isaiah 40:31 (NIV) – “but those who hope in the Lord will renew their strength. They will soar on wings like eagles; they will run and not grow weary, they will walk and not be faint.”

1 Corinthians 9:24-27 (NIV) – “Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize. Everyone who competes in the games goes into strict training. They do it to get a crown that will not last, but we do it to get a crown that will last forever. Therefore I do not run like someone running aimlessly; I do not fight like a boxer beating the air. No, I strike a blow to my body and make it my slave so that after I have preached to others, I myself will not be disqualified for the prize.”

Matthew 11:30 – “For my yoke is easy and my burden is light.”

John 8:31-36 (NIV) – “To the Jews who had believed him, Jesus said, “If you hold to my teaching, you are really my disciples. Then you will know the truth, and the truth will set you free.” They answered him, “We are Abraham’s descendants and have never been slaves of anyone. How can you say that we shall be set free?” Jesus replied, “Very truly I tell you, everyone who sins is a slave to sin. Now a slave has no permanent place in the family, but a son belongs to it forever. So if the Son sets you free, you will be free indeed.”

Ephesians 4:11-14 (NIV) – “So Christ himself gave the apostles, the prophets, the evangelists, the pastors and teachers, to equip his people for works of service, so that the body of Christ may be built up until we all reach unity in the faith and in the knowledge of the Son of God and become mature, attaining to the whole measure of the fullness of Christ. Then we will no longer be infants, tossed back and forth by the waves, and blown here and there by every wind of teaching and by the cunning and craftiness of people in their deceitful scheming.”

In this relay, participants will try to replace the missing pieces that have been removed from their team’s pumpkin. It can be used as party game for your October 31st Halloween alternative, for a harvest festival, or a Halloween carnival.

Has your light gone out because of sin in your life?

Lesson on self-identity using a children's story about a colorful pumpkin

Play pass the parcel with a pumpkin

Redeem Halloween with a Noah's Ark Party and discuss the promises of God.

What are the masks we wear?

Use a pumpkin to share the gospel.

Use the legend of the Jack-o-lantern to share the gospel.

Thinking of a youth bowling party? Here's a way to have fun while making it less dependent on skill. Great youth idea for Halloween as well!

Some scripture passages that might make good Halloween Bible Study or sermon topics

Discuss dealing with fears as a Halloween alternative.

Tips and ideas for face-painting

With Halloween just around the corner, a lot of churches are looking for alternatives for their children and youth. Many churches have fall carnivals, or harvest festivals. One popular activities for church carnival events with children is face painting.

Do you have your eternal life insurance

Use this creative object lesson as a surprising illustration to kids that God looks at our heart, not our appearances. It can be used on any occasion or as a children's sermon, but with a reference to tombs, and masks it also serves as a fun lesson for an alternative to Halloween.