Children's Bible Songs

The Items Needed:

• 2 small boxes of small Slim Jims ($3 for a box of 15 at Wal-Mart)
• 1 cardboard box approximately 2′ x 2′ x 1′
• 1 ballpoint pen
• 1 dark Sharpie marker (must be a quality marker to write on the Slim Jim wrappers)

The Players:

• One player at a time
• One administrator

The Objective:

• To select two Slim Jims with a matching number, and be rewarded therewith

The Rules of the Game:

• The player may choose 3 Slim Jims per turn.
• The chosen Slim Jims will be pulled out of the box with the numbers revealed.
• If the Slim Jims do not have a matching number, they must be put back into their holes immediately.
• If they match, the player may keep the Slim Jims.
• I like to give a small ‘consolation prize’ for each player if they don’t find a match.

Preparation (5-10 minutes):

1. Open your Slim Jim boxes and place a number on the same end of each Slim Jim, two of each number (1,1,2,2,3,3,4,4,5,5,etc.).
2. Punch as many holes into one side of the box as you have Slim Jims — use the pen to punch the holes.
3. Insert the Slim Jims into the holes just enough so the numbers are hidden inside the box.
4. You may want to mark a bonus pair of Slim Jims with a star or something (worth extra treat).

Overview:

This is a great affordable game that doesn’t take much preparation time or money, but people of all ages have fun playing it.  It’s scalable for if you have a larger crowd: just get more Slim Jims and punch more holes.  It is meant to be played much like the classic card game, except you can eat the game pieces!  Who doesn’t like that?

The Items Needed:

• A box of small Slim Jims ($3 for a box of 15 at Wal-Mart)

The Players:

• One player at a time
• One administrator

The Objective:

• To grab the Slim Jim as it falls with only your two fingers

The Rules of the Game:

• The player puts his index finger and thumb over the red spot on the bottom of the Slim Jim
• Their fingers cannot be touching the Slim Jim before it drops
• They may only catch it with their index finger and thumb

Overview:

This is a very quick game that allows everyone on the bus or in the classroom to get a chance to play and win the Slim Jim (or 2, as was my reward).  It looks very easy to win, but you’ll find that it is extremely difficult even for teens, especially if the person dropping it uses any distraction techniques, such as asking the player short goofy questions and then dropping it while they try to answer.  Even the youngest child can understand and play this game (3 years old kid had fun trying)!

The Items Needed:

• 2 big long socks (preferably clean–and without holes…)
• At least 60 regular size marbles
• 1 5-gallon bucket

The Players:

• Two teams of two will play against each other, so four people will play at a time.  One team member holds the sock and the other digs in the bucket for marbles.
• Optional participant: the designated counting person

The Objective:

• To get the most marbles into your team’s sock before the time runs out (10 seconds)

The Rules of the Game:

• Any violation of these rules is an automatic loss for your team
• No scooping the sock into the bucket of marbles
• If one marble falls to the floor (or elsewhere) your team loses
• No holding the sock over the bucket of marbles
• Time limit: 10 seconds (give more time if you have more marbles…and want it to take longer of course)

 Overview:

This is a simple game that we adopted from a game called “Rocks in Socks”.  We couldn’t figure out how to play it practically with rocks, but we had a 5 gallon bucket of “water pearls” leftover from a recent wedding.  I don’t know where we bought them, but here’s a place that sells water pearls. The kid’s couldn’t keep their hands out of the bucket because these squishy marbles felt so neat in their fingers.  Then after mostly everyone got off the bus we just started throwing them at each other 🙂