8 Interesting Sunday School Games and Activities For Youth

“The most important thing we learn at school is the fact that the most important things can’t be learned at school.” 

This quote by the famous writer Haruki Murakami highlights education’s true purpose: to equip your kids for life so they contribute positively to society. Sunday school is a place that makes children ready to launch on a long-lasting journey of spiritual growth and service to fellow beings. Children explore various inspirational Bible verses and learn key moral values in a supportive environment. 

Sunday school can be fun and exciting with various engaging and child-friendly activities. These develop the social skills of your child and inject positivity into their learning environment. Through exciting indoor and outdoor games, you can harness kids’ natural energy. Besides, it keeps them in close touch with their faith, just like you expect. 

In this post, we will take you through some great Sunday school games appropriate for kids of varying ages.

Memorable and fun Sunday school games 

1. Blurt out the right answer in 3 minutes 

This fast-paced game will make your child think quickly. They need to quickly understand the questions and come up with the correct answer. You can adjust the questions as per their age levels.

Required supplies – A stopwatch and a list of questions

Play – 

• Set the stopwatch for three minutes. 
• Now ask the first Bible-related question and say, ‘Go.’
• If a student answers correctly, go to the next question.
• If they answer incorrectly, count for three seconds, during which no one can answer. 
• After that, say ‘Go’ again to give students another chance to answer the question. 

The activity increases children’s knowledge of the Bible. Asking questions from already taught passages will let you know how much they can retain. 

2. Fight with the snowball

A competitive and thrilling game, it makes children work with each other cooperatively in groups. You can be sure that every kid would love to participate. 

Required supplies – Newspapers, a removable masking tape, a timer, and some disposable wipes

Play – 

• Create two groups of students. 
• Use a masking tapeline to divide the classroom.
• Both groups will stand on either side of the line. They will have an equal number of newspapers.
• Give a signal asking kids to make newspaper snowballs.
• Now tell them to throw the snowballs back and forth for a specific time.
• The group that gets more snow or newspaper balls wins.
• When the game ends, children collect the newspaper and bring it to the recycle bin of the church and clean their hands with disposable wipes.

Through this activity, your children will realize that fighting is a sin. To make the task more fruitful, you may relate wiping hands using disposable wipes to God’s grace.  

3. Jump up after listening to the Bible verse

Do you want to evaluate the listening efficiency of your students? Give this game a try. It makes children eagerly anticipate your next move, so they can take the right action. 

Required supplies – None

Play – 

• Choose a Bible verse that children are studying. 
• Give every pupil a specific word from it.
• Ask all the children to sit down.
• Read the passage, and allow the kids to jump up the moment they hear the word they are assigned.
• Read the verse a couple of times, either fast or slow, to test children’s listening efficiency.
• In the end, read the verse again and let the children stand in a line to like it. 
• After that, everyone goes back to their lesson.

Your kids will become more attentive towards the current lesson with this game.  Not only does it augment their active listening skills, but it also reinforces your teaching. 

4. Icebreaker game

Finally, you have found the ideal game to create a relaxed environment in your class. Use it to make children familiar with one another. It’ll create a foundation for further activities involving teamwork.

Required supplies – Blanket

Play – 

• Let the children introduce themselves to others. 
• After the introductions are over, divide them into two groups. 
• Both teams sit and face each other.
• The children will hold up a blanket between the groups so it resembles a curtain.
• A chosen member of one group stands nearest to a blanket facing the other group.
• When both groups get ready to drop the blanket, the first player to call out the opposing player’s name correctly wins the round.

Students will feel like they are an integral part of the classroom after playing this game. It will enrich relationships and pave the way for strong friendships. 

5. 20 Questions

How often have you wanted to see your class well-versed in the Biblical characters from different lessons? This activity is all you need to help them with this task. You can use it after you have taught a new lesson. 

Required supplies – A piece of paper

Play – 

• On a paper, write down 20 questions. 
• These questions should be about the characters from the Bible.
• Tell everyone the part of the Bible from which the characters are used.
• One member of the opposing team asks questions to discover who the character is.
• Include a point system in the game to make it more exciting.

Consider this game a tool to promote the problem-solving skills of your students. It’ll make them recall what they’ve learned and come up with the correct answer, sharpening their ability to think critically.

6. Vanishing verse

It’s common for students to have a tough time recalling specific verses. Vanishing Verse will assist them in gradually overcoming this problem. Moreover, you don’t require any preparation or extensive supervision while children engage in this game. 

Required supplies – A whiteboard and chalk

Play – 

• Write a Bible verse on the board.
• Ask kids to recite it.
• Now, one child will erase one word. 
• Ask the class to repeat the verse. 
• This process will go on until all the words are gone. 
• At the end, children will say the entire verse from their memory. 

When your children participate in this activity, they’ll retain Bible content better. Also, as children lead most of the game, it turns them into active constructors of their knowledge. 

7. Find the hidden words

A short and sweet game, Find the Hidden Words enables young minds to piece together information and enhance their Bible learning. It’ll surely keep children on their toes and active throughout the class. 

Required supplies – Pieces of paper and a marker 

Play – 

• Choose a Bible passage that you want your children to memorize. 
• Now, write every word of this passage on different pieces of paper. 
• Hide the pieces of paper in distinct areas of the classroom. 
• Ask the pupils to discover the words and spread them out in the right sequence. 
• Once they have done that, recite the passage together. 
• If you want to place again, hide the words in different locations (preferably in another place) and ask the children to find and arrange them in the right order. 

By learning the words of God, children can use them to help their friends who are struggling. Isn’t that what you expect from them? They will also discover connections between different words and lines in a passage. 

8. Can you unwrap your candy?

Some games look easy on the surface but look closely, and you’ll find how hard they are. This activity offers an exciting challenge, that most students will be eager to take on.

Required supplies – Several bags of gold foil candies or chocolates.

Play – 

• Divide students into groups while ensuring the number of students in each group is equal. 
• Give every group a bag of gold foiled wrapped candies or chocolates.
• Now, children in each group can eat any number of candies. 
• The only rule is that they cannot use their hands to peel away the foil.
• As this is quite a challenging task, give adequate time to students to perform the feat.
• Afterward, ask the children why they thought that this task was near impossible.

See your children thinking creatively as they brainstorm novel ways to unwrap the sweets. It can be one of those energizer games and activities that lift the morale of children.  

Conclusion

These Sunday school games will end your struggles with creating an engaging environment. They will reinforce your kids’ prior knowledge and prompt active participation. Moreover, they’ll prevent them from getting bored, which is what you want, isn’t it? Organize these activities regularly, and you’ll find kids looking forward to attending your classes.

The games will also help foster a love for God’s words in children. One of the many values that Jesus taught through his deeds is that of kindness and compassion. Kindness activities and games help students learn crucial life skills and forge a long-lasting culture of empathy and compassion. Incorporating such activities will reinforce Bible lessons in the best possible way.