Ministry Coach: Youth Ministry Tips & Resources

The Ultimate Collection of Water Games for Youth Ministry (Summer Games!)

• Kristen Lascola • Episode 202

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**FOR A PDF OF THE INSTRUCTIONS FOR 20 YOUTH GROUP WATER GAMES - EMAIL US AT MinistryCoachPodcast@gmail.com - and put in the subject or description "WATER GAMES" and we will send it over to you!**  In this episode, we discuss some super fun summer games for your youth ministry!  SHOPPING LIST BELOW...

***If you are looking to GROW your youth ministry, check out the Youth Ministry Growth Accelerator!

Are you trying to keep your students entertained during those scorching summer months, this episode is your ultimate guide to youth group water games!  We give the instructions on some of our favorite youth ministry games for summertime. Join us for a summer full of laughs, thrills, and water-soaked memories your student ministry will never forget!

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Shopping List:

TRIVIA CRACK:
🎈Balloons - https://amzn.to/3XBoUH8
🪣 Buckets - https://amzn.to/3izZdT1 (you can get these cheaper at the dollar store)
🟦 Tarp (if playing indoors) - https://amzn.to/3W1y68Y

LAVA LOB:
🎈 Water Balloons - https://amzn.to/3xO8B2R
🟩 Towels: https://amzn.to/45WwamF (just have students bring some)
⬜️ Sheets: https://amzn.to/4ahHaeY (alternate idea to towels)
🏐 Volleyball / Pickleball Net: https://amzn.to/4ahHaeY
📿 Rope: https://amzn.to/3S4vEgF (alternate idea to a volleyball net)

ELECTRICITY:
🥤 Red Solo Cups - https://amzn.to/4122W2M

SLIP N' SLIDE KICKBALL:
Commercial Grade Plastic Sheeting (6 Mil.)
⚪️ Clear - https://amzn.to/3ixuEgQ (if it's hot where you are)
⚫️ Black - https://amzn.to/320rbRx (if it's cooler where you are)
🔴 Kickball - https://amzn.to/4byP0S9
👶 Baby Shampoo - https://amzn.to/3zMsxUb (load up on this)
🌱 Biodegradable Soap - https://amzn.to/3VX07yw (this shouldn't harm the grass)
⭕️ Kiddie Pools - https://amzn.to/3VX07yw

ULTIMATE STEAL THE BACON (Water Edition):
🛞 Inner Tube: https://amzn.to/3v9fghQ
⚪️ Clear - https://amzn.to/3ixuEgQ (optional)
🔺 Cones ( https://amzn.to/2BtSp9K )

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*This episode is not sponsored. Some of the links are affiliate links which simply means, if you buy something, we will receive a small commission (at no additional cost to you) Thank you!*


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Speaker 1:

Today we are giving you our ultimate list of water games for your youth group.

Speaker 2:

Welcome to the Ministry Coach Podcast, where we bring you weekly tips and tactics to help you fast track the growth and health of your youth ministry.

Speaker 1:

My name is Jeff Laskola and this is Kristen Laskola, and today we're going to give you five water games that you can play in your youth ministry.

Speaker 2:

And if you email us at ministrycoachpodcast at gmailcom, we'll actually send you 15 more for a grand total of 20 water games.

Speaker 1:

Lucky you. Well, it is hot, hot, hot. So water games and youth ministry go together because it's summer and if you're in Southern California it's going to be summer for a pretty long time, probably until Thanksgiving. So these will come in very handy for your youth group. Number one, we're going to start actually with one. You can play inside or outside, totally up to you. I played it inside and I just make sure I don't fill the balloons with too much water and maybe put a little tarp down.

Speaker 1:

But the first one we like to play often is called Trivia Crack. So I love doing boys versus girls for this game and we start off and we ask for five boys, five girls, or if you're doing two different teams or even three different teams, it doesn't matter, just make sure you have an equal number of players per team. So you ask for your volunteers and you set up that amount of chairs up on the stage or the front. You know wherever you're playing. We usually place just slightly off the stage so that we don't get the equipment wet, but we do it up in front so everyone can see.

Speaker 1:

So I like to use metal chairs or plastic chairs, just nothing with the cushion, so that you know it doesn't get soaking wet and you pre-fill all of your balloons. You don't have to use water balloons for this game. That's what one thing I really like about it is, because I can just go to dollar tree or get it just a regular. I have a random bag of balloons laying around and it'll work just fine what's a youth ministry without a random bag of balloons laying?

Speaker 1:

around. Always have balloons on hand. You will need them in a pinch, so we fill them up just the bottom portion of it with a little bit of water.

Speaker 2:

If you're playing outside, put a ton of water in there, it doesn't matter, or use a bucket, or yeah, you don't even need to do balloons.

Speaker 1:

You could just have buckets. You would need quite a few to make the game work, but you could do it so um refill the same bucket you could do that too. You could be totally smart like jeff and do that too. You could be totally smart like Jeff and do that. So you pick the kids, they come in, they sit down in the chairs, and then you have like a category such as candy bars, flavors of cereal, flavors of ice cream, disney movies, sports colors, car models, sports teams, whatever.

Speaker 1:

There's a lot of different categories. Books of the Bible, sports models, sports teams, whatever. There's a lot of different categories. Books of the Bible Make sure you have about 15 categories ready to go. Animals I was looking at your shirt and I was like animals, that'd be a great one. Birds, pink birds, types of pink birds Maybe too narrow, too narrow.

Speaker 1:

And so I like to have some leaders line up behind the kids. So the kids are sitting in the chairs, the leaders are lined up standing behind them, holding a balloon over their head with something to pop. If you don't have enough leaders to do one per kid, you could have one leader, you know, keep going down the line and holding it over their head, and then you have a mic, or they could just shout it out, and so you say all right, the category is types of cereal.

Speaker 2:

We're going to start with you jeff ready three, two, one apple jacks lucky charms cheerios, honey, bunch of oats, grape nuts, shredded wheat, raisin bran, oh boom. Okay, I can't believe I beat you, or do you just want to end it? I was doing it for the game. They're like we get it.

Speaker 1:

We were too good, we get it. So if I hesitate and I'm like, oh, I don't have anything to say, I get a balloon popped on my head and I'm out. Or if I repeat something that was already said, either that I said or someone else said, I get a balloon popped on my head and I'm out and I'm eliminated. Popped on my head and I'm out and I'm eliminated. You play until there is one winner and it's a whole lot of fun. Then, depending on how many balloons or how much time you have, you can ask for 10 more volunteers, reset, pick a new category, you know, and go like that, but you will need a new category. I do one each time we restart. So I got a balloon popped over my head, I'm out. We restart with a new category.

Speaker 2:

All right.

Speaker 1:

Next round Movies.

Speaker 2:

Disney movies Ready Go. Did we say that twice? Exactly, or was that a new round. Also, I said grape nuts, that's a really random one, that's like from the really deep archives of my brain.

Speaker 1:

I think, I think they should stop manufacturing that. I think I should get a popped on my head for saying grape nuts, To be honest maybe we just you could play that Like if I don't like your answer, if your answer stinks, uh you know, but uh, so that one's really fun. My students love it, and here's the beauty of that game Simple setup.

Speaker 2:

Hmm.

Speaker 1:

Simple to play. It's very low prep and very, very fun.

Speaker 2:

And, like you said, you can do it indoors with a small amount of water, or you can go hog wild and do it outside and fill the whole balloon up.

Speaker 1:

So yes, so that is number one. Number two is another one of my favorites. This one is called Lava Lob. So this one is a variation of volleyball. So you have kids, bring beach towels and you set up a volleyball net. Or you know, in youth ministry I think we're really good at setting up things that are like other things. Set up something like a volleyball net If you don't have a volleyball net it's not about your resources.

Speaker 2:

It is about your resourcefulness.

Speaker 1:

Yeah, that's like the tagline for youth ministry.

Speaker 2:

I feel like it should be.

Speaker 1:

I have been known to have two leaders holding a rope above their head and that's the volleyball net. I don't have posts, so you got to hold them. I don't have a net, but here's a rope. Just make it over the rope, people you know. So don't tell me you don't have. I can't play these games.

Speaker 1:

Yes, you can Come on, get creative.

Speaker 1:

So you put half the team on one side, half the group, or half your group on one side, half the group on the other, and you can either do little pods of four, meaning each person holds a corner of the beach towel, or, if you have less kids, you could do each one holds a side, so they're holding two corners. And the point is you want to catch the balloon in your towel and then you fling it over the net to be caught on the other side and then flung back over. So it's like volleyball but you're flinging, and I usually give students a couple of practice rounds. Getting that fling down is kind of hard because they get it all wrapped up in their towel. So it's like a coordinated effort, like three, two, one fling, and then if it hits the ground, obviously the team that threw it gets a point, or if it goes out of bounds typical volleyball rules. That is a lot of fun. We love to play that during the summer, so you could play it at the beach or in the parking lot, whatever you've got.

Speaker 2:

Another variation is you can use bed sheets and have more people along there, kind of surrounding the whole thing and maybe just do less groups, but totally up to you. It's a. It's a bigger target for it to land in Good point. It's a little harder to maneuver back and forth, though. So yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, and you would need more people around each one, all right.

Speaker 1:

Another one we love to play, and again, you can play this one indoor or outdoor, just use more or less water, depending on your setting. It's called electricity and this one's hilarious. I don't know where I found this game, but we've been playing it for years 15 years and never gets old.

Speaker 1:

So you have two teams that are facing each other in a line and they're holding hands and you can put them about three feet apart from each other. So two lines of students. They're facing each other, holding hands, three feet apart. At one end of that line you put a chair with a cup of water and then at the other end you're standing there, or a leader or whoever, and they're the person who's going to start the electrical current. So you have the kids hold hands, they put their heads down and they close their eyes when they feel, when the first person in line that's next to you feels a tap on their shoulder, that means start the electric current. That means squeeze the hand that you're holding. Then that person squeeze the hand, then that person squeeze the hand of that person.

Speaker 1:

Squeeze, squeeze, squeeze all the way down to the last person gets the squeeze and when they feel it, they grab that cup of water and they throw it in the face of the person across from them and they get a point for their team. That person then moves to the front of the line and everyone moves down. It is super fun.

Speaker 2:

Do you move both teams on both sides?

Speaker 1:

Yes, okay.

Speaker 2:

So whether you got hit or not, yeah.

Speaker 1:

Like that was your chance. Now you got to move on. And it's very, very obvious if somebody starts the electric current without being squozen, so you can watch that current like squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, squeeze, go all the way down. Their eyes are closed, Um supposed to be supposed to be keyword, but if someone randomly starts it in the middle like oh, I'm going to be so funny, you're so original. Does and will happen yes I say well, I saw you start it.

Speaker 2:

So the other point or the other team gets a point so if you cheat you used to do this, where you would flip a coin yeah, and that just took too long okay, we used to do it like the person would flip a coin, and when it lands on heads then you start the electric current.

Speaker 1:

It's like it just seemed like a cumbersome extra step when all I could do is, whenever I'm ready, tap you yeah, you know and coin flipping is harder than it seems sometimes it always falls on the ground and you gotta go.

Speaker 2:

And then if there is, like it's supposed to, you know, squeeze on heads and it's tails, but they think it's heads, and oops, oh, oh, sorry, and then naturally it goes all the way and someone just grabs it. I think you answered your own question, okay.

Speaker 1:

This one is super fun and fun to watch Slip and slide kickball. So I don't know how you've seen it played, but I think you could play it a couple different ways. So obviously we know how to play kickball. And then if you're on the grass field you can either put strips of slip and slide like a strip from the baselines. Yes, thank you. That's an easier way of saying that.

Speaker 1:

Or if you had one gigantic one, you can put the whole field on that, because I feel a little bad for the infield and they're the only one slipping around like the outfield should have to slip around somewhat too.

Speaker 1:

So we have a gigantic plastic roll that we got from Home Depot and we use it with our kids in our backyard. We put it down on the grass. It's gigantic and you put biodegradable soap. If you don't want it to get in people's eyes, you can use baby shampoo and water. The soap makes it so much more slippery, so I prefer it that way. I think it's a lot more fun and I prefer the giant one as opposed to baselines, just to even out infield and outfield a little bit more.

Speaker 2:

But if you're only really big to get the outfield in there.

Speaker 1:

Well, not the entire thing, I just think it's nice when you have that whole big square, so if they're running and trying to catch and so whatever. Either way, I think is super fun, it works. But I would say the magic ingredient to that game is magic soap yeah, and then the bases.

Speaker 2:

It's always fun to use the inflatable mini kiddie pools and that is filled with water yes so they kind of slide into that. If you're doing the base paths, I think, if you're not doing the whole giant one, if you're just doing the base pass, just do like half the base path so the first portion is grass, so that way they can kind of get a normal running start and then slide into it yeah instead of just like it's really hard to run on those things so if the whole thing is a slip and slide, I mean that's hilarious to watch, but might not be very

Speaker 1:

effective to run right yeah, also, every time you say base path, I feel like you're saying it wrong but I probably am.

Speaker 2:

There's a few words in the English language. It just doesn't sound right, but it is.

Speaker 1:

Baseline Basepath. It just seems like it should be like bath pace or something Like. The endings just don't seem right.

Speaker 2:

Basepath Well whatever Sounds weird.

Speaker 1:

So, yes, slip and slide, kickball you, you know, and here's what I'm so envious of, if you are the church, if you're the youth group, heather hubel, hubelin, heather hubelin, speaking of words you can't from clovis, I'm talking to you. She has a giant grass field. Awesome, it's like the hugest grass crash now you ever seen.

Speaker 2:

Now you've jinxed yourself.

Speaker 1:

Base path I went to her church last summer and I'm like, who has this big of a grass field in California?

Speaker 2:

We have a big parking lot.

Speaker 1:

We have a big parking lot. Everyone has a big parking lot.

Speaker 2:

Grass is too expensive to water Just concrete and asphalt, I was very jealous.

Speaker 1:

So if you have a grass field, you don't know how lucky you are. You very jealous. So if you have a grass field, you don't know how lucky you are you can play all these games. Yes, you guys, I have nothing. I have an auditorium with a concrete floor. It is hard to play a lot of games, so consider yourself lucky, all right. And then our next game.

Speaker 2:

This one is super fun ultimate steal, the bacon inner tube edition and, just as a reminder, if you need any of the supplies to go to any of these games, they'll be in the description in the video or the podcast below. There you go thank you, jeff you're welcome uh.

Speaker 1:

So we're gonna play this this week because we're going to the klamath river for summer camp. So what we do is we get our two teams and we line them up on the shore of the river. You could play this in a pool or on a slip and slide if you invested in that big plastic tarp from Home Depot. But you number the students, one through however many you have, one through five, one through 10. And then you put the inner tube out in the water with a leader holding it there. We usually put about 15, 20 feet out into the water. If your number is called, you have to swim out to the tube, grab it and you have to drag it back and touch your cone on the side of your team.

Speaker 1:

So the cool thing about this game is it's not as simple as it sounds, because this like when the kid's number is called, they just swim and they're going hard and they got it. But what they don't realize is there's another kid in the water. Maybe they didn't get to the tube first, but they're gonna try their best to get it out of your dead, lifeless fingers, you know. And they will wrestle, you know. Sometimes we have to blow the whistle because like okay, we just gotta end this, this round it's too much. But they start to just kind of tug-of-war it and drag it and then they stretch out kind of like in tug-of-war and try to grab their team cone and once they do that, the round is over. I like calling more than one number. I think it's a lot better on the ego. So so you are not the only loser out there.

Speaker 2:

There's two losers, yes.

Speaker 1:

And then it's like, well, who was the weak link? We'll never know. So it's a little better on that and it's just more fun with teamwork. So you could play that, like I said, on a slip and slide, which is a lot of fun, or you can play it in a pool, a lake, river.

Speaker 2:

Yeah.

Speaker 1:

Wherever.

Speaker 2:

Body of water.

Speaker 1:

Any body of water.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, and like we said before, like I said before, go ahead and email us at ministrycoachpodcast at gmailcom and we can send you all 20 games, instructions and all that stuff.

Speaker 1:

So that will give you enough to last several summers and weeks and weeks of water games just for you.

Speaker 2:

Right now we're going to do a question of the day and then we actually are in the middle of a giveaway for our 200th episode, so we're gonna go ahead and do that as well. Question of the day is if you could jump into a pool of something that is not water, what would it be? You go first okay, I am gonna pick the styrofoam peanut things, that packing package peanuts, peanuts. It's contagious.

Speaker 1:

That'd be fine.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, I just don't know how far you'd sink, but that's part of the joy of figuring out how far you'd go down, I guess.

Speaker 1:

Most likely that will never happen in your life, so you'll never find out. Did you ever see Bruce almighty was it bruce almighty. There was a movie maybe it wasn't bruce almighty and this old lady's dream was to be in a pool full of noodles, and they made her dream come true. At the end, they put her in a pool and they're they filled it up with noodles, maybe it is bruce almighty, I don't remember.

Speaker 1:

I feel like it's a jim carrey movie, if you know the answer put in the comments. I can't remember, but that's what I would do.

Speaker 2:

Okay, noodles.

Speaker 1:

Noodles.

Speaker 2:

Any specific kind.

Speaker 1:

Either elbow macaroni or spaghetti. Okay, I'm not sure which one.

Speaker 2:

I think you'd probably need to do it quick, because I wouldn't want to have that stuff start to ferment or just get disgusting.

Speaker 1:

I'd want them to be slightly damp this is really gross lukewarm steaming hot. I just want to slip around the noodles, but if they're too dry you're not going to so I want a slippy, slippy noodle.

Speaker 2:

Alright, let's do the giveaway. This is for three Castle.

Speaker 1:

Sports oh, can I have those?

Speaker 2:

A black light nine square ball. So these actually do glow in or under black light and they glow, so glowy. And so we're giving away three sets. So you get three and we're giving away to three people.

Speaker 1:

I'd like to enter the contest Too late.

Speaker 2:

All right, the winners are, as I have written down Kristen Lesko, nope, justin Amos Woo, jamin Thomas hey and Christian Tonkins. Wow, wow, wow, wow. Congratulations.

Speaker 1:

You did it Now. Wow, wow, wow.

Speaker 2:

Congratulations, you did it Now if you're like, yeah, share with me If you are Justin, jamin or Christian and you're like I don't even have a nine square set, what better incentive than to get one? Make sure you visit castlesportscom and check out their nine square sets. We have one. It's super awesome. We did a review of them. Use it all the time and if you use code ministry coach, you actually get 50 off any set, any castle sports set that they have. So that's really cool.

Speaker 1:

Make sure you guys utilize I'm gonna bring mine to camp jeff you should, because it's very, very portable that sounds like an advertisement.

Speaker 2:

But it's we're being honest here. It's a really we are. I use it all the time but now I just reminded me.

Speaker 1:

I think I don't have any balls left. I think someone stole them.

Speaker 2:

Oh, too late.

Speaker 1:

Lost them.

Speaker 2:

Yeah, if you're in youth ministry, you know dodgeballs, nine-square balls, anything like any kind of.

Speaker 1:

There's a black hole in the universe where they all are Right, any kind of sporting equipment it just goes away.

Speaker 2:

We've actually had dodgeballs up in the rafters at church.

Speaker 1:

So how do they get?

Speaker 2:

there. There's probably quite a few up there, all right. Well, if you haven't already entered our giveaway, we still have a few weeks left. So make sure you head over to the episode we did all about burnout it was episode 200 and find all the information on how to enter the giveaway and make sure you check back in the next few weeks and see if you won. So congratulations for the guys who won. We thank you guys so much for watching and listening and we'll see you next time.

Speaker 1:

Today we are giving you our ultimate list of water games.

Speaker 2:

I actually didn't really think of a response. Oh, I know a response, I would choose.

Speaker 1:

Sorry, I forgot what I was going to say Okay, um. Shoot, I lost my train of thought.