10 youth group activities to keep your students engaged

It isn't easy to consistently develop new youth group activities that will make your students want to get involved. Depending on your set up, you might also need ideas that you can pull together quickly and with very few materials, or you may not have the space to run activities requiring a lot of movement.

That's why we've put together a list of 10 youth group activities that encourage your students to work together, get creative, and exercise. With a range of options that require a varying amount of prep and space, there should be something to suit any youth club in our list.

 

Youth group activities for your club

 

 

1. Travel the globe (not literally)

This activity will require some preparation, but what you do with it is entirely up to you. Travel the globe usually involves setting up stations around the room, each one representing a different country.

You could have food and snacks related to the country, flashcards with common phrases used in the native language, some information about the country on a poster, or all of the above.

To make it more challenging, try not telling your group what each country is and seeing if they can guess or include a quiz to see how many phrases, facts, and foods they can identify.

This activity is great for getting your students to discuss with each other and learn something new!

 

2. Humpty Dumpty

We all know the famous nursery rhyme, but what if Humpty Dumpty had some protection from his fall? For this game, your students will need to split into small groups, and you'll need an egg for each group.

You'll also need crafting supplies, such as cardboard, paper, tape, and bubble wrap. Your students then have to build a structure to protect the egg from cracking, which you'll test by dropping them from the same height at the end of the game.

Each team needs the same materials to ensure the game is fair. You can even include things like feathers, pipe cleaners, and felt tips, and have a prize winner for the best-decorated structure.

This activity encourages your students to work together and is good for developing communication skills.

 

3. Board game night

This youth group activity does exactly what it says on the tin. It will, of course, require some board games. You may already have some to hand, or you could encourage your students to bring in some of their favourites.

If your students enjoy this activity, you could make it an ongoing event. Board games work really well for getting your students to interact in different groups.

 

4. Sports or dance lessons

This activity depends on the amount of space you have, whether indoors or outdoors. If you find your students interested in a particular sport or form of dancing, why not run a lesson for them?

You could ask around in your local community to see if there is a football coach or dance teacher who would be willing to volunteer some of their time to teach a session with your students.

This idea is perfect for clubs with students who enjoy more physical activities and gets everybody moving!

 

5. Geocaching

If you have not heard of Geocaching, it's best described as a huge scavenger hunt. The Geocaching app allows you to find Geocaches all over the UK. The app is free to download; all you need to do is create an account.

This is a great activity for getting your students out and about; you can travel as a group using the app to find Geocaches in your local area. They are often well hidden, so once you’re near to one, you can get clues from the app to try and find it.

They're usually a small box or pot, with items that other people have left after finding the cache. Make sure if you take one, you leave something behind! They should also come with a small piece of paper so you can sign your group's name on the list to say that you've found it.

 

 

6. Marshmallow towers

Another great team-building activity is marshmallow towers. For this, you'll need marshmallows, sticks of spaghetti, and tape. Once you've split your students into small groups, their challenge is to build the tallest tower with these materials. Prepare for lots of snapped spaghetti!

 

7. Fish bowl

Fish bowl is best described as a combination of Taboo, and Charades. You need paper, pens, a timer, and something to place the papers in (such as a bowl or a hat) to play. 

Once your students are split into teams, ask them to write down three things on a piece of paper. This could be the name of a book, a film, a TV show, or whatever you think will work best for the group.

The papers are then folded and placed into the bowl. For the first round, take turns picking out pieces from the bowl and try to describe what’s written on them for  your team to guess. Keep going until the timer runs out to get as many points as possible for your team. 

Once everyone has had a turn at describing, all the papers go back into the bowl, and the next round works the same, except this time, you act out what is on the paper as you would in charades. 

For the third round, you do the same again, but this time, you can only say one word to describe what is on the paper. This is the hardest round, but by this point, you should have already heard what most of the papers in the bowl say from previous rounds.

Fishbowl is a fun game that everyone can get involved in, and it tests thinking skills at the same time!

 

8. Dodgeball

You may not need a description for this one, but if you've never played dodgeball, here it is. You split into two teams and stand on opposite sides of the room, with a line splitting the room in two. At the start of the game, balls are placed along the line in the middle.

Once the game begins, both teams run to the middle and try to pick up a ball before their opponents. Then, each team tries to throw the balls to hit opposing team members. If you get hit, you're out! The game ends when one team eliminates all players on the opposing team.

 

9. Treasure hunt

The great thing about a treasure hunt is that it can be done indoors or outdoors. You could use riddles or maps hidden around the space you have available to lead your students from place to place until they reach a prize at the end.

 

10. Create your own advert

This activity requires your students to practice their creativity and use their imagination. All this game requires are some random items from around your home. You then need to split your students into small groups and give each group an item.

Each group then has to create a two-minute advert for their item, which they then perform back to the group. To make the game a bit harder, you could add the rule that they can't advertise their item for its original purpose, so they have to make something new up.

 

 

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