When I look at Kids4Truth Clubs, I see a fun, exciting program like Vacation Bible School; but this program meets once a week and runs a good part of the calendar year. Since it does run 9–12 months, variety keeps club time from becoming boring or stale over the long haul. Here are four ideas, straight from Kids4Truth Clubs resources, that will add variety to your Kids4Truth Clubs this year.
Active Review Games
Active review games add fun to your club while providing a memorable learning experience. Most games are designed to be played in teams, but when you have just a few 
children, the games can be set up for individual play. (Kids4Truth Clubs is super flexible!) These games also encourage children to pay attention to the lesson, learn and retain memory work, and build healthy relationships with leaders in your church.
Almost any carnival-style or yard game can be adjusted for play as a review game. Kids4Truth Clubs offers a review game manual* to show you how to play or make review games and how to adapt existing games for review.
Crafts
Not only are crafts fun, but they can be used to reinforce lessons, send memory work home, and encourage club identity. The Kids4Truth Clubs EquipU site provides many craft ideas and tutorials to download free of charge. Be sure to check out the variety of crafts we offer.
Event Nights
Ideas for special event nights are limitless but can include the following:
Special Activities
- Glow in the Dark
- Annual Whiffle Ball Night
- Super Bowl
Refreshments
- Hot cocoa and cookies
- Snow cones
- Pizza
- Hot dogs
- Picnic
Outreach Nights
- Food pantry
- Baby bottle
- Toy drive
Dress Up Night
- Crazy-wacky sock, hair, backwards, or clash
- Kids4Truth Clubs level color (lime, red, khaki/gold, or royal blue) or theme (treasure hunters, construction workers, detectives, or knights/maidens)
Celebrations
- Happy Birthday to All!
- Christmas
- Thanksgiving
- Year-end
Short-Term Competitions
Let’s face it, sometimes the wintertime blahs affect everyone’s attitude. And sometimes club attendance lags (especially in the spring when extracurricular activities have picked up). One of my favorite pick-me-ups for these times is a short-term, club-wide competition, which can last a month, a doctrinal theme, or whatever time span you think is best. (That last one’s a reminder that Kids4Truth Clubs is super flexible!) However, I find it better to keep these competitions short and frequent. Having several short competitions provides opportunities for each team to win (adding to everyone’s fun), whereas one yearlong competition does not.
Choose the kind of competition
Short-term, club-wide competitions can be done two ways:
Group Competition
Everyone succeeds as a group, because everyone works for the same goal. When the goal is reached, everyone gets a reward (whatever you have chosen that reward to be). For example, “When we as a group memorize 100 Q&A with verses, we will get _________.”
Team Competition
Teams compete to see who can earn the most points in a set time. Both teams should be rewarded (after all, both teams worked; working hard but “losing” discourages students); but the winning team should receive a special privilege, such as going first to get refreshments, as well as having the joy of winning.
Provide a progress visual
Tracking progress adds to the fun while encouraging students to keep going. Consider these ways to track progress:
- Thermometers. With my favorite thermometer, you fill in the color on the Kids4Truth Clubs logo; however, it is different from a typical thermometer.
- Kids4Truth Clubs cash
TIP: When using Kids4Truth Clubs cash as a point, multiply each denomination by 100, as the larger the points are, the more exciting the competition is to the children.
helps with adding points earned. Set clear buckets, each with the name of a team, in the front of the room. Let students drop their Kids4Truth Clubs Cash into their team’s bucket. Or for a group competition, set out only one clear bucket. In either case, children can see the points filling the bucket each week. Workers can count the cash/points before the end of each meeting and announce the results. Our How to Earn Cash poster gives helpful ideas on how children can earn Kids4Truth Clubs cash.
Intersperse these four ideas throughout the year. Your students will be glad you did!
*To access most of the links in this article, you will need to register on the Kids4Truth Clubs website and log in.
We welcome current photos and brief reports of how these four activities added to the fun, excitement, and learning in your Kids4Truth Clubs. Send us your news!
