During this time of COVID-19, it can be hard to find things that bring people together over Zoom. Here is a list of games that we have used with Josiah Venture Kids during our weekly online JVK “30-minute parties”! 

Keys to Games

• Get kids active. Many of them have been sitting throughout the day. Give them the chance/excuse to move…but keep it silly! Silly + active = a tangible memory—one that’s bonding! 
• Enable kids to use the space they have so that they interact with each other for the games. Because of the lag of Zoom, it can be stressful for people to go back and forth in a game, but you can unite people by giving them the chance to interact with their own environment. The more physical, the better. Use real paper, real pens, real pillows, real books, real Bibles, real bananas, real winter accessories, etc. for their games.

Ideas we Have Tried

1. Blind drawing – have them draw a dinosaur drinking tea or a giraffe with a party hat or a cat with a mustache…with their eyes closed! Share the picture. 
2. Draw a picture with the leader describing step by step what to do…but not telling them what they are drawing! For example: you want them to draw a snail. You don’t tell them it’s a snail, but instead you say, “Draw a circle. Draw a blob underneath the circle that is skinnier on one side than the other. Draw two sticks on top of the skinnier part of the blob. Draw a small circle on top of each stick. Put a dot inside each small circle. Draw a swirl inside the big circle.” Have everyone share their drawings. You can make this complicated or simple, depending on the ages!
3. Do a workout with a silly object – for example, have every kid find a pillow, then use this pillow to: practice balance by standing on top of the pillow on one leg, do arm workouts by doing 5 arm curls on each side with the pillow, balance it on their head for 10 seconds, balance it on three fingers for 5 seconds, or balance it on TWO fingers for 5 seconds (this is hard!).
4. Pop-See-Ko (found on YouTube) – this is a dancing game. We combined it with toilet paper rolls. Teach the game/song to kids, then have them bounce between each other for who will lead the next “Pop-See-Ko” round (they make up a dance and everyone repeats after them). Every dance move has to involve the toilet paper. 
5. Mad Libs – use funny backgrounds on Zoom and accents to tell the story once all your words have been filled in! Call on specific kids to give you words: “adjective,” “noun,” “verb ending in -ing,” etc.
6. Ask random questions to everyone about their last week and have them raise their hands if they can answer “yes” to: “Have you stayed in your pajamas all day?”; “How many of you ate pizza?”; “How many of you called a friend on the phone or video?”; “How many of you tried something new?”; “How many of you couldn’t fall asleep at night?”; or “Who went to the store?” With any of these questions, you can then call on someone who raised their hand and have them tell you about their answer.