10 Outdoor Activites for Your Clubbers

Some clubs are located in warm climates and outdoor activities are possible all year round. Other clubs are in colder climates and the shortened daylight hours make outdoor play impossible … most of the time.

There are usually a few weeks in the fall and in the spring where you can take the clubbers outdoors for fun change, especially if you have a large church yard.

*Remember, if you take children/teens anywhere off church property, you need permission slips signed by parents.

*Remember that for any parking lot activities, you will need to block of the area from cars.

Here are some suggestions for some outdoor fun.

1. Can you build a bonfire in your church yard? (This depends on town codes/laws and space.) If so, why not have your Large Group lesson around the fire? Begin with some great singing and you’ll immediately be transported to camp/vacation mode. Always, always, always make sure you have enough adults, making sure kids don’t get too close to the flame. (A firepit would also work.)

2. Ask clubbers to wear old clothes. Provide a white or light-colored sheet and paint. In the middle of the sheet, have a couple of your older kids spell out Awana. Then have kids paint designs or put their handprints on the sheet. Use the sheet to hang out as a welcome on the first night of Awana in the fall.

3. Does your club support a missionary or have you studied a specific country (either through your church or Awana Go)? Have an artistic leader draw a huge map of that country with sidewalk chalk on the parking lot. Kids fill in cities, mountain ranges, rivers, etc.

4. Plan an outdoor Handbook/Small Group Time. Provide a blanket, lemonade, cookies, etc. for each group and let them spread out over the lawn or parking lot.

5. Back to that painting. Have kids collect nature items: a fallen leaf, a dandelion, a twig, a stone, etc. Provide each with construction paper and paint and have them paint a picture using their found items. Beforehand, make out verse labels for clubbers to stick on the paper. Use verses such as Genesis 1:1 or a verse from Psalm 148.

6. Choose a verse to learn together. For instance, Isaiah 40:8 – The grass withers, the flower fades, But the word of our God stands forever.Make signs of the different phrases. Put the sign that says The grass withers by some dead grass. The sign that says the flower fades by some dead flowers. The sign that says But the word of our God near a Bible (that’s placed on a picnic table or other clean surface) and the one that says stand forever in a place where all the kids stop and stand tall as soldiers. Walk around the church yard a few times, repeating the phrases as you get to the signs. You’ll have kids quickly memorize the entire verse because of the visual reminders.

7. Do a GIANT books of the Bible game. On big cards write each of the books of the Bible. You can do one set and then time how long a team takes to lay them out on the grass and put them in order, or you can do a set for each team and have them race against each other.

8. You could do an after-dark activity by putting glow sticks in water bottles and do some bowling. (The lighted-up bottles are your pins.)

9. Or just have fun with glow sticks. (What kid doesn’t like a glow stick?) Then do a Large Group lesson on being the lights in a dark world from Matthew 5:14-16.

10. Make ice cream in a bag. Here’s a fun treat for your clubbers. For each child, you will need: 1 tablespoon sugar, ½ cup half and half, ¼ teaspoon vanilla, 1 sandwich sized Ziploc bag, 1 gallon sized Ziploc bag, 3 cups crushed ice, 1/3 cup rock salt.

Start by mixing the first 3 ingredients in the sandwich-sized bag and seal it close. Put the ice and rock salt in the gallon bag. Put the smaller bag in the larger bag and seal close. Make sure there is no air in either of the bags – that will help keep the bags sealed tightly. (If you’re super ambitious, you can add flavoring such as fruit or chocolate chips.)

Allow each child to shake his own ice cream – this will take between 8 or 10 minutes. Sing some songs while you’re shaking the bags and have the kids do the shaking in time to the music.

Then enjoy – a fun end-of-the-year activity.

(By the way – here’s a bonus suggestion which we did one year. After a snow storm one cold, January day, we made a bunch of snowballs and put them in the freezer. The next fall – the first night of club, when the weather was still summery warm, we gave each of the clubbers a snowball! They loved it. They weren’t allowed to throw them at each other – they were rather icy, but they still loved the feel of snow in their hands after the hot summer.)