Four Ways to Run Club This Fall: 80+ Ideas You Can Use

How do we run club this year?!? This and so many more questions are weighing on leaders’ hearts and minds. To help address some of these questions, we hosted a webinar that walked through Four Ways to Run Club This Fall … No Matter What!

During the webinar, we loved sharing ideas and connecting leaders to resources; but our favorite part was watching hundreds of leaders connect to each other in the chat! So many attendees were suggesting resources, sharing files, and encouraging each other to press on, no matter what. It was a beautiful picture of a community in discipleship to Jesus!

If you missed the webinar or the ideas and resources shared in the chat, we’ve listed 80 of them for you, below. Who knows? You may find just what you are looking for!

Tips for Running a Socially Distanced In-Person Awana Club

Suggestions from leaders:

• Lynne Leih: Meet outside for as long as the weather is good.
• hunts40: Meet outside or in a large gym.
• Nicole Lofgren: Use hula hoops for distancing.
• Joel Easling: Shift the club year to end later in the calendar year.
• Barb Soppe: Use your parking spaces as markers for distancing during large group.
• Jay Dean: Have a large tent in your parking lot for opening and small groups. Hold large group in the gym.
• Tim: If clubs are meeting in person, check with your insurance company for advice and policies.
• Hunter Williams: You can get Game Time ideas on page 8 of this free COVID playbook.
• Sue: Have only one club use game equipment for that week. For example, Sparks uses batons this week; T&T uses them next week.
• FBCCloverAV: Do handbook small groups and Game Time. Split into two groups for socially distanced games.
• TJ Sipes: Have each child use their own balls for relays, minute-to-win-it games. Have more video-driven Q & A games every other week.
• Becky: Don’t switch spaces throughout the night to avoid cross traffic.
• Tim Bennett: Make cubicles out of PVC and clear plastic sheeting. Kids stay separated, but are able to see each other at their tables.
• Sarah Carlstrom: Consider more activities like blanket making for mission groups and birdhouse making. They are fun and bring the ages together in a way that we can still distance.
• Karen Melanson: Have the leaders do the games, large group and small group together. Give the leaders a game for each week.
• TJ Sipes: Try skits, crafting, and Pictionary-style activities.
• Tim Skiles: For checkout, have parents drive in and text the directors who will then accompany kids to parents, thus limiting the amount of people in the building.
• Marci Kinter: Do online registration and social distance during pickup.
• Joel Easling: More ideas for socially distanced games: Touch Free Kids Games
• Danny Alford: Socially distanced games: AsphaltGreen

Tips for Running a Virtual Awana Club

Suggestions from leaders:

• Robert Mitchell: Meet on Zoom or Seesaw. It brings extra opportunities for reaching out.
• Robert Mitchell: Mail weekly awards. During club,acknowledge those who are receiving them. Ask parents to send a picture of their kids’ book work. Have leaders call families to hear verses.
• Westgate Kids: You can structure your online Zoom time to only include small group time, where they all work together on the same book in the same lesson and encourage each other.
• Jericho: Move Awana to the weekend if kids are “Zoomed out” during the week.
• Nancy Feldott: Flipgrid is a good tool for making videos and posting online. Screencastify is good for using a PowerPoint and talking through it. Messenger Kids, Marco Polo, WhatsApp, FlipGrid
• Tim Bennett: Make your Zoom stand out in the week as one that kids look forward to! Try theme nights and games on Zoom, and fun conversations that drive community rather than simply learning.
• Westgate Kids: Train your leaders to use Zoom best practices. (Editor’s note: The person who hosts the Zoom meeting can require a pass code or set up the meeting time to admit only invited guests.)
• Nancy Feldott: Use Zoom to share your screen and have pictures or verses written out for a lesson. Don’t just talk ….
• Frances Potter: Have your Zoom hosts watch out for people you don’t know. Those people usually won’t show their faces
• Chuck Feltner: Zoom has breakout rooms where each small group can be split off into their own breakout room.
• Becky: Awana Clubs+ is populated with videos and exciting tools to use or supplement.
• Melanie Hester: KidzMatter  has some really fun Zoom games!
• Melissa Austin: Stagger your club times if you have families who can’t connect all at the same time.
• Nancy Feldott: Create a spinner wheel that you can divide into sections, write on and erase. Write an action on each section. Spin the wheel (e.g., spin around to the right three times, then twice to the left) and invite everyone to do the action at home.
• Rick Glover: Record virtual sessions and make them available to kids whose family’s devices are all in use at the time you choose to do virtual club.
• Rick Glover: If you are recording, use that time to mention in a positive encouraging way those who you know cannot be there.
• Melissa Solecki: For Cubbies, send home a “Cubbies at home” kit (video or lesson and a related coloring page). For your Zoom gatherings, do “Cubbie parties,” where you sing songs (screen share YouTube videos), read stories, and color the picture together, etc.
• Jericho: Build in five-minute break times for water, snacks, bathroom, and wiggles out.
• Michele Baty: Set aside the first 10 minutes or so of your Zoom meeting for kids to just hang out and visit with each other.
• Warren Krup: On Zoom, change the background. Don’t just lecture; make it interactive. Keep it lively and interesting.
•  Kyle Kammer: Drive-thru events have been well received. Do your Awana store nights as an in-person, drive-thru-type event.
• Melanie Grigsby: Several clubs have gone to gift cards. (Editorial note: Awana Gift Certificates are available in denominations from $5 to $50.)
• Warren Krup: For your Awana store, display all of the items on a video and number them so the kids can make selections. That way kids are not touching each other in a small area of your Awana store.
• Becky: Drive-thru Awana store with a SignUpGenius time slot to keep people moving.
• Westgate Kids: Switch your Awana store to the end of the year. Do a drive-thru and pack amazing bags for each kid. Families and leaders love it. (Editorial note: The Awana Store is full of gifts and items you can surprise your kids with.)
• Stacie and Ken: Offer your Awana store shopping over FaceTime with kids who are not able to come in person.
• Carla: If your club is aware of another church that is not offering Awana, either because of a lack of leaders or they are not equipped to offer club for other reasons, consider partnering with that church. Your leaders and their leaders can offer virtual Awana together. Or you can open up your club to accommodate those kids who have nowhere to go. Think of the new perspectives and friendships kids could gain!

Tips for Running a Hybrid Awana Club (In-Person/Virtual)

Suggestions from leaders:

• Susan: Split your club into two nights. Have groups meet on different nights so you will have the space to distance the kids.
• Wendy Dean: Split up your group by name; A-L attends one week and M-Z attends the next week.
• bruceb: Turn Game Time into craft time, complete with individually bagged crafts.
• Wendy Dean: Encourage parents to go through books with their kids at home. And then gather your club once every six weeks or so, so kids can still connect with each other and you can recognize awards and achievements.
• Melissa Solecki: Stagger your virtual clubs to help families that may not have enough devices.
• Michele Baty: Offer a hybrid club and have one person host all the virtual kids for about 15 minutes online. Then let leaders connect later in the week.
• Hunter Williams: Depending on your Zoom account, you can host hundreds in an opening session, then break off into club-specific rooms.
• Doug Schoenheit: Contact those who might have concern with what you’re doing (town officials, neighbors, police, etc). Stay within the social distance requirements for your area.
• Tim Bennett: Check the security settings on your Zoom account. Require a password to enter or a waiting room that the host must let people in that room.
• Julie Ann Kerr: Big Life Kids has great activities.
• Melissa Solecki: Have Cubbies print out a “flat Cubbie” and send pictures to your private Awana Facebook group of what they did with Cubbie that week.
• Marina: Use Baamboozle for all ages.
• Barb Soppe: Shorten your club time down to one hour for in-person, or a half hour for virtual club.
• Michele Baty: Hold a shortened live club each week and offer a virtual club during that time. Divide the hour into 20-minute sections for each club.
• bruceb: Don’t have Internet? You can disciple kids through the mail.
• Becky: Make a Facebook community where the directors post a video each week for each club. Show it at the end of the year.
• Chris: Let parents know you are doing a porch visit. Then they aren’t worried about how their house looks, and the visit won’t last forever.
• Kyle Kammer: Consider a hybrid schedule–virtual club time with occasional on-campus events, like drive-thru store night or a family game night on the field.
• Patty Casteel: Use your church email and Facebook page to post information, encouragements, links, club pictures, and shout-outs each week.
• Doug Schoenheit: Signoff of verses is entirely up to you. Every church handles that process differently. Getting the parents involved in the ownership helps put that responsibility into the home.
• Tami: Try doing virtual for small groups weekly and then meet once a month for games and awards.
• Becky: Try meeting once a month in person. Maybe one week for Cubbies, a different week for Sparks, a different week for T&T, etc.
• Michele Baty: Have a monthly drive-through packet pickup that has all the supplies for the crafts that go with each lesson.
• Terry: Try Backyard Awana for the fall. Each team meets in a separate backyard and social distances as a pod.

Tips for Running an At-Home Awana Club

Suggestions from leaders:

• Sue: Try online registration and drive-through pickup for those choosing to do At-Home Awana.
• Robert Mitchell: Have a drive through to pick up Awana books and supplies.
• Sue: Think of this year as Mini Awana. Some families may just have connection with leaders when saying verses. Then they can watch lesson videos on Awana Clubs+ on their own time/availability.
• Tim Bennett: You are always able to do Awana with your kids on your own. All of our materials can be ordered personally; you do not need to have a church affiliation. You might be able to start something in your neighborhood like a backyard club!
• Hunter Williams: You can call kids weekly, mail/drop off packets, have club in parks or backyards. Keeping your leaders connected with kids in those situations is so powerful.
• Joel Easling: Enlist folks not typically involved with a club night. Have them make a call to a family once a week, with the potential of connecting with the family and helping the child with their verse memorization and lesson discussion.
• Jay Dean: Have your high schoolers make large group lesson videos for virtual Awana.
• Mike Patterson: For advice on family engagement, don’t forget grandparents.

One More Suggestion

• Shanna Davis: No matter what format you choose, give each prayer warrior in your church a family or two to specifically pray for as we all navigate this craziness.

We pray you have found these ideas and resources helpful. Thank you to everyone who sent us suggestions. If you have any questions about running club this fall or need any help, please contact us at partnercare@awana. Someone is on hand to assist you. Let us know how we can help!

Note: The mention of any product or service in this blog does not imply endorsement by Awana Clubs International.