Kiddie Pool Fishing Tutorial and a Few Other Ideas

 

Perhaps you're on your church's Social Committee and thus responsible to help plan monthly social events for your group in the coming year. Maybe you've signed up to man (or woman) a booth at a Fall Fun Fair that your youth group is putting on as a fundraiser. It could be you're a teacher in your Sunday School's primary department, and you're in charge of planning some games/activities for the children at the annual summer picnic next month. 

If you find yourself in these scenarios (or similar situations), you may be on the lookout for ideas of activities that occupy, or at least include, children. I have four to offer you. Ideas, that is, not children. They are: Kiddie Pool Fishing, Mystery Photos, Photo Scavenger Hunt, and Four Stations. (Bible character studies) 

These are activities that I have implemented at social events in the past year, and I'm happy to share the ideas. And if it works for you like it does for me, sometimes just seeing others' ideas - even if they aren't suitable for the moment - can generate other ideas that do work for you. You're welcome to use anything from this post that would be a benefit to you! Following is a detailed tutorial of the pool (noodle) fishing idea, as well as shorter descriptions of the other three activity suggestions. 

Kiddie Pool Fishing

This activity involves fishing for pool noodle fish in a kiddie pool with real water, using a fishing pole with a magnet that attaches to a paper clip on the fish. Prizes may be awarded to participants who catch a certain amount or color of fish, or to those who merely attempt to fish. 😉

Here's how to make the fish and set up the activity:

1. Gather supplies. 

For 36 fish, you will need:

3 pool noodles, each a different color (or more than 3 noodles, if you want more than 3 colors of fish)

36 small metal paper clips

72 googly eyes

12 pipe cleaners, can be various colors

For 4 fishing poles, you will need:

4 wooden 1/4-inch dowels, about 30 inches long (I purchased marshmallow roasting sticks from Walmart for this)

4 medium-sized wide rubber bands (the kind around produce such as broccoli works well)

5 yards kitchen string

4 round refrigerator magnets (it's best if they have something on which to attach the string easily - mine had clips with little holes in them to thread the string through)

paints or markers (if you choose to incorporate the Fishing Fun instructions in the game)

Tools:

sharp knife

cutting board

ruler

hot glue gun

paint brush, if using paints

Needed on the activity site:

completed fish

completed poles

candy bags or other goodies, if incorporating prizes with the activity (I used gummy sharks, in line with the fishing theme)

Fishing Fun instructions to display, if you're going that route

kiddie pool (if you don't own a pool, hopefully you have a friend like I do who is willing to lend you hers)

bucket or container for fishers to place their catch into as they fish for the desired amount (optional)

tarp or blanket to place under the pool for protection before filling with water, if the location is gravel or asphalt

water source for filling the pool 

2. Using a sharp knife, cut the pool noodles into 1.5 inch slices. For 36 fish, you will need 6 slices of each color (if using 3 colors). 

3. Cut each pool noodle slice in half across the diameter. This half slice will be the main body of the fish.

4. For the fish tails, cut the pipe cleaners into 4-inch lengths. Shape each length into a loop, and twist the ends together twice, leaving a slight overlap of wire. Bend the loop in slightly to form a key shape. Pinch the two overlapping ends of wire together, making a short piece to poke into the fish for its tail. You may need to make a little cut in the noodle with the knife first, to help with this. (I think I figured out the knife cut wasn't needed on mine, though.)

5. Poke a paper clip into the mouth end of the fish. This will be the attraction piece for the magnet, and make it possible for the fisher to catch the fish.

6. Use the glue gun to fasten a googly eye on each side of the fish's head near the mouth.

7. For the pole, wrap a rubber band around one end of the dowel to make a non-slip place on which to tie a piece of string that's about 3 feet long. At the other end of the string, tie on a magnet for the fish "bait". If you plan to color code your poles, use paint or markers to color a section of each pole with a different color at this point. 

8. If you plan to use the Fishing Fun instructions (especially for the older children in your group of participants), figure out how you want to display the rules. Here are some ideas for the instructions, according to pole color: 

Green pole - fish for any number of fish, any color you choose 

Blue pole - catch as many fish as how many years old you are

Black pole - catch 3 fish of each color

Red pole -  fish blindfolded, for as many fish as you wish and any color

Note - I thought these instructions were a great idea to begin with, but I found out that at the actual event, the children just wanted to fish and they didn't want to wait around for a certain color pole or a special set of instructions!

9. At the event, put down the blanket or tarp for protection, if needed, before placing the pool and filling it with water. Float the fish, and prepare the poles, instructions and prizes for the young fishers to come and participate in your activity.

                                                                               📷 Jacie Horst

                                                           📷 Jacie Horst

10. Welcome the fishing participants, and assist them as needed. Hand out prizes to happy little fishers.

Mystery Photos

It’s a tradition at our annual church camping to have members of the social committee provide guessing games or puzzles of some sort for campers to solve over the course of the weekend. This year, I chose to contribute a Mystery Photo contest, in which people could view sixteen close-up photos and guess what objects the pictures represented. The photo subjects were different items found around our house and property. A candy prize went to the person who had the most correct guesses. Some of the adults (more women than men) were intrigued enough to pore over the puzzling perspectives, but a group of children hung around the photo board, too. I was actually surprised at the level of interest coming from the younger set of campers in figuring out what the objects were. An 11-year-old boy ended up winning the chocolates by identifying fifteen of the sixteen photos correctly!

Photo Scavenger Hunt

Ken and I were in charge of organizing a few group activities at the aforementioned church camping. One of those activities also involved photos, but this time the participants took the photos instead of trying to decipher pictures that I had taken. In the Photo Scavenger Hunt, we divided the group into six-person teams who raced to get ten photos of different descriptions. 

Following is a list of the photo descriptions, as well as the instructions each team was given at the onset of the activity. Prizes (again, candy or apple chips) were awarded to both the team to finish first and the one most creative.

Note: Anyone in your group may take any of the photos, but all your team’s photos need to be taken on one device. When the instructions indicate using your whole team or group in a photo, the person taking the photo is exempted unless specified otherwise. You may take the photos any order you like, but your team will need to present all of the photos to the judges to qualify for winning. First group to finish the list, wins. 

Take a (separate) photo of:

1. Your group all standing on a picnic table in order of age
2. Everyone in your group touching the same tree
3. Your whole team with one person in the group holding a live, non-human creature (big enough to identify in the pic)
4. Your group beside a tepee you have built of twigs
5. Your group holding hands circling the main fire pit
6. Four people from your team in the same photo, each with a ball in the air above them (no one touching the ball)
7. At least four people in your group simultaneously doing at least two of these activities: standing on your head, turning a cartwheel, doing a push up, or juggling three or more items
8. Each person in your group holding an object that starts with the initial of their first name
9. Choose a 5-letter name for your team. Using all the people in your group to shape the letters, spell out your team’s name in a photo.
10. Take a selfie with all of you on the pic, including the photographer

                                                                               📷 Sasha Tsikalo

                                                                                       📷 Kenton Shantz

Four Stations (Bible Character Studies)

Once a month during the summer our church has a Wednesday evening service called All Ages Participation Evening. Last month, Ken and I hosted the meeting in our home, and I designed this activity which invited people of any age to join in studying Bible characters. The group of participants was divided into smaller groups of five or six people. Each group was given a card which told them the name of a Bible character (and the scripture references where the character’s story is found) to study during the evening. The groups had 8-10 minutes at each station to follow instructions and prepare to present something to the main assembly after each group had been at all four stations.  

 

STATION #1: TWO TRUTHS & ONE LIE

Write down two factual statements and one false statement about your Bible character. Be prepared to share the statements later with the whole group and to have someone in the audience guess which one is the lie.

STATION #2: DISCUSSION QUESTIONS

Note: Have one person from your team write the answers on a paper for everyone in your group.

Discussion questions for Station #2:

1. What was your character’s age (or stage in life), and where did they live?
2. Who were some key family members or main characters in their lives?
3. What are some challenges your character faced in their life?
4. How did your character respond to God (or His ways) in their challenges?
5. Why do you think God put this character’s story in the Bible?
6. What is one way you want to be like this person in your own life?

Try to answer the list of questions about your Bible character, but focus especially on #6. Later, each of you will have the opportunity to share with the whole assembly something you learned from your Bible character, or one way you want to be like him/her.

STATION #3: ACTING OUT A SCENE

Prepare to act out a scene from the story of your Bible character to help the entire assembly guess who your character is.

STATION #4: COMPOSING CHANT, SONG, or POEM

Make up a chant, a song (you may use a familiar tune), or a short poem containing a quote or part of a quote from your Bible character and be prepared to “perform” it for the whole group later.

Some observations I made regarding the activity:

It is harder than you’d expect to pick out the one false statement out of three statements about a familiar Bible character. (It’s true, after all, that Elijah killed the prophets of Baal beside the brook Kishon, but it is not true that he went up to heaven in a chariot of fire.)

It takes more than 8-10 minutes to do justice to all the questions presented at Station #2.

When you have a diminutive Queen Esther, (and her props come from a toy box) her crown may have a tendency to slip off easily and she may have trouble walking to King Ahasuerus without tripping over her high heels.

A song-composing group can be so focused on creativity that they forget to include their Bible character’s quote in their song. Still, who could fault them? I mean, how cool is this: “Only a boy named Joseph…and one little cup went in the sack, and the trip went round and round…” 😊

Note to locals: If any of you are interested in borrowing the fish and fishing poles, or the Mystery Photos posters (photo board of close-up photos and answer key board of actual photos), let me know, and I'll be happy to arrange for lending them to you.