Icebreakers, Games, and Activities for Virtual Meetings

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At our last Youth Worker Virtual Gathering, we talked about ways to make virtual gatherings with young people a little more fun and engaging. Here are some ideas that we came up with!

For tips on how to use Zoom to its fullest potential, check out Lifelong Learning at VTS’s youtube page for a series of quick, helpful videos.

Warm-Up

Small Group Check-In (with a prop!): Prompt everyone in the group to find an object from around their house that represents how they’re feeling mentally, physically, emotionally, or spiritually. Break the group into breakout rooms, and give them a couple minutes to share with the other members of their group. This gives everyone a chance to engage on the level they feel comfortable with— doesn’t force anyone to go “too deep.” It’s also a good way to get started talking to the other people in the group, particularly if it’s been a while since you’ve met.

Words of warning: Despite the relative flexibility of the prompt, it can still be a heavy question to start with, if people really aren’t feeling okay. Additionally, people should be encouraged to leave their device where it is if they need to go search for an object, so they don’t give an impromptu (and motion-sickness-inducing) house tour.

Scavenger Hunt: Come up with a short list of household objects and split into breakout rooms. Each group should strategize about who can find which objects, and then rejoin the main group once they’ve assembled everything on the list.

Word of warning: Particularly for younger groups, it’s important to get in touch with parents so they know what to expect (and they can put objects in easy reach, to minimize the chaos of searching).

Would You Rather…?

There are a couple great ways to set up this icebreaker. The [polls] function on Zoom can be used to create short quizzes or, in this case, “Would You Rather…?” questions. For some great question ideas, check out this list. For a more impromptu version of this game, ask people to clap-react for one option or thumbs up-react for the other (for example, “clap if you’re a dog person, thumbs up if you’re a cat person”).

Games and Activities

Whiteboard Games

The Whiteboard feature can be accessed by clicking on “share screen” and selecting “Whiteboard” on the dropdown menu. All participants can then draw or write on a shared screen by clicking “annotate”. Some suggested uses for this feature include:

  • Responding through art to prompts like

    • Draw how you’re feeling today

    • Draw what Jesus might do in this situation

    • Draw what it will look like when our congregation is all together again

  • Praying in color

    • Share a prayer on the screen and invite the group to decorate it however they feel moved.

  • Group poetry

    • Pick a random page and line number (ex. Page 34, line 5) and have each person find that line in a book close to them

    • Each person types that line in using the text feature on the whiteboard

    • Read out your poem!

  • Drawing-based games like Hangman and Pictionary

Jeopardy

There are plenty of templates to make a Jeopardy-style slideshow, and all you’d need to do as the host would be to share your screen and click through the slides. The upside of this is that almost all young people will be familiar with the format, given its popularity as a review tool.

Bonus: if you share your computer’s audio (by clicking the check box at the bottom of the “share screen” option window) you can have Jeopardy music, too!

Prayer

You may also want to take time to hold moments of prayer with your group. Here are some tips that we’ve found helpful so far.

  • Pull up an order of prayer on your computer and share the screen so everyone can follow along

  • Pick one person to lead and one to be the “designated responder” and have everyone else mute their microphones—unfortunately, multiple people praying together just doesn’t work.

  • Using a Prezi or some other visually appealing presentation format may be a fun way to keep younger kids engaged.

Of course, we’re all learning quickly as we adjust to online youth ministry, and we’ll definitely all be coming up with new ideas, improvising, and generally flying by the seats of our pants. If you’ve discovered some great ideas for your online meetings, please let us know! Meanwhile, we hope you’ll join us at the next Youth Worker Gathering as we continue to support and learn from each other in this time of change and challenge.