skeleton games
Preparation: Purchase one or more plastic skeletons commonly found during the festive season of Halloween. You can also use a paper skeleton that is already cut into parts or make your own. Separate the plastic skeleton parts into pieces or cut them out if they are on paper.
- build the skeleton – Get a skeleton for each team. Put all the parts of each skeleton in their own sack and give each team a sack. When you say ‘Go’, each team must take out the skeleton parts and correctly rebuild the skeletons. Award prizes for the fastest times. You can also give additional prizes to the rarest skeleton, etc.
- skeleton treasure hunt – Hide the skeleton bones before the lesson starts. Let the participants find them and then put the skeleton back together. For older kids, you can hide the bones and then write clues for them to follow and find. You can also get some skeletons and divide the kids into teams. You can have it free for all (i.e. hide all the parts and reward the first team to find one of each part and assemble the skeleton), or you can add a colored blob or colored ribbon to identify which skeletons they belong to. Which team. Team members must first find a complete set of parts…then they must assemble it correctly.
- Skeleton Hoop Toss – This game requires a plastic molded skeleton, standing upright, and three plastic hula hoops. Mark a place where the youth teams should stand. Each youth tries to throw the three rings over the skeleton. The player who throws the most hoops on the skeleton wins.
- Blind Skeleton Mount – Put all the pieces of each skeleton in their own bag and give a bag to each team. Each team chooses one team member to be blindfolded. When you say ‘Go’, the blindfolded person must correctly reconstruct the skeleton according to the instructions given by her team. The first team to finish wins.
- skeleton poses – Hang a skeleton and then, using masking tape, pose the skeletons in different positions and take a picture of each pose. Have fun placing all of the Skeleton’s hands in the air, holding hands, legs positioned as if they are doing a split, etc. You will want 20-30 different skeleton poses for the game. Take the photos and print them to create your skeleton business cards. When a card is drawn, the first team to place the skeleton in the correct position wins. Variation: The team chooses one person (who is not allowed to see the photo) to help position the skeleton according to the instructions given by the team, to match the photo. Variation: Teams have 3 minutes to see how many skeleton poses they can create, the team with the most poses done in 3 minutes wins.
TAKE IT TO THE NEXT LEVEL
One of the scary things about Halloween are skeletons. Many people are afraid of death. When they see bones it reminds them of death and they get scared. But they are just bones and there is nothing to be scared of. They can’t come to life, right? Or can they?
The prophet Ezekiel might have had his first Halloween scare! We don’t know what day it took place, but it probably wasn’t October 31. Let’s look at Ezekiel 37 to find out more!
MAKE IT SPIRITUAL
Read the key verses of this vision. God’s question to Ezekiel, “Will these dry bones live?” (v3) could be a question that many young people ask themselves on October 31.
God was talking about more than a skeleton in a closet. He was giving Ezekiel a glimpse of the future when Jesus would conquer death and bring us life. Jesus conquered death on a cross. He also raised Lazarus from the dead.
However, God was giving Ezekiel a picture of something else.
The bones represented the house of Israel and their dryness and loss of hope. (v11) The spirit of God would enter their bodies and they would experience restoration and life.
MAKE IT PRACTICAL
There can be situations in life where people feel like a bunch of dry bones. A new life may seem impossible.
- What are some of the seemingly impossible situations young people/people face in life?
Like Ezekiel’s response to God when asked “Will these bones live?”, we can answer “Only you know.” God knows everything and with God everything is possible. God can bring life to any situation we find ourselves in. Not only can it bring you a new life, but it can also give you a new heart: “I will give you a new heart and put a new spirit within you; I will take away your heart of stone and give you a heart of flesh, and I will put my Spirit in you, and I will move you to follow my decrees and be careful to keep my laws (Ezekiel 36:26-27).
- We are all dead in our sin, like a pile of dry bones (Ephesians 2:1)
- But God, out of his great love for us, gives us life in Christ (Ephesians 2:4-5)
- We experience new life through faith in Christ! Doing good things does not give us eternal life, but we are made alive in Christ so that we can do good things for Him. (Ephesians 2:8-10)
MAKE IT PERSONAL
- Have there been times in your own life when you feel like a pile of dry bones?
- How do you know that God can bring even piles of bones back to life to give you hope in desperate situations?
- How can the resurrection of Christ give you hope in desperate situations?
VERSA WRITING
- Ezekiel 37
- Ezekiel 36:26-27
- Ephesians 2:1
- Ephesians 2:4-5
- Ephesians 2:8-10
