• Playing games at church helps children make new friends.o cross game image by OMKAR A.V from Fotolia.com
  
  No children's church class is complete without a variety of games. Games work as an icebreaker to introduce kids who do not know one another. It also allows them a chance to make new friends. Award prizes to winners of each game to keep the children involved in the games and wanting to play more.
  
  

Encouragement Circle

• Have all the children sit in a circle and get a ball or object to pass around the circle. Give the ball to one child. That child names someone in the group and says, "I think you are great at _____ and God will use you to be a _________." An example would be "I think you are a great speaker and God will use you to be a teacher." Tell the children to select everyone in the circle before repeating any names. Award prizes to the children with the best compliments/encouragement to the other children.
  
  

Bible Verse Memory

• Select a bible verse and have the children practice the verse for at least five minutes. Now choose one child to go first and have him stand with his back to the chalkboard. Write down one word of the verse on a chalkboard or piece of paper and show it to the class. Have the class say the verse aloud and clap on the word written on the chalkboard or piece of paper. Let the child guess what word was missing from the verse. If he gets it right, he wins a prize.
  
  

Web of Mess

• Divide the children into two even groups and have them hold hands standing in a circle. Each team then drops hands and walks toward the middle of the circle as close as they can get to each other. Have then children grab hands with two different people and not their immediate neighbor. Once both teams have done this, tell the teams to untangle themselves without letting go of each other's hands. The children have to go underneath each other's legs and arms to get untangled. The first team to get completely untangled wins the game.
  
  

Sour Pickles

• To select players for this game, have volunteers raise their hands and let them try to recite a verse from the Bible. If the person gets it right, he gets to compete in the competition. You need several dill pickle spears and some packets of lemon Kool-Aid (no sugar added). Select a boy and girl to compete against each other. Give each player a dill pickle and a bowl of lemon Kool-Aid mix. On "go," each person has to dip her pickle into the lemon Kool-Aid and begin eating the pickle. The first player to eat all of her lemon Kool-Aid and pickle first wins the game.