Virtual Fun Days

Social distancing means church fetes, Fun Days and community festivals have to be different this year – but there are still loads of ways to bring your community together. Check out our ideas for Virtual Fun Days and socially distanced events to have fun with neighbours, make new connections and build stronger communities.

You can use these ideas with a few friends, family or collegues; the groups that meet in your church building or your whole community. We’d love to know what you do to bring your community together, so please post your photos and videos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram with #FunDay and tag @HopeTogether

Want to see how a massive Fun Day works? Check out the programme from the Eden Project programme for their Virtual Big Lunch to see how a whole weekend can work online

1 Online event Socially distanced event Ideas

Music Create a playlist on Spotify that can be shared with others and listened to during your event. You get a free 3-month Spotify Premium trial, which removes ads. Spotify.com/uk

Hold a quiz Get the questions ready for your quiz, decide how you will score and a prize that can be sent to the winner. Players will need a pen and paper at the ready! There are lots of ready- made quizzes online to help you get started. You might decide to have one quiz master, or you could ask multiple people to host a round. Don’t forget to make a score board!

Bake-off challenge Choose an item for your bake-off challenge, this could be anything from bread, cakes, or a show stopper! Agree a start and end time that you have to show the finished item. Encourage people to take selfies during the baking process. Decide how you will choose the winners (if you want someone to win) – will you have a panel of judges, or will everyone get a vote? Create a scoreboard and criteria that the finished item will be judged on e.g. presentation and creativity.

Coffee chat room Have a session for those who may just want a friendly chat with other people. For some, lockdown has meant they have had little interaction with others. Give them the opportunity to connect. You might need to lend phones, laptops or tablets set up ready for people who are not internet-savvy.

Fancy dress competition Set a fancy-dress theme and promote the competition before the event. Get attendees to post pictures on social media, or have a cat walk show on a video call! Decide how you will choose the best costume – will you have a panel of judges, or will everyone get a vote.

Photo scavenger hunt There are lots of ideas of photo scavenger hunts online. Set the challenge and ask people to send in their photos, or post on social media using a set hashtag. The first person to complete all the photos wins! We have listed some ideas below.

Chalk walk ways Create a fun walk way, outside your church or home, for the community to use. Add hopscotch, jumping jacks and more. Get creative!

2 Movie night Services such as ‘Kast’ or ‘Netflix Party’ offer the ability to watch films together virtually, including a chat function, so you can all watch at the same time and talk about what you are watching! Choose a suitable film and send a link to those attending. If your church has a large car park, you could try a drive-in movie!

Food parcels Drop a yummy food parcel to those who have signed up for the event/ those in your local area. Include afternoon tea, or cakes. Be creative in what you can offer.

Talent show Ask attendees to showcase their hidden talents! You’ll need to ask people before the event so that you can create a schedule. Decide how you will choose the winners (if you want someone to win) – will you have a panel of judges, or will everyone get a vote.

Online raffle Rallyup.com/raffles is an easy way to create an online raffle. Choose your prizes and send the link out attendees. They can easily donate prizes to the raffle. Or post an image with numbers from 1-50 (or more, or less depending on how many people you expect to take part), ask people to choose a number and mark them off once taken, then draw the raffle after a set amount of time.

Open mic Hold an open mic session, encourage people to sign up before the event so you can create a schedule. Give them the virtual stage and make sure everyone else is muted for the performance.

TikTok challenge TikTok dances are becoming more and more popular. Choose a dance for people to learn and get them to send in their versions, or share on a video call.

Dessert party Choose a dessert for everyone to make, or ask people to re-create their favourite pudding. Share the making and baking process together and then eat together!

Recreating artwork challenge Choose a famous piece of artwork for your attendees to re-create. You could have a prize for the best masterpiece!

Riddles There are lots of riddles online. Have some fun going through some riddles, challenging attendees to answer. Get others to share riddles that they know too.

3 Virtual escape room Escape rooms are fun to do in smaller groups of 4-6 people. The following links are to virtual escape rooms.

Bank Heist escape room

Minecraft escape room

Fish/ sea themed escape room

Getting out of Disneyland escape room

Escaping Shrek’s hut escape room

Harry Potter themed escape room

4 Household items fashion show Choose a list of up to eight items that are commonly found in the home. Give the list to all attendees and a time limit for them to create a fun outfit from the items. Things like towels, foil and toilet rolls work well!

Virtual photo booth Using Zoom, you can create a fun backdrop for your video. Go to your Zoom settings and select ‘virtual background’, here you can select an image. Get creative! You can choose from your own images, or look online and upload new pictures. Canva have created a great selection of backgrounds which you can access with the 30 day free trial.

Crafts Think about materials and items most people would have within their homes and choose a craft to complete. Lots of craft ideas can be found on the internet. Things like origami, making an instrument out of your recycling, or painting, could easily work. Colouring activities are also enjoyable.

Karaoke Everyone chooses a song to perform to the group, hairbrush microphones are encouraged!

Caricature competition Ask everyone to choose another member of the video call to draw, but don’t tell anyone! Give everyone 15 minutes to draw a creative caricature of their chosen attendee. Once the time is up, come back together to share drawings and guess who everyone has tried to draw!

Dance party You can either host a whole dance party, or do short dance breaks in between other games/ activities. Create a playlist that can be shared, make sure they are good boppers!

5 Online event Socially distanced event Games

Bingo Myfreebingocards.com offers free bingo cards for up to 30 players. They also have really helpful videos on how to play.

Pictionary On Zoom, you can share a ‘whiteboard’. When in the meeting, click the green icon above ‘Share Screen’. Choose the ‘Whiteboard’ function. This shares the screen and everyone can interact and draw on the board. Take it in turns to draw and guess the different pictures.

Hangman Hangman also works in the same way as Pictionary, using the whiteboard function as above. Take it in turns to play.

Read my lips Someone says something while on mute and others have to guess what they’re saying. Prepare phrases that can be used, you may want to theme it e.g. books / films.

Simon says You will need a host who is ‘Simon’, telling players what to do. If the command starts with ‘Simon says’ everyone must obey. But if the command doesn’t start with ‘Simon says’ they must ignore the command. If people get it wrong, then they are out. Once a player is out, they have to turn their screen off. Touch a body part: nose, ear, head, chin, eye, mouth, hair, neck, tummy, legs, knees, toes, clap your hands, scratch your head, blink your eyes, nod your head, bend your knees, turn around, touch the ground, pat your cheeks, laugh out loud, bend your waist, give a wave, bend your arm, jump up high, crouch down low, poke out your tongue, take a step forward, run on the spot, do a star jump.

Lip sync battle The battle consists of contestant’s lip syncing to songs. The songs can be from any era, any genre, as long as they can provide the audio. A hair brush microphone is encouraged, as well as your best dance moves! Everyone else then scores their performance. For a socially distanced event, everyone needs to bring their own hairbrush!

Two truths and a lie Each person takes it in turns to think of two truths about themselves and a lie and everyone tries to figure out who is fibbing.

6 That’s right Bob This is a memory game. Someone starts the game off by saying ‘that’s right Bob….’ Followed by a simple news story sentence e.g. ‘There was a cat up in the tree’. The next person repeats the line and adds to it, ‘that’s right Bob, there was a cat up in the tree and it was having a bad day’. Each member continues to add to the story in this way until someone cannot remember the whole story.

Chinese laundry The leader will give a command ‘bring me a ….’ And the first person to show that item to the leader gets a point. Think about common items around the home that they can access easily.

Drawing on your head This simple and funny! Have people put a piece of paper on their heads and give them step by step instructions to draw something, then show the results to everyone. For a socially distanced event, everyone needs to bring their own pen and paper – or you can provide them as giveaways in goodie bags at the start of the event.

Charades Take it in turns to act out different words or phrases. Everyone guesses what they are acting out, the first person to guess gets a point. You may want to prepare some words and phrases ready for this, or allow people to choose their own.

7 Reverse Charades Like normal charades! Have one member close their eyes and show a word to everyone else. Everyone acts out the word to the one member to see if they can guess the word.

Hula hoop battles Everyone taking part in this activity will need a hula hoop. The person to hula for the longest wins. The hula hoops will need to be sanitised before and after the event.

Back pack, baby, cowboy Everyone needs a partner for this game. For a socially distanced event, partners need to be members of the same household. If the leader says ‘COWBOY’ one of the members in each group of two will jump down on all fours and the second member will sit on their back as if they are riding a horse. If the leader says ‘BABY’ one of the members in each group of two will jump into the arms of the second member as if they are being cradled like a baby. If the leader says ‘BACKPACK’ one of the members in each group of two will jump on the back of the second member like they are getting a piggy back ride. The last group of two members to form up the combination is out and couples are eliminated until there are two couples left, then a winner is crowned. For larger groups you may need to say that the last three are out. To make the game more fun, yell out a combination explaining beforehand that the pairs cannot move until you say ‘GO!’ Example: ‘BABY, COWBOY, BACKPACK, BABY, GO!’ The teams of two will frantically go through all of these actions until they perform the last ‘BABY. Teams that are out should turn their screens off / sit down.

8 After Eight challenge Place an After Eight mint on your forehead and try to wiggle it down your face into your mouth without touching it with your hands. The first person to do so wins a point. For a socially distanced event, partners need to be members of the same household.

Jaffa Cake challenge The aim of the Jaffa Cake challenge is to be the first person to have the middle orange jelly, chocolate free, and stuck to your forehead first. How you get the orange middle out is up to you! The first person to have the orange middle stuck to their forehead first wins a point.

Name, place, animal, thing The leader picks a letter. Everyone must name a famous person’s name, a place, an animal and a thing beginning with the letter. The first person to write these down and hold them up to the leader wins the point.

‘Would you rather’ quiz The leader will need to prepare statements to create ‘would you rather’ questions. Assign a number to each item - 1 and 2. Members playing can then hold up their fingers depending on their answer. Discuss their choices. We have a suggested list of ‘would you rather’ questions you can download here

Spoons A variation of the classic game to play virtually. Everyone will need their own pack of cards and a spoon. Everyone should shuffle their deck and deal themselves four cards. The aim of the game is to get four of a kind in your hand. When the game begins, players should take the top card from their deck and either keep it or discard it, so only four cards remain in their hand. Players continue to do this until they have four of a kind in their hand. The first person to collect four of a kind, then holds their spoon to their nose so other players can see it. As soon as someone gets four of a kind OR notices someone else holding a spoon to their nose, they should grab their spoon and hold it to their nose too. The last person to hold a spoon to their nose receives a letter in the word S-P-O-O-N. The first person to spell the word S-P-O-O-N is the loser.

True or false Everyone will need two pieces of paper for this game, one saying ‘true’, the other saying ‘false’. The leader will read out statements and members will need to hold up their card based on their answer. If they guess incorrectly, they must turn their screen off. Download the questions here

9 Ninja dance moves Items needed: Kung fu fighting music.

You need to learn the five ninja moves before even beginning to attempt to lead this game. They are as follows. The crane One leg is lifted, both arms fork outwards like a crane. This is accompanied by a mid pitched hwoooarrrr The Egg Place arm round your belly as if cradling a huge egg and the other round your neck to support the egg from the top. This is accompanied by a deep loud huuuuhhh The temple Place both arms above your head with hands touching like the A from YMCA. This is accompanied by your highest pitch haiiiiii The Tiger One foot forward, both hands become tiger claws. This is accompanied by a suitable tiger noise. The snake Your right arms becomes a serpent and your left hand cradles the right elbow. This is accompanied by a suitable snake noise.

Teach these moves to the group. You will need two leaders. As the music is playing and on the count of three everyone must assume one of these moves. If they have picked the same move as one of the leaders, they are out. Once out, turn off your screen.

Bust a rhyme The leader of the game will say a word, then going round the circle, everyone must say a word that rhymes with the word said. Keep going until you can not think of rhyming words. The person who cannot think of a word, becomes the next leader and starts the new round.

Photo scavenger hunt Something red, something to eat, something clean, something hard, something tiny, something noisy, something special, something short, something with wheels, something tasty. Selfie version: Looking surprised, with trees in the back, with a piece of fruit, pointing at something, eating, with water, in a shadow, smiling, with a number, with something red, with a street sign, with a rock, looking angry, jumping, making a crazy face, in a small space, laying on the ground. Gratitude version: Something that makes you happy, something to give to someone else to make them smile, something you love to smell, something you enjoy looking at, something that is your favourite colour, something you like in nature, something you can use to make a gift for someone, something that is useful to you.

10 Relay races Partners mus be from the same household

Variations of races could include: hopping, wheel barrow race, kangaroo jumps (jumping with two feet), crab walking (leaning over so hands lightly touch the ground and walking sideways), running backwards, baby steps (one foot in front of the other – heel of one foot touches toe of the other), giant steps, skipping with ropes, animal relay (acting like an animal that a leader calls out).

Photo booth Set up a photo backdrop so people can come and take selfies in front of it. Get creative – but donlt use props that need to be held.

Limbo Set up a pole suspended above the ground to provide a limbo challege

Hide and seek Ensure that social distancing is implemented throughout the game

Signs Everyone sits in a circle and will need to come with a ‘sign’, this could be waving your hand, doing a thumbs up, or kicking a leg up – be creative! Everyone needs to try to remember each other’s signs, so go round twice showing each other’s signs. Then one member stands in the middle of the circle and closes their eyes while the sign is passed once. Signs are passed by doing your personal sign first, then someone else’s sign. The person it was passed to will then take their turn and so on. The person in the middle can open their eyes once the initial sign is passed. The person in the middle needs to try to catch people out before they have passed the sign. If caught, you then swap with the person in the middle and a new round starts.

11 Musical statues Everyone dances to music playing. Everyone must freeze when the music stops. The last person to freeze is out.

Grandma’s footsteps Players must form a line standing two meters apart from each other. One person will need to be the Grandma at the other side of the open space. The goal is to reach Grandma’s line to become a wolf – the game is based on the children’s story Red Riding Hood. To start, the players say, ‘Grandma, Grandma, what time is it?’ Whatever time Grandma says is the number of steps the players take toward Grandma. For example: six o’clock = six steps. If Grandma says, ‘It’s dinnertime,’ the players must run back to the start line before Grandma. If Grandma gets to the line before a player, the player becomes a Grandma and races the other players too. The game ends when everyone becomes a wolf.

Splat Players stand in a circle, with one member in the middle. The person in the middle randomly points to someone and shouts ‘Splat!’. The player pointed to must duck; then the players either side of the ‘ducker’ must ‘splat!’ each other by pointing to the other and shouting ‘Splat!’. The last person to Splat the other is out.

Don’t forget to post your photos and videos on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram @HopeTogether with #FunDay and tag @HopeTogether.

Giveaway copies of the Hope for All magazine or Mark’s Gospel from the HOPE shop - hopetogetherorg.uk/shop

Visit our webnsite for more ideas on making Jesus known with words and action in your community. www.hopetogether.org.uk

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