Game Ideas for Primary

Who Am I? - This is a good review game for characters or things found in the scriptures. The leader selects a name, such as Noah, Nephi, Moroni, Mary, Paul, etc. and the children have to guess in 20 questions who they have selected. The children should be encouraged not just to guess names but to guess about time periods and locations first.

Scripture Chase - This is a fun way to locate books or specific references from the standard works. It is called a chase because the students race to find the reference. The leader begins by introducing specific references to the children. They may read, discuss, and mark the references for future use. When the leader feels that the children are familiar enough with the references, she may give a quote, key word, problem, or situation as a clue to help them turn to the reference in their own standard works. Indicate which book of the standard works the scripture is in, but be sure not to reveal the actual reference.

Know Your Standard Works - This game would be good to play along with scripture chase. The leader calls out the name of a book from the standard works and the children name the particular works from which it comes. Example: The leader says "Peter," and the answer is the New Testament. This works well with teams.

Message Relay: A good game to introduce a scripture or many scriptures. Divide the group into several groups of equal size. Have a scripture written or typed for each group and divide it into single words. Put the words into a container and give a container to each group. When the leader says to begin, the group tries to assemble the words to form the scripture When the group has its scripture figured out, they deliver it to the leader written out on a piece of paper. The winner is the first group to provide the correct scripture in writing. The groups can be given the same scriptures to unscramble or each group can be given a different one.

Truth or Consequences: This game can be played individually or in teams. A fun way to play might be to team up the girls against the boys. Each person or each team has two cards, one marked true, the other false. Make up some questions that apply to the month's theme or the principle to be taught. One point is awarded for each correct card held up. The child or team gaining the most points wins the game. The "consequences" for a wrong answer (or several wrong answer to make the game move faster--maybe three) would be to have the person choose and lead one verse of a favorite Primary song. If teams were being used, the team would sing the song chosen by one of the members. This game would be a good one to use to combine singing time with sharing time.

Guessing Primary Songs: You could use the teachers with this game and have a fun review with the children. A person (adult or child) claps only the rhythm of a Primary song (be prepared to whisper some help into the children's ears). The other players try to name the song from the rhythm being clapped. Now all sing it together. This would make a good combined singing time and sharing time and a fun way to review.

Pass It On: Seat the children in a circle. Tell or read a scripture story, telling the children beforehand that they will be required to answer questions on the details of the story. Prepare a list of questions before Primary in such a manner that answers to them can be brief and objective. Pass an object (a ball or beanbag) about the room while playing music, and stop it without warning. (If it stops with the same person twice in succession, have the last one who touched it and who has not had a turn answer the question.) The person who is left holding the object chooses a number within the total of the prepared questions, and answers the appropriate question. Play the game until all questions have been answered correctly. Give out a small treat (a small piece of candy) to all who participated.

Animal, Vegetable, and Mineral: This would be a good game to use around holidays as you could pick "things that have to do with that holiday. Pick two children from the Primary and seat them at the front of the room with their backs to the chalkboard. Choose your subject and indicate what category it comes in--(a lion in Daniel's den would be an animal, etc.) Write the subject on the board so the children in the audience can recognize it, then allow the panel (two children) twenty questions in which to identify it. Once they have identified the object, choose two more children to be the panel and pick a new object. Around Christmas, you could use things having to do with the celebration of Christmas or the Savior's birth (hay, angel, gold, stable, swaddling clothes, mule, etc.) The same could be done with Thanksgiving or Easter.

Picture Recognition Contest: Cover the titles and hang around the room pictures depicting scriptural events (or gospel activities such as family prayer, blessing a baby, blessing food, etc.) Give each picture a number. Let the children go around and identify the scene or tell something about the even pictured. (This could be used for both Junior or Senior Primary as the pictures could be very simple for the little ones or more complex for the older children. Either group will have a lot of fun with this one.)

Drawing in the Dark: This game could be played to reinforce the need for Gospel Light, the Holy Ghost, Heavenly Father, or Jesus. Blindfold several children and have them attempt to draw an object. The results will usually be quite distorted. Let them try it again with the blindfold removed. Ccompare this to show what our lives would be like without the light of the Gospel, Holy Ghost, Savior, etc. to help us on our way. Without it (or them) we are in the dark and can easily lose our way and become confused.

Count Your Blessings: The children are seated in a circle. One player starts off with "I am grateful for apples"--or something beginning with the letter "A." The next player is grateful for something beginning with the letter "B" as "I am thankful for my brother." The third child says something beginning with "C" and so on. The game continues around the circle and through the alphabet. If a player fails to think of a word beginning with the proper letter, he drops out of the circle. The winner is the one remaining in the circle longest, or those remaining after time runs out.

Habits: Wrap a string around someone's wrist and have him break it. This is fairly easy (you may want to use thread with children). Then wrap it around again; he can still break it quite easily. Now wrap it around seven or eight times, and you will find that it cannot be broken.

Quick Recall: This game would be good to review scripture characters and see how much the children know about people in the standard works. Seat the children in a circle. Choose someone to be "it." "It" points to someone in the circle and says a name and then counts to ten. The other person must respond with something about the name called. Example: "Abraham" - the person responds with "Married Sarah" or something relating to Abraham. On failure to respond, or respond correctly, the person pointed to must take "it's" place.

Pillowcase Braille: This is a good little game to introduce a new theme. Place an object (something that pertains to the gospel principle you want to teach or the story you want to tell) inside a pillowcase and close the end of the pillowcase with an elastic band. Let the children pass the pillowcase from person to person and feel what the object might be. After everyone has had a turn feeling the case, let them guess what the object is and what gospel principle or scripture story it reminds them of.

Remember: Place a dozen or more objects on a table that have to do with the theme for Primary. For instance, if you are going to talk about the importance of school, you could bring a pencil, notebook, paper, eraser, crayons, etc. Cover the objects with a large towel or sheet. Gather the children around the table. Uncover the objects for one minute and allow everyone to study what they see. Now cover the table again and have the children write down as many of the objects as they can remember. Give a small prize as a pencil to the person getting the most objects. (The more objects on the table, the more fun the game!)

Brainstorming: Divide the children into several groups. Have each group pick a "spokesperson" for their group. Give each group a pencil and a piece of paper. Present an idea for brainstorming. You could give the same idea to each group or different ideas concerning the same theme. Some of the children's idea may be on the "fun" side, and accept those, too. However, you might be surprised at how serious the answers become. Give everyone 7-10 minutes to organize their ideas, and then have the spokesperson reports to the entire group. This could be done on gratitude near Thanksgiving or on serving others in December.