CentriKid

OMC

Fall Festival Games

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It is that time of year again: the weather gets a little cooler, the leaves begin to change, and you need to start thinking about what in the world you are going to do for the fall festival. If you are looking for some additional game ideas…look no more! Here are four of my favorite fall game ideas:

Pumpkin Ring Toss
For this game you need a few good sized pumpkins with long stems and a few round objects (maybe ropes, or rings of some sort.) If you are doing your fall fest at night, glow sticks might work well. Place the pumpkins and assign different point values for each one. Then, mark a throwing line, and you are ready to play Pumpkin Ring Toss!

Haystack Find
This is a game that will look good tying in with the fall theme and is simple to do. All you need to do is hide a few items of your choice preferably in some hay bales, but loose hay can work fine as well. You’ll want to spread the hay a bit so kids can reach down inside. Before you begin, determine the amount of items you will allow each kid to find and how many kids can be searching at once.

Mummy Wrap
All you need is a few rolls of toilet paper. The object is to see how fast one person can wrap the other, like a mummy, with a whole roll of toilet paper. I would suggest making this a race between two teams of two. Maybe I like this one so much because it reminds me of OMC…nonetheless, kids are bound to love this game.

Fall Fest OMC
Add a fall twist to our timeless game: check out the additional fall-themed cards here.

I hope these ideas are able to help you out, and that you are able to use your fall festival to allow kids to have a ton of fun and be in a Christ-centered environment.

Sharing the Gospel using OMC

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CentriKid is the HOME OF OMC! It is our large-group recreation game that takes place on the last full day of camp. Even in the middle of all this fun, we are intentional about sharing the gospel with kids at camp.  There are numerous ways to connect the game to scripture, and today you can download 3 different one-page tools for sharing the gospel using OMC at your church.

– “Voluntarily Helping” using Luke 10:25-37
– “Following Every Rule” using Romans 3:23 and Romans 6:23
– “The Message of the Cross is Foolishness to Some” using 1 Corinthians 1:18

Don’t forget! You can customize your OMC game by adding one of the FREE special edition task card sets for an upcoming season (Christmas, Easter, Fall) or event (Back to School, VBS, Backyard Kids Club). Just click over to centrikid.com/omc to download and print the FREE special edition task cards.

Special thanks to CentriKid Rec Leaders Rachel Gillespie & Amanda Kate Harris for contributing to this post from their experience at camp sharing the gospel with kids after OMC.

Get Kids Excited About Spring

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Spring is almost here! It may seem cold right now, but the warm weather is coming and we’re sure your kids are tired of being stuck inside during these winter months.

Here are 5 ways you can get kids excited about spring and summer:

1. Play OMC! There is no better way to get kids excited about the summer than playing OMC on a nice, spring day! The cold months of winter will feel long gone when kids are getting sprayed with shaving cream and busting water balloons over the heads.
2. Do a service project around your church or neighborhood and plant flowers as a group. This gets the kids involved in serving and lets them tangibly see the difference they can make when they help others.
3. Play games outside as much as possible! The days are getting longer and warmer, so take advantage of playing outside. Start off your Wednesday or Sunday nights with a fun game outside!
4. Dedicate a Wednesday night to being “summer food themed.” Fix snow cones, lemonade, hotdogs, and other fun foods that kids love to eat in the summer.
5. Plan a trip to the zoo or park since you haven’t been able to do any fun outdoor activities for a few months!

There are lots of fun things that springs and summer are bringing your way, so make sure you get the kids excited about what is to come!

OMC: 6 Ways to Make it Even Better!

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Here are a few practical ideas for taking your Organized Mass Chaos to the next level:

Play OMC in the rain. Who doesn’t want to get soaked during OMC?! This way, every kid is drenched and you don’t even have to fill 500 water balloons.

Use more shaving cream! Remember, the messier the better! Buy 10+ cans to up the craziness.

Place a slip n’ slide near the middle of the field for kids to use.

Add 1 or 2 sprinklers throughout the playing area.

Dress up with costumes and face paint! Encourage kids to dress/paint up. You can even have kids make a costume according to a theme!

Do team cheers! Have each team write and perform a cheer for the entire group. Encourage them to add funky motions and act crazy.

These are just a few ways of how to make your OMC even better.

The First OMC

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OMC holds a special place in our hearts here at CentriKid. It’s a highlight of camp, the ultimate of messy games, and now even a product for churches to take home!

I am especially attached to this trademark of CK because I’ve had the great privilege of being a part of it from its conception. This week, in working on Rec, I took a minute to revisit my Rec Director notes from 2003. Inside I found something I haven’t seen in 5 years… the notes from that original “Day 3 Rec” brainstorming session. Here is where the phenomenon we now know as OMC began, around a picnic table at Jonathan Creek, KY. Take a look!

That first year was a mess in many ways. We used brown paper sacks to collect tasks (called “slips”). Our slips were printed on white typing paper. Our station numbers were laminated colored pages, taped to stakes and stuck in the ground. Everyone turned in completed tasks to the same area (imagine hundreds of kids running toward one park bench to find their team’s paper sack among 15 others!) But, it was a success and only gets better each year. What amazes me is the original goals that still drive what we do during OMC.