Virtual Youth Activities During COVID-19

As a Teachers Quorum Advisor, I have been trying to figure out how we can have virtual youth activities during COVID-19. I scoured the internet and wanted to share some of my best ideas.

My search for virtual youth activities turned up ideas from Google and the Activity page on the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints website, ChurchOfJesusChrist.org. But most of the ideas were crowd sourced from the Leading Saints Helpers Facebook Group. There a lot of amazing leaders there helping each other magnify their callings.

The essential thing you will need for most of these activities is a video meeting tool that everyone can get access too. Me and the other advisors have Zoom licenses from our day jobs. If that isn’t an option, you might consider picking one up for a few months. There are a few free options like Google Hangouts as well.

Virtual Youth Activities

Selfie Scavenger Hunt

Create a list of fun photos to take and have the youth vote on their favorites. Tierra Lowry of the Tempo Park Ward did this with her youth and got fabulous results. We took her outline and posted it as a Google Doc for you to copy.

“This last week we did the selfie challenge that was shared previously. We adapted it to work with Goose Chase, a free app that sets up scavenger hunts. We broke the youth into 3 groups and they competed against each other. The app allowed them to track everyone else’s progress via a leaderboard and all the pics/videos were viewable by everyone as the game went on. We took all the best ones and posted them to the ward FB page”

Blanket Fort Building

“Take pics and text them to the YW Pres. She posted them to fb for voting. It was hysterical and kept my kids busy all afternoon.”

Help the Missionaries Practice Teaching

While a lot of missionaries are going home right now, there are thousand cooped up in their apartments trying to find ways to peach the gospel. Set up teaching groups when missionaries can teach your youth the missionary lessons. The Missionaries get practice and your youth get edified and inspired to serve a mission.

“our ward missionaries just posted on FB a request for people to ‘practice’ teaching remotely while they’re getting the hang of it.”

“We have set up a Google Sheet with 20 min time blocks where they can give short lessons to families on video conferencing. This will help to keep them sane and members can feel of their spirit. I would suggest all wards try something like this and set up appts with your missionaries.”

Origami Paper Folding

Invite an origami expert to come and guide the youth in paper folding. Or send them tutorial links to work on at home. They can even google their own! Then let everyone share their creations.

My middle son is actually having a great time doing Star Wars origami with these books by Tom Angleberger.

Movie Viewing Party

Zoom has a cool feature where you can share your audio and video. Find a movie that is appropriate for your group. There are is probably legal mumbo jumbo involved in being able to do this, if you care about that sort of thing.

“Ours watched a movie on zoom together and chatted it up during the movie Mystery Science Theater 3000 style.”

Play Games Online

Aren’t these kids getting enough screen time? Probably, but here is a way to use technology to bring your class and quorum together. You can split them up in mini groups if they all have Xbox and Playstation. You can play some online party games. We did a virtual team builder at work and played some of the game from Jackbox. We has a real good time.

“Our priests got together on zoom and then played monopoly on pogo.com.“

Online Drawing Class

My kids are having a great job drawing with Mo Willems every day during lunch. Do you know a talented artist in your own circle? Invite them to teach your youth how to draw. They could learn characters, graphic design, or lettering.

“One of the YW taught the other YW how to draw something over zoom.”

AMA with the Bishop

Help your Bishop get or remain connected with your Youth with an Ask Me Anything session. Your youth can ask doctrine questions, get to know you questions, or goofy off the wall questions.

Returned Missionary Panel

This is one of our youths’ favorites. Probably because we typically do them live and invite the panelists to bring food from the area they served. This activity helps to get the youth excited for their upcoming missions or even help them make the choice to serve.

This can be a great way to utilize the missionaries who have recently come home, help them get to know a new advisor, or help to reignite the spiritual fire in a ward member who is struggling.

We have a list of questions to help us moderate the conversation, but we get great questions from our youth. Here is our outline, feel free to make a copy and adjust for your needs.

Online Talent Show

Do you have talented youth? Invite them to show off your skills. They can sing or play an instrument, maybe even just show off something they made or drew.

Indexing Challenge

While the temple is closed, indexing can be a way for us to still be able to do Temple Work. You can invite your ward Family History Consultant to join you to teach the youth how to do this essential work, then create a contest or set a group goal to index as many names as possible.

Sidewalk Chalk Art Walk

Distribute packs of sidewalk chalk and invite them to create. You can let them go wild or have a theme. You can even have them pick topics from a ‘hat’. Then everyone can go out and view their groups creations. (practicing social distancing of course)

What Virtual Activities Are You Having?

Have you done some activities we don’t have listed here? Share them below. I’d also like to know how you are keeping your class or quorum connected during this time. Not all youth or advisers have the same tech ability or access and we are always trying to get better. I’d love to learn what’s working for you or help if you’re getting stuck.

Looking for Help in Your Own Home?

We shared some of the things you can do to have a successful home-centered church meeting.