Preteen Youth Group Game: Boys vs. Girls

So – who’s better? Boys or girls? This is a question that preteens will argue about, mostly in fun, but there’s a serious question behind this playfulness.

A game can be an effective means to opening up a more serious discussion about differences and “being better”.

Are boys or girls better? This game will put that question to the test!

You could use this as an opening activity for some many different lessons:

A lesson on the beautiful differences that God has placed in the Body of Christ.

A lesson on respecting the opposite gender.

A lesson on boasting in Christ alone.

Hope your preteens enjoy the lesson 🙂

– Nick Diliberto, Preteen Ministry

Preteen Youth Group Game: Boys vs. Girls

DOWNLOAD PDF OF THIS GAME

HOW TO PLAY THE GAME

Say: “In a few minutes, we are going to have one boy and one girl, picked at random, come to the front of the room. They are going to be given one task to complete, and we’ll see who can do that task better, the boy or the girl. Here’s where I want your help before we play: I need suggestions from you of what the task should be.”

Have the girls meet in groups to come up with something they think girls can do better than boys. Have the boys meet in groups to come up with something they think boys can do better than girls. The tasks need to be activities that can be completed in your teaching area in a short amount of time. Make sure this is clear to the groups before they begin generating ideas.

Instruct leaders of these groups to write down the group’s ideas on index cards. You could give the boy group leaders blue index cards and the girl group leaders pink index cards. Instruct the leaders, ahead of time, to make sure that the activities the girls and boys choose are appropriate for your setting.

Collect all the index cards and put them in two boxes – the girls’ suggestions in one box and boys’ suggestions in the other. Stir up the cards with your hand.

Play 6 rounds of the game. For each round, randomly select a boy and a girl to come to the front.

In 3 of the rounds have the boy choose a card from the girls’ suggestion box. Now both the boy and the girl will do the chosen activity, and you’ll judge who you think did it better.

For the other 3, have the girl choose a card from the boys’ suggestion box. Again, both the boy and girl will do the chosen activity, and you’ll judge who you think did it better.

NOTE: When we’ve played this in our preteen ministry in the past, it was really fun! The girls wrote things like “do a supermodel strut”, “braid hair”, and “paint a fingernail”. The boys wrote things like “run fast, to the back of the room and back”, “make a fake farting sound”, and “talk in a really low voice”.

FOLLOW UP QUESTIONS:

Use these questions to transition to a lesson about respecting the opposite gender or about the beautiful differences that God has placed in the Body of Christ.

Do you think there is one person in this room that is better than everybody else in here at throwing a fast baseball pitch? (YES.) Do you think there is one person in this room that is better than everybody else in here at dancing ballet? (YES.)

According to Guinnessworldrecords.com, the fastest baseball pitch is 105.1 mph, and was thrown by Aroldis Chapman. Does that mean that Aroldis is the best in the world at dancing ballet, too? (NO.)

Why do you think God spreads out talents and gifts, instead of giving them all to one person?

Why do you think God made it so that boys tend to do better at some things and girls tend to do better at other things?

In some ways we are all the same to God. Galatians 3:28 says, “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is no male and female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” In what ways are we all the same to God?

In other ways, we are all unique and different to God. Read 1 Corinthians 12:14-26, and Genesis 1:27, which says, “So God created mankind in his own image, in the image of God he created them; male and female he created them.” In what ways are we all unique and different to God?

Should somebody brag because they are better than others at 1 thing? What if they are better than others at 10 things? (No, because others are better than them at 1000 things.)

DOWNLOAD PDF OF THIS GAME

Written by Sean Sweet, who is the Community Facilitator for FourFiveSix.org, and is dedicated to raising the value of your ministry to preteens.