This spring quarter in the Tru Fire curriculum is a neon/blacklight theme. Blacklights are such a simple but effective way to bring fun to your ministry! Kids love blacklight parties but it’s easy to wonder if this kind of investment is worthwhile for only special occasions. I don’t think blacklights should be used every week but there are lots of ways I think they could be useful in your ministry.
Buying black lights can be expensive. It’s worth finding a room that has few doors and windows. You can use thick black paper or trash bags to block out the light. The easiest and cheapest way to use blacklights is to replace your florescent tube lighting with the appropriate uv black light option. Consider the size of the room when discerning how many lights to buy.
Find a narrow corridor where you can set up your maze/web. Using sticky white tac and white yarn, create a maze down the corridor that spans across both of the walls. Spread blacklights through the course. Make the course challenging enough that kids can take their time to complete it but simple enough so that kids don’t fall and hurt themselves. When the lights are off the yarn will glow in the dark and it will look like lasers in a spy movie.
This is a fun way to make your Easter egg hunt different from others in your area! Decorate the space, have kids dressed in white and make sure you buy glow in the dark eggs! This can be a fun way to celebrate Easter. This could be done on Sunday morning or as a large outreach.
This is such a fun game to play but blacklight adds a lot of options! A number of everyday items work well in black light including some toilet roll brands! If you take a small blacklight torch to the supermarket you can find out which ones work best! Dodgeball with toilet rolls is a fun experience for the kids. You could also do games like Q Tip wars.
This can be a fun addition to any children’s ministry when done well. Have students help you out with this to make it easier. You can buy special blacklight puppets but there are also simple ones you can make too. Puppets could be used to sing a song, teach the memory verse or you could get kids to learn how to use them to equip them for ministry.
If you have a group of students or kids who love drama or dance, blacklights are a perfect way for them to stand out and do something different. If they wear all black or white, then they can really pop in front of the crowd. Neon tape or paint can also be used.
There are some fun black light / glow in the dark snacks. My favorite one is glow in the dark jello! We use the lime flavored jello because it tastes the best and looks the best with the green color. You have to use tonic water if you want it to glow in the dark. Add sprinkles and whipped cream and kids will love it!
There are some really fun black light object lessons. My favorite one is to use tonic water in a lota bowl. However, there are lots of ways to use this to talk about Christ being a light in the darkness and how he calls us to be that light in the World.
Kids love to party and these are the simplest parties to host. Kids come dressed in white or neon. They love to dance to music and play simple party games like musical statues. You can have neon paint for their face or glow bracelets for them to wear. Another idea would be to play pass the parcel with glow paper and glow novelties. You could even add a glow in the dark pinata for extra fun.
Collect some items that glow in the dark and then hide them all across the room. Give kids a list of all of the items. For a cool effect, write the list in neon highlighter so it glows in the dark also. Kids can search the room to collect the items in a given amount of time.
There are so many options for glow in the dark/neon crafts. Things like glow in the dark slime, neon duct tape art, or paint projects will always be a hit with kids. You can have so much fun by doing regular crafts with slight adjustments that make them glow in the dark.
These are some of the larger things you can do, but you could also do glow in the dark bubbles or hopscotch or foursquare. There are endless ideas online. Hopefully these will begin to stir your head and heart to how we can creatively reach children in fun ways.
