Turkey Bowling

Thank you so much Sarah Andrews! Sarah leads Zion Lutheran Youth Group in Farmington, New Mexico. We love, love, love to see youth leaders sharing. I take your ideas or favorites and create a graphic for it that you can use in programming, link to your site if you like, and spread the Stash to our community. 

 

Sarah wrote this in her submission…

 

 

Turkey bowling

 

We did this in college once, and I also led it last year with my youth group. It’s good for around the holidays.

 

You will need: one frozen turkey (smaller is probably better) per lane, one set of bowling pins per lane (kiddie pins are fine), enough tarps or plastic drop clothes to cover the floor (unless you do this outside) plus duct tape to keep it down, plastic or latex gloves for participants, grocery bags to cover the feet of all participants (if playing indoors so that participants can remove bags to step off of the covered area cleanly, i.e. potty breaks), and a couple cans of Crisco lard.

 

Volunteers are needed to keep score (provide score sheets) and set the pins up after each frame.

 

Set up: Cover the floor for enough space for bowling lane(s) and a standing/sitting area behind so participants can keep the Crisco mess on the tarp/drop clothes. Set up your lanes and pins. Rub Crisco over the lanes (participants can help) and some on the frozen turkeys. Warn participants that the floor will be slippery.

 

Play! Bowl as usual, but using the turkeys!

 

Clean up means throwing away all the gloves, plastic drop clothes, and grocery bags, then cleaning off the bowling pins and tarps, probably with Dawn or something that will clean the greasiness well.

 

We joined this activity last year with a thanksgiving meal and a devotion about blessings. This game is also fun because it sort of equalizes things since no one is good at bowling with a turkey. It also encourages appropriate tough as participants help each other balance on the slippery surface.

 

Enjoy everyone!