You can check out activities from the YFC handbook The Source and for club officers we’ve helped put together a virtual club programme that will keep your members engaged for the next few months. Remember there are also a number of Curve training modules that can also be delivered online now too!
You don’t need to be a YFC member to have a go at these ideas – these activities are suited to all young people who want to explore more about YFC, the countryside and rural life.
We'd love to see what you have been doing, so please share your activity updates with us on social media (tag @NFYFC and use #YFcatHome) or email media@nfyfc.org.uk.
We know loads of you have been enjoying virtual club activities and we'd love to see your ideas too – so share your ideas with us on the form at the end of this page.
You can also see Industry Activity Ideas, Seasonal Activities and Skills Development Activities. Why not get support in setting up your virtual club programme here too.
Here are some ideas for socially distanced group activities you can enjoy. Remember you'll need to organise appropriate risk assessments for each activity.
Set up a treasure hunt for families and social bubbles to complete together.
With lighter nights and warmer days, consider setting up a word hunt trail or a scavenger hunt for your club. Rather than people collecting items, they can just photograph their finds.
Set up some fun games to play outside – such as long jump, sprints and assault courses.
Rounders and Kwik cricket are great small group activities for a spring evening.
Activity centres and places where you could play golf, archery and clay pigeon shooting are all ideal for activities with your club when the centres are open and following Covid-secure guidelines.
Choosing an activity on the water such as kayaking, water inflatable obstacle courses and paddleboards are also great activities.
Host an online session to help members to make a hobby horse and then the following week you can hold a fun race!
The Environment Agency has put together this bespoke pack of activities for YFCs that are focused around preventing plastic pollution. Download the pack here and tag NFYFC in your posts showing you taking part in the activities!
One participant is the alien, assigned a certain phrase that they have to get the other human participants to say without being detected.
Participants are assigned a character and have to argue why their character would do better in a certain scenario.
An improvised pass-on-the-dance-move session!
Have a list of items for your members to find in their homes. Score points for the first member back, either as individuals or in teams.
Use Kahoot to host an interactive quiz night.
The host sends a word to all but one member. Everyone acts it out at the same time for the one member to guess.
Think Gogglebox – host a film night that members can watch together online.
Come up with 10 interesting selfie ideas. e.g. pretending to hurdle, with a picture of someone special, with something blue and so on. Challenge the group to come back and share their photos. Award points for the most creative.
One member leaves the room and the group decide on an action and give it a silly code name i.e Walrus. The member returns and has to ask questions to guess what the action is using the code name.
Give each member 1-2 minutes to think of (or make up!) a story about themselves.
Like the TV show, each member then describes this story. Everyone else then asks them questions to find out more details. Then collectively they decide whether they are telling the truth or not, before moving on to the next member’s story.
Everyone privately messages the host a secret fact about themselves, and then the host shares them one by one. Everyone then has to vote who they think it belongs to. See if your members can fool the others!
Have everyone grab a piece of paper, and also some random object from their house. (Nothing too familiar, but something that is fairly obscure.) Then, each person takes a turn describing their hidden item while everyone else tries to draw it from their description they give. The person who is closest wins and gets to describe their hidden item next.
Rehearse for the YFC Talent competition and invite all your club members to perform on Zoom for a few minutes each. Use an online polling system to vote.
Why not have an end of the month social with a disco on Zoom? Some DJs are offering this.
Set a challenge to find either one item at a time or a few at once for members to go on a hunt for items in their house and garden – first back wins.
First person does an action, second person repeats that action and adds one of their own, third person repeats the actions of person one and two, then adds an action of their own this continues for all members.
Each member chooses a household object and doesn't tell anyone what it is. Other members of the group ask up to 20 yes/no questions to guess what the object is.
Collect items the colour of the rainbow.
Ask a guest speaker to join your meeting to talk about their subject area. It could be related to agriculture, e.g a game keeper or agronomist, or you could invite the County Chair or President to join your meeting and talk about what they want to do when YFC gets up and running again.
First person says an item, second person repeats that item and adds one of their own, third person repeats the items of person one and two, then adds an item of their own. This continues for all members.
Using the whiteboard on Zoom this is something that the club officers can start off with members to guess the answers.
Requires a pack of playing cards. The game is simple – five cards are set out, face down. Members need to predict if the next card to be revealed is higher or lower than the previous one. The member with the most correct is the winner.
This requires preparation, as photos of stock need to be taken in advance. Members are shown the pictures of the stock and have to place them in order and give reasons for their choice. The judge then gives their order and reasons.
Host a virtual tour of a member’s business or a tour by a gamekeeper, a virtual visit to a farm, shoot, research centre or veterinary clinic. Consider the time and season of the year as well as the industry’s busy/quiet times.
Plenty of visitor attractions are also offering virtual tours – such as the Tower of London – which could be a fun activity for a club meeting.
Bingo and scavenger hunts have been popular for YFCs on Zoom during lockdown. Montgomery has also hosted online Wink Murder, Scattegories, quiz two truths and a lie, charades and emoji quizzes.
If you’re looking for an online club activity that will give people something to do while connecting, a cookery lesson is a good place to start. Your chosen tutor can talk through the process while everyone has a go at cooking at the same time. Clubs have made cookies and baked cakes together. You can all enjoy the fruits of your labour together afterwards as well (via Zoom!)
In Surrey, one club held a pets party tricks night. This event caused a lot of hilarity – especially from the non-performing pets! Northants has developed a 'one person and their dog' competition. Members are required to herd sheep, goats, geese etc into a pen. The County is also running a dog agility and obedience competition. The competitions are all done in isolation and members film and submit their entries.
Inter-club challenges on Zoom between two clubs have been popular in Surrey. The challenges are fun activities, such as scavenger hunts and Pictionary.
Cumbria moved its year book to an online platform and saved money from printing. The County has hosted its year book on its Facebook page and uploaded it to its website. The County still did a small print run, but they have found the year book has reached more people online.
While this popular activity can’t go ahead physically, many clubs have found farmers willing to do a virtual version. Others have involved online talks from vets, local farms and those involved in the industry. A local farm in Sussex agreed to record a video so members could take part in a virtual Stockjudging competition.
Clubs can use this virtual farm tour of Greens of Soham, recorded by YFC member Greg Colebrook from Cambridgeshire FYFC, for a club meeting activity.
Keeping the club in the spotlight and making connections over the airwaves has been an initiative from Cumbria FYFC. For the last five months the county has had a spot on BBC Radio Cumbria. Two clubs feature on the last hour of the show to explain more about their club and choose songs that remind them of YFC. The County has now moved on to Cumbria FYFC through the Decades, with former members from the 30s,40s and 50s having an interview and choosing a song. A great way to hear about the social history of YFC in your county. Listen here.
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