With the world going virtual it can be challenging sometimes to continue to be creative and keep your meetings fun while you are all in different places. Over the last few months I have seen many creative leaders come up with ideas and have tried some of my own while trying to keep my kids active with family and friends. Today I want to share 50 that I hope you can use at one of your next meetings. Make Virtual Memories with these 50 Fun Ideas Card Games Card games have been a source of fun and cherished memories for centuries, and now, online versions offer the same level of entertainment. Two particularly popular card games worth exploring are Hearts and Spades. With Hearts, players strive to avoid certain cards carrying penalty points, aiming to finish with the fewest points by the game’s end. In Spades, players form partnerships and bid on the number of tricks they anticipate winning, with spades as the trump suit. The goal is to meet or exceed their bid successfully. Both these games can be played with a deck of cards, or online on sites like hearts.land or spades.co. Sing a song as a group One of my favorites “Make New Friends” Do you need the lyrics? Get them here.I know sometimes the sound will be off – sounding like a horrible round. But you know what the girls will have fun doing it either way! Show and Tell Let the group pick the subject. Examples: show their bedroom or favorite stuffed animal and walk around house showing off something to group. Of course make sure they watch where they are walking and have permission from their parents to move device they are using. Play Pictionary If you are meeting with Zoom using the whiteboard feature.How to play: Put everyone on call into two teams. To play, divide your group into teams. Choose the team to go first and either have one girl on team come up with a word for her team to guess or use this easy to use Pictionary word generator. Then give the drawer one minute to draw that word for their team to guess. If the team guesses the card correctly, they get a point. Choose how long you will play or to what point level to find a winner. Virtual Zoo Field Trip You may not be able to go to the zoo but many zoos offer live footage of their zoo animals. Take your girls on a zoo trip virtually. Here are a few to get you started. If you have a local zoo be sure to check in locally as well.– Baboons at San Diego Zoo– Elephant at Houston Zoo Paint a Kindness Rock Girls will enjoy painting a rock and leaving somewhere on their next work for someone else to find. I shared my experience with the Kindness Rock Project a few years ago. This is the perfect time to keep these gestures going. Making masks for people in your community One thing many people need right now is masks, there are many making them and selling but you could also make them and donate to people in your community. Make a “Thinking of You” card Make for people in nursing homes, senior residences, and assisted living. The card can be anything the girls want to put on them. Learn how to make a Kite “Thinking of You” card. Slime making This is a great activity you could do together as group. Make sure everyone has the supplies needed to make before hand. Or ask each girl to find a recipe for slime online and make it before meeting. Then each girl could take turns sharing how they made it, and the science behind the slime. Here is an article to get you started, there are so many recipes for slime the girls will have a blast learning about a new one. Bingo Game You can play a bingo game about any topic or theme. I have put together a number of game packs with Bingo, a card game, and 4 corner game. You can send the file to each girl or drop them off. To get you started Birthday Bingo + 2 other games Juliette Low Bingo – Join my mailing list and get it for free Halloween Bingo + 2 other games Fall Bingo + 2 other games Patriotic Bingo + 2 other games Country bingo – browse bingo games for different countries Thanksgiving Bingo + 2 other games Christmas Bingo + 2 other games Do you need a specific bingo game made and can’t find it? email me and I can custom make the game for you. Trivia Night You choose the topic. If you wanted to teach your girls more about Scouting ask questions around that, maybe everyone just watched a new movie, do trivia on that topic. If you just want to do trivia for kids check out this list – everything you need for a fun trivia night. Household Scavenger hunt You can do this individually or if you have a large group – use the zoom meeting breakout rooms where girls can work together to gather the 10 things, then come back to main room to share what they found. Here is a list to get you started. Kahoot Games There are a number of quizzes set up related to Girl Scouts you could try, set up a free account for up to 10 girls and create your own games as well. This could be a great way to have different girls lead the meeting if they wanted to create trivia to run at next meeting. learn more Scattergories This is an easy game to play over a zoom meeting. I found a site that makes it even easier just share your screen and play. Move to the next round by clicking “restart.” Here is the easy to use online version.Forget the rules? Here are the directions from the board game version, which can translated to online version above. Cake decorating Before meeting tell girls to bake a cake or cupcakes and then as a group decorate their cakes. If you are able to get supplies and drop off to each girl before meeting do that. Well everyone is decorating chat. When done share designs with each other. Talent show Give each girl about 3 to 5 minutes to share. Plan ahead at previous meeting so you know how many girls plan to participate. Ideas: Singing, instruments, karate, dance, showcasing drawing talents or if their talents are more outside like Basketball or fishing have them video tape to show at meeting. Freeze Dance or other movement dance What girls don’t like to dance? add one of these active youtube videos to your next virtual meeting. It might be a great way to end the meeting or even break it up in middle of meeting. The Dance Freeze Song Tooty Ta World Tour using Skycams Since travel is not an option right now, it doesn’t have to stop us from dreaming right? Pick some places the girls wish they could visit and take them there live using Skycams. There are a variety of live cameras all over the world to view. Summer Bucket List Print a copy of this summer time bucket list you can have the girls do the things and record and share at a virtual meeting the things they did from list. Virtual Coding Workshops – **Update: July 21, 2022 no longer offering these workshops. Invite a live coding instructor to help your girls earn a STEM badge. There are a number of options. The date and time are set by the troop, flexible for multi-level troops. Plus an option to purchase a fun patch for each girl. Learn more and sign up for a workshop now Creative Challenges We all have a lot of random things laying around our house so why not get creative. You can have them do the crafting before meeting and then share at meeting or have them gather supplies and do together and talk while crafting. Some examples to get you started you could do milk jugs, tubes (paper towel/toilet paper), Toast, egg cartoons, doll outfits out of paper. Two truths and a lie game This is a great get to know each other better game. All the girls have to do is share 2 true things about them and 1 lie in no particular order. Then everyone has to try to guess which item they listed was a lie. You could have everyone answer in comments or take turns answering. Once everyone has a chance to guess the girl shares which was a lie. Where am I? game Before the meeting gather 10 different backgrounds to change your background during meeting. Tell the girls they are going to guess where their leader is. You can take pictures of local places, do some world traveling, landmarks the girls will recognize. Then switch the background in Zoom and ask the girls…“where in the world is your leader?” The girls will love it!. Origami Creation The best way to learn how to do origami is watch someone else walk through the steps of making it. My favorite Youtube Channel that gives great step by step instructions is PPO pick one and have the girls have paper ready you can pause after each step to make sure everyone has that step done. One sentence story Start a story by saying one sentence. Once upon a time a little girl went for a walk… Then each girl takes a turn to add to the story. You could use the comments to write the additional sentences than at end read the whole story. How crazy did it get? What is unique about me? This one will take a little coordinating with parents of girls before meeting. Ask each parent to share one unique thing about their daughter. This could be anything from their hobbies or favorite toys. Then set up a quiz so at meeting you can describe one of the girls and everyone has to try to guess what girl it is. This is a great time to talk about how everyone is unique and how important it is to respect each other. Write a Meme Have the girls send you a funny picture of themselves, of their pet, of something in house, etc before meeting. Then at meeting bring up one of the pictures everyone will write in comments a funny meme that should be written for the picture. You can show them a few examples of what a Meme is like the cat one here. Then after everyone comes up with one. Have them vote what is best one. Save the winner and if you have the talent after add the title to the meme. You could use social media to add captions and save it. That way at next meeting you could show girls the finished Memes. What is Your Favorite Song? This one will take a little coordinating before meeting. Have every girl send you their favorite song. Then find the music video that goes with each song. During the meeting play part of the video. Pause it and ask girls to guess who’s favorite song it is. Continue this as you go through all the girls in troop. Or do one every time you meet. This way girls may forget what girls you already shared in past meetings. Morse Code with Flashlights This could be focus of whole meeting. First share the history of Morse Code how it started this is a great video kid friendly explanation. Then after the history give morse code a try using flashlights. Maybe do their name or another short word for others to guess. Here is a Morse Code chart for letters and numbers. Here is a morse code translator site so you could watch morse code in action when you type words in. Would you rather questions This is more for laughs and conversation. Don’t waste time coming up with them yourself this website has 100s to choose from. Drive by Bridging Event This takes you off zoom a bit but if you video tape everyone you can share the whole event on Zoom at next meeting. One idea set up a bridge at end of driveway with table of uniforms and pins. Set up a time for each girl to come to house, walk across bridge and parent puts the uniform and pin on the other side. As the leader remain further away and take video of each girl experiencing the walk across the bridge. Create comics Using Pixton website the girls could make their own avatar and create their very own comic strips. Nailed it challenge This could be any topic, but cake decorating and clay designs is the big ones people do. Have the professional design at meeting and then have everyone try to recreate it. When done put them side by side. #nailedit Family Member Show and Tell Ask parents if they would participate or another family member that would be willing to join a zoom meeting. Then they can share an interesting job or hobby. Have girls ask the guest questions to learn more about what they are sharing. No Sew Blankets If you are able to deliver supplies to each girl you can do the no sew blankets during the meeting. Lip Sync Fun This could be any song, but make sure it is something all the girls know. Then play the song and have everyone sing it, but lip sync style. Be Prepared Pillowcase Scavenger Hunt Tell the girls they have 3 minutes to fill a pillowcase with as many random things they can find around the house. Then when playing you will ask for random things, possibly colors, shapes, things that are used to do something, etc. Girls have to show item in their pillowcase that matches the items. Girl who has most matches win. Cooking Food Session Pick a recipe based on your girls age level. You may also need parents to participate a bit, get the ingredients before the meeting, help where needed during meeting. Cooking Show Everyone gets a chance to teach others how to cook something. Depending on time, limit the time for each girl. Tell them to have parts of the recipe ready to go or record it ahead of time. If you could be a superhero? Need something to spark conversation, ask each girl what superpower would you have? For example flying, being able to help people all the time, etc. Avatar Creation There are many sites and apps out there you can make your own avatars on. One that I find pretty cool that allows kids to make full group pictures of people is Bitmoji. It may be a bit hard for the younger girls to do on own but with some supervision they will have fun with it too. Read a book, write a author, earn a fun patch I have had the opportunity to speak to and write about Rachele Alpine two books where she encourages girls to write her, she has put together some great activities to go along with the books and offers a fun patch. Read more about the books she offers and contact her for possibly having her come do a virtual session with your troop. Make music instruments This is a chance for girls to get creative. Tell them we are going to make a instrument. Find things around your house to make something that makes music. Then let each girl share their creations. Minute to Win it Games You can turn anything into a minute to win it activity. You can have every girl do at same time or girls watch each other. Here are 12 I have done with my troop in past. Yoga Class or Party Here are some ideas for a yoga party, there are ideas for fun patches, how to make the yoga event have a theme. If you don’t want to lead the yoga search youtube for a short yoga session and play it during meeting. If you won a million dollars, what would you buy? Another great conversation starter, how many would help others, buy things for themselves, use the money to make the world a better place. Digital Escape Room If you are looking for fun and easy digital escape rooms, but don’t want to pay for one there are a number of free ones all over the web. Kids Activities website did the work for you, they compiled a pretty extensive list of ones to choose from. Troll Themed Meeting This is a very popular movie and could be made into a great virtual meeting theme. You could do a Netflix watch party if everyone has Netflix or have everyone watch before and then do activities during meeting. If you need ideas, Ill refer you to my favorite fun patch source, where activity worksheets are often included. This fun patch is no exception. Fun patch and activity sheet Frozen Themed Meeting What girl does not like the Frozen movie? There are a lot of ideas out there for this theme. I will refer you over to my favorite source for Fun Patches which also includes a lot of activities to go along with the patch. Frozen inspired fun patch and activity sheet. Photo Scavenger Hunt I know having a photo scavenger hunt as a troop would be fun, but since we can’t do it together give each girl the list and have them do the photo hunt with their parents then come to meeting and share the pictures they took with group. If you don’t know where to start with a photo scavenger hunt check out these ideas. Paint Party There are probably a lot of local business and painters who may be interested in offering a virtual paint workshop for you. If you don’t know where to start I talked to Painting with a Purpose owner and she is sharing easy to follow tutorial sessions live on Facebook in her group, then they are uploaded onto her youtube channel that you could use with troop if you can’t attend a live session. I hope your meetings are fun and you found some great ideas in this post. If you have more ideas that you want to share with other leaders send me a email and I can add them into my next list of ideas for virtual meetings. Enjoy every minute being a leader and continue to inspire your girls!