Fifty questions in two halves, multiple choice throughout, every fifth question for the parents and six Help Me Cards per team to spend how you like.
Knowing the shape of the day takes most of the nerves out of it. Here is what happens once everyone is seated, and the handful of rules worth practising before you arrive.
The game is fifty questions. Twenty-five, then a ten-minute break, then the remaining twenty-five. The break is a real one, long enough to stretch, find water and settle younger children back down before the second half starts.
It's important to bring snacks and drinks for the children, some clubs organize themselves to bring some food as well, but be aware that it's only a 10 mins break, so bring something the kids can quickly eat.
Every question gives you something to choose between. There are no open-ended questions, nothing to write out in a child's own words, and no explaining an answer to the grader. That is worth telling nervous children early: they are never going to be asked to stand up and talk. They are choosing.
A grader will be seated next to the team, they will give the kids a sheet for each question where the team will pick one of the answers. They need to work as a team rather than having a single adventurer answering all the questions.
The parent group takes every fifth question, parents may confer before answering. Talk it through, agree, then answer. Parents cannot ask for help to the children, they need to respond in their own. The grader is reponsible to hand out the sheet to the one parent who answers the question.
This is new this year, and it is the rule most worth understanding before the day.
Each team gets six Help Me Cards, regardless of how many children are on the team. A team of six and a team of two both get six. A smaller team therefore has considerably more help available per child, which is worth knowing when you are deciding how to split a large club.
Playing one works like this. The child hands their card and their answer sheet to the grader. The grader passes it to that child's own parent. The parent answers on their own — they may not consult the other parents, and the collaboration that applies to the parent group's questions does not apply here.
The seating exists to make that quick: parents sit in front of their child, and the grader sits between the two teams, within reach of both.
Each question is read in English and then in Spanish, and the ten-second answer window starts once both readings are finished.
Ten seconds is not long, and this is the single most useful thing to practise at home: a child who waits to see whether they know the answer has already spent the time they needed to ask for help. Train them to decide early, the moment they hear the question, they should know whether this is one they will answer themselves or one worth a card.
You set the temperature of the whole table. Be warm, pray with the children at your teams, and keep it light between questions. The children take their cue from the adult sitting closest to them, and a grader who is visibly enjoying the day is worth more to a nervous eight-year-old than any amount of preparation.
Every Bible Game team is built the same way, up to six children, each one alongside their own parent, and nobody swapped in halfway through.
Start with a parent meeting, split the chapters before it rather than during it, and expect to spend the first month one child at a time.
Create your account now, it's free forever for small clubs and ministries.