I was asked recently to create some activities for about 20 participants at a bonfire gathering for the team members of a ministry that supports missionaries in southeast Asia. Knowing that it would be dark, I knew traditional drawing activities would not work.

I had the idea to do Pictionary, but with glow sticks. Was this a good idea? I did a quick internet search and found that some ideas were out there. I entered the following prompt into ChatGPT …

Hello. I am leading a team activity at an outdoor campfire. I want to do pictionary using glowsticks. Each team will work together to “draw” a picture for other teams to guess. They could either hold up glowsticks in different configurations or lay them on the ground. 

ChatGPT responded with …

That sounds like such a fun and creative campfire activity! Since teams will be “drawing” with glowsticks, the best prompts are ones that can be recognized through shape, outline, or arrangement of parts — and can be made with limited detail. Here are ideas grouped by difficulty level, so you can mix and match depending on your group’s energy or number of glowsticks.

ChatGPT provided lists of easy, medium, and challenging prompts for drawing. I created cards using an edited list. View How to make activity cards on YouTube. Each category of cards (e.g., easy) has a number (1–3) and bright color paper (to match the glow stick theme).

I purchased this set of glow sticks from Walmart, which includes two sizes, and also bought a small box of 2-feet long glow sticks. My total cost was approximately $15 for the glow sticks.

The participants divided into teams based on birth month … January-April, May-August, and September-December. A couple of teams were lopsided, but they didn’t want to redistribute.

I discovered that outside events have a lot of challenges. Everyone enjoyed standing around and chatting or grabbing some food (including roasting marshmallows and hotdogs over the fire), so it took some extra time to divide into teams and introduce the game.

In traditional Pictionary, a team member draws for their own team that guesses the answer. If the first team can’t get it, other teams can answer. However, for Glow Stick Pictionary, I decided that each team would “draw” for the other two teams. I thought this would decrease the competitiveness and make it easier to assemble sticks into a drawing.

As I had never tried this idea before, I wasn’t sure how long it would take for the team to create a drawing. The benefit of this activity is the collaboration of the team to create a drawing. Each team took a turn, but we did not have time for a second round. I think giving a specific time limit (like 5 minutes) in an inside environment would have allowed more rounds.

What ended up working the best was for each team to draw two cards (when it was their turn). For all three teams, each team subdivided (on their own) into a primary team working on the decided-upon prompt card and a second smaller team (even just one person) experimenting with the other card.

This activity was challenging to time. Each team took 5–7 minutes to create their designs. The prompts used were (1) key (not pictured), (2) angel, and (3) castle.

As this was a Christian gathering, the participants decided spontaneously to sing songs related to each prompt once the drawing element was completed. The hymn “Open my eyes that I may see” has a lyric “Place in my hand the wonderful key.” We sang “There’s a flag flying high from the castle of my heart” and “Angels we have heard on high.” Obviously, if teams had drawn other cards (like bicycle) this musical connection wouldn’t have happened (although “Bicycle built for two” was popular in its day).

Impressions

Everyone liked this activity, and I will save it to use again (but inside with better control as I mentioned above).

As an aside, glow sticks are a lot of fun. I left the glow sticks with a couple of college students who immediately started building their own creations. Another participant (age 12) created a pair of glasses.

The one glow stick I brought home finally faded out about 5 days later.