This passage is a wonderful chance to get counting, hiding and talking about your gifts. Here is a selection of games that tie into various elements of the story, choose the one that would best suit your group, age range and setup.

Buried talent

Under 7’s

Small group

Requires setup time

Noisy game

Space needed

Oh dear the servant forgot where he buried his talent and the master is on the way! Burry a ‘talent’ – in cushions, in a sandpit, in play dough, and have the child ‘dig’ to find it.

I have talents…

Ages 7+

Any size group

No Setup time

Quiet game

Can be seated

Each child/group has one minute to write down how many ways they can make someone smile. Dependent on time, have the kids demonstrate some of their suggestions, and /or challenge them to do at least 5 before they go to bed tonight.

Double it!

Ages 7+

Any size group

Requires setup time

Noisy game

Can be seated

This is a copy and multiply game where each round something must be doubled. The starting factor can be anything – a number, a gesture, an effect.
Examples:
The number 4 – answer find 8 objects, 8 fingers.
A smile – 2 people smiling or a mirror.
A sound – an echo or an increase in volume.

Spinning coins

All Ages

Any size group

Requires setup time

Noisy game

Can be seated

The idea of this game is to double up, just as the servants doubled their masters’ money. The challenge is to spin pairs of coins, how many pairs can you spin at once? Talk about how much hard work the servants who doubled the money must have done and compared to the one who buried his talent.

Different Abilities Obstacle course

All Ages

Any size group

Requires setup time

Noisy game

Space needed

Set up an obstacle course that feeds to your individual kid’s strengths. The aim is that some parts of the course will be crazily easy and other parts really tough. Examples: If one of your kids is tall, you could have a really high item or a really low limbo bar. If a kid is musical, you could have a challenge to play a tune. If the kid is really into dinosaurs, they must identify a certain dinosaur. A sporty kid may add a physical challenge. Don’t worry about trying to represent all the kids, just a handful. The idea is to celebrate how we are all gifted with different talents.