In my Young Single Adult ward for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, I’m in charge of creating and executing all of the activities (at least one per week). With Thanksgiving right around the corner, I knew that it would be fun to do a “Turkey trot”, as is so popular. Still, not everyone likes running, and I wanted to make the activity accessible for everyone. Thus, the Turkey Trot Relay Race was born!
If you’d like to recreate this activity, here’s everything you need to know/do:
Events
- Harvest the Crops: Find decorative pumpkins hidden around the church.
- Mash the Potatoes: Pretty self-explanatory.
- Check the Temp: Check the temperature of the potatoes and announce it.
- Drink the Cranberry Juice: 1 cup
- Save the Pilgrim Baby: Run around the parking lot while holding a baby doll.
General Info
- I split the group into 5 teams of <=5. Write down who is on which team so scoring doesn’t get confused.
- I bought 5 $5 gift cards to give to the winning team as prizes.
- Tape
- Pens/pencils for scoring
- Scoring: For each event, teams are scored 1-5 based on how fast they complete the activity. They lose points for dropping their baton (carrot), intentionally sabotaging other teams, and not following the instructions. For the “Mash the Potatoes” event, teams are scored for both speed AND quality (the person manning that station taste-tests the potatoes). Tell everyone about the score system in advance.
- I kept the activity fluid where once a team was done with one event, they could move right on to the next one, rather than keeping the events separate.
Materials
General Materials
- Scorecards
- Instruction Cards
- Long carrots to use as batons
- 5 helpers – 1 to man each station and score teams
To see/download my scorecards and instruction cards, use this Canva Link.
Harvest the Crops
- 5 Decorative pumpkins
- Permanent marker to write group numbers on each
Mash the Potatoes
- A kitchen full of supplies
- A pot full of pre-boiled potatoes
- 5 grabbing utensils to get potatoes out of water
- Small individual cups of milk (placed in the fridge)
Check the Temp
- Five thermometers
- Table
Drink the Cranberry Juice
- Normal-sized drinking cups
- Cranberry Juice
- Table
Save the Pilgrim Baby
- 5 baby dolls
- Laundry basket
- Cones (to create a track)
- Streamers for finish line
Set Up
- Number each decorative pumpkin 1-5 and hide them in the church
- Boil potatoes, let the water cool a bit, and leave the pot on the stove. Place grabbers next to the pot
- Fill small cups with milk and place in fridge
- Set up two rectangular tables in the gym
- On one table, place 5 thermometers
- On the other table, fill 5 regular-sized cups with cranberry juice
- By the gym door that leads to the outside, place a laundry basket full of 5 baby dolls
- Use cones to make a track around the parking lot
- Print out instruction sheets and scorecards
- Designate a finish line and put up streamers for it
- Give scorecards/writing utensils to your 5 helpers and assign them stations
- Tape instruction sheets in an obvious place within each event
Things I Would Do Differently the Second Time Around
- We hid the pumpkins too hard. Make it easier than you think so that the relay keeps going fast.
- Include on the instruction sheet that teams need to wash their own potato-mashing dishes (I had a bunch of dishes to do at the end).