Junior Youth Group

Some of you may know that I'm a junior high youth group leader at my church. I started on this adventure last year, and really enjoyed myself and the kids, so I am jumping in head first again this year. At my church, the junior youth consists of kids grades six through eight, so we're talking about preteens to early teens.
All the leaders, our youth pastor and the youth board chair are meeting next week to discuss and set a calendar for this year's activities. We try to keep a good balance of fun activities and volunteering or service activities. And, this year, we want to try some different things to keep it interesting. Our goal is to have these kids involved and interested so when they get into high school, they will participate as well. The high school youth group is much more involved and more time is required as they do larger projects and a bunch of fundraising for a trip to the youth conference in the summer. One of our main concerns is we don't want everything to have to be about money, especially for those families that the parents participate as well or those families with multiple children. We want the kids to participate as much as they can, and have fun doing it.

So, now comes the part when I ask for help. As I am forming my list of activities, fun and service, I want to throw it out there to all my blog readers to ask for suggestions on activities. Can you help me out?