Wow! We had 47 kids on Wednesday night (from 33 the week before). This is amazing since many of our CLPC kids go to camp during the summer, so our numbers are significantly down. About half of the kids present were neighborhood kids who saw us having fun. We're planning for 50 tomorrow!
I live for Wednesdays!
Showing posts with label sss. Show all posts
Showing posts with label sss. Show all posts
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Friday, May 30, 2008
Super Sloppy Summers
Pull out those ratty t-shirts because the kids (well, and adult helpers) are getting slimed again. We’ve got a whole group of incoming 3rd graders who can’t wait to participate. Truly, they’ve been asking me about it since September.
Tuesday, July 10, 2007
For some reason, blogger won't let me put a title on this one. This is why I need to switch to wordpress. Sigh, perhaps by fall. I'm such a slacker.
Anyway, I'll make my own title: SUPER SLOPPY SUMMERS REVEALED
I guess I never really explained SSS to anyone, so here goes. SSS was the spawn of a brainstorming session between a friend (youth director at a previous church) and me. I was the CE director, and we were trying to come up with a way for the kids to have fun and a way to connect the jr highers with the preteens (3rd-5th grade). I already had KidsInC going at that church (same preteen group you read about on this blog, only different church), and we had a big sib/little sib program going. The jr highers would pick a tweener, send them secret pal type notes, and then there was a big reveal at a campout type of retreat. The big sibs then would take the role of mentoring the little sibs, teaching them all about youth group and then finally mentoring them as the 5th graders graduated into 6th grade. This way, the kids already had a friend in the group, and the transition was smoother.
Well, we were planning the campout, and as campouts do, things got sloppy in our planning (sloppy in a good way), and then we thought, what if we did an entire summer of this? So we put our heads together, I came up with the name (I think) and then we went crazy planning, and we invited jr highers in for their input bc everyone knows that jr highers love to get little kids messy. The first SSS had a theme: Peer Pressure, and we let the jr highers take the role of counselors.
Counselors would have colored bandanas, and the kids would be placed in color groups. Each group did an ice breaker to start and also had to make up a cheer for their team, and then they rotated from mess to mess, with each mess reinforcing the theme for that day. We even had a movie station outside for clips to emphasize the theme (yes, we had a license).
SSS day came, and we had TONS of kids. I can't emphasize the amount of kids well--TONS! Think megachurch kids on a little church budget. We had strategically set it outside in view from the street so that neighboring kids would come, and they did. It became way too much for our little church to handle with only 2 staff and a sprinkling of youth volunteers and with the fact that I left shortly thereafter, so we didn't do a second one, but the memory lingered, and I think that after I left the current CE director did a smaller version of it.
Older and wiser, I've tweaked this one, and I also work at a much larger church with more volunteers. Sadly, the youth are very busy with their own activities and a bit removed, so I haven't gotten to get the involvement that I wanted. It's such an integral part of it. So what I did this summer was make the 5th graders (upcoming 6th graders) counselors with an adult leader, and that has worked pretty well.
At CLPC, we have SSS every Wednesday night, at the same time as KidsInC. Really, it IS KidsinC; we just change the name for summer. It's 1 1/2 hours divided as such: pizza time and table topics, small group icebreaker, small group challenge (groups compete against each other), large group activity (groups disband for a bit) and then small group discussion time and snack(leaders are given discussion questions based upon the theme) and finally hose down--their favorite.
I looked at Summer Camp curriculum by Standard Publishing for ideas. They didn't have this curriculum when we did SSS a few years ago, and I'm not used to following any curriculum, so I just use it as a base and springboard off. Some of the themes are good (some lacking), and if you need everything spelled out for you, it's a great resource. An incredibly detailed writer, she leaves nothing to the imagination, which is preferable for some people, especially if you've never done anything like this before. I prefer to pick and choose a few activities, tweak them to make them messier or to make a more solid connection to the theme or change the theme all together. Then I add some activities from other books, make them messier, and add some others from my head or pick the brains of the kids. Really, any CM "game" book works if you just add some whipped cream to the supply list or chocolate pudding. Take Duck Duck Splash from my last post--a tweak on an age old game. Let your imagination run wild.
The key is to make sure you have volunteers who don't mind getting kids dirty. I had a couple of volunteer moms who didn't want to put chocolate syrup on the kids so they just drizzled a few drops. This was because they pitied the poor parents who had to wash the clothes (and because they felt girls shouldn't get dirty--sigh, when will this antiquated thinking die?). I tell parents to dress the kids for a mess, and they actually sign medical release forms that have a little note at the bottom about understanding that clothes will get very dirty. So I just walked over, opened up the vat of syrup and poured it on kids with a soundtrack of mass giggles in the background. You also have the option of "no mess kids," outlined in Summer Camp. They wear stickers that say don't get me messed up and shower caps on their heads. I have never had a kid need one.
Another key: goggles. Cheap eye safety. And garbage bags with holes cut out of the top make great ponchos for sending kids home. Parents love them. Just splurge on decent sacks. I bought some from the dollar store, and they were all gathered at the bottom so that when I cut a hole in the top, it made 4 holes. It looked like Charlie Brown's ghost costume from Great Pumpkin.
I think that's about it.
Anyway, I'll make my own title: SUPER SLOPPY SUMMERS REVEALED
I guess I never really explained SSS to anyone, so here goes. SSS was the spawn of a brainstorming session between a friend (youth director at a previous church) and me. I was the CE director, and we were trying to come up with a way for the kids to have fun and a way to connect the jr highers with the preteens (3rd-5th grade). I already had KidsInC going at that church (same preteen group you read about on this blog, only different church), and we had a big sib/little sib program going. The jr highers would pick a tweener, send them secret pal type notes, and then there was a big reveal at a campout type of retreat. The big sibs then would take the role of mentoring the little sibs, teaching them all about youth group and then finally mentoring them as the 5th graders graduated into 6th grade. This way, the kids already had a friend in the group, and the transition was smoother.
Well, we were planning the campout, and as campouts do, things got sloppy in our planning (sloppy in a good way), and then we thought, what if we did an entire summer of this? So we put our heads together, I came up with the name (I think) and then we went crazy planning, and we invited jr highers in for their input bc everyone knows that jr highers love to get little kids messy. The first SSS had a theme: Peer Pressure, and we let the jr highers take the role of counselors.
Counselors would have colored bandanas, and the kids would be placed in color groups. Each group did an ice breaker to start and also had to make up a cheer for their team, and then they rotated from mess to mess, with each mess reinforcing the theme for that day. We even had a movie station outside for clips to emphasize the theme (yes, we had a license).
SSS day came, and we had TONS of kids. I can't emphasize the amount of kids well--TONS! Think megachurch kids on a little church budget. We had strategically set it outside in view from the street so that neighboring kids would come, and they did. It became way too much for our little church to handle with only 2 staff and a sprinkling of youth volunteers and with the fact that I left shortly thereafter, so we didn't do a second one, but the memory lingered, and I think that after I left the current CE director did a smaller version of it.
Older and wiser, I've tweaked this one, and I also work at a much larger church with more volunteers. Sadly, the youth are very busy with their own activities and a bit removed, so I haven't gotten to get the involvement that I wanted. It's such an integral part of it. So what I did this summer was make the 5th graders (upcoming 6th graders) counselors with an adult leader, and that has worked pretty well.
At CLPC, we have SSS every Wednesday night, at the same time as KidsInC. Really, it IS KidsinC; we just change the name for summer. It's 1 1/2 hours divided as such: pizza time and table topics, small group icebreaker, small group challenge (groups compete against each other), large group activity (groups disband for a bit) and then small group discussion time and snack(leaders are given discussion questions based upon the theme) and finally hose down--their favorite.
I looked at Summer Camp curriculum by Standard Publishing for ideas. They didn't have this curriculum when we did SSS a few years ago, and I'm not used to following any curriculum, so I just use it as a base and springboard off. Some of the themes are good (some lacking), and if you need everything spelled out for you, it's a great resource. An incredibly detailed writer, she leaves nothing to the imagination, which is preferable for some people, especially if you've never done anything like this before. I prefer to pick and choose a few activities, tweak them to make them messier or to make a more solid connection to the theme or change the theme all together. Then I add some activities from other books, make them messier, and add some others from my head or pick the brains of the kids. Really, any CM "game" book works if you just add some whipped cream to the supply list or chocolate pudding. Take Duck Duck Splash from my last post--a tweak on an age old game. Let your imagination run wild.
The key is to make sure you have volunteers who don't mind getting kids dirty. I had a couple of volunteer moms who didn't want to put chocolate syrup on the kids so they just drizzled a few drops. This was because they pitied the poor parents who had to wash the clothes (and because they felt girls shouldn't get dirty--sigh, when will this antiquated thinking die?). I tell parents to dress the kids for a mess, and they actually sign medical release forms that have a little note at the bottom about understanding that clothes will get very dirty. So I just walked over, opened up the vat of syrup and poured it on kids with a soundtrack of mass giggles in the background. You also have the option of "no mess kids," outlined in Summer Camp. They wear stickers that say don't get me messed up and shower caps on their heads. I have never had a kid need one.
Another key: goggles. Cheap eye safety. And garbage bags with holes cut out of the top make great ponchos for sending kids home. Parents love them. Just splurge on decent sacks. I bought some from the dollar store, and they were all gathered at the bottom so that when I cut a hole in the top, it made 4 holes. It looked like Charlie Brown's ghost costume from Great Pumpkin.
I think that's about it.
Wednesday, June 27, 2007
SSS Summer Picnic
Tonight's Super Sloppy Summers was picnic themed. We ate outside and then had a whipped cream pie eating contest where you had to find the cherry sour in a pie tin of whipped cream without using eyes or hands. We also played blanket volleyball with water balloons, which actually ended up being a very nice lesson in unity and cooperation because it was much more difficult than I thought it would be. We covered the parking lot in sidewalk chalk paint [I love the stuff]. And we played duck duck splash, which is like duck duck goose but with a splash ball--oh, and the mush pot was actually a giant rubbermaid container filled with instant mashed potatoes. That was awesome, and I am sure that you can guess what happened after we were done--mashed potato fight! I just found mashed potatoes near my armpit, actually.
Small group time involved discussing the feeding of the 5,000 and also what Jesus meant by the term bread of life.
So much fun, and parents are telling me that the kids countdown the days until the next one. That's cool to me.
Small group time involved discussing the feeding of the 5,000 and also what Jesus meant by the term bread of life.
So much fun, and parents are telling me that the kids countdown the days until the next one. That's cool to me.
Friday, May 25, 2007
forever busy
Ok, sorry I've been gone for forever, but I just haven't had time to blog. I'm training for a marathon, and I'm busy planning summer programs and such.
Just finished the last KidsInC for the year and am planning Super Sloppy Summers. The tshirts came in last week, and they are awesome.
Today we decorated for CLPC zoo, and the tshirts came in for them, as well. I'm really excited about this program, and I think the kids will be, too. Also, I'm piloting a new curriculum for the preschoolers.
We've also got VBS underway (secretly, I hate VBS. I'd put it on a post secret postcard, but the public wouldn't care, I don't think, so I'll just say it here--I HATE VBS or at least what it has become), and so that's a time consumer, and then this weekend, we've got this ubercrazy Pentecost celebration going on, which is cool and multigenerational, but man, it is a lot of work.
And then we're constructing an underwater classroom for children's worship, which is a blast. My deco team is outstanding. I couldn't do my job without them.
Add to that some computer problems, and you see why I haven't blogged.
So can you tell I need a vacation? Yeah, I scheduled a little minibreak for New Orleans, but I'm hoping to get out to DC or to CA for at least a week in July. My year anniversary is June 1, and I haven't had a day off yet, other than my Mondays and an occasional holiday.
Anyway, I hope to be a more faithful blogger. Sorry about that.
Just finished the last KidsInC for the year and am planning Super Sloppy Summers. The tshirts came in last week, and they are awesome.
Today we decorated for CLPC zoo, and the tshirts came in for them, as well. I'm really excited about this program, and I think the kids will be, too. Also, I'm piloting a new curriculum for the preschoolers.
We've also got VBS underway (secretly, I hate VBS. I'd put it on a post secret postcard, but the public wouldn't care, I don't think, so I'll just say it here--I HATE VBS or at least what it has become), and so that's a time consumer, and then this weekend, we've got this ubercrazy Pentecost celebration going on, which is cool and multigenerational, but man, it is a lot of work.
And then we're constructing an underwater classroom for children's worship, which is a blast. My deco team is outstanding. I couldn't do my job without them.
Add to that some computer problems, and you see why I haven't blogged.
So can you tell I need a vacation? Yeah, I scheduled a little minibreak for New Orleans, but I'm hoping to get out to DC or to CA for at least a week in July. My year anniversary is June 1, and I haven't had a day off yet, other than my Mondays and an occasional holiday.
Anyway, I hope to be a more faithful blogger. Sorry about that.
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