Showing posts with label Kid's Events - missions. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Kid's Events - missions. Show all posts

Monday, December 7, 2020

DIY Gaucho Belts

 


This is a low cost craft to help children learn a little about the culture and geography of Argentina. Long before grass fed beef was being touted in the U.S., thousands of cattle were grazing on the grassy plains of the pampas in Argentina. These prairies extend for almost 300,000 square miles. This seemingly endless, mostly flat land in a humid, temperate climate create perfect conditions for growing cow friendly grass. 

From the mid 18 century to the mid 19th, Gauchos (the equivalent of our cowboys) ruled the pampas. They mustered cattle, chased down runaway livestock, and performed odd jobs for wealthy estancias (rural estates). They were nomadic peoples who wandered from estancias to estancias to find work. 

Gauchos are still in Argentina today. They are skilled horsemen as in days past, but they live more settled lives often as ranch hands on estancias. 

A Gaucho always wore a belt, to tuck their knife in. Like many of our western belts, they may have had a large buckle with their initials on it. This craft is perfect for introducing the Gaucho to children.

You can view the complete instructions in this presentation below. 

 
 

Supplies:

  • heavy duty foil
  • hole punch
  • scissors
  • cardboard (from a cereal box or similar)
  • jute 
  • yarn or twine (2 four foot pieces) 
  • double sided tape
  • packing tape (about 2 inches wide)
  • craft stick and or Q-tip

 

Step by Step Instructions:

  1. Cut out a 4" by 3" oval from cardboard. Use a hole punch to put a hole on each side of the oval.

  2. Draw guidelines on it (see above).
  3. Letter your initials on it in large block letters or script. The key is that is needs to be large, leaving plenty of open space around each letter.
  4. Put 2 pieces of double sided tape and put them on either side of your initials
  5. Tear off a 3" piece of packing tape and adhere it to the double sided tape with the sticky side of the packing tape FACING UP (see picture for #2 and also below).



  6. Lay the jute down along the initials you drew, cutting it at the end of each line (see pictures above). 


  7. When all the initials are outlined in jute place the square of foil over the top and wrap it around the back of the oval as pictured above.

  8. Using a craft stick or a Q-tip tool the foil all around the jute until the letters stand out nicely. Do this slowly and gently trying not to make any tears in the foil.


  9. Use a blunt pencil to push through the foil where you punched the holes in the oval.

  10. Fold each length of yarn in half and push one loop through each hole.


  11. Put the ends of the yarn through its respective loop and pull both sides tight.
  12. If you want to add an antiqued look to the buckle, put black or brown liquid shoe polish over the surface. Let it sit for a minute of two and then gently wipe off with a paper towel. 

This idea came from the book, Around the World Art & Activities. It is no longer in print, but many libraries have it.

 


 A "real" gaucho belt buckle:



 

Monday, September 14, 2020

Missions, Missions, Missions

 


One summer, back when most churches had VBS's, we were not able to hold one. So my pastor husband said we should do a big fall outreach for children, and he asked me to be in charge. I love that kind of thing, so I was psyched to plan a children's outreach. Then we had our Sunday School teacher's meeting to plan for the fall classes, pick a date for the outreach and discuss the upcoming mission's conference later that fall. One of the teachers thought it would be a great thing to do something for the kids with the missionary since the one coming was especially good in relating to children. 

So that became our children's outreach to replace VBS, and of course, since I was supposed to be in charge of the outreach event, I was put in charge. I was a little ticked off. It was not what I had envisioned, and it certainly was not what I had agreed to do. Ever felt that way? It seems to happen to me a lot. But in hindsight, it was God's plan. So I encourage you to be sensitive to God when plans don't go as you had planned. What follows is the inter-generational event we came up with before we had ever even heard of the word inter-generational.

I always work with a planning committee for events. Some people hate committees, but I love them because you get so many good ideas and you develop things together. That is what the church (body) is all about, working together to do more than we can do alone. I try to look for a lot of ideas and bring them to the meeting and then let the team go crazy. Usually that means they tell me to keep my feet on the ground. But I love the process of working through plans with other and seeing our dreams come to life together.

Since I am writing this during the pandemic of 2020, most of this event could not be done as we did it. However, I encourage you to be creative and figure out ways to adapt some of it. Check out the adaptation article I wrote for lots of ideas as to how to make this festival "pandemic friendly."

Prep

PASSPORTS: We created "passports" for the children. They were required to visit each booth once before they went back to a booth a second time. They got little international stickers at each site. Here is the PDF we used. We ran the covers off on card stock. 

 



TAKE HOME BAGS: We purchased balloons that looked like a globe (earth day balloons) and ordered a helium tank from a local welding supply company. The plan was to bag up leftover odds and ends from previous carnivals and attach them to the inflated balloons as an anchor. The balloons were displayed in the sanctuary on both sides of the platform. This was for a photo opp of the whole group at the end of the event which we submitted to the local paper. 



DOOR PRIZES: We had some large items donated, so we decided to offer some door prizes. You got tickets for registering at the front door and kids could put them in the prize bucket of their choice. We awarded the prizes in the closing assembly, which encouraged people to stay. You had to be present to win.

 


FOOD: We wrote to the missionary that would be coming and asked for some recipes. We chose empanadas for Argentina, and then added a few other countries with recipes we already had. The internet is a great source, as is your local library.

Here are the categories of what we planned:

  1. Food - we had empanadas (Argentine style), Brigadeiros (a Brazilian sweet), alfajores (a Peruvian cookie) and pizza.

  2. Argentinian Experience - this one wasn't listed in their passport, but our missionary brought items from Argentina and clothing. He explained the different items to children and let them try on the clothing. It was a big hit.



  3. Service Activities - since this festival was missions themed, we included some activities that taught the children to give to others. 
    1. Card Making - we made cards for a local nursing home. We got a list that had the name of every resident on it, and made sure that cards were made for every single one. Even our adult helpers made cards when they had a chance. The residents loved getting them. Children not only made the card, but many wrote a little note in their card.

    2. Operation Christmas Child shoe boxes - we had a whole room set up with items they could fill boxes with. This project took a lot of preparation. Our youth group had a bottle drive to raise money for it. Then the youth went shopping on a Saturday morning at the Dollar Tree and each one was given about $25 and some guidelines for what to buy. We also used some of the money they raised for postage to help mail the boxes. The congregation brought in items as well and also plastic shoe boxes for the event. As children filled a shoe box, they brought it into the sanctuary where we made a big pyramid of them for a photo op at the end of the event.


  4. Craft - I found a book at the public library (every frugal children's workers favorite place) called Around the World Art & Activities: Visiting the 7 Continents Through Craft Fun. Children made a Gaucho Belt. The kids loved these. It took a lot of prep work, but we had youth help one night, and we also sent some home with our older women who liked to cut things for us. I will give a separate post as to how to make them. This book is out of print now, and very expensive to buy used. I suggest the library. Most libraries can borrow it from another library if they don't have it in their collection. I have included detailed instructions in the Gaucho Belt post. (coming soon)

  5. Games - we used two games from South America and then included some regular carnival games. 
    1. Brazil - Hit the Coin. You had a dowel with a coin on top of it and children threw a small rock to try and hit the dowel and knock the coin off. We have flag stands for small flags, so we stuck a dowel in this to make it stand upright. You could also use a bucket of sand.

    2. Brazil - Peteca. This used a Brazillian shuttlecock we purchased online. You just had to toss it into a basket, but it was a piece of equipment the kids had never seen or handled.


    3. Duck Races - this was a fun one. We had a kiddie pool full of water and ducks floating in it. Each child got a water pistol and had to squirt their duck across the pool against other ducks.

    4. Face Painting
    5. Bean Bag Toss
    6. Open Doors - This is another fun one. Someone made a little cabinet with a door on it that had a real doorknob on it. Kids were given a ring of keys and two or three chances to try and find the right key to open the door. If they got it open, they got a small prize that was inside. Otherwise they got a consolation prize. 


      Children visited the booths for 90 minutes (this was actually longer than necessary). Then everyone gathered in our sanctuary and the missionary dressed a few children up and then spoke to the group about Jesus.


 After our missionary shared with the group we had a couple of drawings (this encouraged people to stay for the whole event), we took a picture of the children with the OCC boxes and then all of the children took home a helium filled balloon with a bag of goodies attached to the ribbon, acting as a weight.

 

I had a lot more pictures from the event, so I made the video below to give you an idea of how it went.

Wednesday, July 24, 2019

How to Host a Shoebox Party


A few years ago I was asked to create an event that the whole family could attend and interact together at. I planned a shoebox party for Operation Christmas Child (OCC).

If you have never heard of OCC, it is a relief program run by Samaritan's Purse. People pack shoeboxes with a variety of small items such as hygeine, school supplies, toys and clothing. OCC sends the shoeboxes all over the world to needy children. You could also make your own shoeboxes and send them to a local shelter or group homes instead of through OCC (just don't use their boxes!).

Wednesday, January 10, 2018

Pancakes and Missions



Kid's Mission's Breakfast from Joan Eppehimer on Vimeo.

They say that kids learn best when they are having fun. The first half of this event included "catching" your breakfast. Our cook flipped the pancakes and the kids caught them on their plates. The kids had a blast, but they also learned about the importance of Bible translation and smuggling and heard from a missionary. Parents were invited too, creating a family event at the same time.

Instructions for the Pin the Bible on the World game can be found in this post from November.


Wednesday, November 8, 2017

How to Play Pin the Bible


I read a banned book almost every day. In fact it is the most banned book in the world. Any guesses what it is?

If you guessed the Bible you are right.

We played a fun game in Sunday School to help our kids learn about the importance of the Bible translation and access to the Bible for Christians. It was called Pin the Bible.

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