Current Year
Year 4 ~ Overview in pictures!
Highlights of what we’ve been up too!
Getting to Know Everyone
(October 17, 2022)
Getting to Know You
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- Activity Sheet – Two Stars and a Wish (things/activities/ideas they’d like to do)
- My Name is Game/Favorite Food/Placed I’d like to visit, etc.
- Gummy Bears – Get To Know You Game
- Crazy Chairs Game
- Craft – Explorers Emblem Shrinky Dink (for their Hat)
- Red Bucket Hat – everyone received a Rd Bucket Hat (unless they had one from previous years), to this we attach small craft/memory items to it throughout the year.
- Camp Song Sing-along
Pumpkin Patch Parable
(October 24, 2022)
Read the book “Pumpkin Parable Patch” – girl’s worked on a related activity sheet and then created a tiny paper pumpkin patch (for their hats), as we talked about the story — “Big or Small God picked us all.”
Yummy treat for the night was the girl’s decorated Spider Cupcakes.
October 31, 2022 – No meeting (Halloween).
Hike – Enniskillen Conservation Area Trails
(November 7, 2022)
Everyone met at Kim’s and then we headed north on our night walk (lucky us – the rain held off and we even got to look at the stars).
Using an App on Kim’s phone we tried to figure out what the bright star was, we think in was Jupiter. Tonight there was also going to be a lunar eclipse so the moon was pretty bright and before we left it was surrounded by a bluish colourful sky, pretty cool.
Below is a photo of what was in the sky over Toronto that same night. Jupiter can be seen up on the right, second in. The moon is near the bottom left.
Armour of God
(November 14, 2022)
Read the book “The Armour of God Ephesians 6:10-18 by Agnes and Salem DeBezenac and did an activity sheet and received an Armour of God Bookmark.
Game #1 – Armour of God Invisible Battle (Life Size Battleship-Like Game)
One team would pick a square of the other team’s and then the girl standing on that square was asked a question about the Armour of God, if they got it wrong it was a hit.
Game #2 – Obstacle Course
Girl’s had to go through an obstacle course to collect laminated armour pieces for their hats.
Armour of God, cont’d
(November 21, 2022)
Hat Craft – put Armour Stickers on picture of a girl, they were later laminated and given to the girls the following meeting.
Activity – Girl’s traced each other onto paper, then we played a game where they tossed an “Armour of God Dice”, to see which piece of armour to add to their drawing. A race to see who might be the first person to roll the dice to get all the pieces of armour.
What’s In The Bible?
(November 28, 2022)
Flashlight Bible Book Scavenger Hunt
Girl’s took a flashlight, picked a “book of the bible” card from a glass bowl, then headed upstairs into the DARK sanctuary to search for the matching card somewhere in the pews. Once they found their matching card they headed downstairs to the Books of the Bible display to place their card on the correct book. The spare card was then dropped in a magnetic box on the board and off they went to pick another card and back upstairs.
Movie – What’s in the Bible? DVD #1 — Episode 1 (Intro to the Bible)
Begins with an overview of the importance of the Bible in history and in people’s lives. ● Describes the “One Big Story” of God and what he’s done for us. ● Introduces the Books of the Bible ● What’s a Testament? ● Who wrote it? etc.
Black Light Night: Jesus Is Our Light
(December 4, 2022)
Girl’s received: a glow in the dark necklace, a UV Reactive Bead Necklace, a Purple Glow in Dark Name Tag and to later pin on their hats: a Glow-in-the-dark Flower (or Happy Face) Pin and a green “Jesus is Our Light 2022” Glow Badge.
Black Light Games
NEW this year was a 3-hole mini putt course!
Pictures taken after set-up so you can see the layout before the lights went out.
Plus, previous games we do every year under Black Lights: Plinko, Bowling, Hole-in-One Golf.
We finished the night with a Hoover Soccer Ball Tournament, the girl’s played so hard they busted both soccer balls!! LOL
Craft: Advent Wreath
Everyone made an Advent Wreath and finished it off with flameless tea lights.
The Advent Candles are: Hope – Peace – Joy – Love – Jesus is our Light center (white).
They also received an “Advent Booklet” that contained:
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- the prophets foretelling Jesus’ birth and the story of Jesus’ birth,
- the history of the advent wreath,
- advent readings for each Sunday, and five activity pages.
Twelve Gifts Game
(December 12, 2022)
The “Twelve Gifts” Game
For this game each girl was given a boxed gift, they were then asked if they had the gift of _________ (example “a house to live in that was warm”), if there answer was yes, they raised their hand, then traded their wrapped gift with another person who had raised their hand. With each of the 12 Gifts we talked about those who don’t have the luxury of having that gift, which we take for granted. Once we had gone through all of the 12 Gifts the girls swapped their box one more time with someone else, then they all opened their box they had now in their hands.
Inside each box were the pieces needed to make a 3-D Paper Star Ornament (each was different–Kim had cut all these shapes with a Cricut machine). Kim showed us how to put the pieces on top of each other, in the correct order, with a sticky foam piece placed between each layer. They were beautiful when done, as you can see in the above photo!!
The ornaments were not to keep, but to be given away, so we each wrote on the back of our ornament who the gift was for and who it was from, to be delivered by each girl later.
Christmas Story ~ Snack Stations
In groups of 2-3 girls proceeded through the Christmas Story Stations. At each station was a “Story Card” they had read it out-loud, then they collected the matching snack ingredient from a bowl into their sandwich bag (example: Shepherds – Pretzel (Staff), Sheep – Mini-Marshmellows). [We adapted this snack idea found here.]
Christmas Party
(December 19, 2022)
Nativity Escape Room Game
Included six nativity escape room stations each with an Activity Sheet Puzzle to solve, before moving to the next room (station).
Below is Room 1 (Station): A puzzle to solve with a decoder.
Hat Decoration
Decorating Christmas Cookies
Angel Ornaments
Girl’s made several angel ornament each, a small one to keep, and larger ones for the next Christmas Craft Bazaar. Made with wooden peg dolls and wooden a heart (thanks to one of the Dads who cut out all the wooden hearts for us!), felt wings, a tinsel halo, and ribbon for hanging.
No meetings on Dec. 26/2022
or Jan. 2 or 9, 2023
Dance Party
(January 16, 2023)
Bible Book Scavenger Hunt
Girl’s had to dig into their bibles and look up answers to several questions, using the Table of Contents, Book-Chapter-Verse, or Concordance.
Dance Party with the VeggieTales
Luanne set-up her “VeggieTales Dance Dance Dance” Game where the girls in teams of two tested out their skill at following the arrows as they fell on the screen and stepping on the correct arrow on the dance pad, at the right moment.
Great fun had by all, as well as those watching and singing along to the onscreen lyrics!
I forgot to take a photo of the new set-up in the computer lab, but here is a photo of another time they played this same game with a video projector set-up. They want to do this again!!
Salvation
(January 23, 2023)
Slim, “The String Story” and 4GIVEN key chain
The girl’s made slim that revolved around a object lesson on sin.
“The String Story” (Cat’s in the Cradle String Idea) comes from the book by Karen Henley titled “Salvation: The Foundation of Living with God Book”. Her “String Story” is an interactive way to talk about Sin, Salvation and how Jesus set us free that they can learn, then share with family and friends. Everyone also put together a 4GIVEN key chain for their hat or backpack.
Here’s are some photos from tonight.
Hike & Making Ice Cream
(January 30, 2023)
We hiked around the Hampton Park and then eventually headed north out of the village, hoping the skies might clear so we could see the stars on our walk, but that unfortunately didn’t happen. Although it was a nice night to walk and get some exercise. We had our ice cream ingredients in a container, placed inside a ziplock bag, which the girls then filled the bag with snow and were to shake for the next fifteen minutes or so while we walked. When we got back to the church they placed there ice cream containers in the snow and played until parents came. Everyone ice cream was still not solid so they were to take them home and put in freezer and enjoy the following night. Here’s a photo of some of their ice cream containers buried in the snow.
Alpine Ascent Winter Camp
(February 4, 2023)
9am Arrival – 8 pm Pick-Up
Handouts:
Headbands, Name Tags, Pencils
Divided Hat Craft (will collect pieces at each station to add)
Peter Station
Hat Piece Collected = Bold
Computers – SunScool: Peter & Cornelius
Worksheet
Gideon Station
Hat Piece Collected = Ready
Worksheet
Ruth Station
Hat Piece Collected = Obedient
Naomi & Ruth Skits
Worksheet
Nehemiah Station
Hat Piece Collected = Faithful
Story Table – Rebuilding the Walls of Jerusalem & Learning the Gate Names
Worksheet
Lunch: Pizza, Apple Juice and Fruit Tray
Sledding
Snack: Hot Chocolate & Rice Krispie Squares
Crafts:
#1 Braiding
#2 Sewing Mini Mittens
#3 Perle Bead Snowflakes
#4 Paper Snowflake
#5 Macrame Snowflakes
Esther Station
Hat Piece Collected = Courageous
Esther Bible Jeopardy Game
Dinner: make your own sub, veggies and dip, pudding dessert.
Skating
Indoor Campfire Songs (with actions) and S’mores
Feb. 6 — No meeting.
Valentine’s
(Feb. 13, 2023)
Sewed Felt Hearts & Made Valentine Cards
Valentine Cards, one to keep and one to give away.
Feb. 6 — No meeting — Family Day.
Feb. 27 — Meeting Cancelled due to Weather Warnings for that evening.
Jonah
(Mar. 6, 2023)
Learned the song: “Who Did Swallow Jonah?”
Sang along with a music CD of the song. This was to get the tune in their heads for when we tried playing it with the Bells later.
A Whale of a Tale:
Girls grabbed a flashlight then entered Jonah’s Whale. Here we heard and saw the story of Jonah through storytelling picture cards. The girls used the flashlights to highlight the back of each picture card text for the readers and the front of the cards for the watchers.
Toss Jonah Overboard Game
Using beach towels and a knitted doll (Jonah), four girls each held a corner of the beach towel and attempted to toss Jonah from the boat (towel) into the sea (blue recycling bin–we added an eye to represent the whale or big fish that swallowed Jonah). It was not easy!! and when one group finally got Jonah in the blue bin everyone cheered! Next time we might try it with bath towels, but it was hilarious watching Jonah get wrapped up in the towel like a hammock gone wild!!
Jonah Necklace Craft
Put together these craft Jonah necklaces I had in my supplies. (Originally purchased from Oriental Trading, no longer available.)
Girls also received their Jonah HAT Memory Reminder.
Hungry Hungry Whale Game
A life size version of the “Hungry Hungry Hippo” game. We used 2 scooters and tied to each was a 8 ft. thick braided skipping rope, 75 soft snowballs and mixed into this pile of balls was 1 blue ball (Jonah) and two stuffed toy fish. Team Points Awarded = 1 per Snowball, 5 per fish, and 10 points for the blue ball.
Bells: “Who Did Swallow Jonah?”
I created this colour coded music sheet for the song “Who Did Swallow Jonah?” and the girls followed the coloured notes on it, ringing their bell when their colour was next. We will need a few more practices before we get the beat down! LOL
Mar. 13 — No meeting — March Break.
Parable of The Good Samaritan
(March 20, 2023)
Tonight we opened with a discussion of who had ever been hurt or seen someone hurt and what happened, did anyone help. Then we read the story of the Good Samaritan.
Puppets
We followed this with puppets, the script called “The Good Utensil” by Kim Hunter based on the story of the Good Samaritan.
Puppets were utensils of course, the robbers where wooden meat mallets, while the Priest and Levite were kitchen utensils, while the Good Samaritan was a Barbecue spatula (flipper). The intro to the puppet script told of how the Kitchen Utensils didn’t like the Barbecue Utensils. Very fun!!
Games
Jericho Road Rough Terrain Game
Excuses are Lava ~ Wheel of Excuses Game
Both of the above games are from the Rotation.org Writing Team’s Parable of the Good Samaritan Games Workshop, being part of the writing team and a supporting member of rotation.org gives us access to all these great ideas.
Everyone received a prize of a mini spinning drum toy for good sportsmanship!
Games Night
(March 27, 2023)
Good Samaritan’s – The “Go and Do Likewise” Scooter/Skateboard Game
This is the 3rd game in the Rotation.org Writing Team’s Parable of the Good Samaritan Games Workshop. Great fun! Unfortunately I forgot to take any photos tonight.
Pencil Nose Game
Broke the girls into two teams, each team tried to get their players to guess the same word. Words we used represented activities and stories we had done since October. Didn’t get a photo, but below are photos advertising the Pencil Nose Game. You wear glasses and the marker is attached to the nose! LOL
Jonah Mad-Lib
A mad-lib is wear you ask for nouns, verbs, and adjective words and fill in a prepared story’s blanks with those same words. Then read the story out-loud to everyone. One of our favourite evening camping activities. We ended up with a hilarious version of the story of Jonah and lots of laughter.
Easter
(April 3, 2023)
In the Kitchen the girls made – Peanut Butter Confetti Bars (we ate) and Mint Oreo Dirt Pie (in freezer to enjoy another meeting night).
Crafts: Plastic Canvas Cross (we yarn stitched) and Jesus Lives Tissue Lanterns.
Watched the Easter Story Slideshow the Explorers created back in 2019 (where they created the scenes with Lego, photographed them, then I imported photos into the software program Kid Pix Deluxe 3 where the girl’s later added voice-overs for the individual slides, then put it all into a slide-show.)
While they watched the Easter Slideshow they ate their Peanut Butter Confetti Bars they had made. The girls got a kick out of seeing their 4-year younger selves pictured in the credits of the slideshow.
April 10th – Easter Monday – no meeting
Be Prepared and First Aid Kits
(April 17, 2023)
In preparation for our spring camping trip the girls gathered items for their First Aid Kits that were spread around the room (examples: bandages, alcohol wipes, safety pins, rain poncho, duck tape, string, whistle/light, foil blanket, piece of foil, pencil/paper, sheet of orange tissue paper). We then gathered and reviewed each item and it’s purpose. The girls who come to camp will receive first aid kits.
Kim then asked girls what items they should have in a home or camping emergency kit. Example questions and samples were provided: What if the power was out, how would you see? (flashlight – spare batteries) How would you keep warm? (foil blanket) What would you eat or drink? (canned food/rain water) How could you collect water? (using piece of foil) How could you make sure water you collected was safe to drink? (you can purchase special water bottles that filter water), etc. etc.
We then check a compass to find out which direction North was in and then determined which wall faced North, East, West, and South, in the room we were in.
Next we went over our “Be Prepared” drill items and the positions to take if there’s is lightening (make yourself small and only have feet touching floor), tornado (lay flat on stomach), blizzard (huddle with another person), make a shelter (form shelter shape with another person and one person inside shelter), North (run to that wall), South, East, West, etc. Then we played our Be Prepared Game where a drill item was shouted out and the girls had to quickly take the required position, last person in place was out, until only one person was left. Girls love this game and we played it several times!
Pie Making & 3-D Mother’s Day Cards
April 24, 2023
Tonight the girls learned the art of pie crust, using dough Luanne made before the meeting. They learned through doing–how to roll out the pie dough, gently place on and then press into a 5” aluminum pie plate, trim crust, add canned pie-filling (their choice-Blueberry, Cherry, Strawberry-Rhubarb or Apple.) They then rolled out the top crust, wet the edge of the bottom crust, added the top crust, trimmed, then fluted the edges. Pies were marked so we would know who made which. These were baked after and stored in freezer until our next meeting. Don’t they look yummy!!
Everyone also created a beautiful 3-D Mother’s Day Card.
Mother Daughter Yoga
May 2, 2023
To celebrate mother’s we turned our meeting night into a Mother Daughter Yoga night. A special thanks to Nancy Martin who was our yoga instructor for the evening!
Afterwards the girls gave their mom’s the 3-D Mother’s Day Card and Fruit Pie they had made the week before.
Luanne also passed around Cinnamon Rolls she’d made, just like her mom use to make when she was a kid, using leftover pie dough. A hit!
Tent Meeting
May 8, 2023
For our last meeting, of the season, the girls made Sit-Upons to use for camping. A plastic padded square (plastic sheeting, piece of a yoga mat for padding, duck tape to seal, and vinyl stickers to decorate). They are great to sit on around the campfire or during the day when doing crafts when we go camping, so they always have a dry place to sit. See everyone sitting on their “Sit-Upon” around the evenings indoor camp fire sing-along below.
For our hats we made a mini-sleeping bag craft.
To learn the art of putting up a tent we split the girls into two groups and each group put up a tent. Once completed they then had to take it down and store everything back inside the tent’s storage bag.
We finished the evening with an indoor campfire where we sang some of our favorite camp songs, singing lead by the older girls.
Previous Years
Year 3 (2019-2020) ~ Overview in pictures!
To view – click here
Year 2 (2018-2019) ~ Overview in pictures!
To view – click here
Year 1 (2017-2018) ~ Overview in pictures!
To view – click here
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