Solving the Problem of "What Now?"

One of the biggest challenges in planning a session for a large group of kids with an age spread of four years is managing what we call "Art & Snack Time."  This is the "free time" of each session, when families have snack and complete art projects and other tasks related to the lesson at their own pace.  And that's what makes it so hard to plan - each child has their own unique pace.  Some children will spend copious amounts of time coloring a flower until it is "just right."  Other children will slap on a little color, call it done, and ask, "What now?"  As in, I'm done with that, what can I do now?  For the past few years, I've answered that question with what I called "optional worksheets."  I would just have an assortment of puzzles, mazes or word finds for kids to pick and choose.  It worked fairly well for a lot of kids, but this year I decided to step it up a notch and offer a better variety of activities that would not just fill the time but would to some extent support the lesson of the day or the general concept of living our faith.  Since our theme for the year is "Family Faith Under Construction," I created The Workshop.

 

Kids can visit The Workshop after completing their main "Art & Snack Time" tasks. 

Certain items will be the same each month, like these Share Sticks:

Kids take a stick from the paint can back to the table to stir up a fun family "What If" talk

 

 

Other items will change from month-to-month to fit both the theme of the lesson and whatever season we are in at the time.  These items include books, activity sheets like mazes and word puzzles, and a simple crafty activity.  Kids choose just the things they want to do, and if they run out of time, they can take something home.  Here's a photo of The Workshop for our October session:



 I'm looking forward to coming up with fun new items to add each month!  Got a great idea?  Leave a comment!

October GIFT: Join the Crew!

Our theme for GIFT this year is "Family Faith Under Construction," and our October session is called "Join the Crew!"  As we gather for the first time this year, we focus on these points:

Ø  Our families help us put God first and build our faith

Ø  The Saints were people who put God first and built up the church

Ø  Families commit to building faith together

Each month, we will find a tool in our tool box that symbolizes our lesson for us.  This month, it's a ruler/tape measure.  This is a very important tool in construction - ask any carpenter, and they will tell you - "Measure twice, cut once."  When we are building our faith, we too need to consult our ruler - God!  Our Bible verse for this lesson is from Psalm 127: "Unless the Lord builds the house, the work of the builders is useless."

To get kids thinking about the session theme, we begin the lesson with this handout for parent/child pairs to work on together:

We talked about building strong families and about families building their faith together.  We also talked a little about the Saints - holy people who built both things we can see & touch (like schools and hospitals), as well as things we can't touch (like faith, hope, and charity).  Parents and children were asked to discuss what "untouchable" things they wanted to build on or "grow" in their families - things such as love, kindness, together time, being closer to God, and knowing more about their faith.  After sharing their ideas with other families and in the large group, we went on to discuss the "how" - what are the concrete things families can do to build up their family and their faith?  Some ideas were: going to Mass, reading Scripture, doing their GIFT textbook homework, praying together, and eating meals together.  They used those ideas to write a "Family Covenant" in the space at the bottom of the page.  Kids could choose to cut it out & glue it to card stock to make a bookmark keepsake to use this year:

Click here to download the My Family Rules page.

Progressive Craft:
Each year, I have a "progressive craft" for GIFT - this is something the kids make at the first session, and then they add on to it at future sessions.  This month, we made a tool box that will hold the things we make in future months (I can't tell yet what that will be - tune in in November!).  The toolbox comes out looking like this:

You can download the pattern and directions for the toolbox by clicking here.  Remember to print it on card stock to make it sturdy!

Thanks to all of our great GIFT families who made our first session of the year so much fun!