This month, we kicked off a brand new theme for GIFT: Family Faith Detectives. I have lots of fun spy-themed projects and activities for the families to do this year, and to start us out, every child got a "decoder ring." I found some foam decoders at Oriental Trading Company, which as of the date of this post are still available. But it would be quite easy to make your own! You just need a symbol for each letter of the alphabet. (With the OTC version, I pre-assembled just the ring part, saving the clip & magnet for some future project and discarding the pre-printed clue.) Here's the photo and link from their website:
http://www.orientaltrading.com/agents-of-truth-clip-magnet-vbs-craft-kit-a2-13647851.fltr?Ntt=agent
I also made "Detective's Guide" booklets for each grade, which they received with their textbooks. In the Guides are there homework schedules, the clue page for each month (to go with the decoder ring), and an extra activity page in case they need more to do while waiting for the program to begin. For October, we learned about Creation, so the clue spelled out: "All Life Comes From God." After letting one of the children share the answer, we talked about the 2 Creation stories in the Bible, and then I showed a fossil sample and talked about what science has told us about how the Earth was formed. So here was our first mystery for the year: Which of these 3 stories is true? The answer - they all are! The Biblical creation stories are myths that teach us some very important Truths about God, Life, and humankind's place in the world and in relation to our God. We talked about how being made in God's image means we can all "show" God to others through our actions, and we can look for signs of God in the people around us. We started doing just that in our own little GIFT community, playing the game "Getting to Know You BINGO"
Click here to download a pdf of Getting to Know You BINGO
Security Badges with a Secret Message
As everyone arrived, they made Security Badges for each family member at GIFT. These are basically just clip-on name tags that they wear each month, so I can call on people by name. But I like to make them fit the theme, so this year they are Security Badges. After playing the BINGO game, I asked the kids to take a closer look and find the "secret message" hidden on their badges!
Click here to download a pdf of the Security Badges
Progressive Craft
A progressive craft is one that we begin at our first session, and then we add to it each month. By the end of the year, the project is complete. This year, we are making Braided Bookmarks. We made the braid and added the first charm - the globe - this month. We will add the other charms as the year goes on, for a total of 6 charms.
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