Bible I-Spy Game

 Continuing my summer of creating fun Bible games for Sparks - here is another:

Bible I-Spy

I collected a bunch of random little objects and came up with verses to go with each. The box I cut down into about an inch and a half height.  The plastic on the top is from a box of Christmas ornaments.  I duct taped it together REALLY well to withstand 5-7 year olds shaking it around.  The filler is just rice :) The cards I made by printing onto full sheet sticker labels, cutting them out, and attaching to blank playing cards.  Several kids can play at once.  Someone draws a card, everyone looks together, and whoever spies the item first gets to claim the card.  We probably won't make it super competitive though - the fun is in searching together.

HERE is the google drive document of the cards I made if that helps you in creating your own Bible I-Spy game.  It was really kind of fun and stretching for me to try and find Bible verses for some of the random items I found (although I tried to use Gospel Wheel & Sparks verses as much as possible).

Hi Ho Cherry-O: Fruit of the Spirit Edition

 Another game idea for Sparks.  I loved the idea of Hi Ho Cherry-O, but all those little cherries sounded like such a mess!  I had a bunch of 1" porcupine balls that are very fruity colored so I thought a fruit of the spirit version of the game was in order.

I mod-podged the trees onto dollar store foam board and then used my husband's band saw to cut them out.  I also cut out inside the circles so the balls can sit into them.  I made up the spinner & borrowed some small colored cups from another game & it's ready to go!  Good practice taking turns, following directions, and hopefully learning some fruits of the spirit too :) My favorite part is the sharing space on the spinner where a kid not only gets a fruit ball from their tree, but they also get to share one with a friend too. Unlike the original game that is only four players, my version is for six kids since the tree boards just slip into the bag with all the pieces when done.

Noah's Ark Fling

 Summer is the perfect time to plan new stuff for Sparks!  This fall I am going to try having a set of games per team that I will rotate each week so all the kids will get to play them once a month or so.  I am hoping to have 3-4 games per team so I am on the lookout for fun new games!  I had an idea for a couple that I couldn't find being made commercially so I made my own.

Noah's Ark Fling: a six player game where each kid has a bowl of 12 little animals that they are trying to catapult into the "ark" at the same time.  First one to get all their animals (or just a set of 2 depending on the ability level of the team) into the ark wins!  You could make a cardboard ark or use a toy, but I wanted mine to store pretty flat so I modified one of those fabric collapsible storage bins into an ark.  I made the catapults out of popsicle sticks using this pin as instructions.

Hopefully the pictures help somewhat or inspire you to create your own game!

Sparks Rank Help

 The first six verses in every level of Sparks are the rank verses that follow the letters SPARKS.  Because each kid learns in a different way, I like to have a variety of activities that will help them learn these verses.

First, here is a coloring page I made based on a pin I saw on Pinterest.  I've used it a couple years now and it has definitely helped some of the more visual-learning five-year-olds remember their verses.

Second, I saw the super cool VBS verse-a-day craft on Oriental Trading and thought that would make an AWESOME craft for Sparks!

I printed all the verses on this clear sticker paper I got from Amazon with a 2nd sheet on top because the ink wouldn't quit smudging.  The top piece and Sparky guys are all printed on regular paper and attached with glue dots.

I cut craft foam into 2.75" squares for the top diamond and 1.5"x 4.5" rectangles for each verse.  I will put the glue dots on the back of each paper piece and make individual kits in ziploc bags for each kid.

Here is a view of the back - I just used dot stickers to attach the curly ribbon for hanging.

I expect this will be a pretty leader heavy craft as the kids will likely need help organizing the verses into the right order.  However, they should be able to do all the stickers themselves and the result is a pretty large (approximately 18" assembled) craft they can hang up at home to help them learn their Spark rank verses.

Want to make some with your Sparks?  I linked the Spark stickers (which I collected from around the web) and the verse sheet (to print onto the clear sticker paper) below.

Spark Rank Craft Verses

Spark Rank Craft Stickers

Dress Up Sparky Game

 I'm always on the lookout for more creative, cooperative, fun games for Sparks.  This year I saw a game on Oriental Trading for dressing up a character in the armor of God and thought, that would make a great Sparks game!

Several hours of work later and here it is - the Dress Up Sparky Game!

The concept is pretty simple - each kid gets a Sparky guy card, on their turn they roll to discover the category they will pick from to add a costume piece to their card.  If they roll a category they already have, they have the choice of swapping it out or keeping what they've got.  The game ends when all of them have dressed their Sparky guy.  I'm hoping it will be a hit.

Since I have a pretty large club, I made enough for 10 kids to play at a time on each team.  If you have a smaller club you won't have to print or laminate as much as I did.  I printed these from my local UPS store and it only cost me $5 per team, which I thought was pretty good.  I cut out, laminated, and cut out again for everything so it should last for years of play.

Want a set for your Sparks?  All the files I made are linked below :)

Sparky Guy Cards

Sparky Dress Up Outfits

Game Spinner

Awana Thank You Gifts

 This is my church's 25th year of doing Awana. Man that makes me feel old!

I figured we needed super cool Awana thank you gifts for directors this year, but it is really difficult to find Awana themed gifts.

So I got creative and here's what I came up with: EASY to make Awana themed key fobs!  All you need is 7/8" grosgrain ribbon (I used white, yellow, & patterns for Trek), light colored iron-on transfer paper, 1.25" cotton webbing (I used black, red, green, & blue), & the key fob hardware.  I got my ribbon, webbing, & hardware off Etsy, but I've seen it at Hobby Lobby and Amazon and anywhere you can get crafty stuff.

Cubbies isn't pictured here because I was waiting on the blue cotton webbing to finish it.

The process is pretty simple - you print out the logos on iron on transfer paper (I've linked the page I made which is already reversed so it's ready to print and go). Then follow the directions on the iron-on paper to iron the logos onto ribbon.

Here are some of my ribbons freshly ironed.  I should have cut the black lines off the edges of the Sparks one, but oh well.

Then, I stitched the ribbons down onto the cotton webbing with my sewing machine.  All straight stitches and very quick!  Then, stitch the two ends together to make a loop with the ribbon on the outside, and attach the key fob hardware with pliers over where you stitched the ends together!

Easy, Fast, But SO Cool Looking for a Special Thank You Gift for Awana Leaders or Directors.

Why Should I Memorize the Bible Scavenger Hunt

 

For a quick and easy activity for Sparks this week, I made this Why Should I Memorize the Bible Scavenger Hunt.  Just print the pictures and hide them around your room.  Then give each kid the scavenger hunt page and let them check off when they've found the picture.  You can go over each verse or just pick a couple to highlight for reasons memorizing Scripture is so important in Awana.

5 Ways We Can Have Joy Sticker Scavenger Hunt

 My Sparks group LOVES scavenger hunts!  I figured a sticker scavenger hunt would be even MORE fun so I made a page for each kid that includes 5 Ways We Can Have Joy and stickers for each one.  I hid an envelope with stickers in five different locations in our church and sent each Sparks group on a hunt with their leaders to each location.  When they got there they would read the verse and put the sticker on the correct spot.  I printed the sticker page on full sheet labels and cut them out ahead of time.

Gospel Wheel Bracelet Craft

I have been on the hunt for more Gospel Wheel related activities and crafts.  For this one, I wanted to combine the Gospel Wheel with the Wordless Book.  It took a while to find all the beads I had in mind (Etsy was a great resource for this!) in the quantities I needed them - I have fifty Sparks this year so I needed quite a few!  I put together each kit in a snack size bag so it was easy for the kids to put them together as their leader went over the Gospel Wheel with them.  I LOVE how visual and tactile this bracelet is in re-enforcing the Gospel message.

I got the chain in bulk from Amazon with the connectors and cut them to size for the kids (I did a six inch length and that was great for almost everyone.  I did bring the wire cutters to adjust for anyone who wanted that.)

Gold smile and gold beads for the character of God being holy.

Black heart and black beads for the character of man being sinful.

The metal cross bead with red beads for God's action of the cross. (I did have to drill the cross bead hole bigger to fit the chain)

White heart and white beads for man's action of trusting.

The green heart and beads for the heart of the Gospel message.

 

Missions Craft

I saw these awesome plastic button keychains at Hobby Lobby and knew they would be perfect for a Sparks craft.
We are doing a couple mission themed nights so I created a small circle picture (google docs makes it weird, but I used Microsoft Word and washed out the globe and then used text effects to curve the verse to fit the circle) that fits inside that they can color and then add heart confetti in the keychain.  I love how they turned out!

Best kind of craft - simple, inexpensive, not too messy, and it shakes!

Button Canvases

For Awana tonight we did Pastor Appreciation Night and I found the BEST craft on Pinterest!
Each team in Sparks had a bowl of buttons and a variety of wooden shapes from Hobby Lobby.
They used glue dots to cover the shapes with buttons - the more covered the better!
I had gotten the canvases on sale at Hobby Lobby and pre-painted the one for Jack (our head pastor) and written out the verses in black paint sharpie.  Then, once the kids went up to game time, I hot glued the shapes onto the canvases and check it out - AWESOME appreciation gifts for our head pastor, worship pastor, and youth pastor!

Mini Snow Globe Craft

I am in the planning phase right now for the upcoming Awana Sparks year!  One of the crafts we will be doing in December are these adorable mini snow globes.  I am super excited about them.

Aren't they cool looking?  My favorite part is their durability.  I dropped one a few times on my tile bathroom floor & it didn't break!  Then I let my boys carry it around and play with them for a while.  Still intact & not leaking at all!

Here is what you need to make your own: 2" Vending Machine Bubbles, 1" cross charms (with jump ring removed), hot glue gun & glue, distilled water, glycerin, & glitter.

It took me a bit of trial and error to figure out how best to do these, but I think I've got it down to a science now.  Sparks are ages 5-7 so I wanted them to be able to do as much as possible to make it themselves.  Here are the steps I will follow: 

1) pre-hot glue the cross charms to the base (notice it is upside down!) 

2) Let each child choose their cross & write their name on the bottom

3) Let each child put 1/2 teaspoon of glitter in the globe piece

4) Let each child fill the globe piece with distilled water using a turkey baster, leaving 1/2 inch or so from top

5) Let each child put 5 drops of glycerin in the globe

6) Then I will put a line of hot glue around the lip of the lid, turn over the cross lid, set it into the globe, and make sure it seals around the edge (over a bowl just in case).  Hopefully the picture below shows this better:

Only a single line of glue is needed to fully seal the lid!  Even if the kids overfill with water the hot glue works great at sealing the globe.  Overfilling just makes the glue look less nice and professional :)  Just make sure you don't hand the snow globe to the child until the glue is dry.  With hot glue that only takes a couple minutes, yay!

And that it!  I am planning for 48 kids to participate in this project & have twenty minutes to get it done.  I plan on talking about Christmas & the best present of all (Jesus) and how even at Christmas we are looking ahead to Easter & the reason that Jesus came to earth (to die for our sins).

Originally I was going to use the lids as intended and snap them on, but the shape of the lids meant there wasn't enough water in the capsule that way.

What do you think?  I have extra capsules so I might also use them for Science Class this year with some large plastic beads.

Sparks Tic Tac Toe

I really like having easy games that my Sparks can pull out after they are done with verses or while they are waiting for their parents to pick them up. This is a super simple little Spark's themed tic tac toe that I made.

Here is the link for the printable document.

Sparks Key Verse Easter Egg Hunt

I wanted to do a fun Easter egg type hunt with my Sparks, but I knew the weather wouldn't cooperate for an outdoor hunt and my space indoors was limited to our meeting room which doesn't have a whole lot of hiding spots.  I also didn't really want to stuff a whole bunch of eggs.  So here is my creative solution!

There were 28 eggs for each team, printed on colored cardstock so it was clear whose eggs belonged to whom.  You could only search for YOUR team's color.  I taped the eggs all over the room; on the ceiling, under tables, on the wall, on the trashcan, etc.  After each team found all 28 eggs they had to assemble them into the verse and tape it on a posterboard.  Then they could decorate the poster with stickers.  It was a great challenge for this age and some of the teams were quite competitive!

Here is the link for the egg/verse template to print onto colored paper/cardstock.  I might laminate the eggs this year so I can use them again year after year.

Looking for Love Valentine Scavenger Hunt

I wanted something fun for Sparks that related to Valentine's Day - after all, as Christians we have the BEST love of all to celebrate!  So I came up with this scavenger hunt.  The basic idea is that I will hide the twelve pictures and give each kid a hunting page.  They will try to find the pictures and check off the appropriate box on their sheet.  Then when they have found them all, they will get together with their Sparks team to try and guess the verses that go with each picture - and HOPEFULLY they will have a better picture of God's love for us, the qualities of love, and loving others.

Looking for Love Scavenger Hunt

The beauty of this scavenger hunt is that it can be used in a variety of locations and situations but the main focus and purpose is to point back to Scripture and a tiny bit of what the Bible says about love.  I'm really excited about using it with my Awana Sparks!  Hope it inspires or helps you too!

St Patrick's Day Trinity Treasure Hunt

Last night for our Awana Sparks club I put together a treasure hunt for each of the four teams to go on once they were finished reciting their verses.  Since we are celebrating St. Patrick's day I wanted to focus on shamrocks and the Trinity so all the clues are themed around that as well as memorizing Scripture.
It seemed like the kids REALLY liked it!  Since I had four teams of about ten kids each, plus Leaders, I wanted to make sure they weren't all going to the same places at the same time, so I made a very simple map with the path for each team to take.  It was ideal for a large group of kids.
The basic places can be customized for almost any location.  They were: rocks, kitchen, water (fountain), hiding spot, reception desk (or just a specifically placed person), and our club room.
Here are the printables for you to use with your Sunday School, Awana group, or family!  Pretty much anything can be used as prizes - I used St. Patrick's Day shamrock pencils, punching balloons, gold coins, and shamrock stickers from the dollar tree in individual bags for each child and tied with shamrock ribbon.

Map of Treasure Hunt

Here is the Yellow Team's Clues

And the Red Team

And the Blue Team's Clues

And the Green Team's Clues

I also made this Trinity coloring page for kids to color while they were waiting to recite their verses.  I hope these help you in teaching your kids about the Trinity and celebrating St. Patrick's Day too!

Awana Sparks Bingo

This week was the first week it was too cold to let the Sparks play outside.  They have 5-10 minutes after Handbook Time to do an activity so this week I put together Sparks Bingo.  My boys LOVE playing bingo which is awesome for practicing concepts in school.  I used bingo chips (from Sing Spell Read and Write Curriculum :) for two teams & pompoms for the other two because I had them handy.  I am going to get bingo chips for all the teams since this was SO popular they played it after Handbook Time AND at the end waiting for their parents to pick them up.  One kid even told her mom she couldn't leave yet because she hadn't won bingo!
If you need something easy and fun to occupy your Spark team, I have the download for you!  I used images from Google, so just use this game for personal use so we don't break any copyright laws :)

 

Bingo Card Master
Bingo Card 1
Bingo Card 2
Bingo Card 3
Bingo Card 4
Bingo Card 5

Instructions for Bingo:

Give each player one of the five bingo cards that say Sparks Bingo and a handful of bingo chips, pompoms, cheerios, peanuts, pennies, or whatever you are using to cover the squares.

Cut around each of the master pieces on this document and put them in a bag.

The leader picks out a master piece and tells the kids what to cover – (Everyone find and cover Sparky!)

There are two ways to win – either 5 in a row OR blackout where you have to cover ALL the squares.

Have Fun!

Jesus Chooses His Disciples

The theme night for this AWANA was "All Star Night". The kids could come dressed up in a sport uniform if they wanted. So I thought we would talk about Jesus' "team" of friends he chose. I introduced the story by talking about being on a team and getting picked for a team and then explained Luke 5: 1-11 and Matthew 10:1-4 using felts. I also talked about how the word "disciple" meant "friend" - at least for our purposes :)

For our craft we did "following Jesus foam feet". I got this craft idea from Mumx6, although I modified it a little for our use.

Basically what we did was trace each child's foot on craft foam and write "Following Jesus" down the center. Then I let the kids go to town and decorate the feet with stickers, glitter glue, etc.

Ghana Night

(image credit)
We had a missionary come speak for our themed "Ghana" Awana Night. Since I didn't have to do a story for that night I had some extra activities to reinforce the Ghana theme. I got some simple books from our local library on Africa, the desert, and animals that lived there. I set up the felt board for kids to play with African animal felts and desert scenes and for our craft we made Animal Masks.

Typical Cubbie Night

I realized that I never posted our typical schedule for a night of AWANA. Since the Cubbies are only 3/4 our schedule runs a little bit differently from other clubs.

6-6:10 - Opening Ceremony. All clubs participate in Opening Ceremony, even the Cubbies. We are the first ones dismissed back to our room.

6:10-6:30 - Book Time. Since memorization is such an integral part of AWANA we make sure we have a good chunk of time set aside for reciting. I also have coloring pages available for children who are finished with their verses and a small area with toys (typically for the boys who have trouble sitting still) to keep the kids quiet and non-disruptive for the children who are still reciting verses.

6:30-6:45 - Story Time. This is my time in the spotlight :) Just kidding. I get seriously excited about sharing the Bible with my kids. After all, for 3/4 year olds with short memories it's like telling them a story they have never heard before! If I am really excited about the lesson - they will usually mirror my excitement.

6:45-6:55 - Bathroom/Drink Break. After sitting for story time preschoolers need some time to move around so I usually have each leader take their "team" of kids to the bathroom or water fountain to allow the kids to wiggle and keep the kids who don't quite have the whole potty training thing totally down a chance to empty their bladders :)

6:55-7:15 - Craft Time. I always try to have a craft that not only reflects the story, but is interesting and on a level that the Cubbies can participate and help create. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't, but it's always a fun time!

7:15-7:30 - Games/Song Time. Depending on how energetic (wild) the children are on a particular night, I might sing some action songs with them (Zacchaeus, I'm in the Lord's Army, Cubbie Song loudly then softly, etc) to allow them to move and be noisy. Or we might play a game to go with the story (this is one area I REALLY struggle with - I can never come up with good games). One of our favorite games that a former brilliant director created is called the "Animal Game". Basically you make all the kids lie down on the ground and turn out the lights (works best when it's still light outside so the kids don't get scared) and tell them when the lights go on they need to be ____ nonviolent animal. Turn the lights on, give them a couple minutes to act out the animal, turn the lights off so they lay down quietly again and think of another animal. I suggest NOT asking the kids for ideas as the boys in the room come up with the most violent animals possible. Or maybe that's just my children :)

7:30-7:45 - Snack Time. I have a sign up sheet at the beginning of the year and parents bring a simple snack (no drinks or nuts) for our 3 dozen or so kids and leaders.

7:45-8 - Award Time and Review the Story. Pretty much what it sounds like.

And that's it! Then I go home and CRASH from all the energy I expend with the children. I am always amazed at how much energy preschoolers have!