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!

Learning about Earth's Atmosphere

We are currently studying Apologia's Astronomy and this week's chapter talked about Earth's atmosphere.  I've seen lots of ways to visually show this on Pinterest, but this is one useful way that I came up with after finding different colored granulated wax and clear jars at Hobby Lobby.
Granulated wax is perfect for kid crafts because it doesn't need to be melted before using.  You just pour it!
Each family (which for our class is two or three kids for the most part) got a glass jar and I explained that each color wax would represent the different layers of the atmosphere.  We had just gone over what all the layers are and information about them and all, so this project was to visually cement the idea in their minds.
They started by putting a glue dot on the end of the wick and gluing it to the bottom of their jar.  Makes it much easier to keep the wick straight while you are pouring layers of wax around it!
Then, they were allowed to take turns filling their jar with the different layers of wax and label which part of the atmosphere it was.

You can see in this picture that I did melt a little bit of the wax to pour over the top to seal it so the wax wouldn't spill for the car ride home with kids.

Pretty cool right?  Earth's Atmosphere Candles = fun and useful science project :)

Awesome Baby Shower Gifts

When I was a kid and my mom was still having babies, there was a lady in our church that would make the most soft and beautiful blankets for every baby that was born.  She kept llamas and would spin and dye the wool herself.  Each blanket was a super treasured heirloom and whenever she came to a baby shower you knew exactly what gift she had brought.
Sadly, by the time I began having babies she no longer kept llamas or made blankets :(
My goal has always been to have some amazing gift that I can bring to baby showers like that.

A Diaper Wallet to throw in a purse, stroller, or the car

Holds about a day's worth of diapers, wipes, and butt cream

Wooden, silicone, and crochet bead teethers - all natural and very, very fun to play with!

My niece's birthday gift

I used a pattern from Etsy to make this darling house for a family of bunnies!  The bunny pattern is from Creativity in Pieces and I made up several carrots and a little water dish as well for them.  I also made each bunny make noises (one rattles, one squeaks, and one jingles).
I had SO MUCH FUN decorating this little house!  I added craft foam between the pieces of felt to make it strong enough to stand up to lots of rough play and made one side of the roof open to easily get the bunnies in and out.  My niece turned two, so she was more thrilled about the bunnies, but I think she'll become more enamored with the house as she gets bigger.  Even if she never does, it was really fun to make :)

Astronomy Escape Room

We are studying Apologia's Astronomy textbook this semester and for our chapter about Earth I decided to do an Escape Room.  If you've never done one of these before they are super popular right now.  Basically the idea is that your team is "locked" in a room and must solve puzzles to escape.
We went to a fun Escape Room on vacation with my in-laws, but they are very expensive so I wrote one for my class to do.
There are three puzzles the kids had to solve and it took them about 30 minutes.  I was in the room, but I didn't help them at all.  They had to work together as a team.
I began by explaining that they were all junior scientists working for NASA and they had to stop a meteor from hitting the Earth by launching a rocket to explode the meteor.  However, their boss had the code and he was stuck in traffic!  They needed to solve the puzzles in the room to get the final code word to save the Earth!

The first puzzle was a layers of the Earth puzzle that went along with chapter five of the Apologia book.  I wrote the code and instructions to unlock the box for the next puzzle on various layers and they had to put it together in order to get the order and numbers for the lock.

Here is a picture of the box.  Inside was all the components (except water) for the next puzzle (also from the book), a compass.

Figuring out the puzzle

In this picture you can see them working on the first puzzle, the green lockbox with the compass pieces, the water, and the final word lock which is the brown bag.

The instructions for the compass were in their notebooks which I gave them in the room.  The rule was they could use anything in the room, but they could not leave the room to get anything.

The compass instructions included the clue to check all four directions for their next puzzle.  I wrote on the various space posters with invisible ink pens and had blacklight flashlights for them to use.  This was a HUGE hit!  They were SO SO SO excited when they found these clues.

You can see the clue in the light above

Each letter had a symbol by it...

They had to check the book to see what symbol went with what planet

Then they had to put the planet symbols in order to spell out the final mystery word

The final word to unlock the room was "solar"

The prize for finishing?  Earth cookies of course!  The kids all LOVED the hands-on way of reviewing what we learned about with the Earth.  I am planning on writing another Escape Room when we study the weather...stay tuned ;)

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!

Power Ranger Birthday Party

We recently had a super fun, super crazy birthday party for my son with ten of his friends.  It was a LOT of testosterone running around :)
Here are the games that we played since it is SO hard to find fun games for parties:

First, we made "morphers" or "throwing stars" with cut up cardboard cereal boxes, duck tape, stickers, and sharpies.
A punch board with different colored Power Ranger sashes in them.  I bought satin ribbon on sale at Hobby Lobby and used freezer paper stencils and paint to put the symbol from the newest movie on them.
Then, we had a Nerf "shooting the bad guys" contest.  I used this fun beanbag toss game my sister-in-law made my kids for Christmas last year and taped printed Power Ranger villains to the inside of the holes.  It was WAY harder than it looked but the boys loved it.
After that, we had water balloon training outside.  My husband was in charge of this so I could clean up from feeding the masses.  He had them toss a balloon back and forth, try to hit one tossed at you with a bat, and see how far you could throw it.
Next, the birthday boy had made up an obstacle course in our back yard that he wanted everyone to follow him and do so they all ran around and did that for a while.
The final game that we used was a "collect the energems" game.  I made up 100 energems using bead tubes, glue, water, and glitter.  I hot glued the tops on so they wouldn't come off.  I also made bags for each child using iron on printed Power Rangers to match their color sash.  (I got the bags at Hobby Lobby too)  They each got to find 10 energems and then we split them so they had one of each color.  It was a bit like an Easter Egg hunt, but the boys loved it and because my husband hid all the energems for me, it took them a while to find them all.  It was pretty cool to see them helping each other after they found all their items and working together so nicely.  Totally worth all the time I put into making the little things!
For party favors the boys took home their sashes, bags, energems, and a small bag of candy (pulled from my kids' 4th of July stash, lol)  It ended up being a super loud, but super smooth, easy party!

All the sashes drying.  I used craft acrylic paint on satin ribbon and it worked beautifully!

The bags.  Birthday boy got the super big picture.  They turned out pretty cool.

The nerf game.  You could also use a cardboard box with cutout holes but I happened to have this.

The top view of the punch board.  I used clear cups because A. I had them and B. I could see what color sash each kid would get that way.  Some had strong preferences.

Front view of the punch board.