Advent Activity Wikki Books

I am SO excited for the new Advent Activity Wikki Books that I have created!  I started off by finding various activity pages that had or could be modified to have a strong Advent.  Because these would be out before Christmas, during Advent, it was important to me that these were more focused on the anticipation and preparation  of the season.  After finding activity sheets that were free for use, I imported them into  Publisher where I could add words. I also created a few pages of my own with the use of clipart. After I had all the pages ready, I printed them off, laminated them, and put them in a 3 ring binder with an instruction page.  A small pencil pouch was also put into the binder to hold the Wikki Sticks when not in use.  I LOVE the way they turned out and can't wait to see and hear how children engage with them this Advent season.

To the right is a sample of one of the pages I created.  Using images, I created a page asking children to circle with Wikki Sticks the pages they do to prepare for Christmas.

Mazes and dot to dots are great activity pages to do with Wikki Sticks.  Here I found one of an angel on the way to share the news with Mary.  I liked that this one focused on the early part of the Christmas story and had more of an Advent feel.

What would an Advent activity book be without an Advent wreath.  Children will have fun "lighting" the candles week by week.

I do NOT own the rights to any of the activity pages or clipart used throughout the project but did borrow them all from sites that said they were free for use.

For the success of the activity books, I felt it was important to educate people that these books exist and their purpose.  I wrote up the following for our December church newsletter:

BEYOND BUSY BAGS: Introducing NEW worship materials!

Education experts have known and practiced for decades that learning happens best through hands-on experience and play. Enter any preschool classroom and you will see learning manipulatives, activities and games galore!  A few years ago, I decided to capitalize on my education experience and bring some of these same best practices into the worship center.  I began developing and creating materials for young worshipers that would not just keep them quite and busy, but also help them learn more about the liturgical season, scripture lessons, and other key aspects of worship.  Over the last few weeks I have been back at it and have created a host of materials for young worshipers (birth-elementary) to enhance their worship experience.  On the shelving unit outside of the worship center, you will find an array of worship materials intended to be brought into worship for children’s use. Among the materials you will find a magnetic nativity set to use in retelling the Advent and Christmas stories, magnetic nativity themed tangram puzzles, and Wikki Stick activity books centered on the Advent season and later the Christmas and Epiphany seasons.  Inside the busy bags, our youngest worshipers will find nativity themed lacing cards and finger puppets.  Please encourage children to use the materials.  Please be patient with children as we all learn how to make the best use of these materials.  Please help children clean up and return materials for continued use.  I look forward to hearing how these materials shape your child’s understanding of the upcoming Advent and Christmas seasons and worship experience.

Walking with you,

Billie Jo Wicks

Director of Youth Ministries and Diaconal Intern

I can't wait to hear what this sparks for you and how you might make use of these ideas in your context!

Gifts to Serve Game

This past weekend we had a 7th grade confirmation retreat.  As part of this event, we spent some talking about the marks of discipleship, including service.  To get students thinking creatively about ways they might use their gifts to serve the church, I created a game called Gifts to Serve.  You may recognize the format follows a popular fruit to fruit game. 

Here's how it works.  I created green cards with service opportunities using the pdf you will find below.  I tried to keep them fairly generic so they can be used by a variety of contexts.  If any don't fit your context, feel free to toss them out.  

I then made a big stack of red cards, enough for each student to have 5 each.  As a group, brainstorm a list of adjectives to describe people and gifts they might have.  Things like loud, tall, young, funny, musical, coordinated, organized, smart, etc.  I encouraged them to not go negative, but honestly a couple on the slightly negative side did make for comical pairings.  

In groups of 5-10, have one person be designated at the judge for that round and select a green service card.  Each student chooses a red "gifts" card of theirs to pair with the green "service" card and tosses it into a pile face down.  After all red cards are laid, the judge flips the red cards over and picks the pairing they like best.  They might pick a funny one, a serious one, or the one that is the most unlikely.  It us up to the judge!  The person who laid the selected red card, keeps the green card.  The laid red cards are mixed up and redistributed at random to the players.  The round 1 winner becomes the round 2 judge and play continues!

Get the PDF of game cards here!

I hope you have as much fun with the game as we did.  We are already looking forward to playing it again.

Shine

This little light of mine,  I'm going to let it shine!

We are all familiar with the song of our childhood and it all seems so simple when we are young.  Jesus is the light of the world and we shine with his love when we do good things: when we take turns,  share,  be a good friend,  listen to our parents.  Those are all ways children will tell you they can shine.  They seem simple,  easy for the most part. The last few days,  I've been reflecting on this idea of shine and as easy as it is tackle this idea with kids, it amazes me how complicated we make it as adults.  Allow me to prove my point.  Take a minute,  close your eyes and make a mental list of 5 ways YOU shine.

Maybe you are better at this than some, but I’d wager a Caribou or two that the majority of people can't do this.  I don't believe this isn't because we shine less as we get older.  I believe it had more to do with our not recognizing the light when it's right there in our faces.  It's almost like we become desensitized to the light.  In a world where only the Instagram worthy moments are celebrated or acknowledged,  we pass by the thousands of other moments of light that fill up our lives.

Allow me to take a few minutes and shine a flashlight on some of the lights I've noticed since I start intentionally searching for them.

I see a dad who shines in the night when he  forgoes his bed half the night to sleep upright in a recliner so his sick baby can breathe.

I see a friend who shines when she makes a special effort with gluten free snacks so another child feels included at a birthday party.

I see a thirteen year old boy who shines when he gives up time on his electronics to help his little brother build a snowman.

I see a grandpa who shines by giving a ride to a kiddo who didn't make the bus.

I see friends who shine by bringing another family dinners because sometimes life throws a lot at us.

I see a neighbor who shines by making a special trip back home when he gets a call that a neighbor needs help getting her groceries inside.

I see a co-worker who shines when she brings a coffee to someone who's had a tough week.

I see a mom who shines when she passes on a shower because the 10 minute she should have had is used helping her child with a project.

I see a patient cook who shines when she takes the extra time to let a child shine by cracking the eggs,  even if it means fishing shells out.

None of these moments in and of themselves are huge tasks.  If we did share them on social media,  they certainly wouldn't go viral,  but they are the moments that make our lives,  our world, shine a little brighter collectively.  

Maybe when we look for light,  we spend too much energy focusing on the searchlights and don't pay enough attention to the collective flickering flames all around us. My challenge to you this Epiphany season is to close your eyes every now and then and think about light.  Maybe a moment or two with our eyes closed is what we need to better see the light shining around us. And while we're at it, maybe we need to add another verse to our childhood shining song.

Don't let adulting whoooo it out, I'm gonna let it shine!

Let it shine! Let it shine! Let it shine!