I went to the post from two years ago, where that year’s Fun with Friends photos are. And, I have to say, they’re much like the photos from this year. Different kids. Same sorts of messes. Same sorts of FUN!!!
A number of years ago, I was wanting to have some more time, beyond the hour of Sunday School on Sundays, and beyond what we did in Bible School, to be able to provide some creative, interesting things for preschoolers to do. Music Camp was happening for school-age children, and I proposed to have some creative activities for preschool kids who had finished Pre-K and Kindergarten. I followed the Music Camp schedule and called the event Fun with Friends. The first group of kids who came to Fun with Friends are eighth or ninth graders now. We do Science one year and Art the next. This year was Art year.
We usually follow the Music Camp schedule, which is five days, sometimes mornings, sometimes evenings, in late June. Music Camp has been put on hold for a while, so I could plan a schedule that worked for more preschool families. We went with a four-Saturday schedule, 9-to-noon. It worked really well. Peter was able to come for the last two.
Saturday I-Collage
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- Working together here to add a variety of collage items into the middle of letters that spell “Fun with Friends.”
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- A variety of paper shapes are glued to paper at the easel.
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- Crayon shavings are sprinkled onto waxed paper, another piece of waxed paper is placed on top, then an adult pressed a warm iron over the paper, which melts the crayon pieces into interesting designs.
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- Collage day snacks–pizza collages
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- Everyone is hard at work on sand and seashell collages.
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- We had Eric Carle books to look at and read, because his illustrations are collages.
Saturday II-Drawing
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- Working together as a group, adding different colored items into sections of a color wheel
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- Easels are not just for painting!
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- Kids drew designs on cookie dough using edible markers.
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- Oil pastels work really well on dark, dark paper.
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- July can be pretty hot, but this day was nice enough for chalk drawing outside.
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- Many book illustrations are drawings.
Saturday III-Painting and Printing
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- Paints, brushes, and sponge shapes, and kids making a space mural.
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- Painting at the easel with a sponge roller.
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- For snack, kids painted designs on bread, using milk tinted with food colors.
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- We painted with tennis balls by rolling them back and forth through paint puddes in a great big box.
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- And they painted with their bare feet.
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- This is printing with a textured piece of a tray, wrapped around a rolling pin.
Saturday IV-Sculpture
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- I have been collecting/saving all sorts of things, like cardboard tubes and marker lids and plastic bottles and round tissue boxes, and stuff like that, for months and months.
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- They worked and worked and worked on their group sculpture. If I had not made them stop, because we needed to make our sculpture snack, they would have worked until noon.
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- Each kid had a blob of bread dough to shape into a sculpture, as well as almonds, raisins, and pretzel sticks to add.
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- Sometimes the thing I think will be exciting and interesting and keep children working does not work out that way. Other times, I just put out something that might, maybe, maybe not, be interesting. In our church resource room, I saw these chenille sticks and plastic straw pieces. I thought, well, it might be interesting. They worked and worked and worked with them.
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- The finished color wheel from drawing day, the completed and dried) tennis ball painting, and the solar painted mural
Jesus called a small child over to him and set the little fellow down among them, and said, “Unless you turn to God from your sins and become as little children, you will never get into the Kingdom of Heaven. Therefore anyone who humbles himself as this little child is the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven. And any of you who welcomes a little child like this because you are mine is welcoming me and caring for me.
Matthew 18:2-5 (The Living Bible)
It’s interesting to me that, when Jesus’ disciples came to him to ask the question about which of them would be the greatest in the Kingdom of Heaven, He calls over a small child. This means that there just happened to be a little kid nearby. I hadn’t really thought about the day-to-dayness of Jesus, and how there must have been people around Him and them, wherever He happened to be staying, visiting, walking by. I certainly feel better when there’s a little kid nearby. And ready for some fun.
It was SO much fun and I made some new friends.