games & such

The newest Group Publishing e news (if you don't already get it) has some fun Christmas ideas. Scroll down.

From a TV commercial, make no bake rice krispie treat cookies & decorate to give away.

Nut mixes, dried fruit mixes. If each of the kids brings in a pound of something and you bring the zip loc bags - mix it all together, decorate the bags, bag the snack, and give it away.

Consider an assembly line project - cut felt shapes, add a Christmas tree hook, glue a picture, add glitter glue and then sequins. Assembly line projects are good for something you want to make lots of and you want them to look pretty much the same especially if you have a time limit.

Make snowflakes for the church windows assembly line for 20 minutes and then spend 10 minutes on individual snowflakes: Fold a paper in 1/4's, cut on fold lines (4 snowflakes), fold again, cut snowflakes, unfold/decorate with glitter glue. That's 5 jobs. Change jobs every 3-5 minutes and it will take about 15-20 minutes of actual work time. Keep the snowflake cutting part of the job only as long as it takes to do the other jobs. Ask the kids which they like better- assembly line or individual. Ask them why they liked or didn't like it.

For some other time of year: here's a decision-making relay for older kids. You need 2 or more teams or have any number of teams and let them race the clock for their best time. If you race the clock, each team will need a time keeper. For each team you will need a pile of hats or scarves(one for each member of the team), a pile of shirts (one for each member of the team- all T's or all button-down) and a pile of shoes (one pair for each member of the team). The first child in the team puts on a hat, then a shirt, then shoes and waits at the finish line. Then the next child goes until all teams are done. Have the kids change places in the line until each child gets to go in each spot. The next time you play the game make it more complicated: mix button down shirts and T shirts, tie shoes and slip-ons. After you play all the variations talk about the decision-making process. What was hard, what was easy. What did they like? What didn't they like? Did it get easier the more they played and practiced? How can you tie it into walking with God?

Have fun with it.