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Ideas For Your Kids Club or Holiday Club

Christine Semple

It’s sometimes difficult to come up with new ideas for a kids program but when you are basing your program on Colin Buchanan’s DVD, ‘The Good News Parcel Company’, the possibilities are limitless! Whilst it was never intended that we would provide a complete program, we hope that the material presented might stimulate your thinking as you plan your own activities.

As there are seven segments on the DVD, it will be necessary for you to compact the segments to fit them into your 5day program. However, a range of ideas have been included. The first section provides some general ideas and this is followed by activities which target the different segments of the DVD (although there is overlap between each and you will need to select and adapt those that fit with the approach). Consider the age and abilities of your group and safety factors involved.

If you are happy to share your ideas with others, we would be pleased to receive these from you and hopefully we may be able to add some of them to the website. Please them to us.

Finally there is a list of resources which have been produced by “Youthworks” which may also assist you with your planning.

An Overview – material reproduced from the teaching notes
Please refer to the download section in this article to download a complete copy of these notes:

Kids Club or lunchtime school group
‘The Good News Parcel Company’ DVD could be used as the basis for a term’s work at a Kids Club or lunchtime school group. Using each segment as the basis of the week’s lesson, it would cover a 7 or 8 week program. It is highly recommended to add a special week at the end where parents and friends are invited to celebrate the highlights of what has been learnt and achieved.
A good theme to highlight in your Kids Club would be the ‘free gift’ theme. Other creative themes to pursue could include: a workshop theme, puppet theme, ‘super’ theme, pirate theme.
At the end of the term every child is given their own copy of ‘The Good News Parcel Company’.

Holiday program
The DVD could be used as a basis for July or October kids’ holiday outreach activities. The program could be as short as three ½days (say, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday) or 5 full days.
Lessons for a 3 day program might include:
* God is great/God’s do list – love Him and love others
* We fall/that failure is sin – we are sinners/Jesus smashes sin
* Jesus crushes death/by faith, in trust, we can serve Jesus/are you?
The value of the kids’ program could be further extended by a family outreach event such as a Bush Dance on the Saturday evening or an all-age Sunday service, where parents and friends are invited. Songs and other material from the week’s activities can be used and art and craft work, as well as photos (or a power-point presentation) can be displayed.
Example of a 5 day program
For a 5 day program, the DVD structure could be used as the basis for each day’s main teaching point with every child receiving their own DVD at the end of the week.
Using a DVD segment as an introduction, a short talk could follow, emphasising the main points.
Small groups could then discuss the major points, complete an activity sheet, then join together for songs and prayer to conclude the session. They could also learn a memory verse each day.
The corresponding songs could be taught and crafts and games that complement the idea could be used.
* Day 1: We need to obey God because he is in charge! (watch Segment 3)
Sing – Love the Lord - Memory Verse – Revelation 4:11 or Matthew 22: 37-39 (shortened version)
* Day 2: We all fail to obey God as we should! (watch Segment 4)
Sing – Ze Baddest Sickness in the World is Sin - Memory Verse – Romans 3:23
* Day 3: Jesus is the sin-defeating Saviour! (watch Segment 5)
Sing – Super Saviour - Memory Verse – 1 Peter 3:18a
* Day 4: Jesus is the ONLY Way, Truth and Life (watch Segment 6)
Sing – Hoo Cha Cha (John 14:6) - Memory Verse – John 14:6
* Day 5: Follow Jesus (watch Segment 7)
Sing – Are you serving Captain Jesus? - Memory Verse – John 8:12

Themes
Main theme - Free Gift
Jesus saves and being saved is a free gift from God.
The DVD is a free gift

Creative Themes
• Workshop theme
• Puppet theme
• Parcel theme
• Super hero theme
• Outer space theme
• Prehistoric theme
• Pirate theme

Any of these themes could form the basis of a holiday club and provide ideas for decorating the space and dressing up. Alternatively, they could be used as the basis of a theme for each day or one theme could be selected for a special dress-up day. It is suggested that dressing up is not a feature every day as this will become a burden for many families, unless an easy ‘symbolic costume’ is made at the beginning of the day.

Good News Parcel Theme (these ideas could be incorporated into any segment of your program)
• Following the idea of the DVD, wrap items as parcels from ‘The Good News Parcel Company’ and decorate the wrapping. For example, each day a parcel could be unwrapped to give clues about the day’s activities. At the end of the day, a clue could be given to create expectation for the following day. [Note: the logo of the “Good News Parcel Company” is available as a download on ‘brown paper’ or in black and white here.

• Using the ‘Pass the Parcel’ game, you could focus on a creative presentation of the memory verse for the day. Children pass the parcel as music from the DVD is played (they might even sing along!). When the music stops the child unwraps a layer which sometimes reveals a clue.
For example, the words could be written on a number of balloons which, when blown up, enlarge the text. The children then rearrange themselves so that the verse makes sense. You might want to get one of the children to look up the verse in the Bible to check it. Balloons can then be popped as children progressively learn the verse.
Children could also unwrap clues to hiding places where cards can be found which contain words from the memory verse. Again, these need to be rearranged to make sense.

• ‘Pass the Parcel could also be played towards the end of the day to reinforce the teaching for that day. Have objects or pictures of objects wrapped in a pass the parcel. Pass around to music (from the DVD). When the music stops, a layer is unwrapped. If the child unwraps one of the items, they tell the group how it fits into the teaching for the day.

• Children could bring the name and address of friend and could wrap up a copy of the DVD to post to him/her. A card or letter written by the child could be included and a photo of the child taken during the week could also be included.

• Children could wrap up a parcel to take home for their parents containing the magazine format of Mark’s gospel or “The Essential Jesus” and could also include a card telling about their experiences during the week and/or a photo of themselves during one of the activities (it’s helpful to assign one person with the task of taking lots of digital photos during the week).

Craft
Make your own puppet friend
A simple puppet idea for kids is a sock puppet. Using the example below as a guide, they could create their own puppet, adding hair and facial features as required. Eyes can often be bought in packets at a discount store.

Colouring competition
A line-drawing of the DVD cover can be downloaded here and used as a colouring competition.

Games
General game for DVD
Scavenger Hunt - plant objects (or small pictures of objects) that relate to the DVD in a specified area - for example a rocket, card, post office package, dolls house, tea cup, inflatable animal etc. Send children in groups to see who can discover and return the “lost objects”. Children then relate these objects as they watch the DVD.

General revision game - Snap snap clap clap.
Choose three themes or revision aspects of the program you’ve done that day that can have an action created for it eg super hero, pirate, puppet, shark. Leader out the front stands with his/her back to the children. While the leader clicks fingers and claps hands - “snap, snap, clap clap” – the children choose an action to mime. The leader turns around doing one of the actions - if what the leader is doing is what the children are doing, those children are out.

Thinkatron/memory game
Run a Bible skills session as a competition, having children look up books of the Bible and memory verses used in the teaching. Have small prizes for the winner of each round.

Singing
The songs for each segment could be taught each day. The words of the songs will be displayed if ‘Sing-a-long’ is selected when the DVD begins. Songs for each day can become the background music and children will soon sing-a-long! Don’t forget ‘Remember the Lord’ which is part of the bonus features section. Many of the songs are action songs or give opportunities for dance sessions.

Quick Questions
Prepare ‘quick questions’ each day to use for revision. Sample questions are given for some segments.

Memory Verses
Choose an appropriate memory verse for each day. Some have been suggested but other verses may be more appropriate for your group and for the teaching point you may choose. Take care that verses are not too long. In some instances, the Good News translation may be more appropriate for children. You may also need to ‘compact’ the verse.

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