mission u

This last week I had the amazing opportunity of being a part of Mission U.

You may be wondering what Mission U is. It's a chance to study mission study topics and current issues that are impacting our society. There are classes, worship, fellowship time and that kind of thing. I'm not exactly sure what all they did each day to be honest. While all of that was happening, my job was to prepare lessons, activities, games, and crafts for the children during the day while the kids' parents were in their classes and meetings and etc.

Up until now, I had never experienced working with and teaching kids that extensively and for that much time at once. It was definitely a new experience but I learned a lot and I had a great time. Coming into the week I had no idea what ages I would be working with except that they were in elementary school...that made planning really hard. I went into the week with ideas and some activities to choose from, but I had no specific schedule or lesson plan. It was truly a "go with the flow" few days.

Meet our students!

Alora, Cameron, Keely, and Lexi.

We had four students. I was expecting there to be more but when our rosters were sent out I was, to be honest, relieved to only see four names. Since it was both mine and my helper Miranda's first time, four was a perfect number for us.

We ended up having the kids on average about 8 hours the first couple of days. The third day was a half day. We made lots of crafts, read stories and acted them out, had bible lessons, and the kid's favorite....swimming.

The theme was "Migration" so we talked about what migrate means, experiences we have had ourselves of moving from one place to another and what that was like, and what "loving our neighbor" means and looks like.

Here are some crafts we did! (Thank you Pinterest! :))

We made hand print wreaths. They turned out great! Very colorful and pretty! 

The paint drying.

They just LOVED this part. (Hint: note the sarcasm!)

The finished product. Lexi got tired of cutting so she just stopped. It still looks good though!

:)

She was really hoping she would have enough hands without having to cut her smiley face picture. Success!

To go along with the "migrate" theme and loving our neighbors...even those from different towns, states, or countries, we made the Earth. :)

This was super easy! Take a coffee filter, use a blue and green marker and color it, then spray a few sprays with the water bottle. They looked so cool and helped to brighten up the sad, boring, white room.

A close up.

We also got a list of all the names of those attending Mission U and their room number so that we could put cards that the kiddos decorated on their doors while they were in class. From what we heard they really enjoyed the nice surprise that was waiting for them! :)

Delivering the cards.

On our way to dinner we had some time to kill so we brought along some chalk and the kids left drawings along the way. They ended up leaving a path that would lead everyone to the food. 

"Tell your belly don't worry. Food ahead." (This was my favorite!)

One of their favorite activities was swimming!! And I think I enjoyed it just as much as they did.

 As another time filler we picked out some verses to talk about and then have them write and decorate the verse on poster paper. I have to share a funny story though. A couple of them were complaining and had negative attitudes sometimes so we talked a lot about being positive and how sometimes in life you have to do things you don't want to do. haha. In picking out the verses we may or may not have intentionally picked them out and specifically gave them to certain people. When it came time to start reading them one of the students started reading and was about 3 or 4 words in and stopped mid sentence and said, "Why do I feel like you gave me this verse on purpose?" It was priceless. Miranda and I were curious as to whether they would catch on to the theme or not and they definitely did. :)

Lastly, we ended with a party. We had pizza (that they were not too excited about...who would have thought?!) and a movie, as well as some goody bags (mustaches, bracelets, and candy...what could be better?!") that Miranda put together while I kept the kids entertained! Big thanks Miranda!!!

There was no pool stick involved in the first picture but after taking it Lexi says, "wait!" So I did. She comes back with a pool stick and says "people with mustaches play pool." I cracked up! No idea where that came from but it made me laugh! 

And apparently people with mustaches are very serious too! :)

Sassy!

Peace!

One cool dude.

We ended our party with a pop just in time to walk to the "Celebration" (I don't think it was quite the kind of party they thought it was going to be! lol). 

They did however have lots of ice cream and cake! :)

I didn't notice when I took this but I do believe she has some ice cream on the corner of her mouth which makes this picture all the better!

All in all it was a fantastic few days! The kids were so much fun!! It was such a blessing for me to be there and have this opportunity. I love these kids! :)