Amber Mattingly

At Kingwood Christian Church, we thought creatively about what kind of summer camp we should offer our church and our community this year.  We have many churches in our community that use the standard VBS Curriculum from Group which we all love but tend to compete between churches for who can offer the BEST, craziest, coolest expression.  Most often the larger churches with the biggest budget and most human power succeed and the smaller church’s offering pales in comparison.  So, to break out of that competitive cycle, the staff at KCC decided to focus on our strength and create a program for kids based on what our church does well.  Kingwood Christian Church is blessed with many talented singers and musicians as well as the staff who lead them.  I bring a flare for dance and movement to the team and so an idea was born: Music and Movement Camp.  We hoped that the children would come to understand that worship expression includes many different forms and then experience leading people in worship.

The following is the How-To of what we did at our camp and I am hoping this can be tweaked according to your church’s unique gifts and interests!  Take some time with your children’s ministry team to discuss the God given gifts in your church that make your church unique! 

First, we knew it had to be fun so we used the TROLLS movie and soundtrack as a springboard.  With Trolls as our theme, we used lots of color and sparkle in everything we did!  Our advertisement looked like this:

After we created this advertisement, we knew that all of our chosen music needed to be FUN!!!  Your church can choose any theme, any new movie or character and create your camp around this idea.  We used this theme to set the stage for our dance time, crafts, and games.  Below this image, we placed all the details.

We ran our camp Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday from 9am-1pm. 

Ages:  2^nd grade-8^th grade  $20 includes lunch everyday

 

 Here is how we set up our schedule:

9am                   Gather and Dance

9:30am             Devotional on a Song or Psalm, Sign Language, and prayer

9:45am-10:30am            Choir

10:30am-11:15am          Bell Choir

11:15am-12pm                Crafts

12pm-12:20pm               Lunch

12:20pm-12:50pm          Games

12:50pm-1pm                  Joys and Concerns, Prayer and Dismissal

DANCE
We used the song, “Get Back Up Again.” The first day, I asked a member of our church who line dances to come in and teach a simple line dance. The Second day, we put that line dance into “Get Back Up Again.” The Third day, we finished the song and filmed. Take a look!!

DEVOTIONAL

Day 1:     “Make a Joyful Noise To the Lord”

Day 2:     “Glorify Thy Name”

Day 3:     “I Love You, Lord”

 

SIGN LANGUAGE (quiet movement)

We used 2 songs to learn sign language and they also worked on these songs in choir!

Day One:     “Blessed be the Name of the Lord”

Day Two:     “Glorify Thy Name”

Day Three:     Review Day One and Day Two

 CHOIR

Remember to choose pieces that the kids will like or hear on the radio.  We chose Indescribable, Every Move I Make, Glorify Thy Name (to incorporate Sign Language), and I love you, Lord.  Our choir director is also the Orchestra Director at the High School so he had knowledge about how to keep kids interested! 

BELLS

We had 21 students attend our camp, so we divided the group up during this time.  We sent ½ the kids to the playground and then made the switch after 20 minutes.  This seemed to really work great!  We chose pieces that were simple and highlighted the music with left hand yellow and right hand pink.

 

CRAFTS

Day One:     Troll Hair   (Ideas can be found on Pinterest)

Day Two:     t-shirt painting  ( I found tie dye pump bottles in bright and sparkly colors at Hobby Lobby)

Day Three:  Troll Tattoos (I found these at Hobby Lobby as well)

We set up a picture booth as well for the kids to take individual and group pictures in their shirts and troll hair!  (ideas for a troll themed picture booth can be found on Pinterest)

 LUNCH

We ordered our food in from Dominos, Chick fil a, and a sandwich tray from Kroger on the third day.  We always served fruit, chips, lemonade and water.

 GAMES

Musical Chairs to the Trolls Soundtrack

 Outside games of frisbee, bubbles, side walk chalk, playground, etc. 

 Balloon Relay Race:  We had 4 teams of 5 on one end of the gym.  Set up 4 chairs and air filled colorful balloons on the other side of the gym.  Go!  Each team sends 1 runner at a time down to the other side to pick up a balloon, sit on the balloon until it pops and then run back and tag the next runner!

Dress Up for the Big Show Relay:  Stay in your same team and leave the chairs in place down at the other end of the gym.  Each team will have a bag of sunglasses, troll hair, t-shirt, rings, bracelets and jewelry (bling the kids out!!).  First person on each team gets all the items on their body, runs down and around the chair and then back to take off all the items and tag the next person.  The next person in line puts on all the items and runs down and around the chair and back to their team to take off the items and tag the next person.

“Hot Potato” with a Troll Head.  We played the traditional game but tossing around a Troll Head that I found at Target.  The winner got to keep the Troll Head!

 Last Day

We invited all the children and their families to our worship on Sunday Morning.  The children danced, sang and rang the bells in the worship service.