DLTK's Crafts for Kids
Sparks Agenda - Week 3

1 hour meeting beginning 5:30 and ending 6:30

Wow...  October already! Here's the itinerary for the "Learning to Share" themed meeting.

I thought I'd share and be a friend *grin* by letting you take more of the spotlight.  I thought I'd just do the opening and closing circles (and the game?) and let you run the rest of the meeting.  I've played the game before so am comfortable giving the directions, but if you're on a roll and prefer to do it, that's great too. Also, if there's anything you'd prefer not to lead, let me know and I'll take over...  I wasn't sure how often you wanted to lead things, but I figured there isn't much singing or crawling around this week so it might be a good opportunity.

Meeting At a Glance

5:30-5:35 Leader 1: Opening Circle
5:35-5:45 Leader 2 (?): Share and Tell
5:45-5:55 Leader 2 (?): Introduce Crystal the sparks doll and the sharing beads
5:55-6:05 Leader 2 (?): Color invitations to the Enrolment Night
6:05-6:15 Leader 1: Balloon Batting Game
6:15-6:25 Leader 2 (?) Snack time (share the smarties)
6:25-6:30 Leader 1: Closing Circle

Mini Filler Activity:
 -- I hadn't planned for any songs this week, but if we have a couple minutes extra, we can teach this one at closing circle time.

Share With Me Song (sung to the tune of "This Old Man")

One for you; one for me.
Let's all sing this melody.
Come and share with me and I will share with you.
Sharing is so fun to do!

Longer Filler Activities:

#1 -- Brief practice of the enrolment night.  I have a short rainbow walkway (posterboard) that the girls will walk down and I'm trying to get Darren to make me a crepe paper "waterfall doorway" for them to walk through (a slide would have been ideal, but I'm afraid I don't have one).  I thought each of our second year girls would lead three or four first year girls. They would come through the doorway, say their sparks promise and walk down the walkway in a line. We'd be at the end of the walkway and would put the pins on that group and the next group would come down as the first group posed for photos. Three groups altogether and both of us pinning shouldn't take too long for the "formal part" of the evening.

#2 -- Keep the balloon in the air game (girls stand in circle and try to keep the balloon up as long as possible by blowing)

More info on the different activities:

More info on the different activities for Oct 1st...  This is just my "vision". Feel free to modify it where ever you wish so it fits with your style of leading.

1) OPENING CIRCLE:

Song:

Let's be friends and share a song.
Let's be friends and dance along.
Hold my hand we'll skip and play.
Let's put sparkle in our day.

Promise:

I promise to share and be a friend.

2) SHARE AND TELL: 

I thought we'd just sit down in our opening circle formation and let the girls go around and share what they brought (putting it back in their bags right away when they were done so nothing is lost).

3) CRYSTAL AND SHARING BEADS: 

Then you can "Share and Tell" last by introducing Crystal the Sparks doll and choosing the girl who is to take her home first.  We are choosing randomly from a hat and removing the girl's name once she's taken Crystal home.  We're sending Crystal home in a shiny pink "gift bag" along with a notebook.  The girls can draw a picture and/or print a sentence showing one of the things she and Crystal did together.  The girls can share their experience and drawing during circle time when they bring Crystal back the next week.

I tried to pick up one of the official sparks dolls, but... she was naked (clothes are bought separately) and they didn't have any of the clothes in stock. So I'm venturing out tomorrow to try to get a regular doll (hopefully dressed in pink or rainbow colors).  I will have something by the meeting.

Sharing Beads: (string a pony bead onto a shoe lace that's pinned to their scrapbook bag -- I try to match colors of pony beads with themes wherever possible -- ex:  orange at Halloween, green at Christmas, etc).  Each week we'll ask them during opening circle ... "Did everyone remember to share and be a friend this week?", often giving them the opportunity to talk about it if they wish, and then leaders and parent helpers will add that week's beads sometime during the meeting.  We'll give them all a bead (likely while they're busy doing something else). This week, we can put the beads on their bags while the girls are doing their invitations...  Basically we just need to explain what they're getting the beads for.

4) INVITATIONS TO ENROLLMENT NIGHT: 

Just simple little four fold cards I thought they could color in.   If you use the link, I picked "Party Invitations" in Step 1, "Scouts" in Step 2 and "Rainbow" in Step 3.  The image is small, so it shouldn't take very long to color in.

5) BALLOON BATTING GAME: 

"Oh my, we only have two balloons...  We're going to have to figure out a way for all of us to share them" with a really short conversation about how a good Spark will always make sure everyone is included in the game whenever she plays with her friends -- making sure everyone gets a turn and is included is an important part of learning to share.

Instructions for the game: Girls stand in a large square spread out as much as possible.  Each of two balloons starts at a different area of the square. The girls bat the balloons to the next girl with their hand, making sure not to skip anyone. The girl who's receiving the balloon catches it with her hands and returns to her spot (in case she had to move to catch the balloon) and then bats it to the next girl in line.

6) SNACK TIME: 

OK... strictly speaking, this activity has one big pile of smarties that all the girls have to decide how to share. But I think with this age group, that may be a bit chaotic, so I'm going to package the smarties in ziploc bags and we can split the girls into teams of two. ...  I'll make sure the bags have even numbers of the different colors (in case the girls want to split each color individually).  If we have an extra girl, one of us can be her partner.

Directions for the activity: Each pair of girls takes one ziploc bag of smarties and goes off to a corner to decide how best to "share the snack". We just sort of sit back and watch while they decide how best to share the smarties -- suggesting or intervening where necessary. The only rule is that NO ONE CAN START EATING until everyone is happy.

And we'll bring some extra smarties just in case someone doesn't share very well *grin*.

Twinkle twinkle little spark,
Time to go, it's getting dark.
To your pillow, to your bed,
Time to rest your sleepy head.
Twinkle twinkle little spark,
Time to go, it's getting dark.

 

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