Report on Last Night

We had 39 children last night (and 17 helpers)! That's a lot of bodies! It was perhaps, more helpers than we need, but because we never know how many helpers we're going to need, we'd always like to have more helpers than less helpers. We can always use more help. Things went as smoothly as you can expect with 56 people there. Snack was pizza and hotdogs. All the pizza went (as could be expected?) and nearly all of the hotdogs. I think there was less than a dozen hotdogs left over. The pizza's donated once a month from Dominos - thanks Dominos. Mrs. Jacobs donated the hotdogs. It was 10 boxes of pizza I think (medium) - that's a lot of pizza to be donated! I think maybe 4 dozen hotdogs? A fair bit of food in any case.

February-March Plans

Date	Lesson	Memory Verse
Feb 9	God is our Peace Judges 6:1-24 Gideon	Psalm 46:1
Feb 16	God is our Peace Mark 9:17-26 and Luke 13:10-17 Jesus heals woman crippled for 18 years and boy possessed by a demon Contrast with synagogue ruler who didn't like the healing.	Romans 5:1
Feb 23	God is our Healer Exodus 15:22-26;32 God promises to heal the Israelites if they obey Him. Bitter water is changed.	Psalm 103:2-3
March 2	God is our Healer Matthew 9:1-8 Paralyzed man brought to Jesus by friends	Psalm 147:3
March 9	God is our Righteousness Exodus 20:1-20 10 Commandments	I John 1:9
March 16	God is our Righteousness Matthew 7:13-14 & John 14:6 Narrow and Wide Paths	John 14:6
March 23	God is Always There Matthew 28 How Jesus' friends and disciples reacted to His death and resurrection	Job 34:21
March 30	God is our Good Shepherd Psalm 23 How does God take care of our every need	Psalm 23:1

Growth

For the past two weeks we've had 21 kids attending. (Maybe more - last week we had three students attend who came really late, so they may not have been signed in). This week we had three new kids that had never attended before. That's also encouraging.

Things have been going fairly well. We've had sufficient helpers, and that's what really makes a difference. Thanks so much for everyone who has helped. We honestly couldn't do it without you.

We've had a planning meeting for this summer when we're going to do a VBS for the same group of kids in July. The group from Dallas sent up seven people on a planning trip to work with us, as they're hoping to send up as many as 100 people to help with some of the things we're hoping to do this summer. That was very encouraging.

January Plans

	Story	Games/Memory Verse	Craft/Activity/ Discussion	Snack
	Ruth	Kirk/Daryl	Lisa/Kevin	May/Kristin
Jan 5	"Jehovah Jireh" - God is our Provider	Follow the Leader – Philippians 4:19	Names/Sticky activity	Susan Roberts provides
	Ruth & Naomi	Mother May I?
Jan 12	"Jehovah Jireh" - God is our Provider	James 1:17 – Group/Regroup	Decorated name cards	White snacks that remind us of God's holiness
	Jesus – God's gift	Bouncing Challenge		Milessa Peterson provides
Jan 19	Jehovah Nissi – God is our Battle Fighter	Romans 8:31 with hand motions	Make shields	Elaine Vance provides
	Israelites vs. Amelekites	Red Light Green Light
Jan 26 Repeat these 5-7 minute centres	Jehovah Nissi – God is our Battle Fighter			Monthly Pizza order
	Armor of God – Shield of Faith activity	Helmet of Salvation Activity	Belt of Truth Centre	Sword of the Spirit Centre

January 5 Plans

Theme: Jehovah Jirah - God is our Provider

Story: Ruth - Ruth & Naomi - Ruth to bring wicker basket
Craft/Science: Names of God - from book
Snack/Journal: Hummas & whole wheat crackers?
Game: Mother may I?

Planning: Group from Dallas will be here Jan. 12

Meeting Minutes

We had a meeting at May's apartment Wednesday, December 30, to work on plans for The Party for next year. We discussed what's working, what's not, discipline, suggestions and planning for January. Here's the minutes:

Present: Kevin, Lisa, Caleb, Carissa, Ruth, Walter, May, Kristin, Daryl. Regrets: Kirk, college students.

What's working:
Regular routines, the larger space, more kids coming, the snack/meal, having more helpers, coloured marks on hands for each group, mixed aged groupings, group leaders, using the foyer as well as the gym.

What's not working:
Kids running into the bathrooms, going up on the stage, playing with the mats, not always enough helpers for group leaders for each group, Dwight needs one on one.

Suggestions:

• Have a designated supervisor for the stage area with a designated activity to be played there (ie. use the nets already stored there - for mini floor hockey).
• Use the point system to "catch them being good".
• Have preassigned areas for each of the adults/helpers.
• Use mats for assigned seating areas.
• Have a journalling option during snack time.
• Have more new songs/ song sheets with words
• Put the organization onto the blog - what's happening each week, who's assigned where
• Need more props for story time (ie. wicker basket) - looking for more suggestions - maybe a bathrobe?

Discipline:

• We need to be all on the same page and proactive
• Have reasonable consequences, a time out space and someone to work/talk 1:1 with anyone sent to timeout. (Time out could be the far couches outside the admin office? - who could be the designated adult to work with those sent there - Kirk?)
• Mats only to be used when taken down by adult/helper for specific activity and returned immediately afterwards.
• Respect taught directly - children being disrespectful need to go home.

Organization:
6:00 - 6:40 Children arrive, are greeted, names on sign-in chart, play in gym
6:20 - 6:40 Older girls (9-11 years old) have special session just for them, taught by Lisa?
6:40 - 7:00 Singing in couch area, children either on couch or on mats, assigned seating
7:00 - 7:05 Split into groups - coloured marks on hands
7:05 - 7:17 1st rotation
7:17 - 7:29 2nd rotation
7:29 - 7:41 3rd rotation
7:41 - 7:53 Final rotation
7:53 - 8:00 Coats on, ready to go home, sign-out on clipboard

Rotations: Story, snack/journalling, games, craft or science - 12 min per rotation

Tasks:

May

• Will make up song sheets with old & new songs,
• Will purchase journals,
• Will update blog
• Will supervise doors & foyer during first gym time
• Will teach new songs during singing?

Lisa

• Will organize the weekly plans - who does what
• Will e-mail May the info for updating blog
• Will purchase book for small group for pre-teen girls
• Will teach pre-teen girls (with Kristin)

Daryl

• Will develop a star chart, reward system
• Will plan gym/activity time
• With Kevin will check on Dwight going to boxing program with Jonathon & Sarah

Kristin

• Will teach pre-teen girls (with Lisa)

Kevin

• When available will help with gym time

Kirk

• Will help with gym time

Caleb

• Will supervise stage?

Christmas Break

The Party won't meet until the new year. We had 24 kids for our last time before the break. Seeing as we only had six helpers - it was pretty hectic, but things went very well.

If you're wanting to help in the new year - many hands make light work! I'll try to get the stories & activities planned and up on the website before January.