KidsGames 2012

This summer First Free Methodist Church and the LYN House hosted KidsGames 2012 (VBS). Each day the children were taught how to become a complete player for Jesus. The four themes of the week were learning to be a significant, coachable, persevering, and victorious player. The children were able to learn these characteristics by hearing Bible stories, playing games, creating a craft, and memorizing Bible verses. Some highlights of the week were playing kickball, creating pots to plant seeds, popping balloons to help memorize verses, and performing original skits at the end of the week. We ended KidsGames 2012 with closing ceremonies at Tabernacle Presbyterian Church. There the children participated in various sports and fun water activities. By the end of the week the children had learned a lot about making a difference to others, paying attention to the leaders in their lives, never giving up, and being victorious for Jesus.          

KidsGames Opening Ceremonies

To open the week of KidsGames 2012, we took 13 children to the Indiana Fever game. Churches from all over Indianapolis participated in opening ceremonies. Before the game children were able to play basketball in the practice gym, get their faces painted, and get their picture drawn by a caricaturist. A former Colts player spoke to the children about the theme for the upcoming VBS. He taught the importance of being a significant, coachable, and persevering player for Jesus Christ. Each child had the opportunity to either high-five a Fever player during the run outs, pass a ball with a player during warm-ups, or participate in the half time show. We all enjoyed a free hotdog during the game, cheering at the top of our lungs, dancing in the stands, and making new friends! KidsGames 2012 was off to a great start!  

lights, camera, action...

Here's our crew! Got some good practice in today and we will have one more run through before the performance on Monday night! We're looking forward to it!

This coming Monday July 11th you have two chances to see our fairy tale. At 6:00pm and 7:00pm the kids will be performing at First Free Methodist Church, and in between those times, you can join us across the street at the LYN House for the photography and art shows as well as cookies and refreshments prepared by our kid's cooking class. See ya Monday!

One Day More...

Question: Where would a monster, a clown, and a wiener dog hang out together?
Answer: The LYN House. In our fairy tale play. Come check out one of our two performances on Monday night at 6 and 7!

Here's some pictures from today:

Everybody loves snack time

Building a monster

Helping advertise

Lovely mustache :)

The rest of the set and costumes came together quite nicely today. Rehearsal tomorrow!!

Set Design

This group of kids looks pretty calm and collected in this picture here. But don't let them fool you. We got messy yesterday. Some people drew backdrops and some cut cardboard and glued and painted to create our life size puppets.

These girls hard hard at work painting. It's incredible that these kids can put an entire production together in a week, but it's happening!

Helping with the sketching stages. Next time you need a set put together, you should hire our little set design professionals.

Tall Tales

Today marked the beginning of our final Express Yourself camp for the summer. We had seven kids show up for the first day of Performing Arts Camp. 

A couple of Know No Stranger members are helping teach our kids the techniques of performing arts. Today we learned the elements of putting together a story and who all is involved in a production. And the kids got to try their hand at script writing as we put together our fairy tale of the neighborhood. Before that we practiced by together telling a rather ridiculous tall tale of Sammy with long ears and squirrels and flamingos and security guards after him. Tomorrow we will see what its like to make some props.

Performing Arts Camp

July 5^th – 9^th 1 – 4:30

Using music and story students will learn to imagine a positive future and reality for his or her neighborhood.

Performing arts group Know No Stranger will work with students to create a story, write a song and use puppets to perform a fairy tale of the Near Eastside.  Students will be encouraged to imagine a postivie future for our neighborhood, and to examine the ways in which God has already been at work.

Spaghetti!

Today the kids learned about Kenya and tried samosas [which they preferred to call Mufasas {they think they're funny}]. All of them seemed to enjoy those a lot more than the seaweed last week.

This afternoon we made homemade ranch for our salad from the garden and homemade sauce for the spaghetti. With our blind taste-testing contest we learned that sometimes it actually tastes better to use canned whole tomatoes rather than peeling your own.

They thought something was really funny....

Another camp has come and gone

Step One: Paint your tiles

Step Two: Take a hammer to 'em

Step Three: Glue

Step Four: Grout [if you have ever done grout work, you will know to be glad that you aren't a part of this step]

Step Five: Beautiful Mosaic. [this is the example, you'll have to join us on July 11th to see the beautiful masterpieces the kids put together today {and they really are incredible} :]

See you then!

Its hard to believe we only have one more day of Mosaic Art Camp! It's been a little chaotic at times with fifteen kids, but with this bigger group, we have had a lot of fun. This afternoon it will be awesome to see what the kids come up with together in their groups to make a mosaic of the future of the community...

Journey to the Past...

After learning a little bit about paintings from different time periods in art history, these kids painted ceramic tiles of some event in their past. These are the first of those tiles that will make up our mosaic artwork together. More painting this afternoon and tomorrow we will work together in our groups piecing together something beautiful. Join us at the LYN House on the 11th of July to see their finished product!

a blank canvas...

There's nothing like giving a kid a blank canvas and seeing what they do with it. This first day of camp we learned the color wheel and how to mix our primary colors to make the rest. We painted on some cardboard sheets to experiment, and then set them loose on their canvases. And we got some interesting and colorful masterpieces.

The kids seemed to enjoy themselves getting to be creative and mix and paint...

Pretty Pizzas

This cooking class today got a little competitive. As you can tell, we have four beautiful pizzas which came about as a result of four teams of two working hard to make the most creatively presented and delicious pizza. The great thing was, to vote we got to try all of them, and everyone's pizza tasted pretty great.

These are the kids' pizzas, it may be a little hard to tell from this angle, but they made some funny faces with the toppings.

We also learned about Japan and tried nori [dried seaweed], which none of the kids seemed to appreciate very much, but at least they tried it!

Mosaic Art Camp

June 21^st – 24^th 1 – 4:00

Objective: Using art to remember the past well, looking at the reality of the present and seeing the hope of the future together.

Employing the art of painting and breaking tiles, students will have a chance to express their beliefs, explore the value of the past, present and future, and examine the roles they play in their community.  Students will have the opportunity to beautify our neighborhood, as the stepping stones they create will become permanent fixtures in the community garden across the street.

Vegetarian Chili

In our second Monday cooking class we learned how to make some hearty and delicious vegetarian chili. And we're learning to have an open mind about trying new and possibly unusual foods. One student said "I thought I wouldn't like the chili, but I was wrong. I really liked the chili...it had a spicy kick that I liked." And another thought the platanos we tried when we learned about the Dominican Republic were "very very good." The students have all been great about being willing to try everything and sharing their opinions with respect.