extra curriculum

[smurfy27]

Hi, I have to some how make this program last for 7 weeks so I was thinking of using one days theme for an entire week and come up with my own lessons for a couple days and a movie on the topic for another day and such but that only fills 5 weeks. Any suggestions on how i could fill in the last 2 weeks?

[kidsmatter]

Wow! That's a lot of planning. Have you considered the related "Rock Solid Followers" curriculum, also published by Gospel Light? It's got 18 additional lessons that follow this SonRock Kids' Camp theme. I haven't looked at Rock Solid Followers yet, but it might save you a lot of work and help fill those 7 weeks. I think you'll find it at gospellightvbs.com

[TrinityJen]

I just got my copy of Rock Solid Followers. I haven't looked at it yet, but let me know if you have any questions. The 13 week curriculum usually has 13 different stories, a snack idea, a game, a craft, and a worksheet/coloring page.

[Judy N.]

Here are some dvd ideas: "Stanley The Stinkbug Goes To Camp". Its part of the Hermie series. It's all about acceptance and fits in with day one perfectly. It also comes with additional activity options you could use.
I am using some footage from the Matthew series, go to eternalpictures.com. You could use other footage from Peter's life from this 2 part dvd series.
Other dvd's I might use: Greatest Heroes and Legends of the Bible- The Apostles-GoodTimes Entertainment. (Peter heals) and Friends and Heroes dvds- episodes 3, 4, and 8 feature stories of Peter. They also have downloadable curriculum. If you are on a budget and can't afford the DVD's maybe a church in your area would have them?
Other options- we have 2 park rangers in our church that will sit in at one of our learning stations- could you get a park ranger to come visit? Focus more on lessons on God's creation for the last week? Many areas have bird watching clubs, get a volunteer to come in? Or a skilled fisherman and then take kids to local pond? Or could you do stories on the early church, church history to follow up on Peter the Rock? Take a field trip and look at different church's cornerstones, learn what a cornerstone is literally and figuratively. There is a lot to learn about early church history and art and architecture!
Are you limited by budget? Is that why you need to stretch the lessons? If not the Rock Solid Followers really does sound like a good solution.

[smurfy27]

Thanks for your help! I am a summer student and my church has already bought the sonrock program so unfortunately i cannot use the solid rock followers program which is too bad cause it would make my job a lot easier! Anyway, if anyone has any more ideas, i'm open to anything, thanks.

[kidstime805]

My church will use Rock-Solid Followers, and because it's all reproducible, it's really a good value. I think it's only $49.99 and you get enough material for 13 weeks for both elementary and preschool kids. However, the Director's Guide (I think) also gives a plan for how to extend the 5-day VBS into 10 days. So that might work for you, too.

[TrinityJen]

OK - I still haven't looked at my RSF book, but the whole book is in a CD. Really cool, and I hot mine for closer to $30.

[kidsmatter]

Are you sure your church can't buy the Rock Solid Followers curriculum as well? It's perfectly designed to go along with SonRock Kids Camp and could save you MANY hours of work. And the advertising says that this 13wk book has actually been extended this year to 18 wks. Why spend countless hours re-creating what has already been prepared for you?

But if you MUST develop your own lesson plans...you could add in some "camp skills" such as:
1. Outdoor survival skill - teach kids about fire safety and how to build a "one-match" fire (this can be a really fun competition), cooking over an open fire, using a compass (could do a fun treasure hunt with this one), etc. I could send you some stuff on this if you send me your email address. You could be intentional about looking for ****ogies to the Christian life. For example: take one log out of the fire and it doesn't burn very long = Christians need fellowship with other Christians in order to stay strong in their faith.
2. Camp Crafts skill - This is already part of the program but I've found some ways to extend the craft time. At least for the older kids. I had to do this because we'll be using it at camp and their skill periods are 1 hr long. I'm working on a craft guide with craft instructions as well as discussion suggestions to tie the craft into the daily lesson. It'll only be 5 crafts but it might be of some help to you. It should be ready in a week or two, and I'd be happy to share it with you. You could also let kids build SonRock decorations, like the paper mache rocks described in the decorating thread on this forum.
3. Drama skill - Play a couple of fun improv games to get them "loosened up" and relaxed. Then let them practice & perform one or more of the skits found in SonRock Amp'd Up Assemblies. OR... call it Worship Arts and use both the skits and the songs (and have them do the actions for the songs too).
4. Sports skill - You could use the SonRock recreation games, but then also add more skill-oriented stuff, with someone actually teaching kids some basics about a sport of your choice.
5. Rocketry / kiting skill - kids get to build their own rockets or their own kites, using kits you buy from supply companies. I don't know much about this one, but I think there's a company called Kidder that supplies some of this kind of stuff. I have no idea on the cost involved either.
6. Photography - if you've got an avid photographer in your church they could teach the kids some tips about taking pictures - camera care (strap around your wrist so you don't drop it), aiming, holding the camera steady, interesting angles for pictures, etc. After giving them some basic instructions and having each of them demonstrate that they know how to handle the cameras properly, divide them into mixed-age groups of 3 kids - the older ones are instructed to make sure the younger ones handle the cameras properly - and then snap away. (Supervision is really important here, since you're working with expensive equipment. But I prearranged this activity with the parents in my group and most of them were able to send a cheap digital camera for their kids to use.)
I did this with a group of 11 kids last summer, ages ranging from 15 down to 5 and they all had a blast! I gave them each 10 minutes to take 10 pictures of the others in their group. Quite a few of the pictures didn't turn out that great, but I also got some surprisingly good pictures. You could use these pictures in a powerpoint slideshow at your closing program. Or just burn them onto a disk for all the kids as a keepsake of their time at SonRock.

I'm sure there are other skill options you could include as well. These are just a few that I could think of from my own camp experiences. These types of skills can eat up huge amounts of time in a hurry while still providing meaningful activities for the kids. Anyhow, I've rambled on long enough and hopefully provided you with a few ideas you can use. Happy planning :)

[mothermary]

why don't you just buy Rock-solid followers, the 13 week course that is the follow up to SRKC? you'll have a TON of useful stuff, all with the same theme, so it just flows! :)

[donnalucas@gospellight.co]

Your all right! the best solution for you is the Rock-Solid Followers program. You canuse the 5 lessons from VBS and then with in the same theme keep the VBS excitement going for the rest of the summer.

There is no need to create your own lessons. Rock Solid followers takes the same theme from VBS and extends it for the summer. We've done the work for you and while VBS is all about Peter. Rock Solid followers takes the kids on the Journey's of Paul. Two great Men of faith. Your kids can learn to build their lives on teh Rock-Jesus all summer long.

Donna Lucas
Publishing Director Gospel Light

[kidsmatter]

You could be intentional about looking for ****ogies to the Christian life. For example: take one log out of the fire and it doesn't burn very long = Christians need fellowship with other Christians in order to stay strong in their faith.


Oops. Hee hee. Didn't notice until now that my post got edited. Another way to say that would be..."looking for similarities / parallels to the Christian life..." But you probably figured that out by now.