It Makes Sense 2

August 12, 2006 kensapp Leave a comment

Game Description
Use your senses to identify common foods and snacks.

Game Materials
Jars of Baby food, Dark Construction Paper, adhesive Tape, Disposable Spoons (1 per participant per jar), Paper, Pens

WARNING
Be sure to check participants for any food allergies before doing this game.

Game Preparation

Purchase 8-10 jars of baby food, each with a different flavor.
Tape a piece of dark construction paper over the label of the jar so that the labels cannot be seen.
Number the jars.
Give each participant a piece of paper and pen and a spoon for each jar.

Game Play: Taste

Each participant will do a taste test from each baby food jar. For each jar of baby food, participants should use a clean spoon. They are only allowed a single taste from each jar.
Participants take a small spoonful from each jar as a sample and try to identify the food.
They must record their answers on paper that has been numbered to correspond with the numbers on the jars.
After everyone has tasted the food from the jars and recorded their answers, reveal each jar’s label.
The participant who correctly guessing the contens of the greatest number of jars is the winner.

Game Variation

Taste and Touch – use small finger foods (i.e. olives, cooked (cold) spaghetti, piece of candy, cracker, barbecue potato chip, cashew nuts, breakfast cereals, croutons, grapes and other fruits, raisins, dates, dried fruits, and other small snacks) Blindfold all the participants so that they cannot see before passing around the finger foods. Answers are wispered to the leaders.

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Mentoring Youth

10 Characteristics of Successful Mentors

August 12, 2006 kensapp Leave a comment

According to a study of Big Brothers, Big Sisters in the USA, one of the largest mentoring organizations in the world

Be a friend
- Don’t act like a parent
- Don’t try to be an authority figure
- Don’t preach about values
- DO FOCUS ON THE BOND
Have realistic goals and expectations
- Focus on overall development, not performance and change
- Center initial goals on the relationship itself
- Emphasize friendship over performance
Have fun together
- Youth spell love – TIME
- Informal activities lay the foundation for formal ones
- Shared activities become great discussion starters
Give your protégé voice and choice in deciding activities
- Help them to explore possibilities and then make their choices
- Listen more than you talk
- Question more than you Preach
Be positive
- Praise and encouragement build self-esteem
- Be supportive rather than critical – focus on solutions rather than problems
Let the protégé have much of the control over what the two of you talk about
- Don’t push, be patient
- Be sensitive and responsive to cues
- Let them know that can confide in you without you becoming judgmental
Listen
- Let youth vent without criticizing them
- When you listen they see you as a friend, not an authority figure
Respect the trust your protégé places in you
- Respond in ways that show you understand. This is not the same as agree
- Reassure the protégé that you are there for them
- Advice should not be dispensed but mutually discovered
- If you have to convey concern or displeasure, do it with caring and understanding
- Sound like a friend not a parent… youth easily discern the difference
Remember your relationship is with the youth and not the youth’s parent
- Maintain cordial contact, but you are not there to be a spy for parents. You are there to be a champion for the youth
- Keep your focus on the youth
- You are not there to bring about the parents wishes, but to help the youth discover their potential
- Be non-judgmental about the family
You are responsible for building the relationship
- Take responsibility for making and maintaining contact
- Don’t expect adult to adult relationships

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Mentoring Youth

A Mentor is like a Mirror

August 11, 2006 kensapp 1 Comment

A Mentor is one who holds up a Mirror for Reflection. What is reflected is the life of the protégé, not the brilliance of the mentor. There is no greater mistake than to mold others into one’s own image. The mentor’s job is not to shape, but to facilitate the discovery process. Wisdom is not imposed, it is portrayed. Character is not taught, it is provoked and inspired. He doesn’t teach a person skills, but shows a person a life. It’s a misconception that a mentor’s task is to do something for another person by teaching, correcting, or otherwise giving something the mentor possesses, something the protégé lacks. That’s Coaching. Mentoring is more “how can I help you” rather than “what should I teach you.” Its not something the mentor does, but helping the protégé to do something. Successful mentoring is not determined by what a mentor does, but by the responsive of the protégé to the image he sees as the mentor holds the protégé’s life up for personal reflection. Responsibility and initiative for growth lies in the reponsiveness of the protégé, not the mentor’s.

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Game Ideas

Baby Relays

August 11, 2006 kensapp Leave a comment

Game Description
This group of games are a great introduction for a discussion for growth and maturing in your relationship with Christ. They also make a great introduction for a lesson on Hebrews 5:12-6:3. They could also be used for a baby shower.

Game Materials

A large towel and diaper pins for each team
a baby bottle filled with water for each team
a paper towel to be tucked in a shirt as a bib for each team
chairs

Game Play

Baby Talk: When I was a child, I spoke as a child and acted as a child. Most of us have heard stories about words we mixed up as children just learning to talk. Have youth write a word on a small slip of paper that they mispronounced or used incorrectly as a child. If they don’t know of one then have them write one they have heard. I know a friend that mistakenly called “masking tape” “masculine tape.” Alternatively, have youth tell of something they did as a child. Have youth attempt to guess the words and what they were supposed to be and to guess the identity of the person who wrote it.

Diaper Relay: A person from each team must put on the diaper, tuck the bib in the shirt, place their thumb in their mouth, and waddle to the other end of the room (or if outside, a designated place) where they will get on their hands and knees (like a crawling baby) and have a fellow team member squirt a bit of water from the baby bottle into the mouth of the baby. The baby then returns and the next person repeats the same tasks. First team to have all members go through the tasks wins.

Pacifier Suck: Buy some of the candy rings – (look like a pacifier) or lolipops for everyone. First team to finish all the pacifiers wins.

Mother’s Revenge: Start by saying, “If you have ever seen a mother trying to feed a baby you will appreciate this game. Babies usually throw, spit, spill, or drool most of their food over dear mom. So now we have MOTHER’S REVENGE….” Each team should choose two volunteers. Wrap towels around the neck of one volunteer and blindfold the other. Then give the blindfolded member a jar of baby food and a spoon. The first blindfolded team member to feed the babyfood to their partner wins.

Baby Belch Relay: Each team should choose a girl to be the mother and a boy to be the baby. Have a baby bottle filled with coke or pepsi for each team. At the signal, mothers will feed the baby the contents of the bottle. When the bottle is empty, the baby boy is leaned over the shoulder while the mothers pat their backs until they produce a loud belch. First team to produce the belch wins

Make Me Laugh: Prepare the group by saying something along the lines: “It is amazing what people will do to try and entertain a baby. Even the most reserved people will make a total fool of themselves. Tough guys will ‘Goo’ and ‘Coo’ just to get a baby to smile. that’s the object of our game now.” Place the group in a circle… two persons are in the center. Together they must make someone sitting in the circle laugh. The person who laughs and the person to that persons right then end up in the center.

Icebreakers Ahead: Take It To the Next Level

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Humor

Federal Government Employee Performance Evaluations

August 10, 2006 kensapp Leave a comment

Actual quotes from federal government employee performance evaluations:

“Since my last report, he has reached rock bottom and has started to dig.”
“His men would follow him anywhere, but only out of morbid curiosity.”
“I would not allow this employee to breed.”
“This employee is really not so much of a has-been, but more of a definitely won’t be.”
“Works well when under constant supervision and cornered like a rat in a trap.”
“When she opens her mouth, it seems that this is only to change whichever foot was previously in there.”
“He would be out of his depth in a parking lot puddle.”
“This young lady has delusions of adequacy.”
“She sets low personal standards and then consistently fails to achieve them.”
“This employee should go far – and the sooner he starts, the better.”
“This employee is depriving a village somewhere of an idiot.”

If God were writing a performance evaluation about your life what might he write?

Source: Internet Circulation

Icebreakers Ahead: Take It To the Next Level

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Mentoring Youth

Famous Mentors: Isaac Newton

August 10, 2006 kensapp Leave a comment

“If I could see further than others, it was because I stood on the shoulders of giants.”

Creative Teaching Ideas

In Everything Give Thanks

August 10, 2006 kensapp 1 Comment

Scripture: 1 Thessalonians 5:17-18
“Pray without ceasing. In every thing give thanks: for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.”

Materials

Several pairs of scissors
newspapers and magazines
blank thank you notes
pens or pencils

Preparation

Set the scissors and the pile of newspapers and magazines in the center of the room / table.

What to Do

“Search through the newspapers and magazines and find one story about someone experiencing either good or bad circumstances. Cut out the story using the scissors for easy reference.”
Once everyone has a story, collect them into a pile and shuffle them up. Walk around the room and ask each youth to take the story on the top of the pile.
Give each person a blank thank you note and a pen or pencil.
“Read through the story you’ve been given and write a thank you note to God. Express how you would be thankful in the circumstances your story describes.”
When youth have finished writing their Thank You notes, have each youth, in turn, read his or her thank you note aloud. (You cab do this in pairs or small groups if you have many youth group members).
Then youth to respond to each circumstance: “In the circumstance you read about, how would being thankful affect your perspective?”

Take it to the Next Level
God wants us to be thankful in all circumstances — in both good situations and bad ones. Being thankful changes our perspective. It helps us take our eyes off ourselves and the circumstances and look to God instead.

Closing
Finish the meeting by having a time of prayer where each youth can have an opportunity to express prayerful thanks to God for the events in their lives.

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Games and Activities in Celebration of common Holidays.

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Mentoring Youth

A Mentor is like an Excavator

August 9, 2006 kensapp Leave a comment

The mentor carves out and helps to create a space where learning can occur. It has boundaries of confidentiality, structure, and guidance, but is open. It is a safe place where both can be vulnerable with their questions, struggles, emotions and doubts. There is space for ideas, curiosity, wonder, and joy. It is a space in which the mundane, the ordinary can be a container of grace. It is a space in which the mentor is given increasing permission to ask the tough questions that will penetrate the masks most of us wear. It is a space where the protégé has no fear to confess failings and progress, to entrust the secrets of his heart, and reveal all his plans.

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Game Ideas

It Makes Sense

August 8, 2006 kensapp Leave a comment

Game Description
Use your senses to identify common objects and items.

Game Materials
Lunch Bags, Small Household Items (depending on which senses you want to use in the game); Stapler; Paper; Pen; Marker

Game Preparation

Prepare several lunch bags with one item in each bag. The number of bags can be adjusted depending on the time you have to play the game. You can use items that can be found around the house – (i.e. comb, pen, etc) or items can be acccording to a specific category like office supplies, foods, tools, cosmetics, etc to suit a party theme. Fold over the top of the bag and staple closed.
With a marker, number the bags on the outside.

Game Play

Participants examine one numbered bag at a time, and try to identify the contents ONLY by feeling the them through the bag.
Ask participants to number their paper according to the number of bags, and record their answers next to the appropriate numbers corresponding to each bag.
When all the participants have identified the items, reveal what is in each bag. The winner is the participant who correctly guessed the most items.

Game Variations

Touch – use items with various textures (i.e. hard, sandpaper, soft, bumpy, feather, cotton, fur, felt, hairbrush etc that have identifying characteristics. You can also use simple items like staplers etc) You can allow them to rech inside the bag, without looking and feel the item inside the bag or for simply objects they just feel through the bag.
Smell – Use 2-3 tablespoons of spices, fruits, or other items with strong characteristic smells. (i.e. orange peel, pepper, cinnamon, oregano, onion, etc. These might be best in a cloth bag or punch a few very small holes in the paper bag with a needle so the scents can escape.