How to train your (fairy) dragon...

TUESDAY - God has Power over Creation

Today at 4FAMILIES, we looked at things in creation that God has the power over (which is, uh, everything). But, sticking with the theme of MAGIC, we looked at things that related to magic, such as leprechauns, fairies, goblins, dragons and elves.

Again, lots of planning and shopping and organising and I have bags (there were actually 3 extra than the picture shows) of ingredients and supplies :)

Morning tea craft was <insert drum roll> Fairy bread! But with cookie cutters, so the children could make shapes like circles, hearts, squares, rectangles, and stars. I did consider trimming the crusts, but that would have been far too much effort, and there was actually no real need as the kids ate the crusts! This was fun (to watch) and it wasn't until afterwards, looking at some fingers that were covered in butter and 100s & 1000s, that I forgot how potentially messy this may have been to make... Oh well. Fairies sprinkle their glitter dust everywhere (in the movies I've watched anyway) so a few hundred thousand sprinkles everywhere is only to be expected :)

Again, I made an instruction sheet for the children to refer to (not that they needed it at all) which I had put spots all over to indicate 100s & thousands:

This is a fabulous, fabulous fairy bread shape made by one of the girls today:

And of course - plenty of bread, butter, and 100s & 100s left over for the leaders to enjoy the benefits of a sugar high as well!

Craft today was a plastic cup dragon. I got this idea from Google, and tweaked it to be a bit different/easier to replicate 50 times... I can't remember which website I got this from, but here's the idea that gave me the idea:

I really preferred not to have to cut the sides off the dragon heads (x50), so that was one thing different; and I couldn't find a single hole punch, so the straws were just taped to the bottom of the cups... Then... It occurred to me that dragons breath fire! And I had orange streamers! I cut a piece off, and stuck it to the inside of the cup - for a flame (albeit floppy). I was so excited!

I made some eyes to print out, and attached them to the top of my dragon. My son, whom I was eager to show this craft to, said "Cooool. We're making a pig with an orange tongue."

*Grrr*

Back to the drawing board I went to make it look like a DRAGON... Not a pig.

Then the idea popped into my head about wings! I could add wings! There, that looked (slightly) more like a dragon... And then Ben, my 9 year old son (who was likely looking over my shoulder the entire time) suggested to add teeth. I cut up some yellow cardboard into triangles, and as I was sticking them on, Ben interrupted me to say that I should fold the tops of them down before gluing... What a creative kid I have! I was so thankful he was around at the time for feedback and insight.

I had other coloured streamers that I cut up to use as the dragon's tail. Finally it was done! Now to organise the supplies into 50 bags so that all the children had what they needed to make their dragon craft.

This is my finished DRAGON:

And then the dragon craft production line began:

Whenever I've organised craft, I try to bag supplies needed to make what we're making prior to the day - it means more hard work before the day, but less mucking around on the day, and today I actually had a few minutes to sit down and chat with people while we waited until craft time started - which was lovely!

The kids did such a great job with this highly complicated craft! And the leaders showed magnificent confidence in helping the kids with what they needed to do when they had only seen the craft for as long as the children had before we got started!

Once more, I am so encouraged and inspired by children who come up with creative ideas that I didn't originally think of! Here's a photo of one dragon, who's maker had the idea of cutting the orange streamer into strips to make it look more like fire! Brilliant!

Here's Ben with his dragon (making sure he showed me his streamer tail as well, that he twirled together before sticking on):

Jonathan had lots of help with his craft (in fact, he just sat there and waited until it was made for him), and once it was made, all he would say was "Raaahh" while proudly holding up his dragon, and then he tried to fight his dragon with all the other dragons near him. Funny to watch! Not so funny when it's your child being unintentionally inconsiderate of the hours and hours of hard work to make sure every child had the exact same amounts of everything to make a super amazing craft, to then bash it into other people's crafts you feel the same way about! ... But points for his patience and manners, anyway :)

And last but certainly not least... My darling daughter, silently 'roaring' (and holding this pose as I took 4 -or more- photos of her to see how long I could keep doing that and keep a straight face) and her dragon craft:

Another great day at the School Holiday Program!

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If you would like to see more photos of today's Magic, please visit Ropes Crossing Church's Facebook page. There's still 3 more days of creativeness and magic, so if you are local to Ropes Crossing, why not come and join us! :)