Rainbows! Rainbows Everywhere!
I like to kick off the new Adventurer year with a club-wide award. This gives us a chance to see the club as a whole (instead of the parts we meet in in class groups). It also gives us extra flexibility. At the first meeting, we may have an idea of our numbers and ages, or it might be a total surprise. Usually, we combine our first meeting with registration. And we have no idea who to prepare for!
This year, registration took place as an walk-in activity during the first pathfinder meeting. Since the kids were all registered, I had a pretty good guess what our club would look like, however, we were still welcoming new families to walk in without warning. I made sure I had lots of extra craft supplies just in case. (I probably won’t need to do any prep the next time I teach this award. Everything is cut and ready to go…)
This year, we have a wide range of ages – three to ten. I was a little nervous about teaching a Helping Hand award to Little Lambs, but they each had their adult with them to help through any challenging parts, and they did great.
Rainbow Promise Award
What is a rainbow?
Book: Rainbow by Marion Dane Bauer
My library had this book. I love the sweet pictures in Rainbow. The author does a nice job explaining the science behind rainbows. She also tells us about different kinds of rainbows. If you would like to preview this book, you can also find it on YouTube. I also strongly recommend you check to see what books your local public library has. They are an amazing resource!
Who saw their very first rainbow in Gen 9:8-17?
The older kids (elementary) looked up the verses in their bibles. We read the story aloud to everyone.
What is a covenant?
We had a two minute discussion of the definition and chatted about what a promise is.
Craft: Tissue Paper Rainbow
I was inspired by Amber’s stained glass rainbow craft. I created a silhouette cut file to make my cutting machines do the work for me. If you will be cutting the outlines out by hand, you will definitely want to check out Amber’s blog post for instructions. I have a Silhouette cut file available below for anyone who can use it.
Materials
- Black Cardstock or Construction Paper – I prefer cardstock when using a cutting machine, but construction paper is likely easier to use if cutting by hand.
- Clear Contact Paper
- Tissue Paper – I like the precut squares in a variety of colors for crafts like this.
Instructions
First, cut your rainbow out of your black paper. Next, cut two pieces of contact paper a little bigger than your rainbow. Finally, remove the contact paper backing and put the rainbow outline on the sticky side of the contact paper. Your rainbow is now ready for the tissue paper.
While preparing for my meeting, I got all of the rainbows to this point, and then added the contact paper backing back to the rainbow. As I gave the craft out to the kids, I pulled the backing off, and it was ready to go.
My tissue paper was a little big to fit in the spaces, so we ripped it into smaller pieces and placed it on the sticky contact paper. It’s fine if it’s a little messy – the part you see while you make this is the back. It’ll look so much tidier when you flip it over. Once all the spaces are filled in, we double checked that the adventurer’s name was written the black paper. A white pen is ideal, but a pencil will also work – it shows up kind of silvery. Next, you will remove the backing on the second piece of contact paper and place it, sticky side down, onto the rainbow. Smooth it out, middle to edges. Find an adult (or older adventurer) to cut the contact paper leaving a small margin around the rainbow. Find a sunny window to stick it to and admire!
Rainbow Tag
After 15-20 minutes of working on our craft, it was time for a game break. We played Rainbow Tag. I found that we did need to make some modifications for a small group. We only had eight kids, so assigning six different colors really didn’t work very well. In the future, with this group size, I’d limit us to three to four colors maximum. It’s less rainbowy, but otherwise, we only had one kid running at a time.
The other issue I noticed was how my Little Lambs handled the game. If they were teamed up with an adult, they did really well. If they were on their own, they kind of just ran around in circles with no concept of the game going on around them! As this was the first meeting for the Little Lambs’ parents, they were kinda shy about playing tag. I don’t think this is a major issue. I would totally play the game with all of these kids again, it’s just something to be aware of. All of my older Adventurers have little siblings so they were gentle with the little ones. Some groups of Adventurers might need a reminder about how we play when little ones are playing with us.
M&M Rainbow
After our game, we headed back to the Adventurer room to finish our rainbow craft and to do a little science. The kids loved making an M&M Rainbow! Before we started, I reminded all the kids that we don’t eat our science experiments (Eating M&Ms that multiple kids have held seemed like a recipe for spreading illness.) The kids did a fantastic job laying out the M&Ms around the plate. And I only saw one M&M go into a mouth. Such great self-restraint! (Yes, I sent home treat size bags with the parents. Playing with M&Ms and not getting to eat any seemed kind of mean…) Watching the colors merge felt magical. I wasn’t certain this experiment would keep the kids engaged. But, they loved it! All the kids, from three to ten, were mesmerized.
What activities do you love to use when you teach this award? Please leave a comment. I’d love to hear your ideas!