Summer Exploration of the Arts (S.E.A.) 2018 Color Your World! Teacher Handbook
Vision for S.E.A. Despite its one-week-a-year existence, our true hope for this Summer Exploration of the Arts at Lake is long term connection and creative engagement with God and others in church. This is not meant to be just a one-off program, promising a week of creative fun and training for the personal edification of individual campers. If that’s all we accomplish, we’ve failed. So, what is our win for S.E.A. Camp? 1. Campers taste that God and His people are extravagantly, lovingly creative. 2. Campers and their families get more connected to God’s family through mutual participation in and enjoyment of the arts. How many of you grew up relating to extended family? As a child, it can be such a treasure to visit Aunties and Uncles who share your family’s DNA, but have their own strengths and passions.
Vision for S.E.A. They are welcomed into a home that is prepared for messy creativity, and offers opportunities for them to sing, dance, act, paint and cook in every room. This Uncle and Auntie have prayerfully and diligently prepared for this week with all their nephews and nieces. They’ve got all the supplies, they’ve covered all the rugs so they won’t have to worry about paint spills. But more than that, they’ve asked God to prepare them to be patient, loving, encouraging and crazily creative. Everything about them and their house shouts, “God made us to be creative, like Him! So let’s do it!” They go through the week sharing their love of the arts with these precious kids, and look forward to the next family gathering, where they know there will be some chance to connect over another activity… or at least to offer a secret smile as their nephew slides over his latest napkin doodle in the middle of a family discussion about politics. And more and more often, their family gatherings are filled with creative expressions of worship. So, how do we do this?
Vision for S.E.A.
Be exceedingly hospitable: physically, emotionally, mentally, culturally, spiritually
Vision for S.E.A. How can you be physically hospitable? - Prepare your space and supplies with time to spare. - Go the extra mile to make your space colorful and warm. - Ensure you know how to keep campers safe, relating well, and comfortable. - Know exits and bathroom locations. - Understand behavioral guidelines and plans. How can you be emotionally hospitable? - Smile at them. No matter how stressed you feel, the camper should feel loved and wanted by you. - If you need to vent, find Sunita :) - Take time to greet campers by name warmly. - Take time to say goodbye each day. Give lots of high fives. - Ensure safety and discipline by setting expectations with campers from the beginning, and then offering gentle, loving reminders of how they can meet these expectations. Try never to shout, except for danger or fun.
Vision for S.E.A. How can you be mentally hospitable? - Listen to their ideas. Once you set up the project, let them create within these guidelines. - Don’t ask questions where they have to guess what’s in your head. Be interested in their genuine responses and ways of thinking. Then go and create together. How can you be culturally hospitable? - Culture encompasses and weaves through all of these categories in hospitality. Culture can influence how people behave, talk, interact, and create. We need to be sensitive to these differences as teachers and facilitators. How can you be spiritually hospitable? - Make time to pray for your campers and fellow staff. - Pray through and grapple with our themes. - Entertain spiritual proddings about content. - Ask God for connections to His Word in what you’ll be teaching. Listen for students’ spiritual questions and needs.
Themes for the week Please pray about how to incorporate these ideas in small ways in your classes. Monday: BLUE God created the world, and everything in it. He made us! And He call all His creation good. From outerspace our world looks mostly blue, so at camp we’re using blue to represent creation. Tuesday: Orange In our world today, we often use neon orange cones to signal the need for caution or danger. God’s beautiful creation also had warning signs about not trusting or obeying God, but they didn’t heed them. In our lives today, we all sometimes take the dangerous path of not following God. We try to do things our own way, in our own strength-- it’s become part of who we are as humans. This is called sin in the Bible, and the consequences of sin really hurt us, and keep us from being safe in God’s arms. We’ll use neon orange to represent sin at camp.
Themes for the week Wednesday: Red John 14:6 (ERV) “God loved the world so much that he gave his only Son, [Jesus] so that everyone who believes in him would not be lost but have eternal life.” Jesus poured out his life to bring us back into a close relationship with God. His red blood was spilled for us, to get us out of the danger zone. We’ll use red to represent Jesus, who died for us and rose from the dead. Thursday: Purple Creation (blue) will never be the same after its encounter with sin (orange) and Jesus (red). But do you know what happens when you mix blue and red? You get purple! What happens when you mix creation and Jesus? You get people who worship God from their hearts. So our final S.E.A. camp color is purple. We were made and redeemed so we could praise God. Purple represents praise!
Roles at S.E.A. Every class has a teacher, an assistant and a crew leader Teacher: Plan, prepare, and lead 3 classes per day. Assistant Teacher: Assist with 1 class throughout SEA Camp. Crew Leader: Accompany and care for a group of 10 - 12 children as they go through classes at SEA Camp. Home crew leader is their first period class crew leader who will welcome kiddos at the beginning of the day
Classroom Ethos (Mental and Emotional Hospitality) All The Paint! - Amy Cruse Brilliant Bells - Debbie Isenberg Caramel Classic Dance - Maria Schmidt Cerulean Ceramics from Scratch - Vicky Vargas Chartreuse Chef Kids - Chef Bill Yee Daffodil Dramatic Arts - Carrie Brakebush Diamond Dancers - Shauna Goddard-Barger Growing Green Thumbs - Jennifer Fong In Living Technicolor - Isaiah Kasten Kaleidoscopic Kraft-o-rama! - Gwen Cram Purple Praise! - Gabriel Ponton Sierra Sewing Shenanigans - Anne Dashiell Vibrant Violet Voices - Eric Carampatan Pre-k/kinder Art - Patty Haynes and Cara Enete Pre-k/kinder Music - Melissa Lazarian, Sharon Rager, and Dianna Harnist Pre-k/kinder Dance - Jennifer Nishizaki Pre-k/kinder Choir - Jennifer Nishizaki
S.E.A. Classes 8:00 am Staff prayer and daily info 8:15 am Teachers and assistants set up 8:30 am Crew Leaders welcome campers and take attendance 8:40 am Morning Creativity Burst! (Choir Room) 9:10 am Crew Leaders lead crews to Class A 9:15 am Class A 10:00 am Crew Leaders lead crews to Home Base (also, snack location) 10:05 am SNACK 10:20 am Line up according to Class B, with new Crew Leaders 10:25 am Class B 11:10 am Crew leaders lead campers to Home Base meet up for Class C 11:15 am Class C 12:05 pm Class C Crew Leader leads campers back to Choir Room 12:10 pm Closing Session (Review Theme, Song, Pray) 12:30 pm Dismissal (outside at Home Base) Friday classes are shorter to leave room for our showcase at 12:00pm!
How Does This Work? - 10-12 kids per class, with a few approved exceptions - Crew leaders take kids back and forth from home base to classes - Bathroom breaks during class time, not during transitions - Classes are grades 1-3, 4-5, or 6-8 - Flow of people always back to home base between classes
Just enough structure to foster their abundant creativity
Classroom Ethos (Mental and Emotional Hospitality) Content (Mental) - Keep it simple! + You have so many artistic tools you could teach them how to use, but this is a summer exploration, not an intensive! Pick 1 or 2 tools to teach. - Progress is the goal! + Start from wherever they are developmentally, and try to move them just a baby step further. Classroom Atmosphere and Teaching Style - We want to be: warm, fun, patient, enthusiastic, encouraging, positive, clear and affirming. - Avoid being critical, rigid, overly serious, vague, impatient or negative. - Avoid creating too rigid of a structure-- one that doesn’t leave room for goofy, creative kids. + But, you need enough structure to promote safety and abundant creativity.
Administrative and Scheduling Details - Supplies: fill out the supply form at www.lakeave.org/sea so we can approve the amount before you spend it - Budget: $10 or less per kid for the whole week - We are making a donation list and will try to match to supply needs - Come at 8:00am for prayer each morning, first day come at 7:45am - Watch your emails for room assignments and class rosters - Plan on decorating Sunday 7/15 after church Email seacamp@lakeave.org with any questions