Welcome back to Music!

Cups and saucers out; cushions on the floor; name tags sorted; stamps chosen; bubble mix poured; scarves, rainbow ring, claves and parachute ready; Horace the Teddy-bear hiding... all ready and waiting the arrival of our Musikool Kids families on our first day of term four.

We are very lucky to have such a great bunch of volunteers who help make Musikool Kids possible. Thanks guys!

Plenty of bubble fun this morning!

Musikool Kids starts back tomorrow

Musikool Kids resumes Friday 17 October. We look forward to seeing you all for a fun-filled, festive term 4 of musical play.

The Great Feast!

Today was White Sunday, where in Samoan churches the children dress in white, take the entire service and are celebrated. Whilst we didn't take the whole service, Ella and Keegan helped Moe light the candle, Catherine led us in prayer, and the rest of the Awesome Kids helped with a drama.

We acted out the parable of The Great Feast. Spencer played the part of the king, who planned a banquet and invited all his friends. On the day of the party however, the friends were too busy or couldn't be bothered to turn up. The king sent out a servant to find out why they didn't come. They all gave very lame excuses and the king was very sad and cross. He then sent his servants out into the streets to invite everyone they could find to come and share in the banquet. 

Jesus said God has given each one of us a special invitation: to accept God's love into our lives. God is pretty awesome and loves each one of us so much and wants the best for us. What we do really matters to God. So the story Jesus told is to help us understand and remember this special invitation, to try and live in God's ways, showing love to other people.

To help us remember this parable (story) and help celebrate White Sunday, we held our own great banquet. We had invited some very special guests, Rev Neti and Moe. Fortunately they didn't make any excuses, they were very happy to turn up!

The Awesome Kids enjoyed having Neti and Moe to themselves for a while, and we had great fun eating, talking and laughing together. The children posed some thought-provoking questions to Neti, such as: "How do you talk to God?", "How many books in the bible?", "What sports do you like?" and "What is your favourite colour?"

Congratulations Emma and Corban!

Corban

Two of our Awesome Kids have had fantastic success recently.

Emma sat an ICAS Exam (International Competitions and Assessments for Schools) for Writing and achieved Distinction. Congratulations Emma, that is an outstanding achievement!

Corban helped his soccer team win a tournament, and was awarded a very impressive looking medal. He wore it to church this morning (check out the photo!)

Come and Join the Party!

Awesome Kids Rules!

Awesome Kids looked at the 10 Commandments and came up with some pretty good rules for living of their own.

Here are a few of them:

- Love one another as Jesus loves us
- Respect your elders
- Care for your environment
- Believe in yourself and in others
- Help others when hurt or in need
- Accept others
- Try to help others as much as you can
- Don't lie to anyone
- Keep your bedroom tidy
- Pick up your clothes
- No running in the house

What Rules?

Do you like rules? Does your family have rules? What are the rules at school? Do you play a sport or game that has rules?

Knowing the rules means we know how to act, how to play the game, or what is expected. As we learn to live with other people and figure out the world around us, rules are very helpful.

In this week's story from the Bible, we learn about some rules God gave the people, called The Ten Commandments. Some of these rules you may have heard of, and they are pretty sensible rules which you will probably have at school and many other places. Here are a few of them:

- Don't take what is not yours.

- Don't tell lies about other people.

- Treat your mother and father with respect.

You might like to test your family's knowledge and see who can remember the other seven commandments! In the story from the bible, people asked Jesus which was the MOST important commandment of all. Do you know what Jesus said?

CLUE: "---- God with all your heart, with all your mind and with all your mind. And ---- your neighbour as yourself." (See Mathew 22: 36-39).

Join Awesome Kids this Sunday Funday to find out more, and have fun with your friends at church. 

Into the Wilderness

Today was Wilderness Sunday. We celebrated the wonderful wild places God has created, and the critters that inhabit them. We heard the birdsong of a tui, kiwi and ruru (morepork) and tried to guess which bird they were.

Tying in with our environmental theme, we watched a video Izak had made of his school speech he'd written, Plant a Tree, Plant Hope. 

Upstairs, during Awesome Time, we made our own little critter fridge magnets, by recycling old bottle tops. Thanks to everyone who drank loads of milk this week, so they could contribute plastic lids!

A Right Royal Piratical Rumbustification!

This morning we had a Pirates and Princesses Right Royal Piratical Rumbustification! Everyone (grown-ups too!) donned pirate patches, tiaras and wielded a cutlass or fairy wand. 

We sang Little Pirates, Princess Pat & Captain Jack, Row your boat (and had to keep a lookout for Erin with croc!), The Big Ship Sails, Pirates Like Sailing on the Deep Blue Sea. Dominic, Laura and Amelia were very helpful puppeteers as we sang the story/song of Sleeping Beauty, There was a Princess Long Ago.

Check out Pirate Di swabbing the decks afterwards!

Amazing Places

Last Sunday Funday we celebrated 'Land Sunday' and talked about some of the most beautiful places on Earth.

Upstairs our Awesome Kids created beautiful crayon and dye paintings of their own amazing places.

...and this is my picture!

Such concentration from Andrew!

Celebrating Forest Sunday!

7th September was the first Sunday in The Season of Creation Celebration, Forest Sunday.

Here are some of our Awesome Kids making pine cone bird feeders and planting trees (looking after the wonderful forests and wildlife God has given us)!

They even made 'grizzly bear' cupcakes and 'pine tree' cookies to feed our own 'wildlife' and there were enough to share with the men in the congregation (since it was Fathers' Day!)

Get out yer pirate gear me hearties!

This morning at Musikool Kids some of our favourite songs were 'The Big Ship Sails' with the parachute, 'Galoop went the Little Green Frog', 'Takahia means Stamp' and 'The Bean Bag Bop'.

It's hard to believe there are only two more Fridays left in the term. This coming Friday 19 September, we will have a Pirates and Princesses Day. So, yo ho ho! Slap on a pirate hat and eye patch, or a princess dress and tiara and join us for a fun filled royal piratical rumbustification!

Friday 26 September will be the last session of the term. Unfortunately, Merilyn, Bob and myself won't be there as we'll be watching my daughter run in the primary schools cross country champs. We'll leave you in the very capable hands of Amanda and team.

Term 4 starts back on 17 October and ends on 5 December.

Bubble fun at Musikool Kids