Magic Carpet Ride!

Join us this Friday at Musikool Kids for a magic carpet ride... where shall we go to?

Wear a hat or costume from any country of your choice!

Praise with cymbals and a big bass drum!

Today our Awesome Kids continued to celebrate Easter. We made some trendy Easter bowls and filled them with some yummy Easter treats.,

click HERE to see photos

In church we had a musical treasure hunt... dozens of musical instruments were hidden around the church, but this was a treasure hunt for the adults! When everyone had found a percussion instrument, the children read Psalm 150 and the adults played their instruments at the appropriate place.

Praise with a blast on the trumpet,
    praise by strumming soft strings;
Praise him with castanets and dance*,
    praise him with banjo and flute;
Praise him with cymbals and a big bass drum,
    praise him with fiddles and mandolin.
Let every living, breathing creature praise God!
    Hallelujah!

*Harry and Caleb praised God with some fabulous dance moves.

We then sang Julie Wylie's song, 'Dance for the Lord' and everyone accompanied the Chapel Street Band with fabulous percussion! We had piano, digital piano, drum kit, electric guitar, acoustic guitar, ukulele, trumpet, flute, drums, maracas, triangles, bells, tambourines, castanets, guiro and vocals! (Video coming soon!)

It was chaotic- but in the most JOYOUS way! We sure celebrated the fact that Jesus lives and our God loves us, HALLELUJAH!

Our Magic Carpet Ride

Flying on our magic carpet

This morning at Musikool Kids we went on a magic carpet ride... singing along to Julie Wylie's fabulous Magic Carpet song from her 'Bop it in the Rocket' CD.

Using destinations suggested by our Musikool children and parents we flew to India, the mountains, Sumner Beach (for an ice cream!) and to Isobel!

I can't wait for our next magic carpet ride... I wonder where we will fly to next?

Emelia and Lily and their babies under the parachute

FISH Family Fun Night

Saturday 9th April 5pm

All welcome!

Easter Sunday Egg Hunt

Our Awesome Kids celebrated Easter Sunday with a fabulous egg hunt in the gardens of the Chapel Street Centre.

They also made origami butterflies, birds and flowers- symbols of new life.

The Petaia family

Parish Picnic

Last Sunday our families enjoyed our annual Parish Picnic. This year we went to St James' Park in Papanui, a stone's throw from The Chapel Street Centre.

We had egg and spoon races, three-legged races, wheelbarrow races, an egg hunt and a lollie scramble!

You can check out more photos by clicking HERE.

What is Palm Sunday?

Last Sunday was Palm Sunday... we heard the start of the Easter story. It began with Jesus riding into  Jerusalem town on a donkey. The crowd waved palm branches and cheered. 

Why did Jesus ride a donkey? A horse would have been better, surely?

Jesus rode a little donkey - a sign he was coming in peace.

What happened to Jesus when he got to Jerusalem?

He taught people, told stories and worked miracles that brought many good things. But some of the things he did upset some of the leaders. They wanted to get rid of him. They told lies to make the Roman governor think Jesus was a rebel and going to make trouble for him.

What happened next?

Jesus was put to death and nailed to a cross of wood. This Friday is the day when we have a quiet service in church to remember the day Jesus died. It is called Good Friday. 

Good Friday? That doesn't sound very good too me...

But on Sunday comes Easter, and there's good news then!

What is Easter Sunday?

After Jesus died, his friends took his body and put it in a tomb (like a cave) and rolled a stone in front of the entrance. On the Sunday, the friends went to say goodbye for the last time. They found the tomb open and the body gone! They saw Jesus alive!

Why do we have Easter Eggs?

Well some people think of eggs as a symbol of new life, to remind us of Jesus being alive... and others think of the egg as a reminder of the rock that was rolled away from the entrance of the cave.

Join us this Easter Sunday

Come along to our family friendly Easter Sunday service of celebration. This Sunday 10am at The Chapel Street Centre - including Awesome Time for children of all ages.

Check out some of the eggs our Awesome Kids decorated last Sunday...

Musikool Kids update

(The dolls cots are proving very popular!)

 Last week at Musikool Kids we enjoyed the ribbon sticks, parachute, instruments and dancing to the funny clown song.

We also enjoyed playing outside afterwards on a beautiful sunny morning.

Welcome to our newest Musikool child!

Lovely to see someone
enjoying my book! (Mel)

Videos of Chapel Street Opening Celebrations

Finally I have managed to upload some videos of the Chapel Street official opening weekend. Enjoy!

Parish Picnic this Sunday

Join us at St James' Park for our Parish Family Picnic. Bring your own rug or chairs and picnic lunch and enjoy the company of others and some good old fashioned family games... three legged races, egg and spoon races and much, much more! All welcome!

Treats for feet!

Last Sunday our Awesome Kids explored the story of the special gift of washing Jesus' feet with expensive oil. 

They then made gift bags of Epsom salts for tired feet. They even tried out some foot spas!

They made bubble bottles, which were about putting things that make us sad into the bottle. Then they added all the things that make us happy. This filled the bottle with all out happy thoughts.

They also compared this to Easter where Jesus was sad because he knew what was coming, but on the third day the joy of the resurrection was bubbling over as people found out.

Harvest Festival

Last Sunday was Harvest Festival. Our Awesome Kids celebrated by making veggie people and animals from corn cobs, carrots, potatoes, cranberries, parsley, bay leaves, tangelos and much more!

Check out our Awesome Kids' amazing vegetable creations by clicking here.

The band played, and were accompanied by some enthusiastic percussionists! We also heard a modern version of the bible story, 'The Prodigal Son' - as some of the youth helped Mel perform 'The Prodigal Daughter' skit.

Congratulations Hamish

Hamish

Hamish brought a rather impressive looking trophy to church on Sunday. Hamish helped his cricket team win the Christchurch Junior Cricket Association, John Growcott Shield (year 5 section 2).

Congratulations Hamish!

Well done also to Emma, who has successfully auditioned for her school's Chorale (special choir) and orchestra! Emma has also been selected for the Kids Lit Quiz Team - an annual literature competition in which students compete against other schools in Christchurch, striving to gain a place in the national champs in Wellington. 

Congratulations and best wishes Emma!

Last week...

Last week our Awesome Kids learnt that God is a loving God and always with us, helping us through tough times... when we are worried, upset, angry, afraid, sad - God is always with us and loves us.

We made posters and bookmarks to remind us of this... and to help us keep calm if we wake up in the middle of the night scared or worried. God is with us. God loves us!

Tightrope walkers at Musikool Kids!

Our clever girls carefully walk the tightrope!

This morning at Musikool Kids we learnt a new song, from Julie Wylie's Magic Musical Play CD, Roll Up to the Circus.

We had dancing ponies, beautiful dancers, funny clowns... and some amazing tightrope walkers!

What a fantastic circus it was!

Harvest Festival

This Sunday it's Harvest Festival. Bring something from your garden, or a tin of food to donate.

In Awesome Time we'll be getting creative and making some veggie people or animals to add to the display in church!

 

Happy campers!

Last weekend we had our annual Parish Family Camp. 33 adults and 28 children came together for a fantastic couple of days. Our youngest camper was 8 months old, and our oldest was 96! Go Ruby!

Our weekend was Olympic themed. First everyone was put into teams. Each team had to create a country and come up with its name, national anthem and flag. Our games opened with a march past, singing of each team's anthem, the taking of the oath by the athletes, and of course the Olympic torch relay!

‘Fagamalama carries the Olympic torch

Dylan, Leah, Deija and James take the Olympic Oath on behalf of all the athletes.

The events ranged from Javelin (with swimming noodles), Parchery (archery with paper!), Shot Put (throwing water balloons at Dave!), Discus (gumboot toss), and a Pentathlon which included three-legged races, piggy-back races and egg and spoon races.

The grand finale was hilarious... each team presented a dry-land version of an Olympic Synchronised Swimming routine! (You'll have to wait for the video for that one!)

There was one casualty unfortunately, one of the horses was injured during the equestrian event and is now hobbling around on crutches. (Hope you're feeling better soon, Bee!)

Saturday afternoon saw a new record breaking water-slide by Kerry (Johnny came a very close second!) and the record for the doubles was taken out by Philomena and James. Wahoo!

Philomena had us all sharing our most embarrassing stories as part of our Saturday night entertainment, which was followed by a game of Spotlight for the night owls among us.

We all put together a creative church service on Sunday morning, which included some fantastic live music with guitars, ukuleles, percussion and we even learnt some Tongan children's songs (thanks Ronnie and team!) The drama team, expertly led by willing volunteer Johnny, performed the Mem Fox story, 'Koala Lou' about a koala bear who enters the Bush Olympics.

We were extremely well looked after by our Waipara Master Chefs, who made sure we were very well fed with tasty, healthy food to keep us high performance athletes fueled, and special Olympic chilled water (with orange/lime slices and mint) to keep us hydrated. There were even ice-cream cones after the water-slide rides! Delicious!

We also celebrated three birthdays over the weekend, which meant three cakes! Happy birthday to Richard, Leilani and Andrew.

Happy birthday Daniella!

 Last Sunday was very special as one of our Awesome Kids had their actual birthday on Sunday! Thank you Daniella for coming to Awesome Kids on your birthday so we could celebrate with you!

Mountaineering Awesome Kids

On Top of the Mountain - Kizoa Online Movie Maker


http://www.kizoa.com/Movie-Maker/d31955619k8739081o1l1/on-top-of-the-mountain

Last week our Awesome Kids (and unsuspecting adult members of the congregation) were called up to perform an impromptu play about Jesus and the disciples' mountaintop experience. Then we went outside and drew the scene at the mountain on the car-park with chalk.

Welcome back to Music!

Musikool Kids started back last Friday, in The Chapel Street Centre. It was wonderful to be in our own space again, with all our musical instruments and equipment at our fingertips, and lovely to see all our Musikool Kids' families again, and some new faces.

Musikool Kids 2016

Brilliant to be able to rediscover lots of great toys that had been in storage for the past five years!

Musikool Kids starts tomorrow!

Calling all Musikool Kids' families! Really looking forward to seeing you all tomorrow in the Chapel Street Centre for a fun morning of music and movement. Exciting!

Blessing of the Backpacks this Sunday!

Hi kids! Awesome Time starts back this Sunday, with our Blessing of the Backpacks. Bring your schoolbag and be prepared for some hilarious games, a fun skit, groovy music with the Chapel Street Band, and some craft.

Make an origami owl or monster corner bookmark!

Registration Form for Musikool Kids

Yipeeeee!!! Registrations are now open for Musikool Kids 2016 (Term 1 begins Friday 5 Feb). Musikool Kids will be in the kids' room at The Chapel Street Centre, corner of Harewood Road and Chapel Street. How exciting!

Unfortunately we have to limit numbers and we will be operating a waiting list once the class is full, so be in quick! Preference will be given to existing members.

Click here to access form

Blessing of the Backpacks

Bring your school-bag, uni-bag, pencil case/lunchbox or briefcase along to church on 31 January. Rev Neti will offer a special blessing to all our young people as the new school year begins.

Watch the Kids' Christmas Service

Santa's visit to Musikool Kids