Mission outlines and activities Mission 1 - Dig Overview This mission is a discovery session and the objective is for the children to gain a basic understanding of what The Salvation Army is through sand play in the form of a treasure hunt. The session starts with a welcome to all of the children and adults and then the main part of the session is based around the sand tray where various item cards are hidden in the sand for the children to find. Discussion and suggestions are then invited from the children for them to explore for themselves the basic beliefs and actions of The Salvation Army. This mission is very child initiated and the adult leader will only share the concrete answers with the children after the children have made their own suggestions. Aims • To gain a basic understanding of what The Salvation Army is and does • To be able to recall the items and their relevance within The Salvation Army during the sharing session Setting up the mission The welcome session and sharing session at the end need to be in an area which is separate from the main activity. If you are in a classroom, maybe this could be in the reading area, and if you are at your corps/centre, maybe this time could be in a separate area of the main hall or in a lounge/small room. For the main activity, the children need to be seated in a circle with the sand tray in the middle. If possible, everyone should be seated on a large groundsheet to reduce the amount of sand that ends up on the floor! The item cards should be hidden in the sand before the children arrive and, if it is possible, they could be hidden along with odd items such as toy cars or animal figures so that it seems more like a treasure hunt. The real life items should also be to hand near to where the leader is going to sit in the circle so that they can easily be reached for the discussion time. Resources provided • ‘What is The Salvation Army’ item cards • Item explanation cards You will also need • A sand tray and play sand (available from Early Learning Centre or B&Q/Homebase) • Groundsheet or something similar • A large globe (you can buy inflatable ones from justglobes.co.uk or sillyjokes.co.uk) • A Bible • A polystyrene cup (the bigger, the better) with a red shield sticker on it (phone us for a red shield sticker if you need one) • A teddy bear • A cornet • A copy of The War Cry • A sleeping bag • A bowl and spoon • Additional items – toy cars/animal figures for the treasure hunt
Welcome session (5 mins) This is a time for you to welcome the children to your corps/centre or for you to introduce yourself if you are visiting their nursery or school. Say hello to the children and tell them your name. Remember that these children are very young and their understanding of church language, let alone ‘Salvation Army’ language may be very limited. If you are comfortable with it, perhaps you could just share your first name, and if you are the corps officer perhaps you could introduce yourself as the leader of the Salvation Army church in ______ (insert town as appropriate). Tell the children that you are here today to help them to discover something new about your church. Let them know that it’s going to be lots of fun and that they will be taking part in activities similar to ones they do at nursery or at school. If you are at the corps or centre, make sure you let the children know where the toilets are and emphasise how important it is for them to tell an adult if they need to go to the toilet rather than wandering off on their own. If the mission is being held at a Salvation Army corps or centre – the requirement is that two adults accompany the child to the toilet. Ask the children if any of them have ever been to a church before (allow four or five children to put their hands up and share their experiences) and then briefly explain to the children that The Salvation Army is a Christian church which is well known for helping other people who might be in trouble or need some kind of help. Explain to the children that they will be taking part in a treasure hunt activity. Lots of items seem to have got lost in the sand tray and you need their help to find them because the items will help them to learn some new things about The Salvation Army. Encourage the children to carefully move to the main session area and to sit or stand in a circle around the sand tray. (If there are a lot of children then maybe a 2nd circle of children could stand around a seated circle.) Main session (30 mins) Invite the children to stand and to move closer to the sand tray (warn them not to come too close as other children won’t be able to see). Explain to them again that there are some item cards hidden in the sand tray which will help them to find out about The Salvation Army. Excitedly tell them that they are going to be explorers so that they can find them. Ask for your first volunteer to take part in the treasure hunt by raising their hand (bear in mind that the children are likely to be very excited and therefore many will be keen to take part). Encourage the child to dig into the sand to find the first item card, and once they have found it ask them if they know what the item is. They may also be able to read the word on the card with help. At this stage, don’t ask the child anything about the item but ask him/her to keep hold of it while the other children have a go. Repeat for the other cards until all the cards have been dug out. Once all of the cards have been found, ask the children to move back and sit in the circle (you may need to move the sand tray if it is in the way of the children or alternatively move back to the welcome area). Thank them for their excellent job at being explorers and share with them that now you are going to find out what the cards mean. Place the real life objects within the circle so that all the children can see them. Ask one of the children who has a card to stand and to give their card to a child who hasn’t already got one so that most of the children are involved at some point (if it is a much smaller group and all of the children have a card, the children will be able to keep their own). Ask the new child what item is on the card and then invite him/her to stand up and match the real life item to the card.
Once they have matched the card and the item, leaving the card alongside the item, thank him/her for their help and ask them to return to their seat. Ask the group how The Salvation Army could use this item to help people or what they think the item tells us about what The Salvation Army does. Allow for a few suggestions to be made by the children putting their hands up and then, using the explanation cards, share with the children what this item tells us about The Salvation Army. After the explanation has been shared, place the explanation card next to the item in the circle in a place which is visible to the children. One by one, repeat the activity, asking the children to pass their card to another child and then matching up the card with the item followed by the suggestions and explanations. Once all of the cards have been matched up with the items, tell the children that they have done an excellent job at finding the items and thinking about what each item says about The Salvation Army. Sharing session (5 mins) Invite the children to return to the separate area for the sharing session. Ask the children to put their hands up if they have had a good time today…then ask them to touch their nose if they have learnt something new…and then to put their hands on their head if they would like to tell the group something that they have learnt about The Salvation Army. Encourage the children to keep their hands on their heads while you ask each of them in turn to share what new thing they have learnt about The Salvation Army. Thank the children again for being such excellent explorers before the session comes to a close. Item explanations (see also cards) Globe – this globe shows our world and all of the different countries in our world. We live in ___________ and we are learning today that The Salvation Army can be found in lots of places around our country. But The Salvation Army can also be found in over 100 other countries across our world! Bible – this very special book is called the Bible and it is important to members of The Salvation Army because it teaches about Jesus. Jesus was a very important man who helped lots of people when he was alive. That is why The Salvation Army wants to help so many people today. Cup – when there is a flood or a bomb or something awful happens, The Salvation Army are always there to help. This cup shows that they give drinks to people who are hurt or who are helping, like a fireman or a policeman, but they will also give them food and will listen to them if they need to talk to someone. Teddy bear – this teddy bear shows that The Salvation Army really cares for children and their families. Lots of children like to come to The Salvation Army to play and make new friends at a nursery or a kid’s club. Mums and dads can chat and make new friends too. Cornet – this is called a cornet and it is a musical instrument. In The Salvation Army, we like to play lots of different instruments and sing or dance because we believe God likes it when we play music to him. The War Cry – this is a newspaper that The Salvation Army make called The War Cry. Sometimes you might see someone selling this newspaper at the shops and that person might be wearing a uniform. Some members of The Salvation Army choose to wear a uniform but not everyone has to. Sleeping bag – these are given out to people who live on the streets and don’t have a home of their own. The Salvation Army helps homeless people by giving them food, clothes and sometimes a sleeping bag like this one. They can also help them to find a new home. Bowl and spoon – at Christmas, older people sometimes come to a Salvation Army centre for a Christmas dinner if they don’t have anywhere else to go. The members of The Salvation Army will give them food and drink and will try to make their Christmas special for them.
Mission 2 - Share Overview This mission is a storytelling session led by our puppet, William Booth. He talks briefly about the history of The Salvation Army and uses artefacts to tell his story before inviting the children to share any questions that they have about the work of The Salvation Army. This session focuses heavily on enhancing the children’s communication, language and literacy skills as well as personal, social and emotional development through listening, interaction and using a third person (puppet) as a speaking tool. This mission should ideally take place in a quiet and comfortable area to enable a suitable storytelling environment. It starts with a welcome session, followed by the introduction of William Booth to the children including an open question time and then the sharing session to close. Aims • To gain a basic understanding of how The Salvation Army started • To express interest through questioning Setting up the mission It is ideal to use this mission if space is limited as both the welcome, main and sharing sessions can take place in the same area. If possible, a reading or soft area would be perfect for this mission at a nursery/school or a small lounge if it is taking place at the corps/centre. If you are creating the area yourself then it would work well to have some cushions or beanbags to create a storytelling environment. Very little setting up is required for this mission but it’s important that the atmosphere is established and maintained from the beginning of the session. The leader needs to speak with a calm tone and centre as much attention on the puppet as possible in order to direct the children’s attention to it. This mission would work best if the leader is able to learn the script prior to the visit and can therefore recite the story so that all the attention can be on the puppet. If this is not possible, then it is essential that the leader is at least very familiar with the script. It is also important to check with the teacher prior to the visit if any of the children are likely to be scared of the puppet – this is possible with children of this age – and if necessary, change the set up of the storytelling session. If a few of the children are likely to be anxious or if the teacher feels that it would be an inappropriate activity, the leader could tell the story themselves, perhaps dressing up as William Booth, and use the artefacts to illustrate in the same way. Resources provided or available for loan • Puppet – William Booth • Script • Mystery bag containing the following artefacts • Picture of a SA hall • Bag of money • Shawl • First aid kit • Mini board and magnets • Picture of emergency vehicle
You will also need • Cushions/beanbags if possible • The remaining artefacts • Sleeping bag • Bible • Bowl and spoon • Packet of soup Welcome session (5 mins) (Keep the puppet out of sight until the beginning of the story) This is a time for you to welcome the children to your corps/centre or for you to introduce yourself if you are visiting their nursery or school. Say hello to the children and tell them your name. Remember that these children are very young and their understanding of church language, let alone ‘Salvation Army’ language, may be very limited. If you are comfortable with it, perhaps you could just share your first name, and if you are the corps officer, perhaps you could introduce yourself as the leader of the Salvation Army church in ______ (insert town as appropriate). Tell the children that you are here today to help them to discover something new about your church. Let them know that it’s going to be lots of fun and that they will be taking part in activities similar to ones they do at nursery or at school. If you are at the corps or centre, make sure you let the children know where the toilets are and emphasise how important it is for them to tell an adult if they need to go to the toilet rather than wandering off on their own. If the mission is being held at a Salvation Army corps or centre – the requirement is that two adults accompany the child to the toilet. Ask the children if any of them have ever been to a church before (allow four or five children to put their hands up and share) and then briefly explain to the children that The Salvation Army is a Christian church which is well known for helping other people who might be in trouble or need some kind of help. Share with the children that today they will be sharing in a storytelling session with a very special visitor (not just you!) who will be telling them all about The Salvation Army, what it is and how it started. Main session (20 mins) Ask the children to put their hands up if they are ready to say hello to the very special guest (be aware that the children are likely to be very excited but some may be anxious or even scared – it is important that you check with the teacher prior to the visit if any of the children are likely to be scared). Bring the puppet into view and start the script. Bring out the artefacts from the bag where highlighted in the script (in brackets) and place them in view for the children.
(N.B. Allow the children plenty of time to answer each question and perhaps allow 3 or 4 children to answer each one. It is important to take this session slowly and allow the children plenty of time to enjoy the puppet experience). Sharing session (5 mins) At the end of the storytelling session, place William Booth out of sight and tell the children that you are going to share some of the things that they have learnt today. Ask the children to put their hands up if they have enjoyed your time together today and then ask them to keep their hands up (and others put them down) if they would like to share one thing that they have learnt today. Take it in turns to ask the children to share and then end the session by thanking the children for allowing you to share with them today and say that you hope that they have learnt something that they will always remember about The Salvation Army.
Mission 3 - Move Overview This mission is particularly aimed at developing the children’s physical development skills but there are also elements of personal, social and emotional development in the way that they show their feelings and reactions to the music and creative development in exploring different instruments and their sounds. The children start with gaining an understanding of why members of The Salvation Army use music in worship and then experiment with a variety of different Salvation Army musical instruments before experiencing a variety of Salvation Army music clips and spending time responding to the music in movement. The mission begins with a welcome session and ends with a sharing session during which the children can consolidate their learning. Aims • To gain an understanding of how and why members of The Salvation Army use music in their worship • To be able to express how the music makes them feel through movement Setting up the mission A large space is essential for this mission so that the children can move around safely and freely in their response – a large hall, either at school or the corps/centre would be perfect. It is also necessary to have a separate area designated for the welcome and sharing sessions where the children can sit and share with you. It would be ideal to have the instruments in the large area as well so that there is enough room for the children to sit in a circle around them while they explore the sounds they make. Resources provided • Music CD You will also need • CD player • A variety of musical instruments – some brass and some contemporary if possible (guitar, drums, keyboard etc) • Wet wipes (for cleaning the brass instrument mouthpieces) Welcome session (5 mins) This is a time for you to welcome the children to your corps/centre or for you to introduce yourself if you are visiting their nursery or school. Say hello to the children and tell them your name. Remember that these children are very young and their understanding of church language, let alone ‘Salvation Army’ language may be very limited. If you are comfortable with it, perhaps you could just share your first name, and if you are the corps officer perhaps you could introduce yourself as the leader of the Salvation Army church in ______ (insert town as appropriate). Tell the children that you are here today to help them to discover something new about your church. Let them know that it’s going to be lots of fun and that they will be taking part in activities similar to ones they do at nursery or at school. If you are at the corps or centre, make sure you let the children know where the toilets are and emphasise how important it is for them to tell an adult if they need to go to the toilet rather than wandering off on their own. If the mission is being held at a Salvation Army corps or centre – the requirement is that two adults accompany the child to the toilet.
Ask the children if any of them have ever been to a church before (allow four or five children to put their hands up and share) and then briefly explain to the children that The Salvation Army is a Christian church which is well known for helping other people who might be in trouble or need some kind of help. Explain that today they are going to be finding out why music is important in The Salvation Army and experimenting with different sounds and types of music. Main session Activity 1 (15 mins) (It is a good idea to have the instruments set up ready for the children to move to the main space, and in a way that the children can sit around them in a circle.) Invite the children to move to the main space and sit in a circle around the musical instruments. (The children are likely to be very excited about seeing so many different instruments so ask them not to touch anything just yet but to sit ready for you to start.) Explain to the children that music is very important in The Salvation Army because we believe that God likes it when we play and sing to him. Explain to the children that there are lots of different musical instruments which we can use to praise God and each one makes a different noise. Ask the children who would like to try out a musical instrument today and ask them to raise their hands if they would like to. Trying to ensure that you include all children where possible, encourage each child one at a time (otherwise it will get very noisy!) to select an instrument to go and try. (Be aware that some instruments may be heavy for the children to lift so it is a good idea to have an adult on hand to support with holding the instrument for the child.) It doesn’t matter if the children choose an instrument which has already been played, but if it is a brass instrument remember to use the wet wipes to clean the mouthpiece before and after! Encourage the children to talk about what sound the instrument makes – is it loud or soft? Is it hard to play? Would you like to play this instrument? As each child tries an instrument, ask the children if they know what the instrument is called and give them the name if they do not know. Activity 2 (15 mins) When the children have finished experimenting with the instruments, clear the instruments to one side or, if possible, move the children to an alternative large space for the movement activity. Explain to the children that you are going to play some pieces of music and that you would like them to move around in a way that shows how the music makes them feel. For example, if the music sounds like a march they could march around like soldiers. If the music is loud and very fast, they could move around very quickly, and if the music is quiet they might want to move around like a mouse – very slowly and gently. Share these examples with the children and use the first track on the CD to practice moving around together as an example. Start the CD and encourage the children to move around accordingly. If they are not confident in what they are doing or if you feel it would be beneficial, it may be a good idea for you to take part as well and encourage any other adults to join in! This will encourage the children and maybe give them some ideas if they are not sure how to respond. Stop the CD after each track and invite the children to suggest why they moved in the way that they did, discuss the emotions that the music evoked and encourage them to use words such as happy, sad, frightened and angry. Also, talk about the speed and dynamics of the music and how this influenced their movement. Encourage the children before starting the next track. Sharing session (5 mins) The children are likely to be quite tired after the movement session and so encourage them to return to the welcome area for a sharing session to end your time together. Ask the children to touch their noses if they have had fun today and then ask them to keep their fingers on their noses if they would like to share something that they have learnt today. Take it in turns to ask the children what they would like to share. If they are not sure what to say, encourage them with questions like – can you remember what one of the instruments was called? Can you show me one way that you moved around to the music? End the session by thanking the children for letting you share with them today and that you hope they have learnt something about The Salvation Army that they will always remember.
Mission 4 - Journey Overview This mission is predominantly a role play session which gives the children the opportunity to exercise their creative skills and in turn to learn about how The Salvation Army supports and works in local communities. The mission particularly focuses on four areas of Salvation Army work – the SA church, a charity shop, a school and a hospital. The children are invited to develop their own part of the community before undertaking a journey around the whole community to experience for themselves how people are helped by The Salvation Army. The mission starts with a welcome session, followed by the main session and then a sharing session to finish. The main session involves them working in four smaller groups (ideally supported by an adult for each group if possible) and then re joining with the rest of the class to journey together through the community Aims • To gain an understanding of how and why The Salvation Army supports and helps people in the local community • To be able to recall ways in which The Salvation Army helps different people during the sharing session Setting up the mission This mission needs to take place in a reasonably large area such as a school hall/nursery playroom, a corps main hall or something similar. There needs to be four distinct areas for the children to work in (four corners would be ideal) and in each area there should be a table and chairs for the children to construct their community either by using Duplo bricks or through drawing. Each area should be clearly labelled so that it is easy to see which part of the community belongs where. In each area, there needs to be a set of Duplo bricks and large pieces of paper with jumbo colouring pencils/pens along with the props for the journey part of the session. Place the community signs in each area of the community so that the children know which building they are making/drawing. Have the props for the journey session ready at each area but out of view during Activity 1 – perhaps under the table or in a box. It would be helpful if the teacher/adult leader separates the children into four equal groups prior to the session as they will know which children work well together and this will also help to reduce unnecessary waiting around for the children. If possible, it would be ideal for an adult to support at each of the four community areas. Resources provided or available for loan • Community signs • Mini boards and magnets • Doctor’s kit and coat • Role play till • Jumbo pens/pencils • Duplo bricks • Picture of SA hall * • Picture of emergency van * • Jewellery box • Shawl
You will also need • A3 paper • Great Big God CD and CD player (available on the CD for the Move Mission) • Clean clothes for the charity shop • Collecting box or similar • Sleeping bag • Bible • Bowl and spoon • Packet of soup Welcome session (5 mins) This is a time for you to welcome the children to your corps/centre or for you to introduce yourself if you are visiting their nursery or school. Say hello to the children and tell them your name. Remember that these children are very young and their understanding of church language, let alone ‘Salvation Army’ language, may be very limited. If you are comfortable with it, perhaps you could just share your first name, and if you are the corps officer perhaps you could introduce yourself as the leader of the Salvation Army church in ______ (insert town as appropriate). Tell the children that you are here today to help them to discover something new about your church. Let them know that it’s going to be lots of fun and that they will be taking part in activities similar to ones they do at nursery or at school. If you are at the corps or centre, make sure you let the children know where the toilets are and emphasise how important it is for them to tell an adult if they need to go to the toilet rather than wandering off on their own. If the mission is being held at a Salvation Army corps or centre – the requirement is that two adults accompany the child to the toilet. Ask the children if any of them have ever been to a church before (allow four or five children to put their hands up and share) and then briefly explain to the children that The Salvation Army is a Christian church which is well known for helping other people who might be in trouble or need some kind of help. Explain to the children that today they will be finding out how The Salvation Army works in helping lots of different people who live in cities and towns similar to the one you are in now. Explain that they will be working in four groups and in their groups they will be building an important part of the town that The Salvation Army works in. You will then travel together on a journey around the town to find out a little bit more about how The Salvation Army helps lots of different people. Main session Activity 1 (15 mins) Split the children into their four groups and send each group to one of the four areas of the community. When they arrive, they will find Duplo bricks and paper/pens/pencils for them to use. If there are adults at each area, ask them to share with the children which building they are making/drawing and to show them the community sign for their area. If there are not adults in every area, tell the children clearly, one group at a time, which building they need to build/draw. Each child should be encouraged to do their own building/drawing so that each area actually ends up with more than one of its buildings. Encourage the children to draw their picture or make their building as big as they possibly can so that everyone can see it. (Be aware that you will need to be on hand to assist the children, especially if they are not sure what the type of building should look like, but this should mainly be a child led activity – no preconceptions are either correct or incorrect.)
Activity 2 (allow 30 mins) When all of the community areas are complete, invite the children back to the welcome area so that you can let them know what is going to happen next. Encourage the children by praising their building/drawing efforts and tell them that now you are going to explore how The Salvation Army helps people in these buildings by going on a journey around your imaginary town. As a group, travel around each community area, stopping to interact with the activities as you arrive there. Make sure that at each area, you take time to look at the children’s buildings/drawings and encourage them in creating this special area for your town Salvation Army church – use the bowl and spoon to tell the children that many corps/centres provide food and drink for people during the week who are homeless or need someone to talk to. Bring out the teddy bear and explain that this shows how much The Salvation Army cares for children and families, that there are lots of clubs and activities that children and their parents/carers can share in together.
Show the children a cornet (you might also want to let a child have a go with it –remember to wipe the mouthpiece with a wet wipe before and after!) and explain that in The Salvation Army, we often play music and sing because we believe God likes it. Use the song ‘Great Big God’ and teach the children the actions so that they can join in. Charity shop – have a selection of clean clothes for the children to try on – they don’t need to be children’s clothes, the bigger the better! Once the children are wearing some of the clothes, explain to them that The Salvation Army has lots of shops where they sell previously owned clothes, shoes etc to people who need them. This not only helps people who need clothes or shoes but also helps to raise some money for the corps/centre. Give the children the opportunity to role play in character for a couple of minutes with another volunteer as the shop assistant and the children in the clothes as customers. (You could even set up a small shop area using the till and play money for the volunteers to interact with if you have enough space). School – explain to the children that across the whole world, many people from The Salvation Army go into schools (just like you are today!) to teach children about The Salvation Army, and that in other countries sometimes members of The Salvation Army visit schools to help out as teachers or in caring for the children. The Salvation Army also runs more than 2000 schools across the world. Give the children some time to explore the mini boards and magnets before moving on to the next area. Hospital – ask for a couple of the children to volunteer and then choose another couple of children to be doctors and nurses in this area. Using the role play first aid kit, invite the doctors/nurses to wrap bandages/put plasters on the other children.! Then explain to the children that across the world, members of The Salvation Army go into hospitals to visit people when they are poorly, to care for them if they are doctors or nurses themselves, or to bring them home when they are better. The Salvation Army also runs hospitals and clinics all over the world to help people who are poorly and may not have a hospital nearby. Allow any volunteers to act as Salvation Army volunteers and role play how they think they would care for the sick and injured who are bandaged etc. Sharing session (5 mins) At the end of the journey, invite the children to return to the welcome area and ask them if they have enjoyed their session today. Ask four/five children to share one of the buildings that they visited today. Then ask a further four/five children to share what they have learnt about The Salvation Army at their favourite area. Reinforce to the children that The Salvation Army works in many different places across the world, helping different people in lots of different ways. End the session by thanking the children for letting you share with them today and say that you hope that they have learnt something about The Salvation Army that they will always remember.