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