Back to School Party

Party Overview It’s time to go Back to School.  But don't panic, these are “fun” classes girls will want to attend.  They will wish all their school days could be like this one.  What will happen in these crazy classes?  There will be Science, Spelling, Art, Home Economics, Drama and even Math!  They will also have a class on how to study the greatest book of all time, the Bible.

Welcome the girls to Home RoomToday, we are starting with an Entrance Test! Let’s see how your brains are working after the summer. Just yell the answers out. 1. There are seven dwarfs; Sleepy, Happy, Sneezy, Grumpy, Dopey, Doc and…. Who’s missing? (Bashful).2. Some months have 30 days; some have 31 days. How many have 28 days? (All of them)3. On a traffic signal light, is the green color on the top or bottom? (bottom)4. Divide 30 by ½. (60)5. If there are 3 apples and you take away 2, how many do you have? (2)6. A doctor gives you 3 pills telling you to take one every half hour. How many minutes will the pills last? (60)

7. A farmer has 17 sheep, and all but 9 die. How many are left? (9)8. How many of each animal did Moses take on the ark? (0 – it was Noah on the ark)9. Do books have the even numbered pages on the right or left side?

(left)10. A plane crashes exactly on the border of Florida and Georgia. Where should they bury the survivors? (Neither, the people aren’t dead)

IntroductionsDo we have any new students today? Let’s introduce ourselves. Say your first name with an adjective, a describing word. The adjective must start with the same letter as your name, and the adjective should describe you! For example: Marvelous Melanie, Smart Sarah…

Ring a bell for class change

Math class

Sit in a circle. It’s time for Math class! Who thinks Math class is hard? Who likes Math the best? This is going to be a very simple class. All we’re going to do is go around the circle and count, each of you saying a number. We’re e going to count up to 50. The catch is, on each number that is a multiple of 5, clap instead of saying the number. For example, the first girl says, “one,” the next girl says “two,” then “three, four,” clap, “six, seven, eight, nine, clap, eleven,” etc. If anyone messes up, we start over. (After the girls have made it to 50, if they are having fun, do it again, but this time clapping on the multiples of three.)

Ring a bell for class change (continue this for every class change)

Drama classFor drama class, I want to warm your voices up. Everyone say, “I love acting.” Now say “I love acting” in a baby voice. Say it in a monster voice. Say it as a shy person. A very old personA tough guyA bully A whiny little kidA football quarterbackA little girl lost in a storeWith a foreign accent

Now let’s practice your facial expressions. Stay in your seat, but give me the following look on your face:You just got told you’re going to Disney.A poisonous snake is about to bite you!You are holding the cutest new baby kitten.A pit bull is barking at you.You just licked an atomic warhead candy.You learn your best friend is moving away.You’re about to jump out of a plane to go skydiving.You are watching a comedy show.

“Runaway Stagecoach” reading

Now that you’ve had some practice, I’m going to read you a story called “Runaway Stagecoach.” As I read, do all the facial expressions in the story. You will stay in your seat but concentrate on making the best faces possible.

The Runaway Stagecoach

The old stagecoach came into town late in the afternoon. On top of the stagecoach sat the driver. He was old and tired. He brought the stagecoach to a stop, rotated his shoulders and arms

to work out the kinks, and yawned. (Stop here to make sure the girls are looking tired like the old man and rotating their shoulders, etc. Then continue.)

The stage had stopped in front of a line of people eagerly waiting for the stagecoach. “All aboard,” the driver bellowed. The first to get on the stage was a little girl who was excited and eager for her first stagecoach ride. Her elderly grandmother clearly was not looking forward to the trip.

Next to climb aboard the stagecoach was a near sighted salesman, his eyes squinting in the bright sunlight. With him was a spoiled boy. He was not in the mood for a stagecoach ride and stood there with his arms crossed defiantly across his chest and a glare upon his face. He stuck his tongue out at the girl when no was looking. The girl pouted.

Unfortunately, the last to get on was a farmer with a stinky pig. The little girl looked at the pig, rolled her eyes, and held her nose in disgust. The boy thought that was hilarious and grinned.

The tired driver closed the door, and the stagecoach lurched forward. The elderly grandmother smiled. The pig squealed at the sudden movement. The nearsighted salesman squinted and looked out the window, but since he couldn’t see much, he closed his eyes, his head started to droop and eventually he fell asleep.

The little girl saw a big snake by the road and was horrified. She opened her mouth to scream, but just before she did, she realized she was in the stagecoach and the snake couldn’t hurt her. The unhappy, spoiled boy then poked her hard and she did scream. That turned his scowl into a triumphant, sinister smile.

The horses started up a steep hill and the stagecoach tilted at a sharp angle. The elderly grandmother looked with concern out the window and grabbed the arm of the little girl. The grip was so tight the girl was in pain. The farmer frowned and grabbed for the pig sliding across the floor. The boy bounced in his seat. The nearsighted salesman was still asleep.

The stagecoach was almost to the top of the hill, when a loud crack was heard. The passengers looked surprised, then scared. With a huge jolt, the horses’ harness gave way and the stagecoach began to roll backward, rapidly gaining momentum. The driver determinedly tried to pull on the brake. But the stagecoach was picking up speed. The elderly grandmother opened her mouth to scream but no sound came out, she just was too scared. The little girl burst into tears. The little boy loved it.

The nearsighted salesman woke up, opened his eyes wide and started hyperventilating. The unhappy farmer had his hands full with the squirming pig. Faster and faster the stagecoach rolled until it reached the bottom of the hill. The passengers clutched their seat and held their breath as it bounced along. Fortunately, they came to a long straight stretch of road, and the stagecoach came to a stop; right where they had all got on. The driver was relieved as he scrambled down to open the stagecoach door.

The pig jumped out first, and the unhappy farmer ran after it. The grandmother prayed her thanks to God for their safety. The little girl, who had been bawling, stopped crying. She sniffled several times, wiped the tears from her eyes and cheeks, blew her nose and eventually managed a faint smile. The little boy was grinning from ear to ear, yelling “Let’s do it again!” The nearsighted salesman glared at the boy, looked right, and then looked left and walked away. They all decided that had been enough excitement for one day. They had been bored, scared, happy, frightened and now relieved to be alive. What a day!!!!

Science ClassIt’s a pop quiz in Science today. Here is your quiz. I hope you have studied. (Pass a copy of the quiz out to each girl with a pencil.)

______ 1. It takes more muscles to smile, than it takes to frown.

______ 2. Pigs can get sunburned.

______ 3. There is a bird that can fly while it sleeps.

______ 4. Boys blink their eyes more than girls.

______ 5. The blood of mammals is red, the blood of insects is yellow, and the blood of lobsters is blue.

______ 6. It is impossible to sneeze with your eyes open.

_______7. Tigers have striped skin, not just striped fur.

______ 8. Butterflies taste with their feet.

______ 9. A typical pencil contains enough graphite to draw a line 35 miles long.

______ 10. Baskin-Robbins once made ketchup flavored ice cream.

______ 11. All rocks sink.

______ 12. Certain frogs can be frozen solid, then thawed and they will continue to live.

True or False

(Go over the answers: 1-F; 2-T, Also walruses and light-colored horses can get sunburned; 3-T, The albatross can fly at 25 mph and sleep at the same time; 4- F; 5-T; 6-T; 7-T; 8-T; 9-T; 10-T; 11-F, Pumice rock floats; 12- T)

Last & First LetterNext in science class, we are going to talk about animals. I’m going to give you a name of an animal. Dog. The next person has to say the name of an animal that starts with the last letter of dog; which is “g.” They might say, gorilla. Gorilla ends in “a,” so someone might say, anteater – then rabbit – then tiger, etc. Let’s start with owl. (If the girls enjoy the game, after a bit, try a food word.)

Spelling ClassI’m going to pass out something to read. Let’s try to read this aloud together. (Give each girl a copy of the following.)

Do yuo tinhk taht lrneanig to sepll is ipromatnt? If yuo cna raed tihs, tehn mybae slpeling calss is nto ncesseray. Msot of tsehe wdors aer nto slpeled crorctley, adn yte yuo cna siltl raed tehm. Msot plepoe cna raed wdors if teh fsrit ltteer adn teh lsat ltteer of ecah wrod is crorcet. Teh mdilde ltteers cna be srcmaelbd up adn msot plepoe cna siltl raed tehm. Or if a wrod olny has trehe ltteers, rvesree teh lsat tow. So nwo taht yuo konw slpeling calss is no lgoner iproamtnt, yuo suolhd lveae tihs calss and lraen smoetnhig esle.

(Translation: Do you think that learning to spell is important? If you can read this, then maybe spelling class is not necessary. Most of these words are not spelled correctly, and yet you can still read them. Most people can read words if the first letter and the last letter of each word is correct. The middle letters can be scrambled up and most people can still read them. Or if a word only has three letters, reverse the last two. So now that you know spelling class is no longer important you should leave this class and learn something else.)

Spelling BeeNow it’s time for a spelling bee. Are you ready? Are you good spellers?This is a backwards spelling bee, meaning you have to spell the word backwards. For example, if the word I give you is “tap,” you would spell it “p-a-t.” The first round is all words that only have three letters in them. Then we’ll try four letters, and then we’ll see if you are smart enough to spell five letter words backwards. Ready? Round 1: bag, try, hen, the, and, lay, say, wet, eat, pigRound 2: bone, hair, fish, warm, true, hold, each, read, wordRound 3: queen, apple, first, think, three, watch, money, paper

Art Class

Everyone take a piece of paper, a pencil and a book to write on. Put the paper and the book on top of your head. I will tell you what to draw. You cannot bring the paper down at any time to look at it. Ready? In the top right corner of your picture, the sun is shining brightly. In the middle of the picture is a house. There are birds flying in the sky, and smoke is coming from the chimney. A pathway is coming from the front door of the house, and a girl is standing on

the pathway. There is a big tree to the right of the house. Hanging from a low branch, is a tire swing on a rope. There is a cute little mailbox at the very bottom of the scene. There are flowers all over the grass. As a last touch, all famous painters sign their masterpieces with their name in the bottom right hand corner, so sign your name. (Do a show and tell with the pictures.)

Art Pictionary Now it’s Art Pictionary with a twist. Divide yourselves into two teams. The person drawing has to draw with their eyes closed! (Clue options: cat, lipstick, cell phone, clown, hamburger, Noah’s ark, forest, Santa Claus, bowling, monkey, kiss, banana split)

English ClassIn English class, you have to do a lot of story writing. We aren’t going write, but we are going to make up some stories. I will start you out with a story, and then each of you in order will add one more sentence to the story. Go crazy and funny with your sentences.

Here’s our first story: The day started out ordinary enough. The sun was shining, the birds were chirping, I was going to school. However, when the clouds started gathering, the day turned strange. It started to rain, but it wasn’t water that came down, it was…..

Ready for another one? Today, when I woke up, my hair was purple, and my face was….(If the girls are enjoying this, ask if one of them would like to start a story.)

Home Economics classLet’s go to the kitchen. You are going to make individual pizzas and decorate sugar cookies. (A simple pizza is half an English muffin, which the girls spread pizza sauce on, shredded cheese, and their choice of toppings. Bake till golden brown. Make the pizzas first, and while they are baking at 350 degrees, decorate the cookies. Have the sugar cookies already baked. A fun idea is to have one cookie per girl, cut out in the shape of the letter of their first name. Have several bowls of different colored frosting available and a few candies or sprinkles.)

DevotionThis is the Back to School party. Would you rather go to this school or your regular school? You have to study in school for class, for quizzes and for tests. You should also study the Bible.

Our Bible verse for today is II Timothy 2:15a, “Study to show (yourself) approved unto God.” (KJV) And of course the verse is talking about studying the Bible. Not just reading the Bible, but studying it.

What if someone told you that there was a treasure buried in your back yard at home. A treasure that was worth a lot! What would you do? You would go and search for it, wouldn’t you? Think of your Bible as having much treasure in it. Valuable, rich treasure. But you have to look for the treasure, dig for it, and spend time doing it. That’s what studying the Bible is.

There are many ways to study the Bible. But always start with prayer. Pray that the Holy Spirit will help you and pray that you won’t be distracted by other things.

Here are some Bible verses. (Pass out a copy of the following to each girl.)

James 1:1-6

1 James, a bondservant of God and of the Lord Jesus Christ; To the twelve tribes who are dispersed abroad: Greetings.2 Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,3 Knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance. 4 And let endurance have its perfect result, so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.5 But if any of you lacks wisdom, let him ask of God, who gives to all generously and without reproach, and it will be given to him.6 But he must ask in faith without any doubting, for the one who doubts is like the surf of the sea, driven and tossed by the wind.

Who?

What?

Where?

When?

Why?

How?

Read just the verses, and then turn your paper over.

Now that everyone has read the verses, turn the papers back over. Do you see the bold face number on the verses? If you look in most Bibles, the bold face numbers show where a new paragraph begins. In this passage there is a new paragraph starting with verses 1, 2 and 5. Draw a line under each paragraph into the right-hand margin. The line doesn’t have to go all the way under the verse, just under the first few letters. You should have a line at the bottom of verse 1, 4 and 6. Now, re-read the first paragraph, verse 1. How can you in one, short phrase, summarize what that paragraph is about? Write the phrase in the right-hand margin. Verses 2-4 are another paragraph. Write in the margin a short summary phrase about that paragraph. Then do verses 5-6. (An example would be verse 1; “James greets the 12 tribes,”, verses 2-4, “joy in trails will perfect,” and verses 5-6, “Ask God for wisdom.”)

This takes more time, but it forces you to think about what is in the chapter and you will remember more. The first time you read through the verses, did you remember a lot after you turned the paper over? Do you remember more after you had to look carefully what each paragraph was about? You are actually studying the Bible right now!

Now we’re going to fill in the 5 W’s and 1 H at the bottom. Look at your passage and answer as many of the questions as you can.

Who –Who wrote it? Who are the people in the verses? What - What is happening? What is the main idea or teaching?Where – Where did it happen? When –When was it written? When will something happen? Why – Why was it written? Why did something happen?How – How am I supposed to apply it to my life?

There may not be answers to each W and H question in every passage you read, but look for them, and write down the answers you can.

When you come across something that you don’t understand, if you have a study Bible, read the little notes at the bottom to see if something in those notes explains it. Or look up the verse in a good commentary or on-line to find the explanation or ask someone. Is there anything in this James passage you don’t understand?

Why do we study the Bible? To learn more about God. To become more like the author of the Bible. When others look at you, do they see God in what you do or say? Do you look like God? I have some pictures of people who look like someone else. I know these are dogs, but I want you to remember that you should study your Bible to look like Jesus!(Google “pictures of people that look like their dogs,” for more. Here are two examples.)

SnacksIndividual pizzas made in Home Ec. classSpagettio’s with the alphabet lettersGrapesChipsAlpha-Bits dry cereal by PostFrosted sugar cookies cut into alphabet lettersGraduation caps made out of Resees Peanut Butter Cup, a

piece of a Hershey chocolate bar, an M & M, and a piece of fruit rollup for the tassel

DecorationsPile schoolbooks on the table as a centerpiece with a globe. Add calculators, protractors, etc.

Take Home FavorAnything related to school:A colorful 4” x 6” spiral notebookAn unusual pen to write withA little book light that clamps onto a book

InvitationIt’s time to go Back to School. These are “fun” classes you will want to attend. Science, Spelling, Art, Home Ec., Drama and even Math! You’ve never had a school day like this before. Come prepared to laugh. Can you pass these crazy classes? Date: Time:Location: