Twenty Days to Go!

I'm so proud of each and every child in UMK!  There are exactly twenty days left before they perform for the entire congregation of Murray First United Methodist Church, and we've already started working on the script.  Ms. Kristen, Bailey, and I, have assigned twenty-two students with speaking parts.  These speaking parts are only a few lines each, some children only having a line of small scripture to enhance the music.  The script as a whole is roughly four pages, so I believe that the children will be able to have their lines memorized by November 24th.  For the past month and a half we have been solely focusing on the music, but the normal Sunday/Wednesday schedule has been rearranged to acclimate time to practice and rehearse the speaking parts, and put the entire production together.  The Bible teaching portion for small groups has been moved from twenty minutes down to fifteen minutes, and all small groups will now be gather for the last forty-five minutes to completely focus on the production.  I'm really looking forward to how the children will do, and I have faith that they will be able to pull everything off.

(The original field experience sheet for hours)

I've really been learning a lot with this project; like early childhood management and production organization.  Each week I have noticed some improvement with the songs, and am eager to see the final production.

To the right is the sheet I have been using to keep log of every hour I've put into this project.  It's actually the sheet that we use in Practicum, but I thought it would be a good format to keep track of hours for this project.  I would have scanned this in earlier, but it's very difficult to use a scanner at the Waterfield Library...they're always taken!  That aside, I've put almost 30 hours into this project, and still counting; but in my mind it's not the hours that count, it's the experience of working alongside talented leaders and passionate children.

Last night during full group time we did an entire run through of the production, and I'm very proud of where the children are right now.  Quite a few of them already have their lines memorized and are speaking up, all while using motions!  The majority are still reading directly from the script.  After the kids left for small groups me and Kristen talked about what we could do over the next few weeks to help encourage the kids to speak up.  I suggested that we remind them on Wednesday to keep there heads up,..."chins up!"...and to speak like you're yelling "hey mom!".  Hopefully these small reminders will help them to speak their lines more confidently in a few days.

Kristen reminding the group of the rules, and to remain quite during speaking parts.

I've also noticed that most of the group has every song and the motions that go along with them memorized!  We have had the power points up and running during the songs as reminders of the lyrics, but in all honesty, they probably didn't even need them.

We will be meeting five more times over the next few weeks to clean up everything and get it running more smoothly.  I unfortunately won't be able to make it next Wednesday due to PASIC, but Bailey will be helping out that day.  I LOVE this type of involvement!  Looking forward to the performance!

“I will praise God’s name with song and exalt 

Him with thanksgiving" - Psalm 69:30