Scouts: Bible Theater

All through December (or at least the few weeks we met for scouts), the kids have been working on plays. The youngest boys learned to make sock puppets, paper sack puppets, and some of the scenery needed for their puppet show about Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden. Jon was excited to be narrating the show and doubling as the voice of God. When he was getting ready tonight, he insisted that God wouldn't show up to narrate a show without a tie, so he found one to take. Ben was the serpent in the Garden -- or rather, his arm was in the sock that was the serpent. This group of kindergarten through second-grade boys did a great job with their show!

I got to work with the four girls. Right off the bat, they knew they wanted to write their play about the Christmas story, and they quickly decided to write it from the animals' perspectives. I taught the girls some very basic sewing skills (threading a needle and moving the needle through felt) and we put together some headbands for their costumes. The girls spent weeks working on each of their own lines, but also working together to make sure they told the whole story. Their lines were so long that they ended up reading the stories they wrote, but it was really so sweet. They had the added challenge of being asked to put costumes together out of things they already had, but they kept it simple and it worked. Audrey was the donkey who brought Mary to Bethlehem, Katelynn was a cow in the stable where Mary birthed Jesus, Maddie was a lamb who came with her shepherd to see Jesus, and Sadie was a camel who brought the wise men.Yes... I teared up when they did their play -- partly because it was such a perfect story, partly because of what these girls learned as they created it.

Allen worked with the fourth-grade boys who decided to do a play about the end of the world. Full of battles, hand-to-hand combat, and strange visions, it was just what these ten-year olds needed to get out some of their energy. Allen, and two other parents guided the boys through reading and interpreting the stories they chose to tell. Each of the boys wrote part of the play, but in the end there were very few spoken parts, but a lot of battles. Will played the part of Satan.

This was the last day of family-style scouts for the girls and me. Next week we start American Heritage Girls, and we are going from four girls (first through third grade) to twenty-two (kindergarten through eighth grade)! I'm allowed to be excited AND nervous, right?