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Friday, December 21, 2018

I feel...😊☹ 😄😍😢😠😘

I feel…


I've been talking to a number of people recently about feelings.  How do I feel?  How do you feel?  What is he feeling?  It's not something that comes natural to me...at least not for myself.  I may not be able to tell you what I'm feeling, but I can however, look at you or someone else and pretty much pinpoint exactly what you or they are feeling.  A gift or a curse?  not sure :)  lol

But what has struck me in the past few weeks or so is not just recognizing my own feelings but figuring out why i'm feeling that way.  It's been a little experiment of mine.  I'm feeling angry...but why?  This makes me sad - why?  I've been looking more deeply into why I'm feeling what I'm feeling.

Along those lines, and at this time of year - with all the traditions, busyness and love going around- I've also been struck at how an individual can create intense feelings in you.  Noe and I visited an elderly friend who is dying.  She talked with us quite a while, then Noe prayed for her.  It was a great visit and her attitude was just amazing.  Her faith could move mountains.  I was fine up until Noe finished praying.  Immediately after he finished, she interrupts him and says - "ok!  now stop.  I'm going to pray for you!"  Which is exactly what she did.  I can't begin to describe the feelings that her prayer invoked in me.  The peace, love, faith, strength...just amazing.  For someone who is dying, to take the time to pray for you...?  It's very humbling.  One thing she said in her prayer that I won't forget...because of the image it brought to my mind - "God, I can't wait until I get to heaven so I can sit on your lap and get a few hugs."  Amazing, right.

I felt strengthened…


Then there are friends that surprise you and cause feelings you weren't expecting.  That come out of no where to help or encourage you right when you need it most.  Family members that text they are praying for you, at exactly the right time.



I felt loved…








Animals, nature, God's creation - can all bring about feelings you don't normally feel.  We just got a new puppy...and as annoying as that little bark is when I leave the room cause she can't get to me; it does give you that feeling of contentment.


I felt needed…

When we decorated our Christmas tree and put up ornaments that I had made when I was little, that had pictures of my kids as babies, and our "just married" ornament...


I felt nostalgic…

I went out shopping to get a few things for my family for Christmas.  We haven't always been able to buy what we wanted for each other or our kids.


I felt blessed…

As my kids get older and turn into preteens, I realize they don't want me around as much and that i'm not as cool ;) But when my youngest asks me to volunteer in her classroom for her Christmas party and then actually comes up to me during the party and gives me a hug and says hi...


I felt joy…

There are a lot of feelings circulating around during Christmas.  Not all of them are rainbows and unicorns.  People feel loss.  They feel sadness.  They feel lonely.  If you feel any of those things, (or I should say, when you feel any of those things,) remember that there is something that can't be taken away from you.  There is most definitely pain, struggles and remorse in life and those feelings won't go away in just a few seconds.  They take time.  And work.  And a willingness to move forward.
But the reason we celebrate Christmas isn't to be with family, or to make the best cookies or plan the perfect party and have the best friends.  Those are all super fantastic and icing on the cake, but they aren't what makes Christmas special.  Our friend who is very sick and may not make it to Christmas reminded us of this.  In what we would expect to be the most difficult and terrifying moment of her life - a time when we expect her to be mad, or hurt or distraught beyond words - she instead wanted to remind us, that Jesus is the reason for the season :)

Jesus gave up his heavenly body and his place next to God.  And God gave up his only son.  Jesus left all the wonders in Heaven to come down to be with us...as a baby.  Meek, humble and helpless.  Just like us.  Bask in that.  Relish it.  That God loved us so much that He gave us his only Son.  No matter what your feelings are this Christmas...make sure one of them, on Christmas morning, is AWE.  Set time aside to feel it and experience it - whatever that looks like for you.  Don't dwell on the kids crying, the inlaws fighting, the sadness or ache in your heart because there is an empty chair that shouldn't be there...go ahead and feel it but then move on.  Pull out your Bible and re-read the story.  Read it out loud and pause as you take in the wonderful oddness of it all.  The virgin, the stable, the wise men.  Make sure and let yourself feel the moment...


I feel wonder…

Merry Christmas and God bless

Wednesday, May 30, 2018

Escape Room!



At one of our 4th/5th grade monthly TNT (The New Tweens) meeting, I designed an Escape Room for them!  It was lots of fun!  They had one hour to escape the fiery furnace with shadrach, meshach and abednego (their idea ;).  they finished with three seconds to spare :) Yea!  I had to give them a few hints, but overall they did it themselves.


They had to get these 4 locks undone to get their final clue which was in the lockbox!  


 This is all I had out in the open for the kids.  The ipad, one of the Scripture games and the Bibles they would need to look up the Scriptures. 



This group of pics and the black light was used at the end, but also to throw them off at the beginning :)  I got a few of them ;)
Here they are trying to look up all the math scripture problems.  There was a lot to look up, but they're pros so they did it in no time!  The math took longer than looking up the scriptures :)


I decided to incorporate Easter Eggs and hid them around the room - when they found them all they had the clue!


Wordsearch!  The hardest part was trying to figure out why this wordsearch was a clue ;)


This was the funniest part.  They had to weigh 4 things that were in the room – the only thing that fit on the scale was the Bibles.  None of them could figure out how to weigh something that doesn’t fit (by weighing yourself and then holding it) so they were trying all kinds of things.  I’m still laughing thinking about it J

Unlocking the final lock!! They finished with 3 seconds to spare!!  Whew...no one was stuck in the furnace :) 

If you'd like to buy my lesson plan for this Escape Room (and all the supplies and links to buy the items I used), go here to my teachers pay teachers store.  It's only $6!  I love doing escape rooms with my tweens but they aren't easy to come up with!  They're time consuming.  If you've ever designed one, please let me know - I'll trade plans with you :)


Monday, May 7, 2018

Updated Apps to use in your ministry!

 Apps to use in your ministry – and their descriptions


(I called this “updated” because I wrote one a few years ago and it is pretty outdated :) it was easier to start over than to edit!)
We have 5 ipads that each class uses once a month.  I spend time developing a lesson plan, searching for "applicable" apps that would fit with the story and then writing it out.  Rarely (with David and Goliath being the exception) do the kids ever play games - these apps and lessons promote creativity, working together, writing, drawing, thinking and learning.  It brings their world into the church and shows them how to use this technology in a positive, uplifting way :)  I've developed around 15 lesson plans with around 15 different apps for 15 different stories and I've uploaded 10 so far on my teachers pay teachers store.  They're only $3 each (or 10 for $20) if you're interested.  The links are listed below the apps I used.  Have you found another app that was awesome?  let me know below!  they are infinite and forever changing :)
thanks and God bless...
-Laurie


Canva: Create beautiful designs and professional graphics with Canva. Whether it’s a photo editor, pic collage, logo, invitation or poster maker you’re looking for — Canva makes graphic design easy. Canva is available on your iPhone, iPad and computer so you can create, edit and share your designs when it suits you most
Facebook: one of the main ways I communicate with the parents in my church; make events, groups, "boost" you posts so more people see them, etc
Keynote (powerpoint):    Keynote is the most powerful presentation app ever designed for a mobile device. Built from the ground up for iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch, it makes creating a world-class presentation — complete with animated charts and cinematic transitions — as simple as touching and tapping.              
I actually created a jeopardy board for the story of Joseph and wrote a lesson plan  to go with it :)  
Pinterest Create boards with your committee members so you can share ideas with each other.  
Art Studio:   $5 
ArtStudio is the most comprehensive, sketching, painting and photo editing tool in the App Store. Completely re-designed from the ground up the new ArtStudio features a beautiful new user interface and a powerful new graphics engine to make creating works of art faster, easier, and more fun! Using advanced drawing algorithms this is the fastest and most precise version of ArtStudio to date.
Art Studio Pro:    $12
Introducing Artstudio Pro, the most powerful painting and photo editing app available for both iOS and macOS. The successor to our famous ArtStudio app has been redesigned bringing many new features and improvements taking full advantage of the latest technologies Metal, iCloud Drive, Apple Pencil, and optimized for 64-bit multi-core processors to achieve the smoothest possible workflow.
PDF Expert:   $10
PDF Expert 6 is an essential app for anyone who reads, highlights, signs and fills out PDFs on their iPhone and iPad. With an additional in-app purchase PDF Expert 6 acquires the unique superpower to edit existing PDF text, replace images and hide sensitive data. 
Make amazing photos, from anywhere. 
Adobe Lightroom CC for mobile is a free app that gives you a powerful, yet simple solution for capturing, editing and sharing your photos. And you can upgrade for premium features that give you precise control with seamless access across all your devices – mobile, desktop and web.
Group Me:  
Stay in touch whether you’re separated by a hallway or a hemisphere. Get your group together. 
Remind:  
Whether you're in the classroom, at home, or anywhere in between, Remind makes it easy to stay connected to your school community.
More than 27 million educators, students, and parents use Remind in over 95% of U.S. public school districts. 
Edmodo: 
Edmodo is a free classroom communication hub that lets you engage with your classes and connect with teachers globally. 
ClassDojo is a beautiful, safe, and simple communication app for teachers, parents, and students. 
* Teachers can encourage students for any skill, like “Working hard” and “Teamwork”
* Teachers can bring parents into the classroom experience by sharing photos, videos, and announcements
* Teachers can also safely and instantly message with any parent
Pages
Pages is the most beautiful word processor you’ve ever seen on a mobile device. This powerful word processor helps you create gorgeous reports, resumes, and documents in minutes. Pages has been designed exclusively for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch with support for Multi-Touch gestures and Smart Zoom.
Explain Everything is a free-form creation tool that innovates getting a message from your mind to the eyes and ears of audiences, all from a mobile device.
It works like an interactive whiteboard, allowing for quick communication with students, colleagues, and customers.  Groups of any size can work together in real-time and use seamless integrations with Box, Dropbox, iCloud, and more.
ANIMATE YOUR THINKING
• Create slides using an infinite canvas, use a laser pointer, draw in any color, add shapes, text, 
math equations, videos, images and audio files
• Record everything you do within the app (even yourself while using the front-facing camera) 
to create high quality, creative and valuable content for others to learn from!
Turn your iPad into your personal interactive whiteboard!
ShowMe allows you to record voice-over whiteboard tutorials and share them online. It’s an amazingly simple app that anyone can use, no matter how young or old!
Publisher:  $17
Publisher Expert - View, Edit, Convert Microsoft Publisher(.pub) to Photo, Adobe PDF and Apple Pages formats
Publisher Expert is a must-have app for anyone who reads, edits, prints and converts MS Publisher document on the iPhone. It allows you to view and edit MS Publisher document directly, export as PDF and Pages formats to reuse it.
Phoster: $2
This is a user-friendly application to create stylish posters and various invitation cards.
All-Reminder is a lovely app which will remind you everything, may it be a Call, SMS or Email. It relieves you from the burden of remembering when to make a call to someone or send them SMS or email. 
With it, you just have to create your important schedules and at the time you specify, it will alert you through a notification. You can then take actions right from the lock screen or notification center to send SMS, Email or Call.
Green Screen – by do ink  $3
The #1 Green Screen app for the iPad in Education, now available for the iPhone too! Green Screen by Do Ink makes it easy to create incredible green screen videos and photos. Classroom-tested by kids and teachers, this app emphasizes ease-of-use and simplicity while still enabling fantastic results. With Green Screen by Do Ink, you can tell a story, explain an idea, and express yourself in truly creative and unique ways.
Simple yet powerful, Splice makes it easy to create fully customized, professional-looking videos on your iPhone, iPad or iPod touch. Imagine the performance of a desktop editor, optimized for your mobile device. Just tap to trim clips, adjust transitions, add slow motion effects and more to create beautiful videos you’ll love to share. It’s never been easier to edit like a pro on the go. 
InstagramGreat place to advertise events - be wary of posting pics    
Youtube:  create a kidsafe youtube channel that they can subscribe to and watch videos that you use in Sunday school, videos that you make, etc.
Bible Gateway:  Take the Bible with you wherever you go. The Bible Gateway App is the OFFICIAL and FREE mobile Bible reading and learning experience from BibleGateway.com.

Check – In

Nursery Alert – (mixed reviews)  $4
Nursery Alert is a simple mobile app to be used in church nurseries or classrooms. It allows churches of any size and any number of classrooms to notify parents of issues without the use of klunky, expensive beepers or pagers that get lost pretty easy.
Check in Easy (great reviews)
Check In Easy is for simple and fast guest registration, check-in, and management at events from 2 people to 200,000.  Honored as one of the top 10 event & meeting apps at Tech-Fest!
(must have a kidddo account to use this app)  Kidddo is Child Check-In, simplified. Keep tabs on the kids in your church, daycare or gym, track attendance, print name labels, page guardians via SMS.
Lambslist – this is $500 a year and it seems to only have an online site…no app.
You must already have an account at Planning Center to use this software.
The Planning Center Services app is the best way to access your Planning Center Services account on your iOS device. Planning Center Services is an online scheduling and worship planning application to keep your staff and volunteers connected. and if you are a musician, use the media player or attachments section to access music for rehearsals. 

Prek Games


Bible Heroes ranges from $1-$3
Esther, Daniel, Moses (2), David and Goliath, Noah, Joseph and his coat , Jonah – 7 interactive stories bundle for $10.  To find the bundle, go to one of the above apps and then scroll down to “more apps by Kingdom Media”.  The bundle has the icon: 
Find Me If You Can brings a new one-of-a-kind experience where your child is the star! Personalized with your child’s name and photo throughout the book, Find Me If You Can provides a fresh take on the hide and seek experience. With engaging animation and sound effects, your child’s face will light up as they look for their picture hiding amongst other faces, floating with balloons, soaking in candy treats, and flying far into outer space.  This was a really cool app we used with the Prodigal son story.  You can get my lesson plan here.
Bible app for kids (download as you go, great for prek) 
Through interactive adventures and beautiful animations, kids explore the big stories of the Bible. The Bible App for Kids is a delight-filled experience designed to encourage kids to return again and again. It’s the beginning of a lifelong love of God’s Word.
Writing Wizard is designed to help every child learn how to trace letters, numbers, and words through a fun system carefully designed to maintain motivation. 
Fish HD – 
A playful underwater experience with 8 educational activities, this award-winning app teaches letters, numbers, shapes, colors and more. Watch colorful fish create letters; Recognize numbers and learn to count from 1 to 20; Follow the fish as they form shapes; Touch, tap and drag to make fish and other colorful sea life do funny things; Listen to classical variations of the ABC Song. AWARDS: Parents’ Choice Gold Award; Children’s Technology Review Editor’s Choice Award. AGES: 2-5.
There are tons of ways to play:
- Create and customize your spud in any way you want! Create a funny face, put an arm where an ear should be, and any other crazy combination.
- Comes with two complete play sets. A one time in-app purchase unlocks 13 more play sets giving you over 200 mix-and-match parts.
- Take your Mr. Potato Head on spud-tacular interactive adventures to fantastic places with fullscreen touch sensitivity.
- Capture and share pictures of special and crazy moments!

Group Games


adventure Bible games for kids (this summer?) – at the moment this isn't available but hopefully it will be up and running summer 2018
SIX Bible Games In One App!
* Who Wants to be a Bible Millionaire! , TruthQuest, Leopardy.
* X Marks the Spot – Test your knowledge of where important events in the Bible took place by dragging flags over to the correct location on each Bible map.
* Leapin’ Lemur – Guess the missing letters to solve each Bible verse. If you like Hangman, you’ll like Leapin’ Lemur.
* Books of the Bible – Reorder each small group of Bible books on the shelf. Before you know it, you’ll have memorized the order of all 66 books of the Bible!
Kahoot
Play fun learning games and cool quizzes anywhere and anytime, on your own or with your friends. Kahoot! makes learning awesome - and homework, too!
I wrote a lesson plan using this app!  Find it here.
Touch the Sound is a fun new game that allows your kid to explore the world of sounds one touch at a time.
This app focused on helping kids learn to recognize familiar sounds and match the sounds to the picture. The interface is so simple to use, that even little babies will delight in using this app.

Here are a few lesson plans that I wrote that had to do with sound.  It uses some youtube videos and a few other apps.  
Fighter verses: memorize Bible – $3
The Fighter Verses Bible memory system was created to help believers persevere in the fight of faith by arming them with God's Word. Designed for children through adults, this system allows individuals, groups, or entire churches to memorize and review at their own pace. 
Do you need to create your own WordSearch puzzles for your students or activity group? PuzzleMaker lets you create puzzles form scratch, in minutes, using just your iPad.
I wrote a lesson that turned out to be pretty fun with this app.  Find it here!
Bitsboard Pro $20
WHAT YOU GET:
• Access to the Bitsboard catalog including tens of thousands of gorgeous flashcards and carefully curated lessons covering hundreds of topics.
• Bitsboard is ideal for learning languages, mastering vocabulary, learning to read, learning to speak, becoming the next spelling champion and so much more…
• Bitsboard is fully customizable to meet your specific learning needs
OVER 25+ POWERFUL MINI GAMES / STUDY MODES IN 1 APP I
Bingo Board Generator -
Save time! You can create and print your own custom BINGO cards in minutes.
Save paper! Decide exactly how many BINGO cards to print per page.
Save money! Download hundreds of existing Bingo cards for free from our catalog
Every Bingo card is randomly generated so if you have 30 kids in your class, each will have a unique Bingo card.
Keep kids engaged! Kids will love hearing a familiar voice and seeing familiar words and photos while playing Bingo.
Bible Trivia is the most fun you'll have studying the Bible!  This app is ok – if you just want something to fill time together as a group…but the reviews aren’t super.

Our Faves


3… 2… 1… ACTION! With Toontastic 3D you can draw, animate, and narrate your own cartoons. It’s as easy as play. Just move your characters around on screen, tell your story, and Toontastic records your voice and animations and stores it on your device as a 3D video. Toontastic is a powerful and playful way to create interstellar adventures, breaking news reports, video game designs, family photo albums, and anything else you might imagine!  you can find a lesson plan I wrote with this app here.
vittle free or upgrade ($3?) this is the lite version; once you get it upgrade to the regular version
Vittles combine your photos, handwriting, and voice into engaging screencast videos that can be instantly shared with anyone.
I LOVE this app and have used it with a few Bible stories.  Here is a lesson plan for one of them.  And here is a youtube video of my 4th/5th graders' final product spliced together :)
Storytelling is a fantastic way to promote literacy, comprehension, creative thinking, and self-driven learning. My Story is an amazing way to engage your K-5 students.
* Create and share ebooks and movies of your stories by adding drawings, photos, and stickers. Export to iBooks!

I've used this app (there are other story maker apps) for multiple stories.  Here is my lesson plan.  And here.
comiclife 3 $5
The Most Powerful Photo Comic Creation App Available.  Packed with fonts, templates, balloons, captions, and lettering art, Comic Life is a fun, powerful and easy-to-use app that makes creating comics easier than ever. And now you can build your comics anywhere you like! 

felt board $3
Design scenes, dress up characters and let your imagination soar as you invent your own stories with Felt Board. Especially designed for imaginative play, storytelling and learning, Felt Board is perfect for children, families, teachers and therapists.  You can find a lesson plan I wrote with this app here.
showme  
Turn your iPad into your personal interactive whiteboard!
ShowMe allows you to record voice-over whiteboard tutorials and share them online. It’s an amazingly simple app that anyone can use, no matter how young or old!
sock puppets - free or $4
Create your own lip-synched videos and share them on Facebook and YouTube. Add Puppets, props, scenery, and backgrounds and start creating. Hit the record button and the puppets automatically lip-synch to your voice.
bible word search puzzle (Giant Bible word search) – 
word searches for different books of the Bible and different scriptures and different characters/ stories
Create your own puzzles!
What will you look like when you’re old? And what about your friends? Find out with AgingBooth, an easy to use and amazing face aging machine on your iPhone, iPod Touch & iPad.
Colorfy – 
The ORIGINAL coloring book! Join over 25 million users in a relaxing experience. Paint mandalas, patterns, animals, florals, and thematic images from our artists - or upload your own drawings and give them even more life!
Chatterpix Kids can make anything talk -- pets, friends, doodles, and more. Simply take any photo, draw a line to make a mouth, and record your voice. Then share your Pix with friends and family as silly greetings, playful messages, creative cards, or even fancy book reports. And best of all, it’s FREE! AGES: 5-12

MORE APPS…


create beautiful stop motion animated movies anywhere instantly on your device. Everything you need is right at your fingertips. No computer needed. It's simple to use, deceptively powerful and insanely fun to play with. Create fantastic movies your friends will enjoy or share it with the world on YouTube, Facebook and other sites. Cool themes, titles and sound effects are easy to add, too
Beginner Bible (six free stories and pay for the rest) -  
The bestselling Bible storybook of all time with over 6 million copies sold is now available in an iPad app that includes enhanced audio with compelling narration, music, and sound effects that help bring 94 Bible stories to life like never before.
With Bible characters you can touch, coloring pages, puzzles, and games, this special iPad edition of The Beginner’s Bible brings God’s Word to children ages 2-6 in an engaging and interactive way.
QR reader for ipadThe most simple & easy QR Reader - 100% FREE. Now scans QR codes, barcodes, documents and puzzles.
Look & Find Bible (one story free for OT and NT, $3 to unlock all)   
Look, find, and learn with search-and-find illustrations from five adventure-filled Old Testament stories. While searching for hidden items, kids can explore Noah's amazing ark, the Israelites escaping across the sea, the walls of Jericho, David's battle with Goliath, and Jonah being swallowed by a big fish. Also a NT version.
Plants by Tinybop – $2
Discover nature’s wonders! Explore the forest, desert, and grasslands. Play and learn as plant and animal species spring to life in ecosystems around the world. Observe seasons, experiment with weather, see how creatures live, and more. (great for creation) 
Skyview – 
SkyView® Lite brings stargazing to everyone! Simply point your iPhone, iPad, or iPod at the sky to identify stars, constellations, satellites, and more!
David and Goliath
Cheesy little game J
The epic story of David vs. Goliath from the Bible! Help David go from shepherd to hero with tons of slinging, lion fighting and lyre practice along the way! Can you get him ready to face Goliath?
Experience the Breathtaking Bible Tale of David and Goliath Like Never Before!  Join David, Goliath, King Saul, and the armies of Israel and the Philistines as They Battle. Educational games inside: puzzles, matching games, shapes, counting and more!

My lesson plan for David and Goliath is here.

CHRISTMAS


Sing along Christmas carols (3 free, pay $4 for 50 more) – 
Love to sing along to Christmas Carols, but can't always remember all the words? Or simply wish you knew more carols to sing? Then get our handy little Christmas Carol karaoke-style app.
a Charlie brown christmas by loud crow interactive – $5
 Play Schroeder's piano, finger paint with the gang, and go carolling with the Peanuts choir. Participate in the Spectacular Super-Colossal Neighborhood Christmas Lights and Display Contest to unlock decorations for your very own Charlie Brown Christmas Tree! With something to discover on every page, this is one interactive Peanuts adventure you won't want to miss this holiday season!! (totally worth the $5!)

Best Christmas app for toddlers andkids (xmas around the world) - $2
Takes your child “around the world” for a special view of Celebrations in other Continents and cultures! Select countries, find all hidden animations, and be surprised at how they react! It’s a superb mix of learning and entertainment... 
For kids: 
One of the only apps that seamlessly integrates story and activities to create a truly engaging and interactive experience for hours of great Bible instruction and fun! 
For parents: 
A unique “Parent Portal” that helps you take an active part in your child’s Bible learning. Browse our Parent’s Discussion Guide for ideas on helping your kids apply Scripture lessons from the birth of Jesus Christ. 


Interactive Books - wanderful


Berenstain Bears: Get in a Fight and Afraid of the Dark