Expanding the Impact of Your Gifts of Encouragement. Back-to-School Celebration!

Transcription

1 Expanding the Impact of Your Gifts of Encouragement Back-to-School Celebration!

2 Back-to-School Celebration! Summer is coming to an end, and you know what that means... school starts soon! It s time for a celebration! Your church can be the back-to-school gathering place for everyone in the neighborhood the place where families meet or get reacquainted; the place where families share summer memories; and the place where everyone gets excited about the coming school year. The best part of all? You ll have the opportunity to tell everyone about Jesus, our Savior! Ready to begin planning your Back-to-School Celebration? First, read through this event outline from start to finish. Then, with the tips and resources from this outline in mind, begin to take your first steps! Remember: not all of the ideas in this guide will work in your setting. Feel free to eliminate or add ideas to make your event the best it can be for your community. 1

3 Getting Started No matter how large or small your Back-to-School Celebration will be, you will need help. You can t, after all, welcome guests, lead games, and prepare snacks at the same time! Gather a small team (five to six people) who are eager to help. Then, start brainstorming ideas about the Back-to-School Celebration. Be sure to assign a notetaker so that you can keep track of all the good ideas! Talk about: Goals What do we want to achieve? Audience Whom should we invite to attend? How will we reach the community? What is a catchy title for our event (hint: an online search will help you find tons of clever titles!)? Scheduling What date and time gives our event the best opportunity for success? Budget How much money do we have? How might we secure sponsors and additional funds? 2

4 Event Teams and Responsibilities Once you set up the structure for your Back-to-School Celebration, you ll be ready to choose leaders to be in charge of various event responsibilities. Review each of the following areas with your planning team. Go through the purpose and scope of each category. Use the provided information as a general guide and add in specific details for your celebration, as needed. Then, let planning team members volunteer for the committee of their choice. Remind team leaders that many hands make light work and the more, the merrier! Encourage leaders to gather their own team of volunteers to help! Promotion Team The promotion team is in charge of all event advertising. Everyone on this team should ideally understand and enjoy getting the word out. For a successful event, this team will arrange a registration process (online works well); post ads in your church s weekly newsletter and on your website; and promote the event through a social media site like Facebook. Promotion team members will also reach out to the community: take out ads in the local newspaper; distribute lawn signs for church members to display at their homes and businesses; and hand out flyers around town at the swimming pool, arcade, zoo, parks, museums, and other family-friendly places. (Check out the FREE flyer at the end of this event outline!) Promotion team members may also reach out to invite other churches to join the celebration. Or, plan to take all or part of the Back-to-School Celebration on the road to reach families in neighborhoods outside of your own. (Check out the FREE invitations at the end of this event outline!) This team may consider designing volunteer t-shirts for the Back-to-School Celebration. This will make it easier for families with questions to recognize the event leaders during the event. (Visit and click on Custom Connections to create imprinted t-shirts!) The promotion team may want to assign a volunteer to take photos or videos at the event. The team can post the pictures on the Facebook event page and use the videos to promote next year s celebration! If you d like to use this kind of promotion, be sure to learn about photo release guidelines before the event and include a release form in the registration paperwork. 3

5 Mission-Project Team This team will coordinate donations toward a designated cause. As the team plans the mission project, they should consider outreach opportunities that line up with the back-to-school theme. Getting students ready for school can be quite costly. Beyond buying clothing and shoes, there s the long list of school supplies to purchase, too! Remember the children, families, and teachers who may need a little help. Prayerfully consider one or more of the following projects: Collect new or gently used backpacks for needy children. (Check out possible partnerships with The Backpack Project, Kids in Need, or a similar organization within the community.) Gather school supplies and deliver them to local schools for distribution on the first day of classes. Encourage event participants to donate nonperishable, prepackaged food items for children and schools. Gather new or gently used coats and shoes to donate to children living in shelters. Take donations of new children s underwear and socks to inner-city churches. Accept new or gently used children s books to give away at your event or to a school in need. Collect personal hygiene items for homeless children and teens. Use monetary donations to purchase items that will fulfill a local teacher s wish list. Or, consider writing specific needs on separate slips of paper and posting the needs on a wishing tree in your church s fellowship area. Encourage worshippers to purchase the items in the weeks leading up to the Back-to-School Celebration. If your church family already has an established charity, think about contributing to it as part of your mission project. Or, ask church staff if they know about specific needs within your community. Decorations and Hospitality Team This team will create or purchase event decorations. If you re going with a back-to-school theme, think about decorations like pencils, books, crayons, chalkboards, lunch boxes, apples, and more. Stringing crepe paper in your school colors can make even the simplest space come alive. Your local dollar store may have premade, school-themed posters to purchase. Or check online! 4

6 Members of this team are also in charge of signage for your event space. Signs should point guests to the restrooms, exits, and activity locations. This team will also coordinate with the activities team to make signs for each planned activity and hang the signs appropriately. If you laminate your signs and post them out of participants reach, you can reuse the signs year after year. If your church is large, consider providing each family with a facility map. This map should indicate the location of restrooms and emergency exits throughout the building, as well as the activity locations and the snack area. This team should also coordinate with the mission-project team to see if they ll need to set up boxes for collecting donations. If so, note these locations on the map. Team members will also host a hospitality table to welcome families after the opening devotion and backpack blessing. Consider handing out facility maps, nametags, pens and markers, and goodie bags at your table. (Visit and click on Custom Connections to create imprinted goodie bags, pens, and other giveaways for your event!) Team members will also be available during the event to help give directions and answer questions. Devotion Team The devotion team will assign a leader for the opening devotion and backpack blessing time. (See Kicking Off the Celebration and Send Off. Also see the Back-to-School Blessing Event Ideas pages at the very end of this guide.) This team will also reserve a gathering space (with appropriate lighting, sound, and multimedia capabilities) large enough to accommodate the expected number of attendees. Your fellowship hall or church sanctuary may be the perfect place. This team should ask the promotions team for registration numbers and plan for a few additional families to register on the day of the event. Snack Team The snack team will arrange appropriate food for the event guests. The team should plan for possible allergies (avoid anything containing nuts), table and seating limitations, and the number of participants you expect to attend (ask the promotions team for preregistration numbers and plan for a few last-minute registrations). For easy serving and cleanup, consider offering finger foods. Even better, plan to serve the snacks inside plastic cups. (Go to and search kid s tumbler to find value-priced options.) Use the cups to hold grapes, blueberries, popcorn, cheese crackers, or pretzels. As a bonus, participants can keep the cup when they ve finished the snack! And, there are no plates for team members to clear away! Here are two more back-to-school snack ideas: 5

7 Pencil cookies: This sweet idea is great for smaller events. Pipe pink icing on one end of a sugar wafer to form the eraser. Pipe a triangle of white icing on the opposite end of the cookie and add a dot of black icing for the pencil tip. Apples: They are healthy and easy to serve! Consider slicing apples and serving them with caramel sauce. Or, serve whole apples alongside a nut-free snack mix. Celebration Activities Team The celebration activities team is responsible for planning and providing fun, safe games and activities for event participants. Depending on the size and scope of your Back-to- School Celebration, you may want to include various booths: Local vendor booths Consider inviting tutoring businesses, before- or after-school childcare groups, school uniform companies, instrument rental businesses, martial arts providers, gymnastics studios, and more. Service booths Consider inviting a doctor or nurse practitioner to provide sports physicals or simple eye screenings, stylists to provide haircuts, educational specialists to answer school-related questions, nutritionists to offer lunch-box suggestions, police officers to offer a bicycle safety course, and more. Contests You might set up school-themed competitions like guessing how many glue sticks are in the bucket, tossing a paper airplane the greatest distance, blowing the biggest bubblegum bubble, dunking the most basketballs, and more. Crafts CTA offers ready-to-go craft activity kits. Simply search crafts at to find several great Christ-centered ideas. Extras Search backpack tag at to find great send-home tags with a Bible verse on them. If you have space, set up a bounce house, a dunk-the-principal tank, or a Wiffle Ball game. 6

8 Kicking Off the Celebration! Be sure to have all families register before the worship time begins, if they haven t already done so. When you re ready to begin your Back-to-School Celebration, call all of the participating families together. Encourage family units to sit together and plan to remain together throughout the event. By gathering everyone together at the beginning of your celebration, you ll be able to provide event information, hand out important papers, and answer questions. You may want to ask your pastor, youth leader, or kid s ministry leader to give a brief message and lead the backpack blessing at your Back-to-School Celebration. Feel free to suggest a celebratory devotional like this one. Adapt it as necessary: Welcome everyone! I m (name and position at the church or school). Thank you for coming to our Back-to-School Celebration. How many of the families here have children going to school for the very first time this year? Stand up! Let s all acknowledge and applaud these first-timers. How many students and families are new to first grade? Yeah! Let s give them a cheer! Second grade? There they are! Any new third-graders and their families? Stand up! Everyone cheer! Fourth grade? Clap and cheer, everybody! Are there some students and families here who will begin a new grade in middle school this year? Let s cheer for them, as well! Starting school or entering a new grade is exciting! It s something to cheer about! During your time at our Back-to-School Celebration, you ll probably introduce yourself to others with words like Hi, I m (name) and I m a new third-grader. Saying your name and new grade will help others know a little bit about you. It may even help you make a new friend! Did you know that you have a special Friend who already knows you? He knows all about you the color of your eyes, your favorite school subject, and even how many hairs you have on your head! It s Jesus! In this special book the Bible Jesus mentions you! Yes, you! These words in the Bible tell about who you are. Listen! See if you can catch what the Bible calls you: You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26 NLT 7

9 Repeat those words with me: You are all [pause] children of God [pause] through faith in Christ Jesus. Children of God! That s who you are... and not just you children, but moms and dads, grandpas and grandmas, teachers and assistants, and pastors, too! We are all part of God s family we are God s children! Because God lovingly brought us into his family, through faith in Jesus, we can start that new grade, new job, or new school year with confidence and joy! That s really something to cheer about! Let s pray: Dear Lord, thank you for your love that draws us into your forever family. Keep us close to you in Jesus today, tomorrow, and always. Amen. Did you bring your backpack with you? Please bring it to the front now and stand here for a special blessing: Dear heavenly Father, we give this school year to you. Bless every student, family, and teacher with your love and peace. Help all of us to be quick to help others, to offer forgiveness when we are hurt, and to show genuine kindness and love to everyone, every day! In Jesus name, we pray. Amen. Games Read the various games suggested here and pick the ones that will work best for your celebration. You can also check the internet, page through game and craft books, and think about activities you remember from your own childhood. Choose a variety of both active and laid-back games that will appeal to the varying abilities of your participants. And, don t forget to order prizes! Check out the dozens of prizes available at com by clicking on the children s ministry heading. You ll need a volunteer at each activity station to explain the rules, hand out activity materials, and award prizes. Consider asking interested high-school students or active seniors to help in this position. Follow Directions You ll need paper and pencils. You ll also need simple sketches of school-related items, like a glue stick, scissors, pencil, spiral notebook, and school bus. You can find them online and print them on separate pieces of paper. One family member will serve as the artist. Another family member will give directions to the artist. The trick here is that the artist and direction-giver sit back-to-back. The artist will not see the sketch of what he or she is supposed to be drawing. The direction-giver won t see what the artist is drawing, either. The direction-giver may not identify the object to be drawn. Instead, he or she just gives drawing directions. For example, directions to draw a pencil might begin like this: Make two parallel lines. Connect the lines at one end. When the pair is finished, compare the completed drawing with the actual sketch for some laughter and fun! 8

10 Pack the Lunch Box For this game, you ll need several lunch boxes and a supply of beanbags. Designate a start line where participants will stand. On your signal, family members will toss beanbags into the open lunch boxes that are placed a distance away. (You can shorten the distance for younger players.) Award a prize to the person who gets the most lunch into the lunch box. Load the Backpack This is a great game, especially if you ve collected school supplies for your mission project. At random, place two of each of the school-supply items on long tables. Tell participants to stand all along the table one team on each side. At the signal to start, the person at the beginning of the table will take a backpack and quickly put one school item inside it. Then, that player will pass the backpack to the next player, who will place a different school item into the backpack. The players must pack one of each item and they must not duplicate items. Play continues until the backpack arrives at the end of the table totally packed and ready to give to a child in need. The team who fills a backpack the fastest wins a prize! ABC Game You ll need topic cards for this game. Simply print category names on separate index cards. Suggested categories include animals, places to go for summer vacation, something in a lunch box, what teachers do, and things you ll see at school. Have players sit in a circle or around a table. The youngest player draws a topic card. The first player names something within the topic that begins with the letter A; the next player names something within the topic beginning with B; and so on. (For example, if the topic is boy names, the first person might say Adam. The next player will provide a boy name beginning with B, like Bret.) Flying Disc Toss You ll need an open area outside along with one or more CTA s flying discs. (Search flying disc at Designate a starting point, and then take turns to see who can toss the flying disc the farthest distance. Award prizes for greatest distance, most creative toss, least distance, and more. This will keep everybody interested and make it fun for younger family members. Test Your Memory Place several school-supply items on a large cookie tray. Let participants look at the items on the tray for 15 seconds to commit them to memory. Then, have participants close their eyes while you secretly remove one item from the tray. Show the tray to the players again. Who can tell what item was removed? Award that person a prize and play again! 9

11 Old-School Games Consider playing a variety of games from your childhood like hopscotch, tug-o-war, jacks, tag, kickball, or jump rope. You could even host a Hula-Hoop contest to see who can keep the hoop spinning the longest. Glue-Stick Stack Up You ll need lots of glue sticks, but don t worry you can donate them to a school after the event! This is a Minute to Win It challenge. Contestants compete to see who can build the highest glue stick tower in one minute. Bus Stop You ll need to set up an obstacle course for this game. To play, family members take turns racing through the obstacle course to catch the bus. See which family makes it through the obstacles in the fastest time. Fast Spell You ll need two sets of Scrabble letters arranged to make the words back to school. You ll also need paper and pencils. Challenge players to move around the Scrabble letters to create as many words as possible using the letters. For scorekeeping, players should write down each word, too. Award a prize to the person who has formed the most words after one minute of time. Memory Keeper You ll need pencils, crayons, and copies of the back-to-school interview found at the end of this outline. For this activity, students will record their thoughts as they get ready to enter a new grade. Parents can help young students write their responses. Kids can color the page when they re finished. Send Off Now is the time to give families special directions or other important information about your event. Encourage families to stop by the welcome table and to stick together as a family unit throughout the various activities. If your group is large, you may want to dismiss the participants in sections. 10

12 After the Event Assessment Consider asking event participants to evaluate your celebration. a feedback request to families who attended and review their comments when you gather together with team leaders for your event assessment. Look back at your event goals. Did you meet your goals? Consider each part of the celebration, from promotion to the devotion to snacks and games. What went well? What might make the event better next year? Review your budget. What unforeseen costs did you have? How can you adjust the budget for next year? Where might you secure additional funding? Place the evaluations, ideas, and notes in a binder. Store it with the other Back-to- School Celebration items like signage, game descriptions, snack notes, sponsors contact information, and other pertinent event resources. This will give next year s leadership team a jump start on planning! Send thank-you messages to all of the vendors and volunteers who helped make the event successful. Publish volunteer and vendor names in your church s newsletter or on your website to show your appreciation publicly. Consider thanking your volunteers and partners with a special gift from CTA a coffee mug, devotion book, or Scripture flipbook. Follow Up You can continue to support students and their families after the Back-to-School Celebration comes to an end. Talk with your leadership team to brainstorm follow-up ideas. Or, put one or more of the following suggestions into action: Send members from the event leadership team, or other volunteers, to local school bus stops. Offer to pray for and with the families and students who gather there. Keep in touch with the recipients of your mission project(s). Be ready to address their needs as the school year progresses. Approach other churches in your area to see if they are interested in joining or helping you with next year s back-to-school event. Ask prayer warriors to partner with a teacher this school year to pray for the students in his or her class and to pray that Jesus will bless the teacher with creativity, perseverance, and joy as he or she teaches. 11

13 Contact local businesses to garner support for the next Back-to-School Celebration. Perhaps they would be willing to donate school supplies or make monetary contributions in exchange for publicity at next year s event. Use event registration information to invite families to worship services and other church-sponsored family programs. Collect new or like-new children s books throughout the year and plan to give them away at next year s event. Or, donate the books to a school or classroom in need. Encourage event volunteers to help at local schools by offering math tutoring, reading to children, or assisting teachers in other ways. Resources Use the resources on the following pages to brand your event and give it a polished look. Flyer: Type in your information and print copies to post around your church and community. Invitation: Fill in your information, print back-to-back, and send out in advance. Give families an extra invitation to invite friends. Water Bottle Wrappers: if you know the names of attendees in advance, you can type them in. Or type in your church info and worship times. A final option is to leave them blank and provide markers for kids to write in their own name. Back-to-School Interview: This is for the Memory Keeper activity on page 10. Print enough for every school-age child. Back-to-School Blessing Event Ideas: These are included to give you options that may better fit your situation CTA, Inc. Permission to make photocopies or reproduce by any other mechanical or electronic means is granted and is intended for use within a church or other Christian organization, but not for resale. Scripture quotations are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation, copyright 1996, 2004, 2007, 2013, 2015 by Tyndale House Foundation. Used by permission of Tyndale House Publishers, Inc., Carol Stream, Illinois All rights reserved. #BAC18DCE 12

14 Back-to-School Celebration! Event: Place: Date: Time: For more information: You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3: CTA, Inc. Scripture: NLT

15 You re Invited You re Invited You re Invited You re Invited

16 Come join us for a Back-To-School Celebration: Place: Date: Time: For more information: You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3: CTA, Inc. Scripture: NLT Come join us for a Back-To-School Celebration: Place: Date: Time: For more information: You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3: CTA, Inc. Scripture: NLT Come join us for a Back-To-School Celebration: Place: Date: Time: For more information: You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3: CTA, Inc. Scripture: NLT Come join us for a Back-To-School Celebration: Place: Date: Time: For more information: You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3: CTA, Inc. Scripture: NLT

17 Back-to-School Celebration! 2018 CTA, Inc. You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26 Back-to-School Celebration! 2018 CTA, Inc. You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26 Back-to-School Celebration! 2018 CTA, Inc. You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26 Back-to-School Celebration! 2018 CTA, Inc. You are all children of God through faith in Christ Jesus. Galatians 3:26

18 Back-to-School Interview My name is. I m entering grade. My favorite color is. My favorite game is. The best part of my summer was. I feel about starting the new school year. I want to be when I grow up. My favorite thing to learn about is.

19 Back-to-School Blessing Event Ideas Nurturing the families in our care is important. Back-to-school time each year can cause eager anticipation but also anxiety and even fearfulness, so many churches choose to hold an event that recognizes the start of the school year, whether it be a Blessing of the Backpacks or something similar. Here are some quick-and-easy tips designed to help you care for the families in your ministry and community. Kindergarten to Grade 5 Invite the children from your church and community to bring their backpacks and join you on a Sunday before school begins. If the blessing will occur during your service, ask the children to come forward with their backpacks. Pray a prayer like this one: Lord Jesus, as our children begin a new school year, bless them. Fill them with excitement as they think about all the adventures you have in store for them. Keep them safe and guide their learning. Help them to be examples of your love for their teachers and classmates. Help them always remember they belong to you. Amen. Then send each child home with a parent sheet (an example follows) and a small item to attach to his or her backpack. Consider a late-afternoon backpack blessing in an outdoor space near your church or in a fellowship hall. Remind the students that part of being the Family of God means we take care of each other. Encourage them to look around at the other children there and to greet each other when they see each other in school or at church on future Sundays. Invite families to stay for a cookout and get to know each other. Include a few games where you can create teams with children of various ages: Capture the Flag Kickball Red Rover, Red Rover Freeze Tag Before the families eat and disperse, ask the children to form groups of five to seven. Ask older children to make sure they invite younger children to join their groups. Give a printed prayer like this one to the oldest child in the group to read: Lord Jesus, as we begin a new school year, bless us. Fill us with excitement as we think about all the adventures you have in store for us. Keep all of us safe and help us learn. Keep reminding us to be examples of your love to our teachers and classmates. Help us always remember we belong to you. Amen. Grades 6 to 12 While students in this age group are probably not comfortable bringing a backpack to church, they, too, have challenges to face at the start of a new school year. Let them know you care: Invite them to a back-to-school social (think barbecue, pizza party, skating party). As the event begins, gather the group for a brief devotion: #BAC17AD

20 Talk about the excitement of a new year starting (experience new opportunities, put old mistakes behind, watch for new friends to make). Acknowledge that they may be feeling apprehension, as well (you know best the challenges facing the students in your community, but they may include feeling left out, feeling unsafe, anticipating negative peer pressure). Remind them that Jesus, our Savior, is all-knowing and present everywhere. He ll be with them through all the happy, exciting times. And he ll be there to give them strength in the difficult times, too. Share one or more of these passages, or another of your choosing: Psalm 27:1 Matthew 28:20 John 10:27 28 John 14:27 Philippians 4:13 Close with a prayer like this: Lord Jesus, as these students begin a new school year, bless them. Fill them with excitement as they think about all the adventures you have in store for them. Keep them safe and guide their learning. Help them to be examples of your love for their teachers and classmates. Help them always remember they belong to you. Amen. Encourage everyone to enjoy their time together, and send them each home with a small item they can take with them to school, such as a key chain or bracelet. If your situation doesn t allow for a separate gathering for students of this age, pay attention to those who come along with their family to your backpack event and be ready to send them home with a small gift that will remind them of the Lord s presence when they re in school. Print out one of the verses from the list above, and include it with the gift. College and Other Post-High-School Students College students tend to dribble off to school week by week and those young adults in the area who are working or attending community college or a trade school often fade away from the church, too. Pay special attention to this population in the fall months. Here are a few ideas to get you started: Send an invite to them at home, giving a few options for times that they can meet you for coffee or lunch. Let them know there s no special agenda; you just want to know what s going on with them. (This can work over semester break, as well.) or text a Bible passage to them weekly. Include a sentence or two of encouragement to let them know you re thinking of them. Call them once or twice during the year to say hello and let them know they re on your prayer list for the week. Ask if they have special prayer requests for that week. No list would be complete without the suggestion of sending a care package from the church. You d be surprised at how happy something like this makes these students. They are thrilled to know someone at church is thinking of them. Remember to include the students in your church who didn t move away. They need to know you care, too. Parents Whether they are new and experiencing the send-off-to-school feeling for the first time or if they re seasoned, parents will appreciate some new ideas for encouraging their children. Feel free to copy and send home this sheet or to create your own using the ideas from it.

21 Back-to-School Ideas for Parents or Grandparents Choose a Bible verse and message. Write these out in a note and send it with your child on the first day of school. Consider sending a new note every week or two throughout the year. Bible Verses to Share The LORD bless you and keep you; the LORD make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you; the LORD lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace. Numbers 6:24 26 I have loved you with an everlasting love. Jeremiah 31:3 Grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. To him be the glory both now and to the day of eternity. Amen. 2 Peter 3:18 Serve the LORD with gladness! Come into his presence with singing! Psalm 100:2 For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. John 3:16 We know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose. Romans 8:28 Trust in the LORD with all your heart, and do not lean on your own understanding. Proverbs 3:5

22 Back-to-School Ideas for Parents or Grandparents This is the day that the LORD has made; let us rejoice and be glad in it. Psalm 118:24 Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly. Colossians 3:16 I will never leave you nor forsake you. Hebrews 13:5 Be kind to one another, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, as God in Christ forgave you. Ephesians 4:32 Give thanks to the LORD, for he is good, for his steadfast love endures forever. Psalm 136:1 Pray for Your Child Heavenly Father, perfect Father, I m overwhelmed by your grace in calling me to parent. And I am so thankful you have promised to lead our family. I pray we don t get in your way! But when we do, lead us to realize we are, to repent, and to rejoice in your forgiveness. Father, please continue to parent me as I parent my children. Holy Spirit, intercede for my family and strengthen our faith as you have promised to do. Grow our love for each other, strengthen our bonds, and teach me how to pray for my family. Increase our faith in you and love for each other. Note Ideas I love you. I m thankful for you. I prayed for you today. Pay attention and bring home one interesting fact after school! What three things are you thankful for today? Let s visit Grandma and Grandpa this weekend. Make someone smile today. Pray for a classmate today. Remember to thank your teacher. Pray for your teacher today. Heavenly Father, I love being your treasured child! May my children experience that same joy in their relationship with you and with me. I pray this in the name of your Son, my Savior, Jesus. Amen. Taken from Parents Pray with Hope 2016 CTA, Inc. written by Rev. Tim Wesemann (item #PPH6SC) #BAC17AD 2017 CTA, Inc. Permission to make photocopies or reproduce by any other mechanical or electronic means is granted and is intended for use within a church or other Christian organization, but not for resale. Scripture quotations are from the ESV Bible (The Holy Bible, English Standard Version ), copyright 2001 by Crossway, a publishing ministry of Good News Publishers. Used by permission. All rights reserved.