Middle School Bible Journlaing Group

Hey Friends!! I wanted to share with you about our middle school bible journaling group, Shining Stars, I get questions all the time. We finished up this year with a Christmas party focusing on the story of The Birth of Jesus and making cute little flip books with some Christmas bible trivia. They put together the books at the party and are supposed to take them home and find the answers to the trivia. If they bring it back in January done they get a prize! So first I will share all that went into the flip books and then talk about what a regular day with the Shining Stars look like.

I used a 12x12 sheet of paper form the Advent line-cut it into 12 pieces and each flip book had 6 of the 3x4 pages. So not every book was the same. We punched a hole in the upper left corner so they can be easily added to a book ring. I purchased the book rings (binder rings) at the Dollar Tree. You can find them online too.

Here are some of the elements that went into the books.

When Dayspring has their awesome sales, I try and buy some things for the group. When they had last years Christmas line on clearance I bought some things to use for Christmas in July that I did with the group. We focused on Isaiah 9. I had left over tip ins, tabs and die-cuts from that. We stocked up on the pom-pom clips too, so each girl got one of those, as well as an Illustrated Faith paint card. We bought some of the designer clips from this year Advent line. We cut some white tulle and red and white gingham ribbon and tied them on the binder rings.

I don't charge for the group, I did ask for a $5 donation to help buy supplies. I bought acrylic paint, watercolors and brushes. I made them a welcome bag too, with tape runner or glue stick and some die-cut pieces, tip-ins. Etc. just to get them started and show them different ways to journal. I have a little drawstring pouch I leave out for donations where they sign in and will get some donations here and there. I also started a Facebook group so that I can stay in touch with the parents, that way i don't have to send home notes and can let parents know if there's things I need. We have a great group of parents and they are more than willing to help out! I even have a few moms that stay every week and help! They are life savers! They help set up and clean up. When you have 20-25 girls weekly you can use extra hands! Back to the flip books......

I typed up a document with the trivia on it, then cut them and punched a hole. 1) Why do Christians celebrate Christmas? 2) Where was Jesus born? 3) Who were Jesus' parents? 4) Where did Jesus live? 5) How many wise men visited Jesus? What gifts did they bring? 6) Where in the bible does it talk about the birth of Jesus? My hope is that they dig a little in the bible and search for answers and spend a little time in the Word.

I had stamps and washi tape out for them to decorate their books and I love how each one turned out a little different! These girls are a lot of fun and so open to learn more about Jesus! They motivate me to learn more and dig deeper!!

What a regular group looks like....... We open up with prayer, I pick one of the girls to pray out loud, their prayers are so sweet. I prepare a devo each week. We just finished up doing the Fruits of the Spirit. So each week I picked a virtue and some verses that went with it. I believe that I shared the verses I did here on the blog somewhere if anyone is interested. I encourage the girls to take notes while I do the devo, if anything just write down the scriptures ex. Psalm 35:1 , that way when it's time to journal they can look up their verses in the bible. Each week I will bring stamps that go with what we are talking about. The stamps are from my personal collection so I teach them how to take care of them. When we first started , each week I would teach them something different. Watercoloring, paint scrapping, stamping, tip-ins. I try and encourage them to find what kind of journaling they like best, for them to find their style! Our group lasts 1.5 hours. I make them help clean up and put the room back together. When we started the group it was 6 girls in someones basement, now we have 20-25 girls each week. We are able to use a local church for free!! What a blessing that is. When we first started I used an Illustrated Faith Devo , most of the time now I prepare a devo. I have a lot of ideas for 2018 and will make sure that I share more about it! I have shared on Instagram some of their pages. @bridgett.brainard Please let me know if you have any questions. I covered a lot today , but I'm sure not everything! Hope you all have enjoyed my post. It's not to late to pick up some Illustrated Faith Advent goodies! There's a link in my profile, check out all the after Christmas sales!!!!!