Rally Day Idea from St. Andrew Presbyterian Church

Rally Day is fast approaching.  Do you have a plan?  Beth Lyon-Suhring shared the following idea at the PEVA Educators' Luncheon in the spring and it was ALL THE BUZZ...

"St. Andrew had done Rally Day in much the same way since Moses was a lad, and to be honest, things were a little dull.  More of our certificates of promotion ended up in the recycling bin than in family scrapbooks, and our adult class leaders had resorted to offering pastries as lures to their upcoming classes.  It was time for a change, and in 2009 St. Andrew’s Church School Council dreamed up the idea of a Rally Day Scavenger Hunt.

Here’s how it worked:  at the beginning of the Church School hour on Rally Day, all members of the church were encouraged to gather in the Sanctuary.  There we sang a couple of upbeat songs and gave thanks to God for the opportunity to start our new year of learning.  We then explained the rules of our Scavenger Hunt and sent everyone out to work in groups of 3-4 people.  The groups were self-selecting, but we encouraged each group to include some adults and some children.  Some folks decided to work with their own families, and others made new families that day.

Each group received a Scavenger Hunt sheet and a pencil as they left the Sanctuary.  The sheets consisted of a grid of 16 blocks, each of which had a question and a room number on it.  Questions referred to many different educational programs in the church, and the room numbers indicated the places where teams could find an “Answer Person” to help them fill in the correct response.  For instance, one of the questions asked, “How many chimes are there in our Chancel Chimes set?” and the room number led the players to a classroom where someone involved with our midweek music class could give the answer and provide a lot of other information on midweek programming for children.  Other scavenger hunt questions were concerned with Sunday morning adult classes, Wednesday night youth programming, and St. Andrew’s small group ministry, to name just a few. 

 

The key to the success of Rally Day last year was that all players were required to touch base with 16 different teachers/leaders/staff members to answer the scavenger hunt questions, and in the process each player learned a lot about the church’s educational offerings as well.   Older adults learned about our children’s programming; young parents learned about what the church offers for youth; and kids learned that there are a lot of opportunities for grown-ups to learn, too.

Since teams could start at any block on the scavenger hunt grid, folks were spread throughout the church as the hour progressed.  When each team had answered all 16 questions, they took their completed sheets to two very good sports dressed in Old Testament garb.  These “Judges of Israel” checked the grids for correct answers and then allowed the children and teenagers to choose a prize from our treasure chests.  (Since prizes were for completed grids rather than for the first teams to finish, people felt free to stay in the classrooms and talk with the “Answer People” for as long as they wanted.)  The morning ended with breakfast treats for everyone in our social hall.

Our Rally Day Scavenger Hunt had multiple positive results:  adults, youth, and children worked together on a fun multi-generational event; participants’ eyes were opened to many educational opportunities that they had not realized were available; program leaders and class teachers were able to disseminate information about their programs in a very personal way; and the children, especially, liked the game atmosphere.  We’re eagerly planning our 2010 Scavenger Hunt now!"