A week at the VERB

The VERB strives to maintain a fun, flexible yet structured schedule. We schedule all field trips on Tuesdays and Thursdays, and are on campus Monday, Wednesday, and Friday. We strive to maintain a strong student to staff ratio to make our activities positive, encouraging, and fun. We hope to provide an environment where students feel free to play and invent, learn and grow, and love their Lord more every day!

Mondays

Mondays are our “regular” days where we have our full rotations. Our goal on Mondays is to get kids back into the schedule of the week, relaxed and structured. Mondays we have rotations.

  • Rotations: Our summer staff members have strengths in different areas. They provide instruction in these areas while the groups rotate around. The areas offered in 2011 included reading aloud, silent reading, music, art, writing, and club activities (led by club leaders)
  • Devotions: Every day we are on campus, we make sure to do Devotions. This provides a time where all our kids are together praising God!  One of the favorite parts of devotions is singing!  We like to sing songs that Praise God, and sometimes we sing silly songs too!
  • Play: Our kids love to play! The kids and staff play games of four square, soccer, “lava monster,” capture the flag, ninja tag, and any game you could imagine. The staff is great at getting in there and being a part of whatever the kids are doing.

Tuesdays

Tuesdays are our swimming days. We spend some time in the mornings doing structured activities, then after lunch we go to the YMCA to swim and to the Red Bridge Library to checkout books.

Wednesdays

Wednesdays are also “regular” days; we do our rotations, but we give them a theme related to a country or region around the world. We started this at the end of 2010, and plan to extend our “World Wednesdays” to include more countries for the 2012 summer.  Last year we took a trip around the world.  Where will we go this year? These days are opportunities to bring in Young Audiences and other presenters from other cultures to enrich our students and open their eyes to other cultures.

Thursdays

Thursdays are our “other” field trip days. Thursdays are a challenge to explain because no Thursday is the same. Some field trips last the entire day, like the Zoo, Deanna Rose, Shatto Dairy, and Science City. Other field trips are either in the morning or the afternoon, like the Berry Patch or Cool Crest.  We try to change out a few field trips each year, keeping the classics.  A calendar will be available in May listing the field trip dates.  We are looking forward to visiting the new aquarium this summer and finding other fun new places to visit.

Fridays

In 2010, VERB added “Fun Fridays.” Each Friday presents a different theme to learn about. We are on campus all day, and may bring in some presenters, but mostly this day is led by staff. Fun Fridays from last year included Water Days, Food Friday, Olympic Day, World Cup Day, Christmas in July, Camp-out Day, and Water Days. We hope to add to this concept this year. Fridays bring in our smallest number of kids, so we usually move in one or two larger groups. This makes for a fun, relaxed opportunity for our kids and staff to really get to know one another and have lots of fun!