Faith In Action: Ads For Families
Part of Families
Activity time: 20 minutes
Materials for Activity
- Large pieces of drawing paper, poster board
- Markers, pastels, and crayons
- Newsprint
- Lined paper and pens (optional)
Preparation for Activity
- If you plan to display ads on the walls of the hall, request permission from the religious educator, decorating committee, or whoever regulates displays at your congregation.
- If you plan to place ads in the newsletter, congregational e-mail, or Sunday Order of Service, contact the coordinator and find out the guidelines.
Description of Activity
The students will create an advertising campaign to remind the congregation of the importance of families.
Engage participants in a conversation about what they think are important family functions within the congregation. Do the functions include spending family time together? Is open and honest communication important? Would it be helpful to remind families that good habits are developed at home? Simply stating that family members love each other is a warm and appreciated message during a busy, stressful day.
Divide youth into two groups. One group will design and create a poster for the hallway, while the other develops an ad for the congregation's newsletter. Invite participants who enjoy working with pictures to form one group and design a poster that holds a message for all families. Encourage this group to consider creating a poster that includes a space for interchangeable messages and can be displayed throughout the Families program.
Have participants who prefer working with the written word form the second group and create a short ad for the newsletter. It could be as simple as "Families . . . ." Invite this group to come up with a choice of phrases with which to complete the sentence. Each month the group could submit a different statement to the newsletter. Some possible examples are:
- Families are people who promise to cherish each other.
- Families need time to play together.
- Families come in large and small sizes. One size does not have to fit all!