End your club year in style by throwing an End-of-Year Celebration. Plan a fun time that includes recognizing club members and leaders. Be sure to invite parents and Pals*. Mix and match the following ideas, or think up your own.
Theme Ideas
Bananas Over You.
- Banana Split. Construct a giant banana split in a new, clean rain gutter. If you think there will be an “eww” factor, set each guest’s ice cream in a small container before putting it in the rain gutter. Let everyone top their own ice cream.
- Dress a Banana. Bring supplies for pairs or small groups to creatively “dress” a banana.
- Banana awards. Hand out bananas with notes attached that say, “We’re bananas over you–_____________” and insert a positive quality or a positive action the club member or leader has done this year.
Rubber Ducky, You’re the One.
- Ducks. Buy graduation rubber duckies online. (Read the fine print to make sure they’re the kind that will float.) If you’re near a small river, let kids put their initials on the bottoms. Have someone dump the ducks in the river upstream from your celebration location. See which ones make it to the finish line first, second, third, and so on. Or play a duck pond game with the duckies in a wading pool or tubs of water. Mark numbers on the bottoms. Players choose a duck and get a prize based on the number.
- Other games. Add a few other picnic-type games. Or check Games Galore (item #2724 under Children’s Ministry Resources in the online store) or Funtastic Games (item #2722 under Children’s Ministry Resources in the online store) for water games.
Recognition for Club Members Being Promoted
For club members who are moving from one age level to the next, do something extra to make it special.
New outfits. If you have different club outfits for each age-group, have club members being promoted come up one by one and shake the hand of their new leader, who hands them their new club outfit.
Mortarboards. Buy inexpensive cardboard mortarboards at an online novelty shop. Have all children being promoted wear them and come to the front as a group. Have your pastor speak a word of blessing over them. Then they flip their tassels to the other side of their caps.
Promotion certificates. Design and hand out promotion certificates. Roll them up and tie them with black ribbon like a graduation scroll. “When you make it a big deal, then it really has meaning for the kids who are being promoted,” said one coordinator.
Crests. Give club members the club crest for the next age-group.
Recognition for Club Members Staying in the Same Age-Group
Special Honor or Participation certificates. Create various certificates—both funny and serious—and hand them out.
Whatever ideas you choose, you can make this a time for club members and leaders to really feel good about having been in Pioneer Clubs this year.
*Pioneer Clubs Pals are adults from the church who are matched with club members for prayer and fellowship.
