DRUM SHOP:
CHESS SHOP:
WELCOME TO THE BUILD-IT BUS
Traveling Workshop
Overview | Mission Statement | Young Children and Worship | Projects | Photos of Bus
Overview
•A Ministry of Ardmore Presbyterian Church: The Build-it Bus is a traveling creative workshop that operates out of a refitted para-transit bus. The Bus is a ministry of Ardmore Presbyterian to urban children, offering opportunities for learning woodworking and other skilled handcrafts. Students work on the bus itself, which is equipped with workbenches and manual tools re-engineered for children. The Build-it Bus can partner with urban schools, after-school programs, day care centers, summer camps, senior centers. The bus operates in the Philadelphia area.
For students coming aboard, The Build-it Bus is a novel and welcoming space. The interior space of the bus is equipped as flexible work-shop space for a variety of hand skills - from woodworking to sewing craft to cooking. (See the navigation bar to browse for list of classes for different age groups).
The Build-it Bus seeks to offer students the opportunity to make meaningful projects for themselves, for their communities, and for their families - projects that teach life skills, enhance relationships, teach self-sufficiency.
•We travel to location tailoring anything from single one hour classes to full 5 to 12 week courses for:
- Schools
- Church programs/events
- Summer camps
- After-school programs
- Day care centers and pre schools
- Adult senior centers
•The Build-it Bus is an urban/suburban partnership generously supported since its beginnings by Ardmore Presbyterian Church, The West Philadelphia Alliance for Children (WePAC), Eastern University's outreach to The Barry School, grants from the Presbytery of Philadelphia, Bryn Mawr Presbyterian Church, and private donors.
Funded by a combination of grants and fees, prices per class are charged on a sliding scale based on the ability to pay.
•The Build-it Bus is handicap accessible.
PHOTOS of Bus workshop
(for more photos go to Gallery)
Mission Statement
The Build-it Bus Mission Statement: The Build-it Bus ministry seeks to join in with Christ’s ongoing work in the city of Philadelphia. The lofty Kingdom goals of restoration, renewal, and reconciliation, are accomplished in small loving acts that meet real needs. This ministry seeks to meet some of urban children’s emotional, physical and spiritual needs by offering these kids a chance to learn real building and handicraft skills, to express themselves creatively, to feel a degree of control over their environment, to have the ability to meaningfully contribute to their family’s well-being, and to work side by side with people who really care about them as individuals.
Young Children and Worship
The Build-it Bus is excited to be partnering with Olivia Stewart Robertson, YC&W trainer and leader, to help churches implement the Montessori based Sunday school curriculum, "Young Children and Worship".
Everything You Need to Implement YC&W: We want to make this wonderful YC&W program possible for any church that is interested. Olivia Stewart Robertson can provide orientation and training, while Sherina Poorman and The Build-it Bus can help you make the materials. See more below.
Young Children and Worship web site: www.childrenandworship.org
Brochures: YC&W Brochure Bus Brochure
Contact Olivia: ostewart@fpcpottstown.org
Contact Sherina: brick476@verizon.net
Upcoming Workshops:
Young Children and Worship and the Build-it-Bus are hosting workshops ... with two different options! To learn more, click on the links below.
- 1st option: Full Training - January 21, 2012 (full training on the method and use of YCW and how it works through the full church year)
- 2nd option: Unit Training - January 14, 2012 (training for stand-alone seven week Lenten unit to help churches to get started with YC&W)
To sign up for these workshops email Olivia at Olivia@childrenandworhsip.org or email Sherina at Brick476@verizon.net
The YC&W Program:
Young Children and Worship is a unique approach to the spiritual formation of young children in a worship setting. The program invites children and their adult leaders to experience the wonder and mystery of God through a compelling storytelling format.
The Materials:
Central to the program are beautifully told Bible stories presented to the children with well-crafted wooden figurines and props. Young Children and Worship requires 44 sets of figurines and other wooden story telling props - as well as shelving and other classroom equipment. The Build-it Bus can travel to your church and supply the raw materials, the tools and all the support you need to set up a fully equipped Young Children and Worship room at your church -- at a fraction of the cost of buying the supplies.
More details about the structure of Young Children and Worship:
Young Children and Worship approaches Sunday school education as worship. Concerned with spiritual formation, the curriculum invites children to hear and then to respond to God’s word as we do in worship. The format of a Young Children and Worship lesson is structured exactly like a worship service:
The children first gather as the people of God. With special greetings and songs, the children dial down, entering meditatively into a special worship space, made just for them, to gather around God's word.
Next the children hear the word proclaimed through a Bible story told contemplatively with well crafted wooden figurines and props.
Continuing to follow the structure of adult worship, the children then respond to the word. They will first ask and be asked "wondering" questions about the story they have just seen presented. Continuing in contemplation, the children will then express their response in art – drawing, painting, molding clay, etc. Following that the children celebrate a "feast": a snack eaten with a sense of community.
Finally as they leave the worship center, the children participate in the last order of worship, the sending out of God's people into the world. Each child is given a special blessing as they leave to be God's disciples in their homes, schools, and activities.
Young Children and Worship can be a profound experience for children. Recognizing their innate spirituality, the curriculum creates a nurturing environment geared to how children naturally learn.
Projects
- Chess Sets: Students make their own chess pieces on hand-cranked lathes. They also make their own chess boards and learn to play chess (Gesu School and WePAC at the Joseph Leidy School). PHOTOS
Chess Shop web page - Drumming-making: Children make drums with piping and rawhide. They are led in a drum workshop by an African drummer (Leidy School, Eastern University summer camp for Barry School, The John Gloucester House). PHOTOS
- Six string electric guitars: Kids make functioning electric guitars (Rhoads School). PHOTOS
- Three string guitars: Students make easy to play three string guitars (dulcimer fretting) and learn to play hymns (Trinity Presbyterian Church, Eastern University summer camp for Barry School, Spruce Hill Academy). PHOTOS
- Magic tricks: Students practice reading written directions by learning magic tricks (Barry School, Fresh Air Fund). PHOTOS
- Book-making: Kids make leather-bound journals (Ardmore Presbyterian Church, Barry School). PHOTOS
- Window Boxes: Students construct window boxes (Barry school). PHOTOS
- Button Making: Bus travels to Church street-evangelism fairs and kids make their own pin-on buttons (Mill Creek Baptist Church, Darby Baptist). PHOTOS
- Hand-Cranked Lathe: Student made a hand-cranked lathe. (Ardmore Presbyterian). PHOTOS
- Senior Center projects: Senior adults make furniture and other items for the home. PHOTOS
- Upcoming Projects
- Guitar-hymn project: 8th Graders at Spruce Hill Academy will be making acoustic 3-string guitars and learning to play hymns. (See Prototype)
- Pizza Farm: Students will make garden structures for a thematic garden (growing ingredients for pizza making) on the Barry School roof-top garden (dependent on funding).
Photos of Bus Workshop
The Build-it Bus
Workshop set up for lathing (making chess pieces)
Workshop set up for woodworking
Students working on hand-cranked lathes
Student working on a chess Queen
Pop-out space built on the extended lift - for reading, playing quiet games
Playing chess (and eating popcorn) in the Pop-out
The Pop-out in warm weather