Appreciation Days

You may have the opportunity to run a Care Worker, Primary Caregiver (PCG) or Kids appreciation day during your visit. The aim of these days is to spend time celebrating and blessing the kids and/or Care Workers and PCGs, and for your team to build relationships with them. Appreciation days are for you as a team to plan and to come with any items you need for your activities.

Below are some guidelines on what has worked well in the past. You may have other ideas, feel free to discuss them as a team. Please share your ideas with your International Office contact to ensure the logistics are in place and they are suitable for the community you will be serving in.

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Care Worker or Primary Caregiver Appreciation Day

Think of this time as having the opportunity to pamper or do something the Care Workers will enjoy in appreciation for the way that they care for the children. It is always best to participate in the activities with the Care Workers. This day is all about relationships and the opportunity for the team to continue building strong, lasting relationships with the Care Workers.

It is best to keep any activities as simple as possible, please bring any items needed for these activities with you. This applies to both the Care Worker and the Kids Appreciation Days. 

You can confirm how many Care Workers are in the community as well as how long you will have with them with your International Office. 

 

Ideas of what you could do:

  • Hand and foot massages (or manicures and pedicures)

  • Beads and elastic string to make necklaces and bracelets

  • Knitting (basic)

  • Card making

  • Picture frame making

  • Painting

  • T-shirt painting/tye dyeing

  • Other crafts that are not too complicated

  • Praying together

  • Sharing a word of encouragement

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Kids Appreciation Day

Preparing simple games, songs and activities will be a huge blessing. This is time to get to know more children by name and give them your undivided time and attention (something they rarely get from adults). These days are a time to help them let go of all their responsibilities and just be kids. We encourage not only that the team get involved in this but for them to also involve the Care Workers, sharing with them new games and activities they can play with the children. As well remember the the number of children when deciding on the activities and games you will choose. You can confirm the number of children and how long you will have with them with your International Office. It may work best to have smaller groups with different activities and you can rotate the children between them.

 

Ideas of items to bring:

  • Colouring pages, crayons or pencils

  • Paper, paint, paint brushes

  • Paper planes paper

  • Beads and elastic string for necklaces and bracelets

  • Balls (and ball pumps)

  • Softer, smaller balls for little ones

  • Bubbles

  • Balloons and/or animal balloons

  • Hand puppets

  • Skipping rope (long rope from hardware can be cut into 2-3 skipping lengths)

  • Paper plate craft

  • Other crafts that are not too complicated

Games and activities:

  • Soccer and netball (Care Workers will be able to use these later)

  • Cricket (if you have bat and ball)

  • Skipping (can also have children in circle and someone in middle swinging rope in circle low for them to jump)

  • Duck duck goose (many variations)

  • Pass the ball (like pass the apple or orange)

  • Balloon popping game – form teams, put into a line, first person blows up balloon, runs to the other end, sits on balloon on a chair until it pops, runs back, tags the next person and it begins again.

  • Sack races – with rubbish bags, blow up balloon, put it in the sack, race to other end and back, tag the next player

  • Archway – everyone forms an arch in a line, two at end hold hands and run under arch to other end and so on

  • Parachute and games to play with it

  • Popcorn – put table tennis balls, blow up balls, tennis balls etc on parachute and wave it in the air up and down until all off

  • Put a soccer ball on parachute and as a team roll the ball around the edge without it dropping off

  • Bible story and drama

  • Singing together (songs with actions work well)

 

Thank you in advance for the time and resources you put into these Appreciation Days. This blesses the Care Workers and the children and we know that the team is also blessed as deeper relationships are built.

Please contact your International Office if you have any questions.