21 May Wisdom, Faith, Friendship – Base Camp – Summer 2013 (Part 1)

Posted at 14:53h in 2013, Environment, Once, Summer by lisa 2 Comments
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Life App: 3 Basic Truths – Wisdom, Faith, & Friendship
Theme: Base Camp
Date: Summer 2013

Base Camp is Our Summer XP!

This summer, rather than going with our usual plan to implement 252 Basics‘ annual Summer XP, we’ve decided to use Base Camp as our Summer XP . We plan to implement One Big Story-Turn It Up next summer instead. In addition, our summer series takes place in July and August so, while most of you will implement Base Camp beginning in June, we’ll be doing the Life App of Contentment in June and we’ll kick off Base Camp in July. You can read more about how and why we’ve revamped our summer schedule in this post.

Because of our scheduling changes, photos of our finalized Base Camp set will not be available until the end of June. We will be working on creating it over the next two weeks, so we’ll post photos of our process during that time. In the meantime, we thought we’d include our plan and supply list here.

Where We Are Headed

Our Summer XP involves more than just a set for the stage. Because our summer series is a time to give our regularly scheduled leaders a break, we implement a summer team of leaders and we change our format to be more large group focused. We also utilize “stations” throughout the environment to fill time before large group. Below, you’ll find our plans for the stage and our environment.

Stage:

  • Paint our backdrop (10 insulation foam panels) a sky blue-similar to that in the 252 Basics Theme Graphic.
  • Use another set of 10 insulation foam panels to create mountains.
    • We’ll use our projector to enlarge the mountains from the Week 5 bottom line image on to insulation foam. Then we’ll carve them out with a hot knife and paint them white. We have a volunteer that is an artist come in after the base coat is done and  embellish the mountains to look more like the graphic.
    • We’ll layer the mountains across the entire backdrop by pinning the first layer to the backdrop and then build them out in front of one another to create a 3-D effect.
    • The mountains will be higher on either side of the set and slope down toward the center to create a bit of a valley.
  • We’ll have the image of  the Life App-3 Basic Truths Standard image printed on Photo Tex and hang it directly on the sky in the center of the stage, inside the valley of the mountains.
  • We’ll cut letters out of the Cricut that say “Wisdom,” “Faith,” and “Friendship.” We’ll hang them under the Photo Tex sticker to mimic the graphic.
  • We’ll lay white batting along the floor of the entire set to resemble snow.
  • We’ll extend our backdrop on either side to have a white insulation foam panel under our side screens.
  • We’ll have a large tent under each of the screens that will be part of the set but at the same time will house two of our stations for our summer environment.
  • We’ll have camping gear and possibly a pretend camp fire near center stage to make it feel as though large group is taking place in a Base Camp setting.

Environment:

  • We’ll have the 3 Basic Truth Posters from 252 Basics mounted on insulation foam. We’ll modge-podge them and hang them from various places on the ceiling.
  • We’ll have colorful triangular flags hanging throughout the environment.
  • Each station will be identified by a sign. The signs may be shaped like flags. They will be created on foam core board with the Base Camp Logo and lettering that identifies the name of the station. We’ll cut the letters using a Cricut. The signs will be affixed to a dowel or pole and then secured inside a tall orange cone. We’ll wrap the cone with batting to look like a pile of snow-hopefully giving the effect that the sign was planted in the snow.  As of right now our stations will be:
    • Video Zone (video games on TV’s)
    • Wii Zone (Wii game on a TV)
    • Lego Zone (Lego table)
    • Chill Zone (Camping Games inside a tent – Mad Libs, travel size games, playing cards, etc.)
    • Gaming Zone – Multiple Nintendo DS’s and hand held Games, inside another tent
    • Maybe a “Camping Grub” Station-Specialty Sundays (maybe the opening and closing weeks) s’mores, snow-cones)
  • Our entrance will most likely have a large sign made from a banner and affixed to two tall dowels. It will say something like – Welcome to Base Camp with an altitude and estimation of how far to the “summit.”
  • We’ll put lanterns and camping theme decor on our registration tables, possibly hang ropes and carabiners in a fun way over the tables.

Supplies

  • Insulation Foam (10 panels for our backdrop, 10 panels for the mountains)
  • Flat Paint-sky blue and white
  • Projector for enlarging images
  • White Batting
  • Graphic on Photo Tex – “3 Basics”
  • T-Square
  • Ruler
  • Scissors
  • Utility Knife
  • Hot Knife
  • Basic Truth Posters
  • Foam Core
  • Colorful Triangular Flags
  • Modge-Podge
  • Fire Wood
  • Camping Gear (back packs, hiking poles, lanterns, flashlights, wooden crates, carabiners, ropes, etc.)

This is what we have so far. I’m sure as we begin to create, we’ll change and tweak things a bit. We’ll keep you up to date with photos.

What are you guys creating for Base Camp? We’d love to hear about your plans and see your photos!