It was time for the first honor roll party to be held at Shalom Mennonite School. The 7th and 8th grade teachers decided to hold a "Bible Times" honor roll party for the students. I made the invitations by burning the edges of the paper with a candle, tea-staining them, and then baking them in the oven until they were a little crunchy. Rolled up and tied with a ribbon, they looked like little scrolls.
The evening of the party the all-purpose room was transformed into a Bedouin tent by adding rugs, sheep skins, candles, strings of lights, pottery, plants, and draped fabric. A large piece of fabric hid the locker area.
The students arrived and were led down the stairs to the room by candlelight where they were asked to remove their shoes. We then seated them in groups on the rugs and they reclined on the pillows there were asked to bring. The teachers served their students grape juice, bread with olive oil dip, cheese, raisins, grapes, fish, and fig cookies. Next we all enjoyed a candle-lit reading of "How the Leopard Got Its Stripes" by Rudyard Kipling. The evening ended with one of our favorite games, pass-the-pillow. (If the students are asked to bring an item [in this case a pillow] we incorporate it into the evening. First they reclined on the pillows while they ate, then they were used in a game.]
the 7th and 8th grade teachers: Jeff Swanson, Whitney Burkholder, Kyle Zook . . .
(and friends)
