The Stars of the Big Screen

This is an activity I did with the children at my church which included eight of my ten grandchildren. The idea could be done as a family, a play group, friends, or with your neighbors.

A while back the children put on a talent show for one another and their families. It was publicized with posters where the children's names were posted as the stars of the show. I set up a stage using a pop up canopy, lights, red drapes (vinyl table cloths), a banner, and of course stars. We had all kinds of talent and it was a great time.

To follow up we made a movie of the talent show to show to the children. Our publicity fliers and posters had tickets, film, and popcorn as the graphics.

To decorate for the "Talent Show Movie" we decorated the outside of the door and the inside of the theatre using the same graphics that were on the fliers and posters and also a big banner that read "Now Showing", and "Now Starring". I made up the words "the amazing", "The talented", "The skilled",  and others to describe all of their talents. For a smaller group you could actually put their names.

I also set up a snack bar with the bags of popcorn already filled with some sweet treats tucked inside. We also gave each child a water bottle. (Tip: I would suggest writing their names on the bags and bottles. It would be a good idea to loosen the bottle cap for younger children.)

I used can lights in the dimmed room to shine up on the

Now Starring decor.

The movie title was projected

nice and big across the wall.

We used a projector hooked up to a computer

to show the movie.

The kids ooohed and aaawed as they walked into the room!

Just the reaction I was hoping for.

As the children arrived they sat on the floor in front of 

the movie screen.

Because of our numbers we had the

children come to the snack bar by ages.

Adults sat in chairs behind the children.

Once everyone was ready the movie began.

We had EVERYONE'S full attention.

The talent show had been edited and set to music. I had also asked our videographer to catch the kids in action as they were signing in for the talent show, as they were preparing to take stage, and the reactions of the audience. This worked out very well and the kids loved it. (If you are working with smaller numbers the entire Talent Show performance could be in the movie.) 

The kids wanted to watch it over and over and we allowed them to watch it as long as time allowed.

Before leaving we caught a picture of the

amazing, the talented, the adorable, and the

 Stars of the Show!