Caught Up

Have you ever been been so involved in getting Sunday morning running smoothly that you got caught up in the running of the stuff that goes into it? Did you ever stop to realize that not everyone around you is concerned with props, crayons and the music you may need for the classroom? Who else cares if you wanted green Jello for the funny skit you had planned and instead only had red Jello? Well, I had just had one of those mornings.

While making sure all the teachers had what they needed, including the Jello, and checking the classrooms I noticed we had a little dead tree frog outside of our K-1 classroom near the playground. I made a mental note to make sure it was removed before the kids spotted it. As happens with most mental notes I did not remember until we were in between our first and second services. Luckily, no kids had spotted the poor deceased frog who was still in rigor mortise. I informed Kathy, the head of our logistics team on Sunday morning, of the need for someone to make the frog disappear and in her quick thinking she called her husband over to do the deed.

Let me pause here in the story to give you some background into how our classrooms are set-up on Sunday mornings. Each of our eight classrooms are divided into age groups from birth through fifth grade and are given animal names. On Sunday mornings my primary responsibility is for the Chipmunks (kindergarten-first grades), Foxes (second-third grades) and the Frogs (fourth and fifth grades).

Now we can continue with our tale. Kathy immediately informed her husband that I had a dead frog and he needed to get rid of it, she even suggested he toss it in the woods. Her husband turned and with a perplexed and somewhat stunned look asked, "Shouldn't you be calling 911?". It was at that moment that I realized he thought I was, at first, referring to one of our Frogs, a fourth or fifth grader. After the shock it made for quite a good laugh!

It is moments like that when I realize that I can get so caught up in my own efforts to get things done. Even without the green Jello, Sunday morning will happen and not by own efforts.

Starting a K-1 Class

This past Sunday we opened a new classroom in our elementary division for kindergartners and first graders. I have to admit I was very unsure what to expect for that first service, will it be fun enough, will the lesson be engaging, will the new volunteers want to come back? Well, I will be coming back for more because I had a blast teaching in that room!



It was certainly a leap of faith to open this classroom not knowing what to expect with new curriculum, new volunteers, and a new age level of kids. All summer we had just the second through fifth graders so the thought of switching gears and teaching to kindergartners who have yet to learn how to read was intimidating. I mean how were they going to follow along with the power point lyrics? They were a little unsure at first with the singing and then as they began to do the motions their faces lit up. By the time we started the drama teaching time they were hooked.



The most exciting part of the whole morning was knowing that we are getting these kids ready for what they will experience when they move into the older classrooms. They will know the classroom routines the expectations of large group time and small group time. They will understand that small group leaders are there each week because they care about them and want show them the love of Jesus in a very real way. We are getting these kids ready to develop lasting relationships with their peers as they grow in their faith.

I'd love some cool ideas you may have for arrival games and activites for this age group.

Can't wait to teach next week!

Have They Learned?!

Okay, it comes time for the end of your curriculum unit and you are ready to evaluate what your kids have learned. How do you go about that task without giving the kids a pop quiz? Nobody wants to be the teacher remembered for pop quizzes!

For the past two units we have made it a game day for the kids. We have taken questions from the curriculum series and used them to create a Jeopardy game on power point. Well, we played Jeopardy this past Sunday and I was excited to see how much the kids had learned. I was confident that they would remember Bible verses, key points and wow us with their knowledge. My confidence soon began to fail after the first service and by the fourth I was deflated. I was so sure that they were going to fly through the questions with out any hints at all and even with the hints it was sometimes painful. Oh sure, we had a few kids each service that knew most of the answers but I was still feeling low.

About that time God stepped in and gave me a smack for feeling sorry for myself. We had some extra time after the game during fourth service so we did a song with the kids. As the music started for Hallelujah, I looked out at the group of kids and couldn't help but smile as I saw them with smiles on their faces, voices raised and doing the motion. It didn't matter to them that they didn't do so great at Jeopardy. What mattered to them was that they where there with people and friends who care about them. Sometimes it takes a moment like that to remember it is not always about the lesson but about the connections they make with small group leaders and friends.

Visit Often!

This blog is here for all those looking to share ideas, borrow ideas or find themselves out of ideas. I will be posting thoughts evaluating our children's services, curriculum, scheduling and all the stuff that goes into Sunday mornings at our church. I am looking forward to hearing comments and feedback from everyone and would love to hear some of the other stuff going on in other children's ministries.

We will also be including postings from our volunteers for us to all get the fresh perspective on Sunday mornings.

So visit often and give us your thoughts!

Reinvent VBS

We have changed the traditional thinking about VBS in our area. We do a huge three day production we call Kids’ Camp that takes a minimum of five months planning to pull off. Do we do it to reach more families in our area? You bet we do, but that is not the first reason. Do we do it to grow our church and children’s ministry? Absolutely, but still not the big reason? These are both great reasons to tackle any huge outreach projects you may have planned but we have another reason. Volunteers, volunteers, volunteers! This year we had over three hundred volunteers from our church (a church of 1500) come out for three mornings in July to serve at our Kids’ Camp Adventure Island.

Our camp volunteers are asked to serve for three mornings from 8 to 12, no experience and no long term commitments required. We make sure the energy and enthusiasm starts the minute the volunteers show up for training and carries straight through until our camp wraps up on what we call camp Sunday. Our camp volunteers are immersed in all the excitement and fun that the kids are having. Once camp is over and they have had the best three days of their summer they can't wait to sign-up to be a part of our Sunday morning children's ministry. Can you think of a better way to build excitement and recruit volunteers?
Check out the camp video below!