All posts tagged Children’s Church

Good Thoughts, Bad Thoughts

By Lindsey | November 6, 2011 | Ministry Ideas | 1 Comment

Today in Children’s Church we were learning about the importance of controlling our thoughts. We did a little object lesson and it went so well, I thought I would share it here. I’m sure I got the idea from somewhere else, but I don’t know where!

Supplies Needed:

Kool-Aid
Dirt
2 Spoons
2 Clear Cups

Leading the Lesson:

Say: “Okay, kids, we’ve been talking about our thoughts and choosing thoughts that will help us to be closer to God and not push us farther away from God. Let’s imagine this Kool-Aid are things that help us to have good thoughts (reading your Bible, watching good movies, listening to good songs, etc)”. We had already discussed this a bit in the lesson, so I didn’t do any extra explaining.

Ask: “As I mix this into the water, what happens?” (Allow kids to respond). Now, I’d like a volunteer.

Say to the volunteer: “Can you please get the Kool-Aid back out of the glass please?”

They might look a bit confused or they might just jump right in. My volunteer lifted a spoonful of the now-blue-water and tried to give it to me. I responded, “Oh no, just the crystals. I don’t want any of the water part. No liquid. Just the crystals.”

Of course, at this point someone int he crowd shouted that “This is IMPOSSIBLE!” I explained that once something is in our head, it’s pretty impossible to get out, so that’s why it’s important to memorize Scripture, whether that is through songs or the memory verse. Once we get it in our heads, it will always be there when we need it.

Have a child drink the Kool-Aid and confirm that it does indeed taste good, just like good thoughts.

Say: “Now, imagine that this dirt are things that cause us to think bad thoughts. Thoughts that lead us farther away from God.” Mix in the dirt and ask if anyone would like to take a drink. I had a few volunteers. Bravely, I called on one, but she quickly recanted (much to my own relief!) If you choose to offer the dirty drink, be sure you pick a kid with some seriously laid-back parents. Ask for a volunteer.

Say to the volunteer: “Can you please get the dirt out of the glass?” Now, this volunteer might be able to get some of the dirt out, but not all of it. The water will certainly still be cloudy and yucky looking.

Say: “It looks like we can get some of the bad stuff out of this cup, huh? When we ask God to forgive us of our bad thoughts, sometimes He takes those thoughts away, and sometimes He doesn’t. That’s why it’s important to be really careful what we let into our heads to begin with!”

We closed with this object lesson, so as soon as I said “Class dismissed!”, they all rushed forward for their own glass of Kool-Aid. I happily complied and we all toasted to “Good thoughts!”

Another Option:

If you let the dirty glass sit for awhile, some of the dirt will sink to the bottom. You could use this in a number of ways:

The water might look clear, but the same bad stuff is still in there, just waiting to get stirred up again.
Sometimes when we stay away from the bad stuff for awhile, things start to get clearer. It’s not as good as when we started (importance of steering clear to begin with), but you are not without hope!

It needs some tweaking, but you get the idea!

Lesson Ideas for Judges

By Lindsey | August 18, 2011 | Ministry Ideas | Comments Off

We’ve been making our way through the Bible, covering all the “Big Stories” this summer. I wish we had time to cover all the great details in God’s Word, but we’ll do what we can! I was talking with one of our regular attenders the other day and she had never heard the story of David and Goliath. As a “raised-in-church” girl, sometimes I forget that not every kid knows the basics of the Bible. So, hopefully by the end of summer, we’ll covered most of the “main characters” of the Bible. Stay tuned for lesson ideas based on the Big Story of God’s Word.

For the book of Judges, we covered three of the main judges during story time (Samson, Gideon, and Deborah) and then dove into the details of a few other judges during station time (I was dying to share this poem about Ehud with the kids, but I refrained!)

To help tell the story of Samson, we used a mop for Samson (old school style, no swiffers!) and a broom for Delilah (this idea came from Forget Me Not Bible Stories, I think!). One my team members drew these great faces to attach to our props:

It was a big hit!

During Station time, we gave kids the following options:

Puppets Recreate Story: Kids would look up an account in the book of judges and then collaborate with a fellow class mate to write a script and perform it with puppets.
Make Gideon’s Torch
Use Cool Bible Tools for Hero Posters: Kids would look up one of the judges using our Cool Bible Tools and make a Hero poster. They could write what the Judge was best known for, his strengths, his weaknesses, or a great quote from Scripture. Of course, drawing pictures was encouraged!

What about you? Got a great idea for teaching about Judges? Leave me a comment and let me know (comments close automatically after two weeks). I’d love to hear your ideas!

The Big Story: Lesson Ideas for Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph

By Lindsey | June 21, 2011 | Bible Study, Elementary Age, Ministry Ideas, Preschoolers | 2 Comments

For our summer Wednesday night program, we’re doing a Story Time approach (check out all our summer plans here). We will be covering the major stories in the Bible and showing how they are all one big part of God’s redeeming plan of love. Sometimes I read out of the Read and Share Bible, sometimes the kids act out the story using the Big Action Bible Skits book, and sometimes leaders act it out for the kids. After the story, the kids head to stations.

What are Stations?

Each night, kids can choose from between three and five stations, all of which relate to some part of the night’s story. For our most recent night, the focus was on the Isaac & Rebekah, Jacob & Esau, and Jacob & family. Here’s the stations we had available:

Logical: Ask the Pastor

For this, kids wrote down questions about our story to try to “Stump the Pastor”. This was a great to use whenever kids asked a story during story time. I would simply say, “That would be a great question to ask the Pastor!” Pastor made a guest appearance and talked with the kids at this station about different aspects of the story.

Drama: Recreate the Story

I assembled a variety of props that related to the story and set them all out on the table. I was hoping the kids would free play a little more, but they wanted me to read the story again (out of the Read and Share Bible) as they acted along. Either way, they are getting into the Bible, so it suits me fine! Here’s some of the props we used:

Soup bowl and spoon
Gold Coins
Play mustaches and beards
Egypt head dress (left over from our Egypt VBS last year!)
Tulle
White sheets
Bathrobe of many colors
Rock

Cooking: Cookie Map of Egypt (from Forget Me Not Bible Stories, Group Publishing)

At this station, kids used an overhead projector to trace a map of Egypt onto a piece of wax paper. Then they shaped some sugar cookie dough (we just used a roll, premade from the grocery store) to look like Egypt. They baked it and then added details with frosting such as the Nile River, etc.

Art: Joseph’s Fancy Coat

A classic Bible craft, kids used a coloring page of Joseph and his coat to start. After they colored Joseph, they cut out felt to design a coat for him. They could also add little embellishments such as glitter, sequins, etc. Needless to say, this was a popular station. They don’t call them “old standbys” for no reason!

Piecing the Story All Together

Next week, I think I’ll help the kids put together a family tree based on the stories we’ve heard so far. I want them see how the Bible is connected throughout the Old and New Testament, and this might help solidify the continuity between stories. We’ve also been working on the Bible Timeline for the same reason.

What About You?

Got a great idea for these Bible accounts? Send me an email and let me know!

The Big Story: Babel, Abraham, Isaac

By Lindsey | June 10, 2011 | Elementary Age, Ministry Ideas, Preschoolers, Preteens | Comments Off

What are the Stations?

I’m so glad you asked! Each night, kids can choose from between three and five stations, all of which relate to some part of the night’s story. For our most recent night, the focus was on the Tower of Babel, Abraham, and Isaac. Here’s the stations we had available:

Build a Tower of Babel out of legos, duplos, blocks, etc (I was quite surprised at how popular this was!) Kids can work together or compete to see who can build the tallest tower.
Just like God had a plan for Abraham, God has a plan for us. Kids traced each other’s bodies on a piece of butcher paper and then wrote their name inside the body frame. For each letter of their name, they thought of a way they could serve God. If they got stuck, they were encouraged to check a Bible dictionary or other cool Bible tool for ideas.
Bible Timeline: this idea I got from Ministry to Children and it fits perfectly into “The Big Story” theme. Check out the details here. The Veggie Tales Atlapediais a huge help for piecing this together as well.
Coloring Station: Kids were invited to color pictures from the story using My Bible Coloring Book. You can also find lots of free Bible coloring pages online, but you have to dig a bit!
We didn’t use this, but a fun idea might have been a water relay game to give the servant’s camels something to drink. Or to measure how much a camel would drink in a sitting to see how hard Rebekah worked for a man she didn’t even know.

So, how did it go?

Our first night (Creation, Fall, Flood) was paired with the Got Bible celebration, so we didn’t get to try out stations. However, this week, we did use the stations and it went really well. The kids weren’t on a strict rotational schedule. They were encouraged to spend about 10 minutes per station, but in reality they had about 30 minutes to pick and choose as they pleased. The kids were all engaged and really seemed to enjoy the activities. Of course, I have to let you know our numbers are always way down in the summer, so we only had about 15 kids. This type of set up might not work for a larger group, but it seems to be perfect for us!

Stay posted for other lesson and station ideas!

Simple Idea: Get that Lesson to Stick!

By Lindsey | May 11, 2011 | Elementary Age, Ministry Ideas, Preschoolers | 1 Comment

This week in Children’s Church, we were studying Saul’s Damascus Road experience from Acts 9. The curriculum (Promiseland) had a great skit to go along with the lesson, but I wanted to make sure we read the text straight out of Scripture. We’ve been learning how to use our Bibles in Wednesday night Kids’ Club and we try to always give the kids an opportunity to be able to follow along with the day’s Bible account. Of course, we wanted to add a little excitement to the lesson, so after I read the text, I had the kids act it out. Normally, we launch straight into the kids acting out the story AS I read the text, but this little revision had a lot of benefits:

It gave kids some practice reading their Bibles and confirmed that the lesson did indeed come from Scripture.
It gave the acting kids some direction for the skit portion of the lesson. Normally, I do a lot of redirecting, and feeding line-by-line sort of thing because the kids are totally unfamiliar with the story. Since they had just heard the story, some of the older kids were able to improvise and the younger kids followed along MUCH easier.
It gave the audience a purpose. Of course, every kid wants to be an actor, but that doesn’t always work out. So, for this lesson, I told the audience they were like the directors. If something was wrong in the story, they were to say “Cut, cut, cut!” Then, I threw in a few silly lines that didn’t fit into the story, such as “Saul loved all the Christians and often played checkers with them”. The audience payed close attention after that, looking for another opportunity to yell “Cut!” and correct the misinformed action.
It cemented the story even further. Since the kids got to hear the Bible account twice, and all took some form of ownership in it, I have a feeling this lesson is really going to stick. We’ll check next week when we do a review, but the kids seemed really engaged.

What about you? Have you learned any little teaching tips lately? Be sure to leave a comment and let me know (comments are usually closed after 2 weeks).

Goals for Molly Pickens (interview with Matthew Young)

By Lindsey | August 31, 2010 | My Thoughts | Comments Off

I’m excited to announce I had a chance to talk with Matthew Young, one of the creators of the Fantastic World series last Thursday. After filling me in on some insight about Molly Pickens and talking about his recent release of Tiny Pirate, he shared some of the original goals of the Fantastic World series:

Not Your Every-day Curriculum

The adventures in the Fantastic World were never intended to be an on-going everday curriculum. Instead, Molly Pickens was designed to break up the monotony a bit for teachers and kids. It offers a little bit of an “off the wall” break for summer-time or when you’re in-between other curriculums. (Many curriculums do not publish summer materials, so this is a great resource to that end!)

Something Worth Doing Well

High quality production is very important to the Young brothers. They didn’t want to produce a hurried, cheesy Christian film that is boring at best and the cause of embarrassment at worse (there’s already too many of those type of films on the market!) Instead, they wanted something that was of high value, something the kids could really engage in because “when a child is engaged, they will absorb more of the lesson” (Matthew Young, interview 8/19/2010). I must say, they succeeded in this goal. The sets are beautiful, and even though I’m still not crazy about Bill and Charles, the acting is certainly fluid and polished.

It All Goes Together

The small group lessons, large group skits, and DVD-clips were always intended to be used together. Without one component, it really isn’t a complete curriculum. This is unlike many other curriculums on the market, so keep that in mind when considering the Fantastic World series.

Be sure to check out the rest of the interview!