All posts tagged Sunday School

Lesson Ideas for Judges

By | August 18, 2011 | Ministry Ideas | Comments Off
June and July 252

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: Babel, Abraham, Isaac

    By | June 10, 2011 | Elementary Age, Ministry Ideas, Preschoolers, Preteens | Comments Off
    Flickr by Josh Liba

    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 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!

    Molly Pickens Curriculum Review: What do the kids say?

    By | August 10, 2010 | Uncategorized | 1 Comment

    The proof is in the pudding

    While watching the Large Group DVD lessons, I was a little put-off by the constant lunacy of Bill and Charles.  My husband however, thought the kids would get a kick out it.  You know what they say: the proof is in the pudding, so we tried it out in Children’s Church.

    Introducing Molly Chickens!

    When I introduced the series, the kids all thought I said Molly Chickens, which they found extremely funny, and the laughter didn’t end there.  They liked many of the antics of the Fantastic friends.

    The Magic of Make-Believe

    The younger kids, especially (ages 4-6) were especially enraptured with Molly’s Fantastic World.  When she first opens the special box, one of our four-year-olds gasped and his mouth flew open.  As Molly journeyed through the light filled tunnel, his mouth hung open in fascination.  When Molly was peeking out from inside the toy chest, this little boy bent over in his chair to try and get a better look!  Talk about getting caught up in the moment!

    Paying Close Attention

    The kids didn’t miss a thing, catching all the little mutterings of the characters, even when they were “in the background”.  When Molly’s dad mumbled something about his paperwork taking 27 hours, one girl exclaimed, “That’s a long time!”  When the box-maker was talking and asked Molly to have a seat, I took a look at the kids.   You could see on many of their faces they were thinking about sitting down too, and then realized they already were!

    Not All Characters Are Created Equal

    The kids weren’t impressed with the clock — they didn’t laugh at anything he had to say.  They thought Bill and Charles were pretty funny, but did audibly question some of their antics: “Why are they doing that?”

    Box-maker, however, was a different story.  Personally, I like box-maker the best because he had something useful to say and seemed to have an IQ higher than 8.  The kids, however, found box-maker… well, boring I think.  Whenever he began to talk, they started getting restless, checking on their shoes, shifting in their seats, playing with mystery toys suddenly found in their pockets.  I thought maybe it was just a coincidence… they were getting tired of sitting just about the time box-maker came on.  However, as soon as “public service announcement” popped up, they were completely engaged.  When box-maker returned a few minutes later, so did the restlessness.

    Kids weren’t impressed with Rainy Day either… they said she was dirty (and were offended that she called children dirty, when she was obviously more dirty), lived in a cardboard castle, and had a non-talking puppet for a friend.  Poor excuse for a villain.

    Can We Watch this Again Next Week?

    To finish out the lesson, I played the audio letter from Charles, which they loved.  I only planned on showing one week as a “test run”, but the kids begged to watch more next week.  Well, why not finish out the series?  I’m encouraged by the kids response, but wonder — Just because they are begging to watch more of something, does that mean it’s really helping their spiritual formation?  Is Molly Pickens a great discipleship tool or simply great entertainment?  Stay tuned for the conclusion!

    Interested in Buying?

    Price is $129.00 for this 10 week series.  You  can get it from Abingdon’s website.

    More on Molly Pickens:

    Large Group Lesson

    Small Group Lesson

    Conclusion

    What’s included in this kit? (coming soon!)

    Interview with creator Matthew Young!

    Where did the idea of Molly come from anyway?

    Fantastic World new series: Tiny Pirate

    Other Curriculum Reviews:

    Bible in Life Early Elementary
    Bible in Life Elementary
    Voice of the Matrys: Kids of Courage
    The Lads Preteen Curriculum
    David C. Cook’s Rio
    Group’s Faithweaver Parent

    Molly Pickens Curriculum Review: Small Group Lesson

    By | August 9, 2010 | Uncategorized | Comments Off

    I wasn’t sold on the Molly Pickens DVD Curriculum based on the Large Group Lessons, but of course, I wasn’t looking at the whole picture.  Small Group lessons accompany each of the Large Group DVD segments of this 10 part curriculum series. Here’s what I thought about those:

    What’s Good

    • Love the fact that the lesson starts (pre-DVD) with a focus on the day’s verse.  I think it really sets the stage for the focus of of the lesson.
    • There are several activities (to use before and after the video) to help cement the day’s theme, including games, art, and an audio letter from Charles.  The discussion questions are good: relevant, personal, and lesson-focused.

    What’s Not So Good:

    • No negatives here.  Well written, good Biblical focus, and easy to follow/prepare.  We didn’t have time to fit all the activities in, but it’s great for teachers to have the flexibility to pick and choose which activities they think their kids will like best.

    Let’s continue the review:

    Testing it out on the Kids

    Conclusion

    Interested in Buying?

    Price is $129.00 for this 10 week series.  You  can get it from Abingdon’s website, the Fantastic World website, or post a comment on the Conclusion post for your chance to win our review copy!

    Other Curriculum Reviews:

    Bible in Life Early Elementary
    Bible in Life Elementary
    Voice of the Matrys: Kids of Courage
    The Lads Preteen Curriculum
    David C. Cook’s Rio
    Group’s Faithweaver Parent

    Children’s Church Curriculum Reviews

    By | August 7, 2010 | Resources | 2 Comments

    Looking for a new Children’s Church or Sunday School curriculum for kids?  Check out these reviews to help you decide!

    Bible in Life Early Elementary

    Bible in Life Elementary

    Voice of the Matrys: Kids of Courage

    The Lads Preteen Curriculum

    David C. Cook’s Rio

    Group’s Faithweaver Parent

    Molly Pickens DVD Curriculum (Fantastic World) (coming August 9th!)

    Other Review Sites:

    ‘Round the Church Curriculum Reviews

    AWANA Review by Homeschool Families

    What do you Expect of your Teachers?

    By | August 4, 2010 | Administrative Stuff, Resources | 3 Comments

    What is a Sunday School teacher’s job exactly?  A Children’s Church worker’s exact responsibility?  Wouldn’t it be great to have a resource that helped you to define the Children’s Ministry Team roles?  Sure, we all know we’re supposed to have these things on hand.  Available to give out the moment a potential volunteer steps in our general direction.  Written expectations help to set the stage for success.  They give potential volunteers an idea of what the job encompasses.   They help Sunday School teachers (or children’s church workers) understand their responsibility.  Prewritten expectations also provide a platform for accountability.  But, of course, you already knew all that.  You just don’t have the time (or the energy!) to draft one of these fabulous documents up because you’re very busy with other pressing matters (like reading this blog).  So, it’s your lucky day!  I have unearthed just such a document (and it’s a pretty good one too!).   First_Baptist_Church-Children’s_Ministry Guidelines– a great resource for those trying to squeeze a little more structure into the ministry.