Preschool and Children’s Ministry for Fall

In case you haven’t heard, the new service times will be:

8:00, 9:30, 11:15

Each service for adults and children will be identical. *There is an exception for children who will be on campus for multiple services due their parents serving. This will be described in a subsequent post.* Our prayer is that people will come forward to be “every week” volunteers. For example, Suzy Q volunteers to be the bed baby teacher each week at 8:00.

Babies-2s - Our littlest ones are lovingly cared for and played with during the services. While we are always instilling Christian values, these classes do not have long, structured lessons each week. Volunteers in these classrooms do more care-taking than teaching.

We anticipate needing 6-8 voluteers for the 8:00 service, 10-12 volunteers for the 9:30 service, and 8-10 volunteers for the 11:00 service.

Preschool (3s, 4s, and 5s) – These children have structured learning time. We use Elevate, Jr. for our lessons. The curriculum is prepared for you in advance, with all materials and supplies gathered and placed in the classroom. It is very important and helpful to read the lessons in advance, so that you have an understanding of the flow of the lesson. The teaching is a combination of DVD and teacher directed activities. The prep time for a volunteer is minimal, but again, it is very important and helpful to read through the lessons in advance.

We anticipate needed 4 volunteers at 8:00, 6-8 volunteers at 9:30, and 4-6 volunteers at 11:15.

Children (K-5th) – Our children will have a combination of large group and small group time. We will continue to use Fellowship Kids (Elevate)material for our lessons (which is what Praise Kids currently uses). Children will meet together for the large group time (K-2 in one group, 3-5 in another) upstairs in building B. They will begin promptly and have a 25-35 minute large group lesson which includes live teacher, DVD, and praise and worship. They will break up for small group activities for 25-35 minutes, where the scripture lesson, main point, and other object lessons are taught by small group teachers. The last 10 minutes will be in large group, where a review will take place.

The curriculum is prepared for volunteers in advance, however, we ask volunteers to gather some supplies on their own. The reason is, there will always be more small group lessons than a volunteer will have time to teach. It would be wasteful for the church to provide supplies for every activity. We can, however, supply you with what you need if we are given enough advanced notice.

The prep time for volunteering is more intense for those leading the large group portions, as these are scripted and involve more “acting” skills than “teaching” skills. The prep time for small group leaders can be minimal, though our volunteers who are true “teachers” at the core may find themselves spending more time tweaking each activity and digging into the Bible content.

Large Group Leaders – We anticipate needing 2-4 volunteers at 8:00, 4 volunteers at 9:30, and 4 volunteers at 11:15.

Small Group Leaders – We anticipate needing 4-6 volunteers at 8:00, 8-10 volunteers at 9:30, and 6-8 volunteers at 11:15.

Other Areas of Need – We also need volunteers to help with check in and record keeping in each building and for each service. Hall monitors are also needed.

If we can all get excited enough, we can even design special volunteer t-shirts to wear. We can have catchy slogans, cool graphics, and frequent parties. Am I getting carried away?

Advertisement