KIDS SPIRIT

WHAT DO WE TEACH?

• There is a three year rotation of stories and themes to cover the basic principles of Christian life: the Lord’s Prayer, the Ten Commandments, Stewardship, Forgiveness, God’s faithfulness in the Old Testament, the Parables, and God’s gifts.
• The Seasons of the Church are also included with the same emphasis on a variety of creative activities.
• Activities are age appropriate and vary from group to group.
• Each story is repeated for 3 or 4 weeks to reinforce the message. The children experience the story through a variety of different activities each week that may include everything from arts and crafts, to computers, or food, science, music, video and drama.
• The emphasis is on using a variety of activities to reach children with all the senses and in the many different ways they learn.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN THE CHILDREN LEAVE THE CHURCH?

• The children meet together in the upper hall for Circle Time, which includes an opening prayer(s) and song or game, welcoming new faces and discussion of what’s happening in church (seasons, special events etc).
• The stewardship theme is reinforced as a collection “church” is available for children to put their donation in.
• After Circle Time, children move into various age groups.
• Preschool-Approximately age 3 to school age. We use stories, puppets, games, crafts & music.They learn of God’s love through friendship and trust. Parents are involved as teachers and assistants (teaching approximately 1 x per month).
• Juniors- Children move to this program when they are in school, starting to read, and can do more complicated crafts and activities. Program includes stories, drama, games, Food, science, music and computers.
• Seniors- Children in Grades 3-5. These children do more reading, and activities with more depth of knowledge and slightly more complicated.

TEACHERS

• Kids Spirit is a cooperative effort, organized and managed by the parents of participating children. Some of our parents teach (usually not more than 1 Sunday a month), while others provide support though music, writing, special event days, or a host of other talents.
• The teachers are all parent volunteers, most with no previous teaching experience.
• The curriculum packages provides biblical background and readings for the teacher, the importance of the story, and an outline of 8 different activities that can be used.
• Most parents have found their own knowledge of the bible increased after they started teaching!
• New teachers are usually paired with another teacher to observe before they are asked to teach alone.
• Shepherds are helpers in all the classes. Sometimes you just need an extra set of hands to help glue, cut or reread the story to a few children that are done the other activities. All you need is to love children and be ready to have some FUN!

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