Sunday, May 5, 2013

Revamping Jr. Church

With Mason leaving in just three weeks I am looking at how I can change the way we do Jr. Church.  Currently we start the kids singing songs together and then we divide the class in half with Mason taking one half and doing a craft that goes along with our lesson while I teach the other half of the kids the Bible story.  After about twenty minutes the kids switch classes and the kids that were in craft time, hear the story and vice versa and at the end we bring all the kids together again for a review game.
 
 
Today we had 37 kids and we tried keeping them all
in the same room together for the whole class time.  First we started out singing and then went straight into story time.  We learned about Satan and the lies Satan tells and tries to make us believe and that the only way to fight all of Satan's lies are with God's truth, the Bible. 
For our craft we made "Belts of Truth" from Ephesians 6.
 
 
I could not find plain white (cheap) belts so I made my own.  I found thick ribbon and metal rings that were about the same size as the ribbon.
 

 
I cut belts for each child and then sewed two metal rings into the ribbon.
 
 
Since we were did not switch class rooms I had all the kids just turn around and use their chairs as a table.  Each child colored their belt and wrote words such as "Truth", "God's Word" and "Bible" on them.

 
The kids absolutely loved them!  Of course we did have a few kids put them on their foreheads and act as Ninja warriors!
 

For the review game we played "Grab the Beanbag",
where I asked a question and whoever grabbed the beanbag first got to answer the question.  If a child answered correctly they got to continue to stand up front to try to beat the next person.  Everyone got a small package of M&M's for trying but if a child answered two or more questions
correctly in a row then they received a big thing of M&M's. 
(Notice Lila has the belt on her waist and Josh has it on his head!)
 
I thought it was a good class today even though I saw several things that need to be changed if we are going to have all the kids together in the same room every week.  This week I will be praying and asking God to give me new ideas to help make the class better and run more smoothly!
 
 
For lunch today we had Loaded Potato and Buffalo Chicken Casserole.  Earlier I saw this recipe over on Lori's blog, Frog's Lilypad. 
 
 
We absolutely love Frank's Hot sauce, so whenever we see a recipe
that calls for it, it is definitely something we have to try.  I changed the recipe a bit by cutting up the potatoes and chicken, and then mixing everything the sauce in and then throwing it all in the crock pot. 
After church we walked into the house and it smelled absolutely wonderful! 
Everyone loved it and I think it will definitely be a favorite Sunday meal!

 
 
 


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