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| |  Posted 7/19/2007 3:22:49 PM | |
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| | Has anyone combined the preschool kids with the elementary kids on the rotations? I am having an incredibly difficult time this year finding people to lead out in preschool. I have people who are willing to 'help' but not 'lead'. I was thinking about having them in their own group but rotating through each station. The station leaders would have to adjust their station for the little ones. Any feedback you could give me would be appreciated! By the way, our VBS starts July 30!!! I am desperate!! |
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| | | Posted 7/19/2007 4:05:24 PM | |
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| | We did this at the little church for years and it worked very well. The only thing we did differently was to have the PSrs go to a different story time. We were afraid that the HBA would be too much for them and that it was too much to ask the leaders to prep two entirely different scripts. But they went to Chadder, Games, Crafts as a regular rotation. The nice thing about this was that I always had the PSrs go to their storytime right after the opening so the first session could be a rehersal and final setup for the HBA folks with no kids!
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| | | Posted 7/20/2007 9:58:43 AM | |
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| This is exactly what we do rather than having a separate preschool for the same reason - shortage of leaders.
We plan knowing that we will have 3 crews of preschoolers and 2 crews of elem kids. The Chadder leader uses the appropriate lesson/books with each crew, the games leader chose some games from the prek book, and the Bible Adventures leader tones it down for the little ones. We also choose crafts that all ages can handle and prep the prek crafts a little more than the elem ones. For example, we do any writing ahead of time and make sure the foam shapes are adhesive ones rather than glue. All in all it works out great.
Good luck!
Laura |
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| | | Posted 7/20/2007 10:53:30 AM | |
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| | Thank you for the input! I think we will try to Bible Adventures separate from elem. kids and maybe crafts. Haven't worked out the rotation yet, but it is great to hear that someone else has done it also. Thanks again! |
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| | | Posted 7/24/2007 10:15:03 AM | |
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| We always have a few moms who will do the preschool. Inevitably their kids are involved with the program. They do some of the rotations, but usually not drama as it can be too intense. They come ot crafts on days when there are activities that are age appropriate (like we avoid them doing the bead crafts).
Beth in Florida
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| | | Posted 7/24/2007 10:32:22 AM | |
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| | I kept the preschoolers together in their own crews but they were group #4 on the daily schedule. Their rotation of stations stayed the same every day. They had their own Bible story time though. I had one adult leader (who did the story time) and 5 or 6 middle school girls as crew leaders. Since Chadder was slightly different, it was their last rotation. |
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| | | Posted 7/24/2007 5:21:43 PM | |
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| | Jeannette We do the same thing for a different reason. We just do not have the space due to a daycare that we have at the church. I have a leader who is in charge of all the crews but they rotate as one whole group to each station. We do Chatter's movie in the opening so we just scale down the story. We also have a room set aside that my leader has small stations or games because the preschoolers finish some of the stations earlier. Some of them were done with the craft is 3 minutes and we needed something for them to do. She has a card with instructions for the crew leaders to follow as they come to these little stations. We did it last year and it worked well. On a funny note my name is Jeannette and my VBS starts on July 30th also. Jeannette in Ohio
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| | | Posted 7/24/2007 10:28:54 PM | |
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| | Within the past many years that I have been involved with VBS, our church has handled this in three different ways: 1. When an adult is available, we did have the PK separate. 2. When there was no adult available, we put the PK in with the rotation crews, 1 or 2 PK per group. I still felt this age could get lost within the crew so this year I have tried something new: 3. There is a group of teens who are great with PK kids. I gave the girls the Prairie Dog material and Chadder's DVD. They were given the choice of keeping the kids seperate or participating in the rotations. They chose the rotations sooo.... This year, I set up six groups of K - 6th and one group just for PK. PK were assigned to follow group 1 schedule (so two groups travel together). I kept Group 1 open for walk-ins. We had about 50 children pre-registered so there were a few spots open in each group 2 - 6. I filled these with the younger walk-ins and put the older walk-ins in group 1. That way, the PK will follow a group of older kids around. The leaders can concentrate on the younger ones since the older ones can do crafts, etc. with minimal help. The PK also look up to the older kids (9 - 12 yrs) so they can pare up if needed. Last night we had 59 kids show up (about 53 were pre-registered). Tonight we had 68 kids show up. We have 10 kids in PK and 10 in almost all other 6 groups. We have PK and Groups 1 - 3 eat in the first shift and groups 4-6 eat in the next group. This has two groups doing crafts and games at the same time. We have simple crafts and games are fun when two groups can play each other. If I need to add another crew, it will be one that can travel with group 4 which does not do crafts or games with another group. All three ways work well for us. I would just keep in mind that if you do have one all PK crew to make sure the leaders are good with children, not just there to lead from station to station. My PK leaders are very attentive to the kids in their group.
- Adrianne
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| | | Posted 7/25/2007 2:02:38 AM | |
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| | Unfortunately our church has neither the space or volunteers to run a separate preschool program. We have the little ones in a crew led by our K4 Sunday school teacher. We gave her all of the preschool materials so she could tweak things if needed. They attend all of the stations with one of the older crews and they also have a teen helper. It has been working great. When we played the coyote game on day 3 the little ones were the hardest to tag and they loved it. Praying for your program, Jeni C |
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