Hello!

While we do have a suggested flow and pre-planned activities/scripture or story, we celebrate you and the unique way you reflect Jesus and love on our kids. So we encourage you to be yourself, show love to the kids by providing clear direction and boundaries, and have fun!

You will be getting the lesson plan on the Thursday or Friday before you teach Kid Vespers to give you a day or so to look things over and prepare. We ask that you stick to the structure but feel free to prepare different activities if desired.

General guidelines and helpful suggestions:

– kids should be able to go to the bathroom independently but may need some help with pulling up pants or getting situated on the toilet. If their bathroom needs go beyond this, please reach out to one of their parents. The “boys” and “girls” lanyards help keep bathroom trips down to one or two kids at a time.

– be enthusiastic and expressive – kids respond well to teacher excitement and encouragement!

– allow kids to set the pace: there’s no need to rush

– as parents arrive, encourage the kids to clean up quickly

Classroom Management Ideas:

• • assign one leader to run the lesson (teacher) and the other leader (enforcer) to help the kids be quiet, keep their hands to themselves, and engage positively. 
  • redirect disruption and encourage participation assertively. Don’t be shy — you are their leader!
  • separate kids from each other if they seem to be escalating disruption. Be prepared to send them to their parent (or designated adult) if they don’t respond to redirection.

Stages of Redirection

1) Ask: Ask a child who is disrupting the class to quiet down, keep their hands to themselves, or move to another location which might be less distracting to them.

2) Tell: If the child continues to disrupt the class, tell them to stop the disruptive behavior. This stage may include the 2nd leader engaging with the child to sit next to them.

3) Assist: If the disruption continues or the child is unwilling to comply, gently direct them to a chair or walk them out to join their parents in service.

worship = Emily Lewis usually comes in and sings songs of worship/leads creative movement with the kids. We encourage all the leaders to participate too as it encourages child participation and fun! If she is not available, ask 2 or 3 competent kids to come up front to lead a song, or lead songs yourself.

Creed = Recite the Creed (even if they just did it in the sanctuary) ask for a volunteer to come up and lead the rest of the group. Helps to solidify it in their mind and hearts.

prayer = Ask the group if they have any prayer requests. This can take a while but children love to be heard. It can be helpful to have a paper and pencil handy or use the white-board. Let a child or 2 come up and lead the prayer (with you praying at the end for anything they forgot) OR let them pray for each other by assigning the different requests to different children.

books of the Bible = Play the Books of The Bible CD and sing along with the kids. We are trying to help them memorize the books.

follow the curriculum provided by the Kid Vespers Storybook Bible Lesson Plans 

snack = Children love to help serve snack. Assign one or two kids to help you so you don’t have too many trying to help. Don’t forget to pay attention to allergies, although the kids will probably remind you!

centers = Playmobile, Legos, magnetic blocks, etc. in bins on shelves are all options if there is still time. This is a great time to allow free play or ask them to create some scene in the Bible passage. Parents usually come between 6:30-6:45

clean up = When parents begin to come, have the kids clean up quickly and bring home their art if applicable.

Recently, it has come to our attention that multiple kids have been using tablets, ipods, and cell phones before and after church and in various supervised and un-supervised locations around the building. After some discussion in leadership regarding this, we have decided that this sort of technology use should be limited to the living room area (or sanctuary), where it can readily be supervised by adults. All Villagers have permission to assist in these oversight efforts, including verifying that kids have parental permission to use/observe these devices, checking to see what kids are playing or watching, etc. An announcement about this will be made on Sunday and more details given at that time. If you have any questions or concerns talk to Eric.