Children's Ministry
Many of our churches hold a Church School for children or a Junior/Children’s Church that takes place around or during the primary worship service, or during another day of the week.
Below are several children’s curricula resources that provide excellent opportunities for children to hear the stories of the Bible and the life-changing message of Jesus in an age-appropriate manner that is crafted for them. These three engaging resources are: Godly Play, Sermons4Kids and Holy Hound Dogs.
Godly Play is based on the understanding of children’s innate sense of the presence of God. Its approach helps children explore their faith through story, to gain a language of faith, and to enhance their spiritual experience though wonder and play. Based on Montessori principles, the Godly Play method serves children through early, middle and late childhood and beyond (primarily ages 3-10).
Godly Play sessions follow the liturgical flow of Holy Communion, with children crossing the threshold into sacred space, engaging in scripture in the form of multisensorial stories, exploring the meaning of the story in their own lives, and sharing a feast. Godly Play helps children to express, explore, and strengthen their deep awareness of God.
Helpful links
Children's Worship Bulletins will provide customizable, fun material for your children to use with your weekly services. Each bulletin provides engaging, Bible-based worksheets for ages 3-6 and 7-12, perfect for Sunday worship services, Children's Church programs, Sunday School and take-home activities.
Each bulletin has four panels packed with puzzles, word searches, seek-and-finds, dot-to-dots, and many more activities. They are easy to find, print and use to hand to your children to quietly use during church services or make excellent supplemental material for your Sunday School lessons or home-based devotions. And with personalization, it’s easy to add relevant information such as a memory verse or message suited for your church.
Sermons4Kids is a free ministry resource website, that posts children’s messages/lessons each week based on the Revised Common Lectionary (RCL). Each lesson has a number of free games, crafts, skits and other creative activities to help teachers engage children. Sermons4Kids is especially helpful to smaller rural churches.
With Sermons4Kids, you get a number of free children’s talks/sermons with object lessons, children’s activities, Bible coloring pages, games, and craft ideas. Use these fun children’s “sermons” for kids in children’s church, church school, and children’s ministry. Every children’s lesson/message has activities and resources. These include print friendly: Coloring Page, Dot to Dot, Word Search, Group Activities, Crossword, Multiple Choice, Jumble, Worship Bulletin: (DOC) (PDF), Fill in the Blank, and more. These can be especially welcoming resources for children attending a main worship service.
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Sermons4Kids hosts countless free children’s teaching materials that cover every major Bible story in the Bible. Even if you already have a lesson plan, you can find more teaching activities on their website.
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For Church School Programs: You can do even more with Sermons4Kids Plus ($8 per month). You’ll get full Bible lessons for upper elementary, lower elementary and preschool kids with more extensive games, crafts, and Bible experiences. With Sermons4Kids Plus you can unlock animated Bible lesson videos, instructional videos for teachers, beautiful handouts, and daily discussion questions for parents.
Holy Hounds Dogs is a creative resource developed by Rev. Nancy Fees, a deacon of the Episcopal Church in Wyoming, that can be used for Sunday School programs, family times, or small group children’s virtual get-togethers. Holy Hound Dogs provides puppet shows as models for your own use, or you may use her video presentations, followed by activities and games that are supplied.
Watch a Bible story through puppet shows or videos - ponder the questions together - explore and imagine new ideas - see and hear images and music that relate - play games - enjoy group activities - share stories from your family tree. Resources are made available each week, and generally follow the RCL lectionary. Sometimes folk tales or easier children’s versions of a story are used. Each week one story will be explored through either a puppet show or a video, followed by lots of questions, activities, songs, videos, movies, book suggestions, art images and stained glass windows to color.
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