Children's Sunday School

Children

First Chrisitan is excited about a new way of Sunday School that we have implemented for our children. We believe that faith formation isimportant for all ages. The technical term for this ministry is theWorkshop Rotation Model or WoRM for short. The logo to the right willhelp you remember what WoRM stands for.

So what is WoRM?

Here's the Workshop Rotation Model in a nutshell: Teach major Bible stories and concepts through kid-friendly multimedia workshops: an Art workshop, Drama, Music, Games, Audio-Visual, Puppets, Storytelling, Computers, Cooking, and any other educational media you can get yourhands on. Teach the same Bible story in all of the workshops for fouror six weeks rotating the kids to a different workshop each week. Andhere comes the extremely teacher friendly part: Keep the same teacherin each workshop for only three weeks -teaching the same lesson weekafter week (with some age appropriate adjustments) to each new classcoming in. (www.rotation.org)Don't Just Take My Word for It - See What other are saying!"Here in North Canton, Ohio, Faith UM Church, we just finished ourfirst month of rotation Sunday School for K-6. Our attendance is up 34%over last year. We used the concept all summer as a trial run, but noware into it full time with 8 workshops every Sunday. It's worth it tosee kids learning about God and memorizing scripture" -- Trudy Jones, Faith UMC, N. Canton, Ohio

Who should attend and where do they meet?

Children ages 3 years old through 5th grade are encourage toparticipate and, YES, even to bring friends. The workshops take placedownstairs in the education wing. (The Lower Level) As you enter thebuilding look for the WoRM signs directing you to the children'sgathering space.

Would You Like to be Involved?

The Christian Education ministry team believes this is a fantasticway for our children to learn Biblical stories while not burning outour adult leaders. Burn out is common in the old classroom focusedmodel of Sunday School. In this model adult leaders choose an activitythat they are comfortable doing such as telling stories, pressing playon a VCR, or leading a craft activity. The other upside is that we onlyask for a three week commitment from our adults and they teach the samething all three weeks in a row. In other words, leaders only have toprepare themselves once for three weeks worth of activities. After aperson gives three weeks of their time and talent then they rotate offuntil they feel called to lead another session. Your time off could beanywhere from 3 weeks to 3 months. Finally, when a person is notleading a rotation with the children this frees them up to be involvedin their own adult Sunday School class and discussion group. It trulyis a win-win situation for all involved!

How Else Can I Help?

Pray! Pray! Pray! Pray for those involved. Pray for our children.Pray that those with gifts and talents will offer up three weeks oftheir time to lead our children.Also watch our newsletter, The Tower, to see if we need additional helpers, volunteers, or supplies for our workshops.

Volunteer Opportunities

If you would like to help or lead an activity please contact J. Gottman, our Lead Minister